04-20-10 Downtown Plans meeting

I haven't blogged in almost 3 weeks.  I'm sorry that this time period was not recoreded because so much has happened.  My goal was to journal publicly so that people could keep up with the happenings, but also so that I could look back and keep track of the ups and downs of the revitalization and local business efforts.

But it got to be too much.  Each blog was taking 45-60 minutes a night and I got burned out.  So I'll try a new format and get to the main items each day, not the repetitive " we had our weekly staff meeting' stuff.

Today had three main events.

First, at 8:00 I had a one one one meeting with our new City Manager Mark Scott.  We discussed the organization of the revitalization effort within the City and how it could be improved.

Second, Mark Scoot, ELLiott Balch and I drove over to the Iron Bird Lofts for thier official grand opening and ribbon cutting.  It was pouring rain as we headed over.  The event was movind into one of the vacant commerical spaces on Fulton.  I was one of the speakers for the event, along with others like Darius Assemi, the Myor, Henry T. Perea and Larry Westerlund.  My message was that revitalization is an action sport.  It is up to the community to help to make sure project like Iron Bird are successful.  If you haven't been through them yet, please sign up for a tour so that you can tell any friends who are looking for a cool place to live about them as an option.

Third, we had a day long series of public meetings about the Downtown Neighborhoods Community Plan ( http://www.fresnodowntownplans.com/ )

The meetings were a first bluch report from the consultant team about their initial findings.  They were seeking feedback from the stakeholder committees and the public.  The reports, especially their maps, were excellent.  Check out the website for more info.

This blog only took 15 minutes.  I think that this is the way to go for the next phase!

04-01-10 No time for April Fools' Today

7:00 I was the speaker for the Sunrise Rotary Club, which meets at the Ramada Inn.

9:00 I met with a Project Representative for a public entitiy that wants to buy Cityowned land for a new building downtown.  We met with our Traffic Engineer Bryan Jones to discuss traffic issues and solutions.

10:00 Turned in my Form 700 which lists any potential conflict of interest issues.  The form goes to the State Fair Political Practices Commission.  It wasn't even due 'til 5:00!

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.