03-29-10 Live Blogging from the Most Multi Media Meeting Ever

I'll be interviewing the Mayor in 5 minutes at  http://www.businessstreetonline.com/index.php?n=127&id=127&topic=Most+Multi+Media+Meeting+Ever

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 On this we heard about the outdated zoning code that was created for suburban rather than city living and the planning department’s interim standards to help rather than hinder smart downtown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!

03-19-10 Friday

7:30 Interim City Manager Bruce Rudd hosted a breakfast at the Downtown Club for all of the department directors.



9:00 We had a meeting with the City Manager and others along with the Housing Authority to discuss progress on the Neighborhood Stabilization Program and to discuss possible changes to the program to speed up its completion.


10:00 The City Manager and others met with the representatives from a local agency that is interested in purchasing land from the City and building a new structure downtown.


11:30 Elliott, Angela Vasquez and I drove out to meet with Jan Minami and Joe Moore from the Downtown Association. We discussed the possibility of partnering on our downtown events.


1:00 Elliott and I met with Council Member and RDA Board Chair Lee Brand and City Building Official Jerry Bishop regarding a potential downtown tenant in an old warehouse building. No seismic work had been done to the structure, so unfortunately it was not an option.

2:00 Our weekly review meeting with the Planning Dept. to make sure that we stay coordinated with the downtown plans.

I left at 3:00 to head up to the foothills above Pine Flat for some camping and fly fishing.  Caught and released 5 beauties.

03-18-10 Thursday

4:30 Yep, the dog and I got up in time for a jaunt down Wishon.

7:00 Housing Issues: Preston Prince (Housing Authority), Eileen Neely (Housing Authority), Marlene Murphey (RDA), Keith Bergthold (City Planning)


9:00 City Council Meeting. Agreement with EDC, Fresno State and City regarding economic development services was on the agenda and passed unanimously.


10:30 Weekly Specific Plan update meeting: Wilma Quan, Elliott Balch, Elaine Robles.  The planning team is coming into town next week to conduct stakeholder interviews.


12:00 Lunch at Young Executives. Speaker was Sarah Woolf regarding Westlands Water District issues.


1:30 Meeting with Business License and Information Services Dept. to go over progress and issues related to the proposed on-line business directory. This would allow us to have a web page that listed all businesses in Fresno.

2:30 My bi-weekly one on one with Amy Huerta. We mostly discussed the proposed Fresno Food Show.

03-17-10 St. Paddy's

8:00 We had a great meeting with the interdepartmental downtown coordination group. Probably the best yet. We had the draft Downtown Development Guidelines, which will help us to make projects more urban (less suburban) while the downtown plans are being developed. We talked about issues with the Spiral Garage and its need for repairs. We had an update on the Met Museum, JC Penney Building and the Droge.



9:00 Agenda conference for next Thursday's Council meeting. The Fresno Technology Affinity Group will be highlighted during our Primetime for Business segment.


As always, the Directors' meeting followed Agenda Conference. I kept my report lighthearted, there was plenty of other heavy stuff. I reported on FLYP's Downtown Academy.


10:00 Our department’s managers met to go over our list for my one on one meeting with the Mayor at 1:30. We're going to start having a pre and post meeting to make sure that we get the information that is needed to the Mayor and that I relay the information from my meeting with the Mayor back to our folks.


11:00 Steve Geil and I met with the Mayor to discuss his interest in a public market in downtown. We want to make sure that we are coordinated in this effort. This is a high priority project (based on funding) to bring agriculture back into our community.


1:30 I had my standing meeting with the Mayor, City Manager and Mayor's Chief of Staff. We went through a series of items like the PBID, downtown plans, Fresno Food Show and the next Lowell neighborhood meeting.


3:00 We had a directors' PIPES meeting. This is a meeting of the Public Works, Public Utilities, Planning Director and me.


4:00 Post-Mayor meeting. I'm going to start meeting with our managers directly after the Standing Meeting with the Mayor.


5:00 Some folks from Fresno State and City hall got together for some corned beef at the Cosmopolitan Tavern.

03-16-10 Tuesday

My wife needed to get down to Long Beach to tour some of their middle schools. So we were up at 3:00. She left at 4:00 so we had an early run. I actually snoozed for an hour after my run. The mutt snoozed all day.




At 8:30 George Smith and I met to go over our financial and budget information. Nothing much to report yet. We've submitted our target budget for the next fiscal year already. In a week we'll start meeting with the Mayor and City Manager, Budget Director and others to go through our budget line by line.



10:00 I walked over to have coffee with Vernon Crowder. Vern is retired from Bank of America but is still looking for ways to stay plugged into economic development in our area.



11:30 A local developer has been having conversations with a national development company who has a growing interest in Fresno. Our local friend has been pitching our downtown activity to them and they are interested. He wanted to get all of the information that he could and then wants to bring them to Fresno for a full presentation of the best development opportunities in the downtown core.



12:30 I worked through lunch, but Elliott brought back a chicken and pesto sandwich from our downtown Fresh and Easy. Usually places skimp on the pesto. This sandwich was dripping with it. If I send a letter to you with green splotches, you'll know why.



