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.