It was a short work day today. I met Timothy Schulz at the Chicken Pie Shop for breakfast at 8:00. Tim is doing the construction work at the Iron Bird Lofts (Fulton and Divisadero) and is on the Fulton Corridor Specific Plan Citizen's Advisory Committee.
Tim is an urbanist by interest and growing experience. It seems that everywhere I turn, there are more and more people interested in working, living and understanding the urban side of life. There is a market and a demand in Fresno. It's not everyone, it doesn't need to be everyone.
10:00 Had a haircut from George at the Loft in the Security Bank Building on the Fulton Mall.
I had some time to review the assignments of the Urban Entrepreneurship students. This is a serious class. We need to capture these folks. They want to begin their business life in downtown Fresno. Keep December 3rd on your calendar. The final presentations will be from 3-6. I'll get back with a place, once we've decided on a location.
2:00 Now we're off to the Fresno State football game. Go Dogs.
Craig
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Friday, October 30, 2009
10/30/09 Casual Friday
Dear Blog,
8:00 I started the day with an inspiring meeting with Wayne Rutledge, the owner of Uncle Harry's Bagel shops. Wayne has an interest in putting his business skills and talents into the efforts to revitalize the urban neighborhoods around downtown. There have been so many people stepping up to get involved. It is interesting how many people ask about how it will be possible to revitalize in this economy, while more and more people want to participate in revitalization.
The Downtown and Community Revitalization Dept. has 3 parts: downtown revitalization, neighborhood revitalization and local business initiatives. The local business initiatives are coordinated by Amy Huerta and Fernando Santillan. The purpose of the local business initiatives is to to help locally-owned businesses by helping the City to become more business friendly and to help to generate support and awareness for the benefits of supporting locally-owned businesses.
One of their initiatives is to organize businesses into groups: CPA's, community banks, licensed contractors, personnel and temp. agencies, and we'll be starting one for Independent Restaurants and Retailers. Another is on the way for the 50 largest local employers.
9:30 The Local Business Initiatives folks organized a meeting of our Technology Affinity Group. At our first meeting one of the group's priorities was to meet with the City's purchasing leadership and the people from ISD (Information Services Department). We'll have all of the members of this affinity group on our website within a couple of weeks. The discussion was centered on how the City can do more of its business with local tech companies. The companies were also interested in finding out when the City and individual departments were contracting or purchasing technology or services. It was a great start.
10:30 I had a meeting with the Fire Department, Code Enforcement and a downtown property owner. Most issues were resolved and the others will be pretty quickly. Progress!
12:30 I met Prof. Einsidler for lunch. Fresno State continues to get more and more involved in all of our efforts. Prof. Einsidler teaches lighting design. It is amazing how deep the university's resources are. How can a lighting design professor and his students help? We will look for a house in Lowell and a downtown building to show everyone. "Eyes on the street" is a key tenet to downtown safety and security. Good lighting makes this concept work. It can also show off the incredible architectural features of our historic treasures.
After lunch I had a quick trip to the doctors office to take care of a danged ear ache...thanks for seeing me so quickly Dr. Jones!
I met with our Managers: Amy Huerta, Elliott Balch and Elaine Robles throughout the remainder of the afternoon. Out by 5:30 and time to pick up some dinner and a prescription so that I can hopefully hear again next week.
Another good week...onward! Craig
8:00 I started the day with an inspiring meeting with Wayne Rutledge, the owner of Uncle Harry's Bagel shops. Wayne has an interest in putting his business skills and talents into the efforts to revitalize the urban neighborhoods around downtown. There have been so many people stepping up to get involved. It is interesting how many people ask about how it will be possible to revitalize in this economy, while more and more people want to participate in revitalization.
The Downtown and Community Revitalization Dept. has 3 parts: downtown revitalization, neighborhood revitalization and local business initiatives. The local business initiatives are coordinated by Amy Huerta and Fernando Santillan. The purpose of the local business initiatives is to to help locally-owned businesses by helping the City to become more business friendly and to help to generate support and awareness for the benefits of supporting locally-owned businesses.
One of their initiatives is to organize businesses into groups: CPA's, community banks, licensed contractors, personnel and temp. agencies, and we'll be starting one for Independent Restaurants and Retailers. Another is on the way for the 50 largest local employers.