1:30 It was Mayors Open Door Day and one of the appointments was with a young woman from Southwest Fresno. She wanted to talk to the Mayor about how the arts, and more specifically the performing arts, could be used to engage youth in that part of town. She teaches dance. The Mayor told her about efforts that are underway to give community centers to nonprofits who can deliver services and that she might partner with one or more of the proposers in southwest.



2:30 I had a phone meeting with one of the people involved with First Five about a headquarters and child care center location downtown.



3:00 I missed our weekly department staff meeting. This is very rare. However, there were some key issues that had to be addressed with our Neighborhood Stabilization Program.



5:00 Redevelopment Agency had an item on the Housing and Community Development Commission agenda. It related to a study that needs to be done to show how ammonia gas from the Danish Creamery Plant could effect Chinatown development. I attended to support the study moving forward. The commission was supportive.

03-15-10 Monday

Why is it that on Sunday I could've fallen asleep in a heartbeat, but when I went to bed...wide awake.  No running for me today.

First meeting at 8:30 with a property owner representative from the area south of the stadium, who wanted to know more about what was happening with revitalization.

10:00 I'm hoping to buy a home in the Lowell neighborhood.  It's a beauty but a real fixer-upper.  I met with the home inspector and he confirmed that there was a ton of work to do, but that it wouldn't fall over on me anytime soon.

10:30 We had a press conference for the opening of the first house in Lowell to be purchased and rehabbed with the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) money.  It's a beauty.

11:30 Rudy Plecencia is an intern from Fresno State working on his Masters in Public Administration.  He is helping to create and organize the Downtown Academy along with Fresno's Leading Young Professionals.

1:00 We had a web-based training for a great new tool.  In fact, we're the only city with this depth of information in the country.  This web based system of demographic, economic, social, institutional information is incredible.  Once we get more used to it, it will help us to measure where are needs are more clearly and also to track progress.  My description here is not doing it justice.

2:00 I had a meeting with Terance Frazier and Steve Hosey who are helping us in the Lowell Neighborhood and are working with the Housing Authority's portion of the NSP contract (see photos above for NSP reference).

3:00 I recorded a couple of public service announcements at the KJWL studio.  They are part of an awareness campaign to let people know why they shouldn't use unlicensed contractors.

4:15 We had a meeting with the Facilities Dept. of the City to go over some of the needs for City owned properties.  The City has not done a good job of maintaining its facilities for many years, so now there is a bunch of backlogged work to do.

5:30 I attended the Lowell Concerned Neighbors meeting at the Dickey Youth Center.  There were far-ranging discussions from policing issues to job training programs.  These meetings are open to the public and they have a facebook page if you'd like to keep up with the group.

7:00 I met Preston Prince from the Housing Authority to discuss some of his projects that we have in common like NSP, Droge Building, SRO Housing in Chinatown and others.

Home about 8:30...too late for blogging (at least that's my excuse, since the winter olympics are past).

No spell check, the photos won't allow it to work.

03-13-10 My 100th Blog Post, off-Rogue Performance

Saturday morning.
Cast:
Elaine Robles, Neighborhood Revitalization Manager
Amy Huerta, Local Business Initiatives Manager
George Smith, Administrative Manager
Craig Scharton, Downtown & Community Revitalization Director
Elliott Balch, Downtown Revitalization Manager

Special Appearance: Mark Scott, New City Manager


The scene opens in the DCR conference room. A long table in a long room, the long side is curved with floor to ceiling windows facing the loading dock and dumpsters, the Santa Fe tracks and St. John's District are in the near distance. The narrow side of the room is a wall covered in white board.


9:00 Elliott, Amy, George, Elaine and Craig have gathered for an on-site retreat. Everyone is stressing with increasing workloads and limited time. Communication and prioritization are needed and time together away from hustle and bustle, phones, intrusions and the press of other meetings.

Each participant brings a printed copy of a random week from their outlook calendar, except for Craig, who has his laptop with him on the conference table.


General priority areas are clearly defined for each. Calendars are read out loud to see if the activities are matching the priorities for each person's mission. Surprising outcome: Our time resources match our priorities very closely. Additoinal outcome: In the few instances where time seems/feels wasted, we get very annoyed and frustrated. Solution: Focus on the positive, our time resources are moslty aligned with our priorities.


We left with clear priority areas. We still need to do some work on prioritizing projects within each area. These things take time and require regular re-assessment. When we take the time to do this our rapport and job satisfaction is much higher, which helps our performance.


At 12:45 I met Mark Scott, our incoming City Manager. mark hadn't had lunch so we headed over to Iron Bird Cafe for a sandwich. We had trouble finding an open table, the place was full. Live music in the corner too. We spent about half an hour talking about our department and downtown revitalization in general terms.


I drove Mark through the Lowell neighborhood and explained our approach to coordinating the revitalization effort in the neighborhoods. He is very excited about this and brings a great deal of experience and understanding. Plus he knows these neighborhoods. He grew up in Fresno, so he can point out homes of his relatives from his early life.


