02-25-10 Thursday

The day started a little after 4:00, I'm waking up before the alarm these days. I love that feeling. Ellis and I were out for our romp about 4:30. I'm still at it Coach Carter!



I headed to Uncle Harry's to catch up on emails and to get some bagels for the 7:00 meeting and enough to take back for the Downtown and Community Revitalization team. Uncle Harry's is another fine locally-owned establishment. Their coffee is better than the national chain's too.


7:00 Eileen Neely from Housing Authority, Marlene Murphey from RDA and Assistant Planning Director Keith Bergthold were there. We had a great conversation about the best housing authority programs in the country and what made them so good. Atlanta, Portland, Seattle and San Diego were on the list.

8:00 I had a meeting with our Administrative Manager George Smith to review our Fiscal Year 2011 budget submission for our department.

8:30 Amy Huerta introduced the PrimeTime for Business at the Council Meeting. This week the Licensed Contractors Affinity Group was highlighted. Look at their new web page at: http://mslcaffinitygroup.org/
They'll also have an ad in the Sunday Bee.
9:00 Elliott Balch completed an interest letter for a grant. All grant submissions require City Council approval. The item was on the consent calendar and went through without any conversation. Here is a link to the staff report: http://www.fresno.gov/CouncilDocs/agenda2.25.2010/1s.pdf


10:00 Wilma Quan, Rudy Placencia and I walked down the Fulton Mall with Stefanos Polyzoides, David Sargent, and Juan Gomez-Novy from our Specific Plan Team. We started at the Holiday Inn and walked north on the mall to the Warnors Theater. We discussed the condition of the mall, historic downtown conditions, circulation, design standards, historic theaters, the Tuolumne Reversal, the undercrossing from Courthouse Park to the Mall...


We then walked south to the Gottschalks Building, talked about the stadium, the potential for public entertainment at Mariposa, facades, they met Saundra King at the Security Bank Building, upstairs at the Goodwill store, and had lunch at Gordo's. Keep up with the Specific Plan and Community Plan by going to http://fresnodowntownplans.com/ and sign up for email notifications.


1:00 the Specific Plan team met with Greg Barfield to get an overview of the homeless and street people issues within the plan areas.


2:30 I toured a home in the Lowell neighborhood with new owner Wayne Rutledge.


4:00 Elliott Balch and I met with Jan Minami and Joe Moore from the Downtown Association to discuss coordination of downtown events.


5:00 I stopped by the Downtown Club for a membership mixer that they were hosting to announce their new membership structure. http://www.thedowntownclub.com/


6:00 Joe Moore and I met with Rick Mirigian who has been giving a great deal of thought to downtown Fresno Marketing. Rick is promoting the Penthouse in the 600 Club in Chukchansi Park. http://www.fresnobee.com/2010/02/04/1809244/chukchansi-parks-600-club-to-open.html
I had a great half rack of ribs and real mashed potatoes, we ate at Joe's Steakhouse.

02-24-10 Wednesday

7:45 I tried to tour a home in Lowell, but the front door was locked and the correct key was not in the lockbox.  Dang.

8:45 I had a minute to touch base with Rudy, our new MPA student intern.

9:00 We had the agenda meeting for next week's council meeting.  If you ever want to look at the city council agenda's go to http://www.fresno.gov/ click on the city clerk and then council agendas and minutes.  Each item on the agenda has a link if they have backup information or a staff report.  This is much better than the old days.  It is so easy to stay informed.

10:30 I attended a planning meeting at Fresno State for the upcoming Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities conference which will be coming to Fresno in October. http://www.cumuonline.org/conference/index.htm  This conference should be attended by all urban enthsuiasts in our region!  Anyone who is interested in presenting research should tune in as well.

1:00 I did a formal annual review with one of our managers.  This is still new to me, learning City processes.  Every place has their own format, so it is interesting to see how this is done within the City.  It's pretty straight forward.  It will also be interesting to see how the new City Manager will influence these processes.

2:00 Hank Delcore and Kiel Famellos-Schmidt met with us to help us to improve the Lowell neighborhood meetings.  Hank is the head of the Anthropology Dept. at Fresno State.  This is a great use of practical anthropolgy, learning better ways to engage people ande better ways to distill useful information.  We always strive to do better.  This is another great example of Fresno State's engagement in the Lowell neighborhood.

3:00 I did a second Annual Review of one of our managers.  It gets easier each time.  Now I know which form I fill out, which one they fill out and which one gets turned in to H.R./Personnel and the City Manager! 

4:30 We had a party to kickoff the grassroots effort to bring Farm Aid to Fresno this fall.  The party was at the 600 Club in Chukchansi Park.  We had good attendence from the local media and the committee.  Join the effort at http://www.facebook.com/#!/FarmAidtoFresno?ref=ts .

02-23-10 Tuesday

I woke up at 4:08 ready to roll. On the street for a jaunt with the pup by 4:30.


I headed to the downtown Holiday Inn coffee shop for some breakfast about 6:15. I needed to catch up on the blog and write my director's message for our bi-monthly newsletter. If you aren't on the list, let me know at craig.scharton@fresno.gov and I'll make sure that you are on the list.


8:00 I spoke to the Fresno Board of Realtors. I spoke about the specific plan and how that will positively affect the neighborhoods surrounding downtown. We went over a brief history of why our neighborhoods deteriorated and how they are currently a bargain for people looking for their first home, just like the Tower was 20 years ago.


