Fresno Famous

Downtown

If you people want to revitalize downtown, then you need to get better city officials who are willing to work with the developers. At this time, nothing is happening because the requirements and costs f to do something remotely major is way too extreme.

Here is a new concept… Forget about downtown and look to the River Park area as the new central power plant of Fresno. It at least is livable and has everything to offer its surrounding community.

Until the city stops spinning in circles and for once sits down and do something worth while for its downtown area, nothing will happen.

One last note, why is eminent domain such a BIG issue?!? Seriously people… your run down building in Chinatown is worthless and needs to be sold, torn down, and developed to provide a better landscape for all of our use. Just imagine the possibilities.

you're brutal, really BRUTAL!!!

make them live there for a year

I highly recommend that these planners live in the area they plan to change before they change it.
Submitted by AntiMusick on Thu, 08/16/2007 - 17:20.

that would take care of all future projects, none would be built, if a "captain of industry & commerce-type" of person were brave enough to live there, that would be something, but can you get concierge service on G St & Inyo?

realistically, it would be easier for us to invite Kirk Kerkorian back from Vegas, to do a sleepover & plan the new DT
or maybe have Trump stay at the old Hotel Fresno w/ a separate room for his hair

make them live there for a year

I highly recommend that these planners live in the area they plan to change before they change it.

Chinatown

I think it was Ed Kashian and Tom Richards that has the Master Plan for Chinatown. The rink would be a bit away from the arena as well. I say use the parking lot space.

Forest City?

Isn't that whole area in an exclusive agreement with a developer already? Not the Forest City project, i think Ed Kashian was part of that, wasn't he? I may be totally off base with that. But i could have sworn someone was putting together a Chinatown Project.

parking

build it just don't build it in the parking lot, personally i recommend them to build it in Chinatown on some of those vacant lots there.

erm, since we're talking about sports that involve going fast

--any hopes of getting a decent dirt track somewhere inside of City limits???
I'd settle for a decent third-mile, ---but a half to 5/8ths would be spectacular...

(I mean, it could be both for various classes of stock-cars, (even those little Prius things (we'll put boomboxes in them so that they can play recordings of big-block modifieds as they roll past... (it could work,)

And there are like,
NO tractor pulls around here anymore... (like at all...)

--and personally, if we're gonna build this 'agricultural,' tourist thing up,
---we need gen-u-wine hillbilly competetive events, (which means motorsports, folks.)

I mean, CSUF is a very heavy 'Ag,' school, and they already got lots of dirt and bleachers sittin' over there... (which I find quite persuasive.)
---and there WAS (once upon a time,) a track at the Clovis FairGrounds, (from what I'm told,)
---and there is a serious group of guys who are racing the old 'hardtops,' (Okie Bowl Hardtops,)
(well, at least there was until they closed down Chowchilla Speedway...)

Just lookin' out for my fellow backwoods peeps...

(I fear we have become endangered...)

we will see

lots of talk, but we will see. I personally would like to see it happen. But where would people park if the big parking garage next to it is full. Still this is just all talk, hopefully it happens.

More parking helps you get laid

The Falcons moving back to Selland (in 2008) is a good thing - as long as Selland updates the scoreboard and the concourse. The ice rink/lofts are a good thing too! But taking away parking, while adding more people needing to park, is stupid.

The parking garage is great UNTIL THERE'S AN ACTUAL EVENT DOWN THERE! It takes a good thirty minutes or more to get out of there after an event. And that's with the lot (that would be gone) still there.

Imagine if you're a member of the Falcons, living in your new kickass Selland Arena "parking lot pad" [and you're parked in the garage] and you've got to pick up a hot date right at the time an Alice in Chains concert lets out - you're late to that date my friend and your chances of getting laid that night are diminished - and hockey players like getting laid!

http://www.dorktown.net

Falcons Back at Selland

I'm overjoyed at the news the Falcons are gonna move back to Selland. Too bad it was too late to save the Old Fresno Hofbrau and a few other downtown eateries/watering holes. If the move comes to pass, I'll be at the games.

The move to SMC was dumb. The rationale was that if the team was closer to North Fresno, in a "nicer, perceived as safer" arena, the fan base would be bigger. The first few games, more fans turned out, then the attendance averaged below the Selland Arena numbers.

I understand the Falcons had to average 7000+ paid attendance at SMC to break even. The last couple years, they were losing money being at SMC. Thus the move back to Selland!

As for the practice facility....

The owner of Gateway is still trying to convince the city to buy him out. Then, there've been the rumors the city was thinking about converting the old Gottschalks building on Fulton Mall into a rink.

Gateway is planning on closing next spring. Without a practice facility, the Falcons owners have assured City Hall the team will be leaving Fresno. City Hall doesn't want that to happen because of the potential ripple effect of Falcons, then Grizzies, then Fuego leaving town, leaving an empty ballpark.

On a downtown note, I hear the old Crest Theatre is being converted into a dance club.

Location makes more sense...