Then we drove up Fulton to the Fulton Mall. Again, he took the bus to the Crest Theater as a boy. He remembers the Fulton Mall in its heyday. He has worked with Stefanos Polyzoides and is thrilled to work with him again (Stefanos is the downtown planning consultant lead partner).

I dropped Mark back off at the budget office at 2:30, where I picked him up.


At 5:30 I attended the Memorial of the late Ken Manock, a leading water attorney in our state. The memborial was held at his firm's office near Fig Garden Village. My wife and I had a sushi dinner afterward at the new Wassabi.


Curtain closes on me, sitting on a leather couch with my dog snoring next to me, playing suduko on my wife's i-phone.

03-12-10 Friday

7:00 A stop by Iron Bird Cafe on the way into work for a cup of coffee.

8:00 Elliott and I headed over to the Downtown Association's office on the Fulton Mall for a meeting about the Property Based Improvement District. Art Farkas, Victoria Gonzales, Dan Doyle, Al Allen and Jan Minami, DTA ED were there. They are getting more signatures and should be betting a steady flow over the next month to be able to meet their goal.

9:30-11:00 Wilma Quan and I went through her annual review. The formality of the forms is now begining to work. Every system is different, so figuring out how to make this process meaningful has been worthwhile.


11:00 We had a question and answer session for potential bidders for a contract to design an on-line directory for Fresno businesses. Businesses that have a business license will be featured in an on-line directory (unless they opt out). This will help our local businesses to have another way of reaching customers and will help customers who want to shop locally (I bleieve that locally is an adverb that modifies the verb shop).


Companies have been given a chance to respond to the proposal, and all members of the Fresno Technology Affinity Group were on the list to receive proposals.

12:30 I had lunch with the always magnificent Fernando Santillan, our former DCR team member who is now helping the Economic Development Corporation land more businesses and employers into our area. We dined at the world renowned Chicken Pie Shop. Rice pudding for dessert.

2:00 Specific Plan-Week in Review. John Dugan and Arnoldo Rodriguez from our Planning Department joined us to recap the week's activities and issues regarding the downtown plans.


3:00 Brock Buche and Lon Martin met with Wilma Quan and me to talk about how the Public Utilities Dept. might be able to dovetail with some of the work being done by the consultants who are doing the engineering for the Specific Plan. We want to get as much information as possible for future activities, but also to use as much existing information as possible so that we don't have to use resources re-creating something that already exists


4:30 I met with Tate Hill at the Revue in the Tower District. This is part of the ongoing information that we are sharing with candidates for City Council. We want the debate to be well informed.

03-11-10 Mike Oz Highlight of the Week Blog

Oh yeah, up before the alarm and on the road at 4:30. The pup doesn't mind getting up for a run. She goes back to bed and sleeps all day.

7:00 I stopped by the Iron Bird Cafe for a frittata sandwich and a coffee to go.

8:00 I met with Marcelino Valdez, who is a candidate for City Council district 7. We are offering to meet with all candidates to brief them on our department's mission, strategies, activities....

8:45 I met with Darius Assemi who is building Fulton Village, the residential project next to Tokyo Garden. We walked over to the Planning Department. John Dugan, Jerry Bishop, Kevin Fabino and I met with Darius to go over some of his design ideas. Things are rolling right along.

10:00 We had a conference call with Planning and Moule and Polyzoides to work on coordination of the City's various planning efforts (bike plan, general plan update, master environmental impact report, southeast growth area, and the downtown plans).

11:30 I met Mike Osegueda at La Elegante (http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/56/610788/restaurant/Central/La-Elegante-Fresno ) for tacos. Three weeks ago, a couple of people mentioned La Elegante tacos. I admitted that I hadn't ever heard of the place, even though it was in Chinatown, a place I visit fairly regularly. Mike Oz, a super hero with taco discerning powers heard my plea. He called and scheduled lunch with me to rescue me from my plight. Wow, they are great. The flavors are perfectly complex, they are the fine wine of tacos. Complex, bold, flavorful. Thanks Oz Man.

12:30 I had a quick update meeting with the Mayor and City Manager. I had a few thoughts that I needed to run past them.

2:00 We had a coordination meeting with the contractors of the Neighborhood Stabilization Program. This is an ongoing meeting with City folks from Planning, Housing and Community Development Block Grant programs and the four entities that received these federal funds to buy, renovate and sell homes to families that meet an income requirement.

3:00 We had an on-site meeting with Public Works Director Patrick Wiemiller and Planning Director John Dugan at a building that Reza Assemi is considering for a downtown housing project. This is part of the new process to streamline projects. The Directors will meet with downtown project proponents early on to solve complex issues up front, so that they don't have changes mid-way through a project.

4:00 John Dugan, Karana Hattersly -Drayton (Historic Preservation Manager), Elliott Balch and I met to talk about the High Speed Rail downtown station and potential historic preservation issues.

5:00 George Smith had some budget items that he needed to discuss.

6:00 Met Cliff Tutelian at the Cosmo to talk about some issues and potential projects in the Cultural Arts District.  I had the tri-tip sandwich.  I couldn't pass on the classic.