9:00 City Manager Bruce Rudd organized an off-site retreat to focus specifically on downtown issues. We spent 3 hours going over each department’s projects and efforts, timeframes and resource. We focused half of the time on neighborhood issues and half on downtown core issues. I think that all of the budget issues are going to strain some of the attention and enthusiasm for revitalization activities, so we'll have to be even more motivational.


12:00 I spoke with the Cultural Arts District Rotary Club that meets at Arte Americas. This is a well-informed group of downtown enthusiasts, so they really wanted to know more about the substance of the specific plan, the Met Museum, how the plans will affect Southwest Fresno, how the high speed rail will function within downtown.


1:00-3:00 We had an update meeting with the consultants who are designing the high speed rail and looked at some of the train station layouts, given some of the site constraints. This was a very helpful meeting, they show how people will get to the platform (60 feet in the air). Our goal is to focus as much activity into the center of our downtown as possible.


4:00 We had our weekly Downtown and Community Revitalization staff meeting. Elaine Robles walked us through her Neighborhood Revitalization work plan. We rotate through the work plans as a way to keep everyone in the department up to date.


6:00 I met Larry Balakian for dinner at the Elbow Room. Larry is a long-time supporter of the arts in Fresno, and the state as a former California Arts Council board member. He is also a guru of event planning. It was great to connect with Larry and also to get his insight into how to improve and grow downtown events like the HyeFest.

02-22-10 The blogging expirement continues...

My experiment to increase transparency and to keep those who are interested abreast of the happenings of the Downtown and Community Revitalization Dept. continues. If anyone out there has any suggestions on how to make this better, different, more usable, whatever, please let me know. The goal is to give you, my salary-payers an insight into what I am doing with the resource that you are investing in me and our department.



My work day started at 7:00 with a meeting at Patio Cafe with Betsy Hays, Public Relations Professor at Fresno State. Betsy and I worked together at the Central Valley Business Incubator. We discussed ways to integrate her students with our revitalization efforts. Communication with the public is still a big challenge for us, we have more news than we take the time to share.


8:30 I met with a new intern for our department. His name is Rudy Placencia. He is a grad student at Fresno State, going for a Masters in Public Administration.


8:45 I met with another new intern, Ashley, and gave her an overview of our department.


10:30 I had my weekly one on one meeting with Elaine Robles. We spent time discussing how to coordinate the Fresno State effort in Lowell.


I had lunch with Jayne Aliota. She is a friend of Rebecca Ryan (http://nextgenerationconsulting.com/ ). Jayne is hoping to relocate to California and is an experienced HR manager.


3:00 Bruce Rudd, Marlene Murphey from the RDA and I met to discuss an RFP for a Single Room Occupancy project in Chinatown.


3:30 meeting regarding format and agenda for Lowell project updates to monitor department's progress.


4:00 Our weekly management meeting with George, Elaine, Elliott, Amy and me. We talked about work habits, work ethic and the difference between a small and a large city department.


5:00 Jim Versos came over to City Hall for a meeting to give me an update on the Warnors Theater and also for him to get an update on the Fresno Food Show that we are planning.

02-20-10 Designers Exchange Tours Downtown Fresno

Top Photo: Rebecca shows Desgners Exchange the Iron Bird Lofts
Second Photo: Ground Floor, The Grand
Third Photo: The Grand Ballroom
Bottom Photo: Ground Floor, Security Bank Builiding

Today I toured a group of Fresno area designers called Designers Exchange (a funny side note, the tried having a web page but people thought it was designer sex change).



I started the day with breakfast at George's with Cliff Tutelian at 9:00.


I met the folks from DE at the Warnors Theater at 10:00. We talked about a few downtown revitalization principles.


At 10:15 they toured the ground floor and the tenth floor of the Grand (aka PG&E Building). Cliff gave them some great insight into his restoration processes. It was also great to see the ballroom already set up for a Mardi gras themed party tonight.


10:45 we were back on the mall heading south. We talked about the art, options for the mall, how storefronts work, eyes on the street, and the need for foot traffic.


11:15 Saundra King gave tours of the lofts and I gave tours of the Loft Salon and the cafe that is ready for an entrepreneur on the 2nd floor rooftop.


11:45 We walked over to Robert Ellis building that has the Goodwill Store and went to the second floor to see what a loft above a shop would be like.


We headed back up the mall and got in our cars to go to the Iron Bird Lofts for lunch. They had Charlottes Bakery (http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/56/610217/restaurant/Fresno-High/Charlottes-Bakery-Fresno ) sandwiches and cookies set up for them in one of the wonderful lofts. Reza joined us for some Q and A.


It was a very fun tour.


I headed back down to the Loft Salon for a haircut from Anna.

02-19-10

I started out with an 8:00a.m. no show. I won't say who, because I am very sensitive about other people's feelings, and I'd never want to embarrass anyone. Although it is REALLY tempting.



9:00 Ore, Joseph, Alex and I went to Iron Bird Lofts to take the tables up to the loft for Saturday's lunch. Okay, I should back up. On Saturday I will lead a downtown tour for 25 interior designers. We'll start with a tour of the Grand Ballroom from Cliff Tutelian. We'll walk up the Fulton Mall from there. We'll have a tour of the vacant 2 lofts in the Security Bank Building from Saundra King. They'll tour the Loft Salon on the second floor. Then we'll walk back down the mall. Drive to Iron Bird Lofts. Tour some of those spaces. And eat lunch in one of the 1,500 sq. ft. lofts. So we carried the tables and chairs up to the second floor and set up for lunch.