9:30 The Local Business Initiatives folks organized a meeting of our Technology Affinity Group. At our first meeting one of the group's priorities was to meet with the City's purchasing leadership and the people from ISD (Information Services Department). We'll have all of the members of this affinity group on our website within a couple of weeks. The discussion was centered on how the City can do more of its business with local tech companies. The companies were also interested in finding out when the City and individual departments were contracting or purchasing technology or services. It was a great start.
10:30 I had a meeting with the Fire Department, Code Enforcement and a downtown property owner. Most issues were resolved and the others will be pretty quickly. Progress!
12:30 I met Prof. Einsidler for lunch. Fresno State continues to get more and more involved in all of our efforts. Prof. Einsidler teaches lighting design. It is amazing how deep the university's resources are. How can a lighting design professor and his students help? We will look for a house in Lowell and a downtown building to show everyone. "Eyes on the street" is a key tenet to downtown safety and security. Good lighting makes this concept work. It can also show off the incredible architectural features of our historic treasures.
After lunch I had a quick trip to the doctors office to take care of a danged ear ache...thanks for seeing me so quickly Dr. Jones!
I met with our Managers: Amy Huerta, Elliott Balch and Elaine Robles throughout the remainder of the afternoon. Out by 5:30 and time to pick up some dinner and a prescription so that I can hopefully hear again next week.
Another good week...onward! Craig
Thursday, October 29, 2009
10/29/09 This blog is helping me to remember the date
The day started out with some of my favorite thinkers and big-hearts in town. Rollie Smith, the local HUD Director, Preston Prince the head of the Housing Authority and Eileen Neely their economist, and Keith Bergthold the Assistant Planning Director for the City. We try to get together at 7:00 on Thursday mornings when possible. Preston and Eileen have brought a ton of experience and perspective into the community.
I've avoided the whole world of affordable housing. It is truly a field unto itself, both on the private and the public side. I've also been wary of affordable housing because of the horrible projects that were created post WWII and into recent history. It seems that the bigger problem in our neighborhoods and the whole region really, is quality affordable housing. We have plenty of affordable, but some of it is horrible, and we are working on ways to correct this problem before it gets further out of hand.
At 8:30 the City featured Valley Decorating at the City Council's Prime Time for Business. Prime Time is a way to recognize locally-owned businesses, who do most of their business outside of Fresno (bringing dollars and profits into the community's economy). We try to find businesses who are not necessarily known by the larger community. Google Valley Decorating Company to learn more. We've highlighted other companies like Pollstar and Keiser Fitness Equipment. We alternate existing companies with start-ups to. The point is to increase awareness about our local entrepreneurs and to recognize them for their creativity and calling Fresno home.
From 10:00 to 11:30 I have time set aside for any members of our department who need time, direction, support. This is a result from staff staff meeting a few weeks ago. I asked everyone for suggestions on how I could do my job better as a new Department Director and they suggested one on one time with non-management staff members. We have open door time every two weeks.
I walked to the Mexican Consulate for a meeting at 12:30. I was honored to meet with our new Consul Reyna Torres. Elizabeth Jonasson helped to set up the meeting and joined in. Elizabeth is responsible for Community Outreach for the Mayor and is leading much of the outreach effort to Spanish-language residents. She is a great asset. If you come to our next meeting in Lowell on November 16th I'll introduce you to her.
After the meeting I walked to the Packing Shed on Merced for a turkey sandwich and then over to EECU on Van Ness and Fresno. I walked back to City Hall through Courthouse Park and down the Mariposa Mall. It was beautiful outside today. There were probably 10 people waiting to cross the street when I left the bank.
I made a few returned calls and answered a few emails when I got back to the office and then headed back out for the Urban Entrepreneurship class that I am fortunate to be able to teach.
We met outside and then walked through the old Gottschalks building on Fulton and Kern at 3:00 today. We always start off by "reading" the area. We talk about what we see, who is out and about, what types of buildings and businesses there are. The idea is to recognize the vast differences within the urban area. One block can be very different from the next. Urban areas speak to you if you listen.They'll tell you what they want and like if you listen. If we impose our will on them, then things just don't work.
It is amazing to see how bad the building is inside and out. The old Gottschalks paint, gazebo, paneling are all still there. If you remember the Gottschalks downtown store at all it is pretty eerie...talk about ghosts.