03-10-10 Wednesday

7:00 Amy Huerta (Local Business Initiatives) and I headed out to Wawona Farms ( http://www.wawona.com/shop/default.asp ) to meet with Bill Smittcamp. We were there to strategize about the Fresno Food Show. This is an event that would put local food producers in contact with our local food producers from growers to processors to boutique cheeses to Ruiz Foods, to wineries. We'd get buyers from grocery stores and restaurants to see what we produce all in one place.



9:00 We had the agenda conference for the City Council Meeting on March 18th. Our department doesn't have much on, just a revised contract with the Economic Development Corporation and Fresno State's Office of Economic Development. The contract was already approved, but one of the parties needed a language change for the financial tracking.


At the following directors' meeting I gave a report on the Downtown Plan meetings that we had just held. I also talked to the group about a possible downtown tenant that we were going to be giving a tour to later in the day.


10:00 I met the potential downtown tenant and gave them an overview in our department's conference room. We have a good aerial map in there that is good for illustrating our strategy. We then walked over to introduce them to the Mayor. She talked about how the revitalization of urban Fresno is her #1 priority and how she is following through in her administration. The group walked away talking about how what a great mayor we have. She is phenomenal in these meetings.


I accompanied them on a tour of the Fulton Mall and a couple of downtown buildings. We had lunch downtown. They toured several other buildings on their own throughout the day.


2:00 I had a meeting with Council Member Sterling to give her a briefing on the tenant and the tour and also to follow-up on the downtown plan meetings, which she attended.


2:30 We had our weekly Downtown and Community Revitalization management team meetings with George Smith, Elaine Robles, Amy Huerta, Wilma Quan and Elliott Balch. We continue to discuss the shifting prioritization demands now that the downtown plans are underway. We also spent some time talking about our interns and how to maximize their experience and their work product.


4:00 Amy Huerta and Alex Villa organized the second meeting of the Independent Retailers and Restaurants affinity group. We had a great turnout from locally-owned businesses like: Whitie's Pets, Sierra Nut House, Pismo’s Restaurant, Not Just Paper, BJ's Country Kitchen, Joe's Steakhouse, Tower Hot Dogs and several others. Their priority issue is to do an educational outreach about why the community should buy from locally-owned businesses. The Mayor was on hand to hear their thoughts and discussion and to give her thoughts and support. We held the meeting at Full Circle Brewery. It was the first time that most of the group had been there. It was nice to see some of the local restaurants finding a locally-made beer.


6:00 I had a phone interview with Alice Daniel, who is a local freelance writer, who is doing a story of the Fresno area as a good place to do business. The article will appear in an in-flight magazine.


6:30 I met one of my recent students, Stephanie Roberts about her idea for a downtown business, at Million Elephant Bar. Several students from different eras attended the downtown plan meetings. Mark Harris and Christian Long both did an event in the Security Bank Building last Saturday. Urban Entrepreneurship students are everywhere!

03-09-10 The First Full Meeting for the Downtown Plans!!!

I was out of the door by 4:30 for a nice jog con el perro Ellis.



6:30 I attended the Mayor's Fresno/Clovis Prayer Breakfast which was held at the Radisson.


9:30 The Mayor held a meeting with a variety of people in the construction, development, nonprofit housing industry and with partners like Flood Control, the Air District and PG&E.


The topic of the meeting was the kick-off of the PIPES (process improvement and permit enhancement strategy). This was a result of a year of analysis about all of the places where businesses get stuck in the system at City Hall. There has been a new website, which allows people to track their projects. There is now a streamlined application, so only the information needed to make a good decision is required, not every detail. And the best part is that downtown projects are the highest priority and always start out with the four department directors: Planning, Public Works, Public Utilities and me. This gets them on the right track from the beginning.
11:00 the Mayor held a press conference to roll out the changes that are being made.

12:15 Lunch at Austins (formerly Heroes). A wide variety of City leaders met to discuss a downtown signage program. Wayfinding is a common program in downtowns. My focus would be to direct people to parking near the Fulton Mall, which is our priority area for revitalization. We have parking, but it is not attractive or easy to identify. Rates are another topic completely.

1:30 The planning team came into town and we had a meeting to go through the agendas and presentations for the evening's meetings.


2:00 Stefanos Polyzoides, David Sargent and Juan Gomez-Novy, Wilma Quan and I met with the Mayor for her stakeholder interview. There will be a series of interviews with neighbors, business owners, property owners, community leaders and others that will be incorporated into the early drafts of the plan.


4:00 The Downtown Neighborhoods Community Plan was held in the ground floor of the San Joaquin Light and Power Building, a.k.a The Grand. This was the first meeting of this group of stakeholders. All plans in Fresno have 21-member advisory committees. 18 members are appointed by the city council representatives. Since this plan covers three districts, the appointments were proportional. Perea and Dages each appointed 5, Sterling 8, and the Mayor has 3 at-large appointments.


The meeting started with welcomes and introductions. One of the City Attorneys gave an overview of open meeting laws, conflict of interest, and the bylaws. Next, Stefanos gave an overview of the planning process. The Community advisory Committee gave input and asked questions. participants from the public gave their thoughts and ideas.