10:00 I met with representatives of California Dairies and Marlene Murphey from the Redevelopment Agency and John Fox from the City Attorney's office. The topic was a study that the RDA is going to do about the acceptable uses around the Creamery site given some potential issues with some of their industrial issues.


11:00 Marlene and I stayed afterward and talked about a number of issues. It is kind of interesting how having a little bit of extra time to really go over the list of things that we are both working on, really helps us to keep things moving forward. Busy-ness is not our friend.


I grabbed a shredded beef quesadilla To Go from the Mexicatessen in the Galleria and headed back to the office.


2:00 Planning Director John Dugan met with Wilma, Elliot and me to review our first full week of Specific Plan activity.


2:45 I recorded a promotional video for the Grizzlies for opening day. I can't wait for baseball at Chukchansi.


3:15 Cynthia Dondero and I met to finalize the agenda and handout material for the Designer Exchange tour on Saturday.


4:00 Bruce Rudd, Elliott and Angela met to plan for this Tuesday's All Department retreat.


5:00 Amy Huerta, Travis Sheridan, James Collier and I met for a drink at the Lime Lite (James' first time there). We met to plan the Fresno Food Show, which will feature foods produced in the San Joaquin Valley. Part of the show will be to introduce grocery and restaurant buyers to our local products and part will be for the public to enjoy our local fare. Stay tuned.

02-17-10 Crystal Dower is my first Guest Blogger

Crystal Dower was my Shadow for the Day on Wednesday.  To mix things up a bit, I asked her if you would write my daily blog.

Here it is:

7 am- Met at George’s in the Galleria. We went over the agenda for the day and started some overall discussion including PBID, merchant associations, and great downtowns.



7:45 am- Successfully re-parked my truck at a parking garage on L Street. Luckily, we met back up without a hitch. After this we realized that cell phone numbers would be a good thing to have for the rest of the day.


8 am - Sat in on a meeting of city representatives. The topic being discussed when we entered was the Eaton Plaza project. The renderings were beautiful, money has already been invested, and plans for future phases are being discussed. When time comes for discussion, Craig brought up the fact that a project like this doesn’t really maximize the efforts of revitalization. The buildings that face the park are all government buildings and there aren’t housing units or businesses around that would have residual benefits. It seems like this is an on-going lens that projects will need to be evaluated through since there are limited resources and a goal of revitalization in place. Eaton Plaza will be a good project, but in the future projects will need to have more revitalization and economic results.
Downtown events including a concert series at Chukchansi Park, Cinco de Mayo event, Movies in the Park, and BBQ cook-off from the Food Network should be happening this year.


9:00 am- Re-located seats as the department directors came in. I got to meet George Smith from the DCR department before I had to leave. Next headed into the DCR office where I met Cynthia, who did an excellent job coordinating this shadow day. She introduced me to Wilma, Elliott, Angela, and some other staff who work in the office. She also gave me some great information about the Enterprise Zone to take back to Fashion Fair. This would be a great item to share at an upcoming merchant meeting.


10:00 am- Sat in on a call that Craig had with a fellow board member of Union Bank. Foreclosures, loans, incentives, opportunities….


11:00 am- Met with some local developers/contractors that were presenting their vision for a part of Fulton Mall near Grizzlies Stadium. It was really exciting to get to see some of the ideas that are coming through and it sounds like they will coincide well with the timing of the Specific Plan.

Noon: Headed to the Downtown Club for the Downtown Brokers lunch. An aside, there was something really neat about going to the Downtown Club… maybe it was the “Members Only” plaque outside… Elliott and Craig shared updates on where projects are at and what the availability of space is currently in Downtown amongst other items.


1:00 pm- Craig met with Mayor Swearingen and I went to a Crime View meeting where the Fresno Police Department was re-capping the crime statistics year to date. Summary of what I sat in on… if you own a Honda Civic, live in Northwest Fresno, and like to warm up your car before you leave in the morning you are most likely to have your car stolen.


2:30 pm- Met with representatives that are working with merchants on Belmont. It sounds like they have made some good progress.


4:00 pm- Met with the Events Manager for the City of Fresno. I really enjoyed this meeting (events & advertising trade agreements are right up my alley). William has done a great job securing advertising partnerships for the upcoming City events. A lot of great things are in the works including some concerts and some award winning BBQ (people- you are not going to want to miss it!).


5:00 pm – Picked up the truck from the garage and headed north to Vision One for a planning meeting for the Most Multimedia Meeting Ever which will include a visit from the Mayor. I think it will be marvelous. Not only does this title win because of its great alliteration, I think the meeting will be a lot of fun. This meeting falls under the local business initiatives branch of the department. Getting these businesses together not only produces creative meetings, but a voice and synergy.


Vision One itself was really neat to see. They have sites around the world and are based right here in Fresno. Also, they have a pinball machine and foos ball table when you walk in so they scored major points in my book.


6:20 pm Craig and I head over to Samba for a wrap up. In addition to reviewing some things from the day I got a chance to pick his brain a bit (more).




So what do you take out of nearly thirteen hours of shadowing Craig Scharton? Here are just a few of many thoughts.

• It is important to be a student of revitalization. Look at other cities, study what works, and look at the way people actually behave and use urban spaces. So many times things are designed without considering how people will actually use spaces and what the best use/ most benefit would be.

