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.