The location makes more sense now that they say they need to install the new ice making equipment at Selland if the Falcons relocate back downtown. They could use the same equipment for both the ice at Selland and the rink next door. The concerns about parking are minor I think. People went to games at Selland for 40 years before the new garage was built on the adjacent lot a couple of years ago. Even if they removed every stall on the Selland surface parking lot, I would guess that thanks to that new multi story garage, there would still be as much parking as there was when it was all surface parking.

...those are mountains?

whoah... you're kidding.

I thought it was just a stormfront that was taking it's sweet old time getting here...

(we really should do something about the airquality...
-or maybe I need to wash the truck's windshield...)

That Would Be Fun

I would love to ride on a Zamboni! It would be "cool" because it would be on ice.
We have a better chance of getting the Bulldogs' basketball team to play again at Selland then the football team, unless the football team continues to do poorly, then maybe Chuckchansi would be the right size for how many people would still be going to the games.

hockey

I heard of the Falcons wanting to move back to Selland about a year or so ago. Part of their reasoning was they didn't like the atmosphere of the SMC. I hope they do move back downtown. It would be a quick walk for me to catch more of their games. Now if i could just get Fresno State to move Bulldog Stadium to downtown, my life would be complete.

Hey Andy, i thought they had contests where the prize was to ride along on the Zamboni...it's not driving but i think it would still be cool.

Hockey back at the Selland

In today's Bee they did mention their desire to move the hockey games back to Selland , after repairing some ice making equipment, which they would also use for the practice rink.
I am OK with them using the existing parking lot as there is a nicer parking structure adjacent to the convention center.
Just to let you know , OOTV, we have these structures called mountains where you can drive and see all the snow piles you can stand, and, then , turn around and drive back to the thankfully snow-free valley. Usually December thru March.
I did always want to drive the Zamboni machine as a kid.

move the matches back to selland?

By locating a practice facility next to Selland, maybe the Falcons ownership might want to move their games back to Selland as well. Given all the problems with the ice at the Save Mart Center, and one of their standout players actually suing the Save Mart Center over injuries caused by the bad ice, that would make sense. The only thing is that SMG manages both facilities. Talk about a monopoly.

stars in my eyes

when i first read the article, i thought about where it would be located, and for some reason i kept thinking that would be on the west side, in between the convention center/selland arena and the stadium. but, as i rethought the layout of downtown, i realized that if they want to put it on a spot w/existing parking, it would probably be the lot on the east side of the stadium.

which stinks. because, yeah, it would totally make a lot more sense to put it in between the stadium/mall and the convention area. i don't know if there really is space to do that, but it would cooler if they did.

but overall, i really like the idea that they want to do something. more houses. more restaurants. more options. and, it makes sense having these options all in the same place. over at the chuck' we have soccer, baseball and even high school football. over @ selland, arena football, the falcons. and if the "ice rink" is the falcons practice rink, i imagine it would be open to the public as well. having your sports/entertainment facilities all near each other, well that's just like a lot of big cities.

maybe i'm just dreaming, but it sounds nice.

icerink...

Personally?
I have little interest in hockey, (unless my nephew's playing,)
and have never been to the stadium other than to look in between the bars and go 'oooh.' (then pedal off.)

But the Zamboni's make these huge shaved ice 'snow,' piles after they groom the surface, (which means a small mountain of snow...
something I've not had in almost two and a half years... (last one was what came off of of the top of a semi that had come in from a colder state or something, (and that had me rolling around in the parking lot of Diamond Hardwoods like a loonie.)

-there was a brief hail storm this past spring, but nothing all that deep, so no rolling around in anything there....

*sigh*

piles of snow...

I'm in,
-where do I sign up?

Would The Rink Be for Public Use as Well

It would be great to have the ice rink available for the public to use as well. There was talk of the city building a rink to replace the privately owned rink on 99 and Clinton. I like the mixed use aspect with apartments built in as well.

Re: Downtown on Ice

Ok, so presumably this would be the new practice facility for the Falcons, and the team would play its games in Selland Arena, relocating from the Save Mart Center? I had heard rumors about a downtown Falcons practice facility/ice rink over a year ago. It's interesting, but as always I'd like to hear more. It seems like a better location though would be on city owned land next to the stadium, on the Fulton Mall, just south of Kern Street. That would be a strategic location that could help spawn some more businesses with an additional attraction, added to the current draw of the stadium.

Someone asked once why aren't businesses opening around the stadium. Well, 1) is that Forest City has everyone scared away from investing, and 2) the stadium doesn't have enough events to keep businesses open year round. The Grizzlies play less than 70 dates at home, plus high school foootball on the weekends for another dozen dates, Fuego for a handful, and and less than a half dozen concerts. That's still less than 100 dates a year by my count.

But Fresno rarely thinks strategically when it comes to downtown. We build a stadium, and then design the parking to funnel at least 3/4 of the fans to lots on the west side of the stadium, where they never walk past a single storefront! We plan for big developments like "Old Armenian Town" and Forest City on the fringes of downtown, and then wonder why it is that there's all these dilapidated high rise buildings on the Fulton Mall.