• Investing in people matters. From the relationships with your co-workers, to the people living in poverty in many areas of our city, to the constituents and people that you serve down to the girl that asks you to shadow you for a day, I saw again and again how much this principle is lived out by Craig and how it has an impact in the way he works and does things.

• I was left with some great ideas and entrepreneurial prospects that I will be looking into. (Maybe there will someday be an update in one of Craig’s future blogs about an antique market/show coming to Fulton Mall).

• The Well Fig Garden campus at the site of the former Cross Church needs to keep making bierocks for fundraisers. People, Craig specifically, loves bierocks and getting them at the Cross church was a tradition growing up.

02-18-10

I got a jump on the day, up at 4:15 and on hit the road for a jaunt with el perro at 4:30. I saw four others out at that time...who knew?



7:00 I met with Preston Prince and Eileen Neely from the Housing Authority and Marlene Murphy from the Redevelopment Agency. It was a very productive discussion on how the City, RDA and HA can better layer their resources to be able to get more done. We need a clearer understanding of what each source of funding can and can't be used for and when particular finding sources are the most useful. Some trigger prevailing wage, some are targeted at very low income and some serve more middle income residents. This coordination is critical to our overall success.

8:00 George Smith and I reviewed a draft of our budget which we will submit next week. This is part of the process that will result in the official budget which will go to the City Council in May.


9:00 Randy Reed is hosting a Community Access program that will inform people about activities within the City. I taped a spot with Randy at the Fresno County Office of Education studios downtown.


10:00 Wilma Quan, Elaine Robles and I met with members of the Downtown Neighborhoods Community Plan team. They are in town for three days accumulating base information.


11:30 Mayor Swearengin and I drove out to the Young Executives group. She was the lunch speaker and I am a member of the group. The name is a bit misleading, since I am the youngest member of the club (I'm 48 if you were wondering).


2:30 I taped a "newsmakers" segment at Comcast, which will be available to Comcast customers who use On Demand. Go to Local Programs, and you'll find two 4 minute interviews about downtown Fresno.


4:00 The Downtown Plan team met with our folks in Information Systems to discuss ways that a map could be integrated into the website for the plans and could be used to track information as downtown revitalizes.


5:00 Amy Huerta and I headed to Full Circle Brewery to meet with Don and Bill to ask if they would host the next Independent Retailers and Restaurants meeting. They said YES!


6:00 Amy Huerta and I met at the Downtown Club with the Regional Jobs Initiative's Tourism Industry Cluster (read more about cluster theory at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_cluster ). We were there to present the Fresno Food Show concept and how it supports the Food/Agriculture tourism concept.


8:15 I met with Darius Assemi and I met to work out some details of the project slated for Van Ness and Mildreda in the Lowell Neighborhood. We also discussed his Fulton Village project's timelines and the reasons behind our opposition to chopping up a single family home in Lowell to convert to multi-family.

02-16-10 Tuesday on Tuesday

Yes, that's right sports fans, I am writing Tuesday's blog on Tuesday evening. I'll try harder to stay current this time, maybe I'll give up procrastination for Lent.


4:45 I got up for a run with L.S. the dog. Every spare voice in my head urged me not to run:
Your feet are sore

Your calves are kind of tight after using the cross trainer yesterday

Your inhaler is in the car

Maybe you should just sleep until six, you have a big day


But I plodded on anyway.


I met Tim Stearns, Hank Delcore and Linda Gleason at the Chicken Pie Shop at 7:00. This was a meeting to strategize how to collect and monitor data for an organization that Linda is working with in Southwest Fresno called the Street Saints http://www.fresnostreetsaints.org/



8:15 got the car washed and shoes shined and the Downtown Chevron Station on H Street.


At 9:15 I interviewed a great new intern named Rudy Placencia. He is in the Masters in Public Administration program at Fresno State. I'll look forward to having him on board starting next week. I'm sure that you'll be reading about him in these blogs.


9:45 Wilma Quan, Elliott Balch, Elaine Robles and I met for our weekly specific plan update. Things are really beginning to roll along. Consultants will be in town tomorrow, stakeholder interviews will occur in a couple of weeks. The first meeting of the Citizen Advisory Committees will be the evening of March 9th, so mark your calendars.


11:00 Our department's management meeting was focused on how we can build and sustain momentum.


12:30 I met with Deputy City Manager Nicole Zieba for an update on the Met Museum properties. Nicole is the point person for negotiations for any potential tenants.


2:30 I met one of our home inspectors and tow of our Housing Division folks out at a home in Lowell. This home is applying for the Community Development Block Grant funds that will be used to bring Lowell homes up to code. The money is specifically for homeowners and they have an income threshold. This particular homeowner is a widow who has lived in the home for 50 years!


3:15-4:30 We had out weekly all staff meeting of our department. It was Amy Huerta's turn to go through her work plan. This is one way that we keep up with each other.


4:30 I had my one on one with Elaine Robles and also started her annual review.



7:00 I spoke with the Fresno Citizens Academy about our department and our goals:


Establishing a culture inside and outside of City hall that is supportive of locally-owned and locally headquartered businesses.


Coordinating the revitalization of the neighborhood that surround downtown. Lowell is the place where Fresno will learn how to do neighborhood revitalization.


Coordinating the revitalization of downtown Fresno's historic core.

