11/5/09 Holy Mackerel...what a great day

I am so glad that I am writing this stuff down. It is way too much to try to remember. I hope that a few of you are checking in occasionally, to see what is happening with the overall effort. I am up for suggestions too, so let me know, please.

I got up at 5:30 and barely had time for a jog. I try to go before sunrise so that I can let the dog off of the leash before people are up. If there are people out, she has to be on a leash, I know some folks are scared of dogs.

7:00 weekly meeting with Rollie from HUD, Preston and Eileen from Housing Authority and Keith from Fresno Planning Dept. Today's topics were far ranging, from the public housing at First and Clinton, to the future of the Neighborhood Stabilization Program update in the Lowell Neighborhood.

10:00 Wilma, Elaine, Elliott and I met to coordinate on the Specific Plan. We are going to be soliciting for members of the neighborhood piece soon, so if you are a stakeholder (property owner, resident, business owner) in Southwest, Jefferson/Lowell, our Southeast Fresno let me know and we'll get an application to you. Or pass the word along to others, please.

11:00 We had a meeting about temporarily implementing new standards for downtown development, for the interim period until the specific plan is adopted. We could potentially have two years of bad urban design if we wait. Planning, Public Works, Public Utilities and others were all present. John Dugan, our new Planning Director was at the meeting and will be a valuable leader on moving this forward. I will probably repeat this somewhat often...John Dugan is one of the best things to happen in the downtown revitalization effort.

11:30 Elaine Robles (Neighborhood Revitalization Manger) and I headed to Fresno State for a meeting to further the concept of engaging the University in the effort to revitalization of the Lowell Neighborhood. We grabbed a quick lunch from locally-owned Don Pepe on Woodrow across from Fresno State.

12:00 What an unbelievably great meeting! Fresno State is on it. The have departments lined up with classes and internships all focused on Lowell. Off the top of my head: construction management, recreation, education, the library (for research and database), political science, psychology, business, engineering, arts (lighting)...and others that I'm forgetting. The have a matrix of every department's involvement. They have specific classes that will be involved. The are organizing an event to link nonprofits in Lowell to students. This is so incredibly gigantic. They are hosting a national conference for Urban Universities next year and will bring schools from around the country to Fresno to see how an engaged city and university can work together. Somebody pinch me...I never, in my wildest dreams, thought that this would all be happening so quickly. Dr. Welty, the Provost and Assistant Provost are all actively engaged to pull this focus and follow-through together. I do not believe that there is anything quite like what is happening, anywhere in the country. As the Mayor says, "it is different this time." Folks, it is different, I've been doing this stuff off and on for 25 years. I have never seen things happening like this before.

2:00 We (Downtown and Community Revitalization Dept.) had a couple of items at the City Council meeting today.

First, we had a proclamation and press event for the former Gottschalks employees who are still looking for work. The Mayor and council member Brand presented the proclamation. About 85 former Big G employees were on hand. This is an incredibly talented and hard-working group of people. We have probably never had this large of an educated, trained, management group enter the workforce at once. A couple of years ago local companies were complaining that we did not have enough management depth in our job market. Well, business owners, we have some incredible talent in our workforce, form the Gottschalks Alumni and other unfortunate closures. We want to keep as many of these experienced people in our economy as possible.

Second, we had a couple of property owners from Lowell express their displeasure with the code enforcement activities in the neighborhood, specifically as they relate to front Yard fence height. The conversation at the meeting was friendly and we will continue to work with folks. The Lowell neighborhood asked for code enforcement in their area, to bring the neighborhood up to the same standard as other parts of the city.

Third, the City Council unanimously voted their support a contract with FUND to help some of the homeowners in Lowell to bring their homes up to code. This money comes to the City from the Fedreal Government's Community Development Block Grant program for use in low-income areas. There are very few homeonwers in Lowell and we wnated to use the resource to help bring the neighborhood up to code, but not to adversly affect the homeowners that have stuck with the neighborhood.

3:00 The Urban Entrepreneurship class that I teach spent a day with Reza Assemi touring his downtown proejcts: Vagabond Lofts, Iron Bird Lofts and the next project to get started, the Broadway Lofts. The class loved the day, meeting with a younger entrepreneur and also seeing a very attractive living option as they graduate soon.

6:00 I had the opportunity to make one ArtHop stop at Cameron Moor's building on Braodway. This adaptive reuse project participated in ArtHop for the first time...it just keeps growing.

6:30 I met with a downtown property owner and a potential new tenant for downtown. We met at the Cosmo and had some great appetizers. The hamburger at the table next to us was a work of art too. The Cosmopolitan Tavern was hopping. The potential downtown tenant was laughing about how some people are afraid of downtown, but the Cosmo was packed with everyone from seniors, middle-aged folks andf one young family with their toddler. The Cosmo is a great place, with great history a fun old town atmosphere, unbelievable food and is a locally-onwed gem. The old bar is really cool too.

I told ya'....it was a great day in downtown Fresno. Craig