11/11/09 Downtown Vet's Parade was HUGE

Slow start today. No exercise, I'm recovering from yesterdays.
10:00 Meeting with Jane Whitehurst. We tried to meet at the Newsroom Cafe, but Vic must've closed because of the holiday and the fact that the government offices would be closed and because he was in an island surrounded by the parade route. I had to move (and replace, of course) barricades to even get near L and Kern. Jane and I walked over to the Starbucks instead. Jane is a downtown property owner and is part of three projects. She is a long time friend and is one of the original members of the Bus Bard Studio, the folks who started ArtHop. I updated her on the Specific Plan, PBID, downtown development incentives (proposed). Jane is looking into turning one of her properties into a studio/gallery. Good news.
11:30 I met with Terence Frazier, Steve Hosey and Mehmet Noyan. We were going to have lunch at the Downtown Club, but we went over to Club One instead. The Downtown Club was also closed. Club One's restaurant is always open, so remember that when you are looking for something late night and don't want a grand slam at Denny's! Their Asian food is really good, too. These gentlemen were also interested in hearing about the downtown revitalization plans. I had the opportunity to describe the Entertainment District concept. Mehmet is familiar with the development around PETCO Park in San Diego. It is important to keep local investors, developers, entrepreneurs and commercial real estate brokers up to date. When they show an interest, it is imperative that we continue to share information on a regular basis. We're not exactly where I'd like to be with our communication, but we're building toward it. Once the Specific Plan is underway, we'll have a website dedicated to the project to give and receive information and input.
2:00 From 2:00 to 6:30 Andrew Stuebner (Grizzlies) Jan Minami (Downtown Association), William Broomfield (City Events Coordinator) Elliott Balch ( our department's Downtown Revitalization Manager) and I interviewed potential candidates to run the newly created DT FACES nonprofit. This entity has been formed to coordinate events on the Fulton Mall and in Chukchansi Park on non-baseball nights. Nonprofits have much more ability to raise funds and have much more flexibility to work with vendors, hire short term staff and others steps necessary for event creation and successful execution. Hopefully we'll have someone on board within a couple of weeks. Get ready Central Valley, the party is coming to downtown!

7:00 I met with a couple of Urban Entrepreneurship Students (Adam and Krystal) to help them on their semester project. Hold the date on you calendars...December 3rd from 3-6. You'll have a chance to see what college level entrepreneurship students think that downtown Fresno needs.