02-12-10 Last Friday

02-12-10 Blog Last Friday



8:00 Elliott Balch and I met with the committee that is working on the establishment of a Property Based Improvement District in downtown Fresno. We met at the Downtown Association’s office on the Fulton Mall. The effort is coming along, but will need to pick up some speed. The meeting didn’t end until 9:20.


So, I missed the 9:00 PIPES meeting, which is the internal effort to streamline development processes. I don’t usually have too much involvement in the process stuff, other than to be a broken record for downtown revitalization. I think that they all have my comments memorized by now.


9:30 I had a quick meeting with Interim City Manager Bruce Rudd. We needed to catch up on a few things.


10:30 I met with John Dugan and Jerry Bishop to go over some Interim Downtown Development Standards that will go to the Planning Commission and City Council in a few weeks. This proposed change would give the Planning Director (Dugan) more authority to make determinations on projects. This is way to keep things moving forward during the formation of the Specific Plan, which is the permanent solution. This interim approach will help us with issues like setbacks, mixed-use, outdoor dining, and others by removing the Conditional Use Permit requirements. This is another step in the right direction for the revitalization process!


11:30 I met with Bruce Lackey from Valectricar who is interested in a downtown showroom. This was interesting timing, because he was discouraged in his attempts to get a downtown showroom because of the Conditional Use Permit process. The interim Downtown Development Standards will help with this. He brought one of his company’s electric cars to city hall. They are like super-modified golf carts, completely electric, very cool design, they go 35 mph and are street legal in areas with a 40mph speed limit. Another cool option for downtown residents and workers.  http://valectricar.com/


12:30 I had lunch, by myself, at the bar (only iced tea) at Tokyo Garden. It was a good chance to catch up on the morning’s emails.


1:15 I went by Hands On http://www.handsoncentralcal.org/index.html to see their new gallery of local arts and fantastic crafts work from local artisans. Go by and take a look!


2:30 I attended a meeting with the City Manager, Planning, Public Works, Public Utilities, City Attorney’s office to discuss projects and policies as they effect growth and revitalization.


3:30 I began the Annual Review process with Elliott Balch.


4:15 I met with Anna Borgeas and Victoria Gonzales. Two active downtown revitalization enthusiasts and very good friends. This was a great meeting to cap off the week.

Betty Ann and I had a good dinner at Palomino's  http://palominosfresno.com/ inTower Dsitrict and then went to the Fresno Filmworks http://www.fresnofilmworks.org/ showing of The Messenger (Best Supporting Actor, Best Original Screenplay nominations)

02-11-10 Last Thursday

7:00 Met with Preston Prince, Eileen Neely, Rollie Smith, John Raymond, Keith Bergthold. This is our weekly meeting to coordinate housing, planning and revitalization efforts. It doesn't happen every week, of course, but that's the goal, when everyone is in town at the same time.



8:00 We had some breakfast goodies to celebrate Janet's time with our department and to welcome Sandy. Janet came to us through the first round of layoffs. She took a temp position, but has now landed a job out there in the private sector world. Sandy was laid off but has come back into the City to fill this temporary position. Primarily this position works on the vouchers that are used by businesses who take advantage of the Enterprise Zone Employee Tax Credits.


8:30 Prime Time for Business is a time that a local business gets to showcase what they do in front of the City Council. This week it was Vision One http://www.v-1.com/About.html?p=225  a company that does a lot of different things but we focused this presentation on their ticketing capabilities. Another worldwide company, headquartered in Fresno that many people don’t know about yet.


10:00 Dawn Steele and I went to Fresno State to meeting with their host of people who are involved in the Lowell Revitalization Project. From the Provost and Vice Provost, Professors from Communications, Political Science, Psychology, Theater (lighting), Women’s Studies, Library, Civic Engagement, Mediation, Engineering….all are working on their curriculum and efforts in focusing on Lowell! I keep saying it, folks…this is HUGE! We also had several nonprofits at the meeting: Hands On, FUND, Every Neighborhood Partnership.


11:30 Dawn and I stopped by for some Mexican food after the meeting, it’s a new place at Cedar and Barstow, I had recently heard about their handmade flour tortillas (like my grandmother used to make).


1:00 I met with Rick Mirigian. Rick is running The Penthouse in Chukchansi Park’s 600 Club. I think that Rick is going to be a valuable downtown events promoter and partner.


1:30 I met with George Smith about our upcoming mid-year budget. We have to submit our Fiscal Year 2011 budget next week. The City budget runs from July 1 to June 30th.


2:30 I had a one on one meeting with Alex Villa, who also is new to our department. He came over from Retirement and started after the first of the year. He is doing great work and has jumped right in.


3:30 and 4:30 I started the process of the annual reviews for Amy Huerta and Wilma Quan. This is a more formal type of process than I’ve eve done in other positions. It is interesting to learn.


5:15 I went by Austin’s to check in with the HYEFEST Committee.


6:00 I went out to the Edison Social Club to be interviewed and sworn-in as a member. This is a really great group of folks. I’ll be promoting the club’s activities in this blog. It gives me a slice of the Fresno that I remember. It is very real.  http://www.ahsgr.org/fresno/speech.html


8:00 Miguel Arambula came over to the house to get a letter of recommendation for a school that he is apply to. Miguel used to work for me at One by One Leadership for a couple of years. It’s always great to see Miguel.