The class went back to City Hall to have a panel discussion with representatives from the Housing Authority (Eileen Neely), HUD (Rollie Smith), and Fresno Redevelopment Agency (John Raymond and Lupe Perez). The panel was to give the entrepreneurship students a glimpse into public financing for urban projects. They had a good overview of the pluses and minuses.
After class I attended an event sponsored by the Mexican Consulate at Arte Americas. I took Gonzalo Aranda-Sandoval, one of the Urban entrepreneurship students to the event to meet the Consul. I had mentioned Gonzalo to her and she was encouraged by his idea to open a downtown business. I'll let Gonzalo tell you about it sometime or you can see his presentation along with the rest of the class on Dec. 3rd from 3:00-6:00 at a location to be announced later (when I make up my mind).
I know that these blogs are long, but there is still so much that happens in a day that I don't write about. My hope is that it comes through over time.
Craig
I've avoided the whole world of affordable housing. It is truly a field unto itself, both on the private and the public side. I've also been wary of affordable housing because of the horrible projects that were created post WWII and into recent history. It seems that the bigger problem in our neighborhoods and the whole region really, is quality affordable housing. We have plenty of affordable, but some of it is horrible, and we are working on ways to correct this problem before it gets further out of hand.
At 8:30 the City featured Valley Decorating at the City Council's Prime Time for Business. Prime Time is a way to recognize locally-owned businesses, who do most of their business outside of Fresno (bringing dollars and profits into the community's economy). We try to find businesses who are not necessarily known by the larger community. Google Valley Decorating Company to learn more. We've highlighted other companies like Pollstar and Keiser Fitness Equipment. We alternate existing companies with start-ups to. The point is to increase awareness about our local entrepreneurs and to recognize them for their creativity and calling Fresno home.
From 10:00 to 11:30 I have time set aside for any members of our department who need time, direction, support. This is a result from staff staff meeting a few weeks ago. I asked everyone for suggestions on how I could do my job better as a new Department Director and they suggested one on one time with non-management staff members. We have open door time every two weeks.
I walked to the Mexican Consulate for a meeting at 12:30. I was honored to meet with our new Consul Reyna Torres. Elizabeth Jonasson helped to set up the meeting and joined in. Elizabeth is responsible for Community Outreach for the Mayor and is leading much of the outreach effort to Spanish-language residents. She is a great asset. If you come to our next meeting in Lowell on November 16th I'll introduce you to her.
After the meeting I walked to the Packing Shed on Merced for a turkey sandwich and then over to EECU on Van Ness and Fresno. I walked back to City Hall through Courthouse Park and down the Mariposa Mall. It was beautiful outside today. There were probably 10 people waiting to cross the street when I left the bank.
I made a few returned calls and answered a few emails when I got back to the office and then headed back out for the Urban Entrepreneurship class that I am fortunate to be able to teach.
We met outside and then walked through the old Gottschalks building on Fulton and Kern at 3:00 today. We always start off by "reading" the area. We talk about what we see, who is out and about, what types of buildings and businesses there are. The idea is to recognize the vast differences within the urban area. One block can be very different from the next. Urban areas speak to you if you listen.They'll tell you what they want and like if you listen. If we impose our will on them, then things just don't work.
It is amazing to see how bad the building is inside and out. The old Gottschalks paint, gazebo, paneling are all still there. If you remember the Gottschalks downtown store at all it is pretty eerie...talk about ghosts.
The class went back to City Hall to have a panel discussion with representatives from the Housing Authority (Eileen Neely), HUD (Rollie Smith), and Fresno Redevelopment Agency (John Raymond and Lupe Perez). The panel was to give the entrepreneurship students a glimpse into public financing for urban projects. They had a good overview of the pluses and minuses.
After class I attended an event sponsored by the Mexican Consulate at Arte Americas. I took Gonzalo Aranda-Sandoval, one of the Urban entrepreneurship students to the event to meet the Consul. I had mentioned Gonzalo to her and she was encouraged by his idea to open a downtown business. I'll let Gonzalo tell you about it sometime or you can see his presentation along with the rest of the class on Dec. 3rd from 3:00-6:00 at a location to be announced later (when I make up my mind).
I know that these blogs are long, but there is still so much that happens in a day that I don't write about. My hope is that it comes through over time.
Craig
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
10/28/09 It was diffusion vs. concentration today
Hello Campers,
Day 2 of my public journal. We've had a bunch of interns (or is it gaggle) since last spring. One of the things that we do is have them shadow me during their internship. Today Neema Assemi was my shadow. He has finished his coursework in city planning at SLO and is finishing a few remaining courses at Fresno State.