7:00 The Fulton Corridor Specific Plan meetings started. Same location, but a separate committee of 21. This committee had all 18 members appointed by Sterling, because the boundaries are all in her district. The Mayor appointed the 3 at-large.

The format for this meeting was pretty much the same. Both meetings had 50+ audience members. All commissioners were in attendance. The input was very good as were the questions and dialogue. We'll have to make some adjustments for the layout and acoustics.

We're off and running. This will be the time to make real change in the direction that Fresno heads into the future, toward sustainable, urban planning that supports a higher quality of life. The magnetic pull of the city center will continue to grow and strengthen. Now I know that we are not anywhere near our goals but I do know that we are headed in the right direction. For now, that is what counts.

03-08-10 Monday

8:00 Medical Appointment



9:30 Meeting to go over the last minute details and decisions for tomorrow night's Downtown Neighborhoods Community Plan and Fulton Corridor Specific Plan (www.fresnodowntownplans.com ). I hope that you are going to come to some of these meetings. This is going to lay the foundation to change our city forever.



11:00 City manager Bruce Rudd, Allysunn Williams and Preston Prince from the Housing Authority, Marlene Murphey from RDA, Greg Barfield, Homeless Prevention, Brian Glover from Penstar and I met to discuss a project for homeless people in Chinatown..



1:00 We had a conference call with the historic preservation crew from the planning team to discuss the application submitted to the state to put the Fulton Mall on the National Register of historic places.



2:15 We had another conference call with the economists on the planning team http://www.strategiceconomics.com/ to discuss the economics summitt portion of our planning process.



3:30 I had my formal review with Elaine Robles and our weekly one on one.


5:00 I met Brian Glover at Austins to get an update on the Bank of Italy Building and other downtown projects.

03-07-10 Kiel's Request + Downtown Fresno belongs to the Central SJ Valley

A couple of blogs ago, I asked for some input on how to improve this web log.  I know that it is too much like a meeting schedule.  I also know that I don't want to make the blog into too big of a project.  Imperfect as it might be, it's still 45-60 minutes as it is.

Kiel Famellos-Schmidt (http://www.archop.org/ and http://www.gardenfresno.com/  ) made a good suggestion  He wanted to know more about the thoughts, ideas, vision, the WHY as opposed to the WHAT.

So every once in a while, like on a Sunday or on a vacation day, I'll write about the WHY or the HOW.

Downtown Fresno functioned as the regional downtown for the whole Central San Joaquin Valley.  This is normal for the downtown of a regionally-sized city.  Downtown Fresno was a place where people came to get things that their smaller communities couldn't provide.  Some of these were more tangible like clothes, movies or banking.  They also got less tangible things like the feeling of being in a big, vibrant place with different people than the ones they saw every day.

People from Fresno's satellite communities called it "going into town" or going to town." This simply meant that they were going to downtown Fresno.  With everyone from the region going in to one place to get things, that place could offer more things.  The more things that the place offered, the more reasons there were to go there.

When the tangible attractions like retail, movies and banks scattered from downtown to everywhere else, we also lost the intangible benefit of having a common gathering place.

Our region has grown in population.  There are about 1.6 million people who live within a 45 minute drive of downtown Fresno.  The freeway system has been built, and all roads meet near downtown Fresno.  There is no other place in our area that has such easy access to such a large population.  This market is unserved by an urban gathering place, a fun entertainment center that showcases our culture, and gives us a shared experience.

Downtown Fresno belonged to the Central Valley.  It served the whole Central valley, not just Fresno.  To revitalize downtown Fresno, it should again.

The other benefit for the Central Valley is that their proximity to a healthy, vital downtown Fresno enhances their image too.  If someone said that they were from Macksburg, Oregon.  You'd look at them blankly and then they'd say, "about 45 minutes from Portland and you'd say, "cool."

That should be a measure of our goal.  When people say they are from Reedley or Kerman or Coarsegold, they should proudly declare their proximity to Fresno.

What can downtown provide now that many of the attractions have left?  A vibrant urban experience.  Some people want a vibrant urban experience.  There is no other city in our region big enough to provide this experience.  No other place in the Central SJ Valley has the big buildings all packed together in one dense space to provide the setting for a vibrant urban experience.

Do we have anything in downtown that draws people from our whole region?  The Grizzlies, the Fuego, Selland Arena, Club One Casino, ArtHop and the Saroyan Theater do currently.  What else could be added to strengthen this mix, to add to the draw from the surrounding communities?

03-05-10 Raisins are a reason to party

7:30 I headed over to Iron Bird Cafe. I had a press release to write for next Tuesday's two meetings for the downtown plans (http://www.fresnodowntownplans.com/ ). I had a really good bagel with lox, cream cheese, onions and capers. The coffe was great and Rene Newlove (http://www.facebook.com/solitairesrogue ) greeted my with a frinedly "good morning.

Kiel Famellos-Schmidt rode his bike to the cafe on his way to the office, so we had a chance to catch up for a bit. (http://www.spaciodesignstudio.com/bio-kiel.php ).