02-10-10 Last Wednesday

I got behind again. I shouldn’t be writing Last Wednesday's blog at 6:00 on Sunday morning. I don't know what happened to the blog writing the last two weeks. I'd been staying pretty current and then it all fell apart.



I got up for a run with the dog. I went to the gym Monday morning, ran Tuesday and Wednesday and then that was the end of exercise for the week.


At 7:00 I went by La Boulangerie for some pastry for the Licensed Contractor affinity Group (not a City expense). Supporting a locally-owned business.


7:30 The Local Contractor's Affinity group met with the Mayor at City Hall. This group keeps getting larger and more self-organized. They have really found their voice. They are going to buy some advertising to begin spreading the word about the dangers to people who use unlicensed contractors.


9:00 We had a weekly department directors meeting. We did not have agenda conference because we do not have a City Council meeting next week.


10:00 Our weekly interdepartmental downtown coordination meeting. We are still putting the finishing touches on the point people for various pieces of the downtown plans. Each member of the consulting team (historic preservation, traffic, sewer) will have an internal contact at the City to help get the correct information into the plans.


11:00 I toured the Vagabond Lofts. I was thinking about how it is interesting to see the body of work of an author, architect or film-maker. You see their growth and evolution. This is also true of Reza Assemi's projects. It would be a great ArcHop to tour Reza's projects from earliest to latest (Broadway Lofts are under construction). I'll try to remember to suggest this to Kiel.


12:00 I grabbed a quick lunch to take back to the office, from Toledo's on Van Ness. They have the best chips!


12:30 We had a Downtown FACES board meeting. It looks like the next festivals to be added to the calendar will be a pistachio festival and a raisin day celebration ( http://www.fresnocounty150.org/parade.asp )


2:00 We had a meeting with the South Stadium business and property owners. This meeting had some speed bumps. This is an understandably frustrated group of people. They have not received infrastructure like streets and sidewalks, even though many businesses are many decades old and have been paying taxes, they were recently under the threat of eminent domain for the various Forest City incarnations, now they are bearing the brunt of the homeless problem and are cleaning up on a daily basis. This area has many great businesses and buildings and will be a great opportunity to see how a mixture of uses can coexist and even thrive as we put together the Fulton Corridor Specific Plan.

3:00 I went by Valley Pipe and supply to hear about a code enforcement issue that had come up.


4:00 I taped a Maddy Forum show at the KFSR studio at Fresno State. You can hear the podcast of the show at http://www.csufresno.edu/kfsr/maddy.html


5:30 I met Elliott Balch at Kinko's to sign a grant that he was submitting. Hopefully the grant will cover some costs of the downtown plans! We headed to Doghouse Grill after getting it in the mail.


My wife and I watched A Serious Man on Comcast On Demand. I love to try to watch all of the Best Picture Nominees before the Academy Awards airs. I also love the Coen Brothers. AHA! We've discovered the reason I didn't blog Wednesday night.

02-09-10 Last Tuesday

I met Elaine for our weekly one on one meeting at Parsley Garden, on the northern portion of the Fulton Mall, at 7:30. We had a good breakfast and caught up on the neighborhood revitalization piece of our department's efforts. Elaine is heading out on Thursday and Friday for a San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank Conference on Placed Based Initiatives. Here is a link to the conference: http://www.frbsf.org/community/resources/2010/0211/index.html




At 8:30 I went to the Fresno Coalition for Arts, Science and History monthly meeting, which is held at Arte Americas. Art Dyson was the speaker : http://www.fcash.org/content/arthur-t-dyson-aia-iaa-cid-fara-ala-ncarb



10:30 I took a tour of the Iron Bird Lofts: http://www.muraldistrict.com/ironbird.html  Reza has done a great job with this project. I especially like the townhomes. But all are really nice and it will be especially fun for the residents when the cafe opens. Anyone looking for urban living should take a look.


11:30 Randy Reed and I met to go over the format for next week's taping of a community access show that will feature our downtown revitalization efforts.


12:30 George Smith, our department's Administration Manager, and I met with Economic Development consultant Jill Dominguez to discuss a strategy for Economic Development Administration funding for projects like the downtown public market and other infrastructure improvements.


2:00 The Mayor introduced our next City Manager Mark Scott at a news conference at City Hall. This is a very exciting opportunity to have a Fresno native, who has worked in other cities, come home to use his skills and experience to help us move our community forward.


2:30 We held the Downtown and Community Revitalization weekly staff meeting. This is our time to let everyone know what everyone is up to, and is a valuable time to help keep things as coordinated as possible.


4:00 There is an ongoing meeting of the entities and staff who are involved in the Neighborhood Stabilization Program. This is part of the federal effort to alleviate some of the problems associated with the foreclosure situation. We chose four entities to use the City's portion of the funding (Housing Authority, Redevelopment Agency, CURE, and 2M Construction). One of the goals of our program was to focus about half of the resource into the Lowell neighborhood. We had a lively discussion about how well that concentration of resources was working.


5:30 I met Cliff Tutelian at Austin's (formerly Hero's). Their wings are the biggest and the best I've ever had.

02-08-10 Pitch Day

I was at the gym by 6:00 and put in some time on the old treadmill. My wife had the day off so I didn't have the pressure of exercising the mutt.



8:30 I made a pitch to F-Tag, the Technology Affinity Group. The pitch was for the March meeting to be billed as the Most Multi Media Meeting Ever. Stay tuned. This is going to be fun.


