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.