8:30 I had a meeting with Donald Dejonge http://www.donalddejonge.com/ who is my new New York Life Insurance Agent. He's a a graduate of the Fresno State Entrepreneurship program. My agent had moved and my account fell to Donald. I'm glad he's on the job, he was very helpful.


My 10:00 meeting was a no show. I like an occasional no show, especially on Fridays. I hope that you are well no show.


10:30 I did my formal (on casual Friday even) annual employee review of Elliott Balch. We had our forms, we signed the correct copies, we're off to the races on this offical process now.


12:00 Elliott, Donna Gavello ( http://www.revfest.org/ ) and I had lunch with Gary Schulz, President of the Raisin Administrative Committee http://www.raisins.org/ for lunch at Georges in the Galleria. they'll be moving into Civic Center in late April.


We met to begin planning a Raisin Day Festival. http://www.fresnocounty150.org/images/es06.jpg f Farm Aid chooses Fresno for a location, we'd probably combine the two activities. The concert would be in Chukchansi Park and the Festival would be out on Fulton. If Farm Aid doesn't come to Fresno this year, we'd hold the festival in the Fall.


1:30 I met with Eddie Clement from the Carpenters Union. Eddie is a huge downtown fan. He was in the revfest last year, he comes to the Downtown Revitalization Update Meetings (DRUM), he advocates to the other trade unions about downtown. Eddie was specifically interested in sharing some of the work that they are doing on making buildings more energy efficient and are intereted in getting more involved in hisotirci home renovation.


4:00 I met with Lon Martin from the Public Utilities Department. We were discussing downtown water needs and options. Downtown is facing some issues with older wells that will need to be rebuilt or replaced.


5:30 I headed back to Iron Bird Cafe for Creative Fresno's Creative Blender and Cynthia Cooper's birthday party. It was a fun event with many good friends attending. I had a coffee, mocha, strawberry iced drink that was fantastic.

03-04-10 Thursday

7:00 I met with the housing brain trust, Rollie Smith, Preston Prince, Keith Bergthold, and Eileen Neely. I continue to be amazed at what a different world housing is. It has its own laws, funding, politics. It's always good to know how much you know and how little you know. Housing is its own world.



8:30 I had my one on one meeting with Amy Huerta. We mostly talked about some of the logistics for the Fresno Food Show. I made some calls to try to round up potential buyers from grocery stores.


9:30 Renena Smith is the City's Budget Director. Renena presented more mid-year budget information to the City Council. All Department Directors were required to attend, in case the city Council members had any questions for us. The Mayor is doing a great job of sharing information as it becomes clear. It is not easy news and will lead to hardship for many people and reduced service for the community, but it is better to be clear and allow information to drive the best possible decisions.


11:00 I met with a few gentlemen about a building that they own in the South Stadium area. They were unsure whether or not they should sell the property or keep it to renovate as part of the revitalization effort. I gave them information about the changing regulations, the City's vision for an entertainment district, and the fee deferral. I'm not sure what direction they'll go, but I want people to have the best information possible.


12:15 I had lunch at the Shepherd's Inn with former Congressman Chip Pashayan. I hadn't seen him for many years. He owns some property in the South Stadium area and he requested some help with understanding City processes. It appears that he'll have to do some work to the building before he'll be able to use it.


2:00 We had our weekly review of Specific Plan activities with the Planning Department, John Dugan and Arnoldo Rodriguez. Coordination is key. Plus, John Dugan is so darned smart, it's always a pleasure to here what is doing in the planning department.


4:00 Representatives from the City and the Redevelopment Agency had a conference call with consultants on the viability of gaining funding from the Economic Development Administration for the public market and commercial kitchen incubator.


5:30 I had the opportunity to give a tour of the Fulton Mall to a class from Fresno Pacific University called Theological Ethics and the Environment. We met at the Warnors Theater and walked down to the Mariposa Mall. After we walked back we went through the KJWL studio and into Broadway Studios.


I had one of our interns on the tour, named Tony. Tony hadn't been to ArtHop before so I took him past Mono and van Ness and over to Chris Sorensen's studios too. We stopped into the Iron Bird Lofts Cafe too.

03-03-10 Guest Blogger-Matt Schulz-Shadow for the day

A Day in the Life of…

by Matthew D. Schulz


As a participant in Craig’s “Shadow Program” I’ve been given the second opportunity to write a blog account of our day. I’ll come right out and say it: I don’t know how you sum up a day that starts at 6:45 a.m. in the dining room of Club One for breakfast, and ends at 8:15 p.m. in the Paris Café in Chinatown.

I don’t know how to adequately represent the many “mini-conversations” Craig and I shared while hopping from one meeting to the next, the 13 meetings I actually observed, or the many conversations I had with staff in the Downtown and Community Revitalization Department (DCR) or other departments.

So I took a step back. I started jotting down the many impressions I was left with from those meetings and shared conversations about what it takes to breathe new life into Downtown Fresno, whether in the business sector, or in the vibrant community that exists in the Fulton Corridor and Lowell neighborhood (one of Fresno’s first neighborhoods). Here’s my account.