10:00 We had our weekly internal Specific Plan coordination meeting. Next, have to appoint the Citizen's committee for the downtown neighborhoods and we have to select locations for the public meetings.


10:30 Our DCR management meeting. We were reviewing some of the work and schedule for the upcoming preparation of the Fiscal Year 2011 budget which will go to the City Council at the end of May.

11:00 We met with a local company about designing and handling our e-newsletter.


12:00 I attended the Fresno Rotary meeting today. I am a member, but I don't get there too often.


2:00 Donna Gavello from DT FACES and I met with Channel 30 Station Dan Adams and Beth Marney


3:00 We had a meeting with the City Manager, Redevelopment, Planning Director and others to discuss the Droge Building with Preston Prince of the Housing Authority.


4:00 One on one meeting with Elaine Robles.


4:30 The Fulton Lowell Design Review Committee met to discuss the houses being renovated in Lowell and also a new renovation project of a multi-family in Lowell.


5:30 I met with Tim and Joe from FLYP to further our concept of a downtown citizen's academy.


Home by 7:30...missed Jeopardy!

02-05-10 Friday

I'm still behind on the ol' blog. It's Monday morning and I'm finally writing Friday's.

4:45 Up in time for a run will Ellie the pooch.


7:30 Regional Jobs Initiative's Infrastructure Committee. Kurt Madden, Sarge Green, Jeanette Ishii, Lynne Gorman, Steve Haze, Mike Dozier, Dwight Kroll...and others. They asked for a report on downtown revitalization. I gave them a fairly detailed report about the downtown plans, how and why they work. We talked about the Property Based Improvement District.


9:00 I had a meeting with Terry Bond who is the Personnel Services Director for the City. I am still in the learning-mode for some of the Department Director stuff like paperwork for annual reviews.


10:00 Jerry Bishop and I met with several people who are interested in purchasing and restoring one of our landmark buildings. This appears to have good potential, but with all of these possibilities, we have to see how real they are over time. In the past we have tended to be over eager, even desperate to show that revitalization is happening. For years organization would publish ads and recite lists of projects that were just around the corner. Now we are hoping for a more even approach, less manic. So we'll look forward to some of these exciting prospects, but we won't count them until they actually happen.


11:30 I led a Fulton Mall walk in a light rain. If any of you are ever interested or have a group who might be interested in this, just let me know. We finished with lunch at Los Panchos.


2:30 Wilma, Elliott and I had a meeting with the Planning Staff to review our plan and responsibilities for the upcoming Specific Plan. And at 3:30 we did the same with the City Manager Bruce Rudd and Deputy City Manager Nicole Zieba.


5:00 Danna Gavello from DT FACES came in for an update on her progress with the downtown events.

02-04-10 Thursday

7:00 I met with Eileen Neely and Preston Prince from the Housing Authority. We discussed the Droge Building (that's the one with the braces at Inyo and Van Ness, and guiding policies for the City's HOME Funds.


8:30 Amy Huerta and Alex Villa met with me to plan a Fresno Food Show. This would be an event that would highlight San Joaquin Valley businesses that make food items and put them on display for grocery store and restaurant buyers. The event would also have a public component. This could be a precursor for our downtown public market.


10:00 I met with members of FUND, a local nonprofit that focuses on renovating homes in the Lowell neighborhood. Last June Elaine Robles and Dawn Steele were successful in obtaining a Community Development Block Grant to renovate homes in Lowell. Specifically homes that were owner-occupied and had code violations. This is an effort to shield low-income owners from the increased code enforcement activity that was requested by the neighborhood. The meeting with FUND was to complete the details of a contract that will allow FUND to receive some of the money to do some of the houses.


12:00 I had lunch with our new Planning Director John Dugan. He hadn't been to George's in the Galleria downtown. We spent most of our time discussing the Specific Plans.


1:30 I had a consultation at the Oral Surgeon. It resulted in...not having to do anything...clean bill of health!


3:00 Met with Councilmember Borgeas


5:30 I attended a meeting of the Farm Aid to Fresno committee. This is a grassroots group who are leading an effort to get the Farm Aid Concert to Chukchansi Park this October. Farm Aid has never been to California before. This would be a great way to reconnect the community to our farmers, which just so happens to be one of Farm Aid's missions.

02-03-10 Way behind Wednesday

I'm writing Wednesday's blog at 5:30 on Saturday morning. This is the furthest behind I've been since starting this project. I hate missing a day, I forget some of the things that don't show up on my calendar.



I woke up at 4:45 and went for a jog.


I got to the Honda dealership at 7:00 for a regularly scheduled maintenance. I was a bit behind on this too, I made it in at 6,000 miles instead of 5,000. They had me out of there by 7:50.


I was a few minutes late for the 8:00 weekly interdepartmental downtown meeting. This was our first meeting since the passage of the specific plan contract, so it was a good opportunity for Wilma Quan to give an overview of the next steps. We also discussed the marketing of incentives and specific plan benefits to potential investors.


9:00 John Dugan and I met with the Mayor to discuss some of the pending development proposals for downtown.


10:00 I had my semi-weekly one on one with the Mayor to keep her up to date on the Downtown and Community Revitalization department.


11:30 I had lunch with Jerry Duncan at Austin's (formerly Hero's). I had a great blue cheese burger. Patrick is really doing a great job. Eva Scow and Ron Thompson are playing during lunch on Wednesdays and Thursdays. His whole staff is friendly and helpful.