Neema and I met at 6:15 at Uncle Harry's. We usually start out the day by going over the schedule and I explain some of the background story and give color commentary.
At 7:15 we went to a breakfast for Valley Public Radio. I am on their Community Advisory Council. They always have a nice group of people supporting the station and their staff members are golden!
8:00 was a meeting to discuss ways to coordinate the new nonprofit that we created with the help of superstar volunteer Leslie Hoyt. The nonprofit is called DT Faces (Fresno Arts, Culture, Entertainment, Sports). The sole mission of DT FACES is to organize, support, create, develop events on Fulton and in Chukchansi Park. The nonprofit will be able to raise sponsorships, hire temporary staff, handle vendors and even get beer/wine licenses much easier than the City is able to do.
9:00 We have agenda conference every week. We go over the items for the following week's City Council meeting. The City Council staff are also in the Agenda Conference. Our Local Business Initiative folks are preparing a proclamation for next week's meeting in support of the Gottschalks employees who have still not been hired. There is some incredible talent from this group.
9:30 After Agenda Conference the Council staff leave and we have our weekly Department Director meeting. This is an opportunity for us to stay current with the City Manager and the other departments. I used my time to thank the City departments who participated in the Make A Difference Day event in Lowell last Saturday and also thanked the code enforcement and City Attorneys for keeping up the pressure on negligent downtown property owners. We are starting to see some changing ownership in key downtown buildings. These things take more time than any of us like, but these folks are really bulldogging these cases.
10:00 I know it sees like all I do is go to meetings, but many are very amazingly productive and are the only way to move a large organization. The new Planning Director John Dugan relayed that it took Oklahoma City 4 years of weekly director meetings focused on their downtown to really get everyone coordinated and engaged. The city Manager said "let's do it" and we have had our fifth weekly meeting focused on our downtown efforts. elliott Balch coordinates the meetings and activities that are supposed to be moving forward. Angela Vasquez keeps everything organized. Today we spent the entire hour talking about the possiblity of reducing or eliminating fees in downtown to encourage investment, development and business activity. Stay tuned...this could be huge!
11:30 Neema and I headed to John's Incredible Pizza for the Fresno Area Partners' Group. I was the guest speaker for this group of about 50 local business people. I spoke about the efforts to support local businesses like our 5% local preference for City bids. I also discussed the Enterprise Zone. We eventually started talking about downtown as an entertainment district and everyone seemed to really get excited about the prospect.
From 2:00-3:00 I returned calls and tried to catch up on emails and with our department. We had some great news about one of the potential new tenants for downtown. It looks like we're still in the hunt! I'll let you know these things as soon as I can...I like to share good news. I also called three lenders on behalf of a Fulton Mall property owner. We want lenders to know that the City is making investments in a specific plan, which have had positive effects on property values in other California cities. The Property Based Improvement District is another sign of stability and investment for lenders.
3:30 I chaired the Empowerment Zone meeting at the newly remodeled Virginia Hotel's conference room. We ought to have a parade for Jake and Romi, they did a great job on this building. Check it out next time your in the neighborhood of L and Kern. The Empowerment Zone is a federal incentive zone. It mostly offers credits to employers for hiring. The best news at the meeting was the new 80/20 program. If you have a business and hire workers from a particular list of about 10,000 folks in CalWorks, the government will reimburse you 80% of their wages and employment costs. It only lasts until next September so hire while you can. Let me know if you are interested.
My 5:00 and 7:00 meetings both cancelled! I was home by 7:00 to eat dinner at home and watch the Phillies pound the Yankees.
Assignments are coming in from my Urban Entrepreneurship students (they are always due the midnight before class). I'll have a look at them over the weekend and get them into the grade books. Class is tomorrow at 3:00. I'll write about it tomorrow night.
Another great day working toward the revitalization of downtown Fresno! Some days are up and some days are down...I try to savor the UP days.
Craig
Day 2 of my public journal. We've had a bunch of interns (or is it gaggle) since last spring. One of the things that we do is have them shadow me during their internship. Today Neema Assemi was my shadow. He has finished his coursework in city planning at SLO and is finishing a few remaining courses at Fresno State.
