03-24-10 Shadow for the Day and Guest Blogger Miriam Zuk

Earlier in the week Craig Scharton told me that 10 minute catnaps were his secret to staying energized, but I didn’t see him fade even once during our 15 hour day on Wednesday, March 24th. Over a quick breakfast Craig gave me a brief history of sprawl and urban decline in Fresno – a story similar to most cities across the U.S. But urban revitalization is coming late to Fresno and Craig began to share his firm belief in the benefits that a strong downtown and mixed-income neighborhoods will bring to the city. As we scurried from one meeting to the next I learned about the many related activities the City is undertaking to achieve this vision.

Step one in neighborhood revitalization: coordinate. This was clearly the theme of the day and was the purpose of our first meeting at City hall. Each week the City departments get together to give updates on their downtown activities and I heard about many of the challenges of adaptive reuse including occupancy codes, inherited leases that were poorly formulated and the myriad agencies/departments that have authority over land in the city, each with their own design standards, priorities, practices, etc. that do not necessarily support each other or the City’s vision for the downtown. Step two in downtown revitalization: remove the barriers. On this we heard about the outdated zoning code that was created for suburban rather than city living and the planning department’s interim standards to help rather than hinder smart downtown development.

Coordination was also the theme of the meeting at the COG on the high speed rail. Many of the same faces as the downtown City meeting – FAX, Planning, Facilities, Public Works - but now we were also joined by the HSRA consultant, the COG’s consultant and the City’s consultant. All have slightly different tasks, but clearly need to work together to ensure that the station will help rather than hurt the city. The idea of a bullet train flying at 200 miles per hour, 60 ft overhead still boggles my mind, but the people in the room seemed more concerned about station alignment (whether it should be on the Chinatown or downtown side of the tracks), parking (4500 spots!) and making the station accessible to multiple modes. This is obviously going to be a lengthy process, but people generally seemed optimistic.


The importance of historic preservation and adaptive reuse became the themes of the next few meetings, one with a developer interested in downtown and another with the Salvation Army who holds several properties in the Lowell neighborhood. What do we want the downtown to look like? New developments like the lifestyle centers popping up around the country or renovating what is already there and celebrating our heritage. Clearly Craig believes in the second (as do I!) and reiterated this throughout the day. The nuances of this vision, however, came out when we attended the final meeting of the day with the Fulton Mall property owners. Clearly people are conflicted about the value of the outdated pedestrian mall to the downtown. Some see the mall as the death of downtown, whereas others see it as a part of the City’s heritage, one that has consistently been stripped away over the last few decades.


When Craig asked me at the end of the day (10pm!) what was my biggest take away, I told him “I learned what city planning is today” and I meant it. To see all the processes and smart growth principles I’ve been learning about at school put into action was a real treat and truly inspiring. I look forward to spending more time in this great city and following where Craig’s leadership takes it!

From Craig:  Miriam is a PhD candidate at Berkeley studying City and Regional Planning.  We hope that she does her research right here in our urban Fresno.  Thanks Miriam!