12:30 I had my weekly one on one meeting with Elaine Robles. We were mostly focused on filling the downtown neighborhoods community advisory committee. This is the group of 21 people who will steer the neighborhoods piece of our downtown land use planning effort. If you live in, work in, own a business or property in the plan area...you are qualified!


1:30 The Housing Authority held a groundbreaking ceremony at the Park Grove Commons (I don't like this name) site at Fresno and Shields. The first phase of housing has been funded. This is right across from the VA Hospital.


4:30 I met with Elliott and Donna to talk about how the DT FACES project was coming along. It appears that sponsorships are coming along pretty well.


6:00 I met with Jake and Romi (Virginia Hotel Developers) about the Property Based Improvement District. They signed their petitions without hesitation. The Hotel Fresno is also in the PBID area, so that is two more building who voted yes to assess themselves. Reza Assemi joined us too and we went out to dinner. (I paid for my own meal and did not expense it to the City).

02-02-10 Corcoran!

7:30 Elliott and I met with the Downtown Association's Executive Committee to work toward aligning our efforts. There are many odd things happening in downtown and we need to make extra sure that we use our resources wisely and support our mutual goals. I hope that we continue to meet to keep the lines of communication open. It is amazing how much communication it takes, especially when things are moving as quickly as they are.



8:30 I had my one on one meeting with our Local Business Initiatives Manager Amy Huerta. I'll tell you right now, Amy is working on some incredible changes that are going to make a lasting improvement on our city and our City. Her work helping Licensed Contractors is growing support by the day. Stay Tuned. Amy is about to launch the Local Business Initiatives e-newsletter. Send her an email if you'd like to be added to the list: amy.huerta@fresno.gov .


9:00 Amy and I met with Joe Gray, our City Treasurer about the progress on the City's new business license software and how the City can begin to ask contractor's for the State License number when the get their City license..


9:30 We had two potential downtown property owners/tenants meet together to see if they might be interested in partnering on a project. I haven't written about these folks yet, so if you are keeping score at home, you can see how constant the interest level is becoming.

10:00-11:30 The Fresno Housing Authority gave an update to the Mayor and others of us from the City. The briefing included an overview of the HA activities from rental subsidies to public housing to farm worker housing. We also discussed alignment of City, Redevelopment and HA housing funds, the Neighborhood Stabilization Program and other projects.


11:30 We had a meeting with the City Attorneys regarding the unlicensed contractor issue. Council Member Borgeas and Xiong staff members were on hand and have been helping in this effort.


12:00 I had lunch at George's in the Galleria with local businessman, downtown Hanford property owner and former neighbor Mike Hamburger. Mike owns a roofing company and wanted to get an update on the downtown plans and other downtown activities. As is the rule, we went Dutch and I do not expense my lunches to the City (in case you were wondering).


1:00 We had a meeting regarding the PIPES program which will streamline the planning and other departmental review processes. Former Clovis Planning Director John Wright has been assisting this effort. It is nearly ready for public review and comment.


2:00 Downtown and Community Revitalization weekly staff meeting. I asked the DCR staff to write suggestions for me to become a better director for our department. I did this about 6 months ago and the list was very helpful. We'll see how much progress I've made and how many new suggestions pop up!


Janet Heidinger just joined us a few weeks ago as she moved from a "permanent" position to one of our Temp positions. Janet announced that she has landed a new job. We are very happy to see our folks land on their feet. Janet's last day will be next Friday. Even though she has only been with us since the first of the year, her positive disposition has already had an impact on all of us. Congratulations Janet!


3:15 I hopped into my car and headed down the freeway to Corcoran. I was asked to speak to the downtown business owners by the Corcoran Chamber of Commerce. I had spoken to them about 9 years ago when I first started working in Hanford. I have kept in touch as they have improved their main street and done facade improvements to pretty much their whole downtown.


I had fun speaking with them and answering questions. Mostly we talked about marketing issues. We talked about cross marketing, the role of events, determining the target market, store window displays and merchandising store interiors. We also talked about the competitive advantages that small businesses have over the big box stores and the internet: Service, Product Knowledge, Relationships.


I got into the house at 7:30, in time to catch the end of Jeopardy.

02-01-10 Now, on with the Specific Plan

4:45 Up and at 'em

5:00 Road work.  Ellie and me hit Wishon with gusto.

7:00 I met with Jim and Jonathan Ford for breakfast.  They have an inicredible start-up company that specializes in organic, natural fungicides.  Instead of trying to attract a Fortune 1000 company, let's grow one!

8:30 Conference call with Darrel Frey from Corcoran.  I'll be speaking down there tomorrow afternoon to a group of downtown businesses.

8:45 I got an update from Kelly Trevino, our Incentive Zone Manager, on a solution to a problem that was negatively affecting some of our local people and businesses.  Census tracts that are not within one particular jurisdiction can't get Enterprise Zone benefits.  So, if the City boundary doesn't include a whole census tract, the people in that area are excluded from the program.  Kelly and the county have idenitfied a way to solve the problem through the state.  This mostly affects people in Southwest Fresno, now they'll be included in the program's benenfits!

9:30 We have out Dept. Management meeting.  George is at a seminar, so it was Elliott, Amy, Elaine and me.  We mostly discussed the shifting time resources that will be required to invest into the Specific and Community plans.

10:30 Wilma quan, Elaine, Elliott and I met to review reesponsibilities and time management issues for the new plans.