Neema and I met at 6:15 at Uncle Harry's. We usually start out the day by going over the schedule and I explain some of the background story and give color commentary.
At 7:15 we went to a breakfast for Valley Public Radio. I am on their Community Advisory Council. They always have a nice group of people supporting the station and their staff members are golden!
8:00 was a meeting to discuss ways to coordinate the new nonprofit that we created with the help of superstar volunteer Leslie Hoyt. The nonprofit is called DT Faces (Fresno Arts, Culture, Entertainment, Sports). The sole mission of DT FACES is to organize, support, create, develop events on Fulton and in Chukchansi Park. The nonprofit will be able to raise sponsorships, hire temporary staff, handle vendors and even get beer/wine licenses much easier than the City is able to do.
9:00 We have agenda conference every week. We go over the items for the following week's City Council meeting. The City Council staff are also in the Agenda Conference. Our Local Business Initiative folks are preparing a proclamation for next week's meeting in support of the Gottschalks employees who have still not been hired. There is some incredible talent from this group.
9:30 After Agenda Conference the Council staff leave and we have our weekly Department Director meeting. This is an opportunity for us to stay current with the City Manager and the other departments. I used my time to thank the City departments who participated in the Make A Difference Day event in Lowell last Saturday and also thanked the code enforcement and City Attorneys for keeping up the pressure on negligent downtown property owners. We are starting to see some changing ownership in key downtown buildings. These things take more time than any of us like, but these folks are really bulldogging these cases.
10:00 I know it sees like all I do is go to meetings, but many are very amazingly productive and are the only way to move a large organization. The new Planning Director John Dugan relayed that it took Oklahoma City 4 years of weekly director meetings focused on their downtown to really get everyone coordinated and engaged. The city Manager said "let's do it" and we have had our fifth weekly meeting focused on our downtown efforts. elliott Balch coordinates the meetings and activities that are supposed to be moving forward. Angela Vasquez keeps everything organized. Today we spent the entire hour talking about the possiblity of reducing or eliminating fees in downtown to encourage investment, development and business activity. Stay tuned...this could be huge!
11:30 Neema and I headed to John's Incredible Pizza for the Fresno Area Partners' Group. I was the guest speaker for this group of about 50 local business people. I spoke about the efforts to support local businesses like our 5% local preference for City bids. I also discussed the Enterprise Zone. We eventually started talking about downtown as an entertainment district and everyone seemed to really get excited about the prospect.
From 2:00-3:00 I returned calls and tried to catch up on emails and with our department. We had some great news about one of the potential new tenants for downtown. It looks like we're still in the hunt! I'll let you know these things as soon as I can...I like to share good news. I also called three lenders on behalf of a Fulton Mall property owner. We want lenders to know that the City is making investments in a specific plan, which have had positive effects on property values in other California cities. The Property Based Improvement District is another sign of stability and investment for lenders.
3:30 I chaired the Empowerment Zone meeting at the newly remodeled Virginia Hotel's conference room. We ought to have a parade for Jake and Romi, they did a great job on this building. Check it out next time your in the neighborhood of L and Kern. The Empowerment Zone is a federal incentive zone. It mostly offers credits to employers for hiring. The best news at the meeting was the new 80/20 program. If you have a business and hire workers from a particular list of about 10,000 folks in CalWorks, the government will reimburse you 80% of their wages and employment costs. It only lasts until next September so hire while you can. Let me know if you are interested.
My 5:00 and 7:00 meetings both cancelled! I was home by 7:00 to eat dinner at home and watch the Phillies pound the Yankees.
Assignments are coming in from my Urban Entrepreneurship students (they are always due the midnight before class). I'll have a look at them over the weekend and get them into the grade books. Class is tomorrow at 3:00. I'll write about it tomorrow night.
Another great day working toward the revitalization of downtown Fresno! Some days are up and some days are down...I try to savor the UP days.
Craig
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
10/27/09 How I spent my day.
Well I'll start with a bit of an apology. This is, by its nature, very self-centered. It'll have a lot of I did this and then I did that. But then again, I don't really know how or why I'd be writing about someone else's day.
I also must remind any readers that I am not going to reread these. It is a simple post of my days activities. Nuff said.
I met with folks from the Salvation Army at 7:00 this morning. It was an unusual meeting spot for me, I'd never been there before. We met out at the Starbucks at Clovis and Herndon. The location of my second meeting was the reason for the location choice.
