11/12/09 Thursday's blog is written on Friday?

It's gonna be a quick on today sports fans.

8:00 weekly interenal Downtown and Community Revitalization management meeting.  Elaine got back from the Harlem Childrens Zone conference.  They confirmed everything that we are doing is on the right track.  Focus is the key, you can't do everything and everywhere at once.  The piece we need to work on is being more data driven...we'll need to work with partners to have enough capacity.

9:00 Weekly agenda meeting.  Department directors and city council staff get together to go over next week's agenda.  The Mayor's budget presentation will be the big item.  Tthe directors have the irmeeting directly afterward.  I reported on the upcoming Lowell neighborhood meeting the Monday night and on Fresno State's huge buy into the Lowell revitalization effort.

10:00 We had a quick internal meeting to review the staff report and the scope of work for the specific plan.

10:30 Downtown FACES Board meeting.  This is the nonprofit that has been formed to oversee, create and coordinate events and festivalos on the Fulton mall and in the stadium.

11:30  I was on a panel with Elaine Robles (Neighborhood Revitalization Manager), Terance Frazier (Frazier Realty) and CeCe Vega (Lowell resident).  We spoke to a group called the No Name Fellowshipo, which is a longstanding faith-based gathering to discuss urban issues.

1:30  We went over the United Security Bank and opened our checking account for DT FACES.  Now any of you can make a contribution!

3:00  Urban Entrepreneurshp class was at the Trade Center.  Cliff Tutelian is really doing a first class job on renovating the building.  The ballroom upstairs is close to fully operational and is going to be one of the great party spots in the Valley.  The ground floor is also going to be spectacular. 

5:30  I headed toward Moraga to pick up my son Cole for a three day fishing trip up near Shasta.  We pulled in about 2AM.  I did a phone interview with a future urban planning legend Drew Wilson for an hour on the drive up through Los Banos.

Now we're headed out to see if we can annoy a few fish!  Talk back atcha on Monday.  Join us at the Lowell meeting at 5:30 at the school.  Real life neighborhood meetings are always interesting.