In describing his journey as a poet Gary Soto wrote, “I believed in walking and paying homage to the dusty ruins of Fresno, namely every beautiful house that was torn down by our City Fathers in the name of Urban Renewal.”

Soto’s impression perhaps sums up the charge of the DCR: New life.

The task is not an easy one. Not when business sectors and neighborhoods have been neglected for 50-plus years. It’s not an easy task when you’re committed to partnering with local businesses and citizens. It’s not an easy task to first sit quietly and listen to their problems, then to go back and start down the long road of putting the City to work. Making Progress, or bringing about Change is not easy (yes, they are capitalized intentionally).

Progress through partnership is a long and hard road, but it’s probably the only one that will really take you to where you want to go.

So what does Progress look like? How is Progress really made? The answer: Incrementally, and with much perseverance.

Progress is made through taking the time to plant and then water the seeds of Change. It isn’t often experienced in the magnificent or glamorous. It’s not always publicly recognized and applauded. It happens in small moments of victory shared between a City’s civil servants and its citizens.

Progress happens when you take the time to celebrate the one-year anniversary of a downtown restaurant (congrats to Kebab Express!) by being a busboy for an hour. It happens when you seat an elderly gentleman, notice that he didn’t get a napkin, and so grab one for him. Or later on when you refill his drink. Progress happens when you share a laugh and a hug with a friend who responded to the invitation to come celebrate Kebab Express’ first 365 days of doing business Downtown. Progress happens through shared smiles.

Progress happens when you make a big deal about an upcoming open house for a home in the Lowell neighborhood recently renovated using new funds made available to help increase the owner-occupancy rate that currently sits at 15%.

Progress is made through establishing Affinity Groups to help Downtown business owners address their issues collectively, discovering how they can work together, and how the City is able to partner with them to help fuel their success.

Progress is made through the internal collaboration of City departments at a weekly Directors meeting to discuss codes, regulations, policies, and procedures that need to be changed (or to review those that already have been) to bring about improved living conditions.

Progress is made through ensuring you have Spanish and Hmong translators at your first Downtown Neighborhoods Community Advisory Committee meeting to help ensure participants have a voice that is heard and responded to appropriately. It’s through every staff member of the DCR attending that meeting.

Progress is made through ending your day meeting with a group of young professionals from FLYP (Fresno’s Leading Young Professionals) to help them develop the Downtown Academy program, a 10-month curriculum that will expose, educate, and empower the next generation of business leaders and citizens toward civic engagement.

All of these “moments of Progress” are the watering of those seeds of Change which have been planted. They are the moments that when added up (over time and with much effort) result in Change.

I think Craig summed up Progress best when he said “It’s about behaviors, Matt.”

I agree.

So what was my final impression from my “A day in the life of…”?

It’s this: That Progress and Change are not made or realized through the efforts of one department. They aren’t even accomplished through the sole efforts of a city government. They aren’t about meetings and minutes in and of themselves.

Progress and Change come about through relationships, collaboration, perseverance, and a willingness to partner with others.

True Change requires reaching across department lines within the City, and about reaching across a “line” in our city created long ago in the name of “Urban Renewal” that hasn’t been adequately or properly addressed in decades.

On second thought, it’s less about reaching across the line and more about wiping the line out completely.

In my 13 hours I didn’t see how a city government and its civil servants work. What I saw was how citizens (be they public or private) work together to better a City.

03-02-10 I'm blaming the Winter Olympics for getting so far behind the past few weeks

7:00 I started the day with a breakfast at George's in the Galleria with Stan, the President of Civic Center Square. We discussed some of their current needs regarding the Raisin Administrative Committee and talked about some of their future plans for their project.



8:15 I had my one on one meeting with Wilma Quan, the Urban Planning Specialist for our department and the project manager for the downtown plans.


9:00 I had my bi-weekly meeting with the Mayor, Georgeanne White and Bruce Rudd. We went through a list of our projects, the schedule for the downtown plans. We have a monthly breakdown of each of our focus areas that make it pretty easy to follow along with us. I wish that I knew how to upload stuff to this blog so that I could share some of this stuff. Anyone out there know how?


10:00 Amy Huerta and I had a conference call with Stacy Mitchell from www.newrules.org/banking about city initiatives to place more city deposits in community banks. Amy works with the Community Banks Affinity Group.


10:45 I had a wonderful one on one meeting with our newest staff member Sandra Berney, who came to us from the Police Department through the mid-year budget reduction and the layoffs. Sandra is helping with the processing of vouchers for the Enterprise Zone. She also coordinates our AARP volunteers who help with our front desk and just about everything else!


12:00 I met my old friend, artist and downtown property owner Frank Arnold at Irene's in the Tower District http://web.mac.com/frankarnoldart/FrankArnoldArt/FrankArnoldArt.html I gave him an overview of the downtown plans and how they relate to the building on Mono and Van Ness. I broke a rule of mine, he beat me to pay for my burger. It is below the threshold of reporting gifts, but I thought that you should know. I tried, but he was quicker.


2:00 I had a phone meeting with Alejandro Lara who is on the Union Bank Housing Committee with me.