The Salvation Army is interested in how to coordinate any future plans of theirs with the revitalization plans that we have at the City. We discussed some urban design concepts, we discussed the upcoming Fulton Corridor Specific Plan. I suggested that they stay very involved with the Specific Plan as they consider future options.
8:30 Several folks in City management had a tour of the Cargo Bay out in the Clovis Technology Park. We went out to take a look because Case Lawrence has an interest in potentially coming downtown. I thought that it was important for people to see his existing projects. When I learn to insert hyperlinks I'll include them in these blogs. For now, you'd have to search for Cargo Bay Clovis to see what I am referring to (dangling prep...I know).
For the past couple of weeks we have been working with an existing downtown property owner who is attempting to attract a tenant downtown. Today is the day that the decision is being made. We made some calls and sent a letter over to the prospective tenant...hopefully we'll have something good to announce?
10:00 I have regular meetings with the five people in our department. for management folks it is called a one on one. Today I had a one on one meeting with our Administrative Manager George Smith. This is a time to discuss budget issues and internal working of City processes. Plus it is a time to see what is going on with the individuals who make up our team.
11:00 We had another meeting with the Redevelopment Agency to talk about another possible downtown tenant. This was a short meeting to stay coordinated on a very preliminary lead.
11:30 We have a 90 minute staff meeting within our department every week. We had Me & Ed's (not paid for by City) and Halloween candies (also not City sponsored). We use this time to keep everyone informed. I usually have some wisdom to share at the beginning and everyone patiently endures. We have an agenda, which I suppose I could learn to post in the future. Each week one of the areas will present their work plan, so that throughout the month, everyone is tracking.
1:30 We had out monthly coordination meeting regarding the City's efforts in the Lowell Neighborhood. As you may or may not know. The City and our department have selected the Lowell neighborhood as the place to begin our revitalization efforts. Our goal is to build a strong, sustainable effort in Lowell, which can then be customized and used in neighborhoods throughout urban Fresno. Today's meeting focused on 2 things: coordinating our efforts against slumlords (the Lowell area's 2nd highest priority) and preparing for our next meeting in Lowell on November 16th. We want to present the information and results in a clear way.
3:00 I met with the Redevelopment Agency and City representatives with a potential downtown tenant. Very preliminary, but we were scoping their needs for space, timing, and other considerations. The amount of time that we are spending with potential downtown tenants, investors and others is really very encouraging given the economy!
4:00 Our department presented our work plans to the City Manager and a Deputy City Manager. The work plans were done to help us to track the many activities and also to begin to plan ahead to make sure that we don't miss any steps. We hope to post them on our department's website soon, so everyone who would like to stay current with our efforts will have that option.
6:00 I met with Blake Konczal from the local Workforce Investment Board. We met to discuss ways to put unemployed construction workers to work in our downtown neighborhoods doing renovation and other projects. Blake thinks that it will be fairly easy and will get back with a plan. We also discussed his upcoming panel discussion at the State Enterprise Zone conference next week, which will be in Fresno. Our WIB and Fresno County have developed an on-line system for the Enterprise Zone which is is cutting edge. Blake is one of the great people and leaders in town, so I always enjoy a chance to get together with him for work issues and to talk about issues from travel to religion.
We met for dinner, and before anyone asks, I pay for my own meals, I don't expense them to the City and I don't let other people pay for mine.
10:30 Off to bed. I'm reading a very interesting book titled Mindset.
I also must remind any readers that I am not going to reread these. It is a simple post of my days activities. Nuff said.
I met with folks from the Salvation Army at 7:00 this morning. It was an unusual meeting spot for me, I'd never been there before. We met out at the Starbucks at Clovis and Herndon. The location of my second meeting was the reason for the location choice.
The Salvation Army is interested in how to coordinate any future plans of theirs with the revitalization plans that we have at the City. We discussed some urban design concepts, we discussed the upcoming Fulton Corridor Specific Plan. I suggested that they stay very involved with the Specific Plan as they consider future options.
8:30 Several folks in City management had a tour of the Cargo Bay out in the Clovis Technology Park. We went out to take a look because Case Lawrence has an interest in potentially coming downtown. I thought that it was important for people to see his existing projects. When I learn to insert hyperlinks I'll include them in these blogs. For now, you'd have to search for Cargo Bay Clovis to see what I am referring to (dangling prep...I know).
