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.