3:00 We had our Downtown and Community Revitalization staff meeting. We did an exercise where everyone in the department had to describe another part or project, something that they don't work on. So, for example, Wilma had to explain the Local Business Initiatives and Amy had to explain the Specific Plan. After that, we went through the long list of things that people are working toward and shared any information, like the impending update to Windows 7 and the due date for Form 700 that everyone needs to know about.


5:00 George and I went over our budget proposal.

After that I sent out a bunch of emails to folks who work downtown. I'll be guest bus boy at Kebab Express tomorrow (in the Virginia Hotel at Kern and L Streets). The asked for me to be guest chef, but that's been done to death, plus you don't want to a yalanchi that I have rolled. Kebab Express is one year old. The first year is a tough year for a business. Please go by and give them your congratulations and some business.

03-01-10 March 1st already

I know that I'm not the only one thinking...wow, March 1st already.



I was up at 4:30 but still didn't get out of the house until 5:00. Some mornings I just stumble around more than others. We had a nice run, although there seemed to be more activity than usual...we like peace and quiet.


I stopped by Cornerstone's coffee shop, I didn't know that Iron Bird Cafe was open, they didn't look open yet.


I went to The Grand (a.k.a. PG&E) Building at 7:30. I talked to Cliff Tutelian about his afternoon meeting with the Mayor, to help prioritize the issues that he sees in downtown, in his neighborhood in downtown.


9:00 I had a medical appointment.


10:30 I was back in time to catch part of our Monday morning Specific Plan update. We reviewed last week's visit by the consultant team and to review necessary steps for next Tuesday evening's first meeting of the citizen advisory committee. http://www.fresnodowntownplans.com/ is the place to learn more. Please attend, this is a watershed time for southern Fresno. You will not want to miss this opportunity to change the course of our city.


11:00 We had our management team meeting and discussed topics like motivation during stressful times, like budget uncertainty. My perspective is that the only thing that we have some control over is the quality and quantity of our work. And even then, there are many forces that influence the results. So we should stay focused on our work, do the best that we can, and hope that the results will put is into a position to hopefully succeed.

12:00Elliott, William Broomfield and I had a conference call with a promoter about a potential show for downtown.


1:00 I sent out a mindhub announcement about my guest bus boy stint at Kebab Express this Wednesday from 11:30-12:30. Come on down to L Street and Kern Street. Let me bus your table! Kebab Express is one year old, come on by and congratulate them.


2:00 Cliff and I met with the Mayor for about 30 minutes.


3:00 I set up a meeting for Reza Assemi to review his plans for a new project downtown. This is the same format that we followed with his Broadway Row project which is now under construction. We got everyone together very early on and this hopefully makes the project go more smoothly.


5:00 We had a mixer for Joe Gray, the new Controller/Treasurer of the City. We met at the Downtown Club. This was a chance for some City types and the business community to mingle and welcome Joe to town.


6:00 I headed over to a city council candidate's forum at Lowell Elementary. Tate Hill, Oliver Baines and Doug Vagim attended.


7:30 I headed by the Iron Bird Lofts Cafe to check out the new place and to congratulate everyone on their new venture. I can't wait to hang out there, they did a great job and the design looks fantastic.  Please check them out soon and give them some encouragement!

02-26-10 Friday

The day started out with a great talk with the folks from Building Healthy Neighborhoods. BHN is a group of organizations who have common goals about health, planning, policy, pollution/environment...those sorts of issues. Groups like County Health, Kaiser Permanente, Master Gardeners, Air Pollution Control, Metro Ministries.



The talk was about the Downtown Neighborhoods Community Plan and how good planning will change the quality of life for residents in southern Fresno and how walkability is a part of the plan. Other items like community gardens, trails and other features can also be included. For more about the plans: http://www.fresnodowntownplans.com/


After the talk Dawn, Elaine and I grabbed a quick bite at the Corner at L and Ventura.


11:00-12:30 The Specific Plan team met with our Budget Director Renena Smith and Karen Bradley and Phillip Hardcastle from finance. The financial benefits of good planning are incredible, while the costs of bad planning are obvious.


1:00 We had a meeting with representatives from the various departments along with the Specific Plan consulting team. This is officially referred to as the Departmental Working Group. The City's Traffic
Engineer gets paired up with the consulting traffic engineer, and so on. People from police, fire, sewer, water...everyone was there. Stefanos Polyzoides said that it was the best turnout from a city they've ever seen!


2:00 Next, the Planning Team met with John Dugan from Planning and Marlene Murphey from the Redevelopment Agency. This was a very involved conversation about ongoing planning efforts with bike lanes, the need for a general plan update, activities and corridors studies...there is a great deal to be coordinated.


3:30 We meet with the economic piece of the downtown plans to discuss an economic summit which will precede the charrette for the downtown neighborhood community plan. This will be an important piece and will hopefully be a starting point at attracting foundation support. Here is a link to the economists' website http://www.strategiceconomics.com/projects.html


5:30 I headed up north to the Joy Luck Club to attend a fundraiser for Superintendent of Fresno County Schools Larry Powell.