For the past couple of weeks we have been working with an existing downtown property owner who is attempting to attract a tenant downtown. Today is the day that the decision is being made. We made some calls and sent a letter over to the prospective tenant...hopefully we'll have something good to announce?
10:00 I have regular meetings with the five people in our department. for management folks it is called a one on one. Today I had a one on one meeting with our Administrative Manager George Smith. This is a time to discuss budget issues and internal working of City processes. Plus it is a time to see what is going on with the individuals who make up our team.
11:00 We had another meeting with the Redevelopment Agency to talk about another possible downtown tenant. This was a short meeting to stay coordinated on a very preliminary lead.
11:30 We have a 90 minute staff meeting within our department every week. We had Me & Ed's (not paid for by City) and Halloween candies (also not City sponsored). We use this time to keep everyone informed. I usually have some wisdom to share at the beginning and everyone patiently endures. We have an agenda, which I suppose I could learn to post in the future. Each week one of the areas will present their work plan, so that throughout the month, everyone is tracking.
1:30 We had out monthly coordination meeting regarding the City's efforts in the Lowell Neighborhood. As you may or may not know. The City and our department have selected the Lowell neighborhood as the place to begin our revitalization efforts. Our goal is to build a strong, sustainable effort in Lowell, which can then be customized and used in neighborhoods throughout urban Fresno. Today's meeting focused on 2 things: coordinating our efforts against slumlords (the Lowell area's 2nd highest priority) and preparing for our next meeting in Lowell on November 16th. We want to present the information and results in a clear way.
3:00 I met with the Redevelopment Agency and City representatives with a potential downtown tenant. Very preliminary, but we were scoping their needs for space, timing, and other considerations. The amount of time that we are spending with potential downtown tenants, investors and others is really very encouraging given the economy!
4:00 Our department presented our work plans to the City Manager and a Deputy City Manager. The work plans were done to help us to track the many activities and also to begin to plan ahead to make sure that we don't miss any steps. We hope to post them on our department's website soon, so everyone who would like to stay current with our efforts will have that option.
6:00 I met with Blake Konczal from the local Workforce Investment Board. We met to discuss ways to put unemployed construction workers to work in our downtown neighborhoods doing renovation and other projects. Blake thinks that it will be fairly easy and will get back with a plan. We also discussed his upcoming panel discussion at the State Enterprise Zone conference next week, which will be in Fresno. Our WIB and Fresno County have developed an on-line system for the Enterprise Zone which is is cutting edge. Blake is one of the great people and leaders in town, so I always enjoy a chance to get together with him for work issues and to talk about issues from travel to religion.
We met for dinner, and before anyone asks, I pay for my own meals, I don't expense them to the City and I don't let other people pay for mine.
10:30 Off to bed. I'm reading a very interesting book titled Mindset.
Monday, October 26, 2009
10/26/09 Communication and Transparency
When I first accepted my current position as Director of Downtown and Community Revitalization with the City of Fresno, I began to think about ways to increase transparency in our newly configured department. We're doing some normal things, like an e-newsletter and an updated web page, but I wanted to expand beyond the expected.
I kept thinking about the original concept of a blog, as a web log, or a journal. So this is my attempt. I'm sure that it will vary, evolve and hopefully improve. It will not be perfect, if I have to send every issue to an editor, it won't get done. So please forgive some grammar issues and a few typos for increased access to city government.
The idea is that we are like a family, and over dinner we ask each other...
How was your day?
What did you do today?
What did you learn at school?
I will recap the meetings and activities of my day. I'll try to relay outcomes and also provide context for how these activities relate to our overall goals. I hope to get better and am open to suggestions. I'd like to incorporate links, photos and other multi-media and social networking, but that will have to come over time.
Craig
I kept thinking about the original concept of a blog, as a web log, or a journal. So this is my attempt. I'm sure that it will vary, evolve and hopefully improve. It will not be perfect, if I have to send every issue to an editor, it won't get done. So please forgive some grammar issues and a few typos for increased access to city government.
The idea is that we are like a family, and over dinner we ask each other...
How was your day?
What did you do today?
What did you learn at school?
I will recap the meetings and activities of my day. I'll try to relay outcomes and also provide context for how these activities relate to our overall goals. I hope to get better and am open to suggestions. I'd like to incorporate links, photos and other multi-media and social networking, but that will have to come over time.
Craig
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