First, have we reached the cap for Downtown Pioneers? The thing is, theoretically there is no cap because people will relocate here as long as it meets their specific needs. Millions of people live in urban New York and other cities that are almost entirely high density housing and commerce. That’s not to say that a portion of the population would be resistant to leaving the suburbs and moving their family and children downtown. But even those people would do it if the price, commute, convenience, safety, school, and recreation factors justified it.

I understand the premise of the question, which was how many “hip”, artistic, early adopters with income to pay the rent can Fresno supply to fill the early projects? If I had to answer that question, I would say about 10,000 but that is just a guess. Fortunately, we are not dealing with that exact question because we have seen that as the neighborhood has changed, the type of people willing to live here has changed. The Iron Bird Cafe has provided a nice place to socialize and grab a bite to eat. Fulton 55 has brought top entertainment to the area. Revive Cafe has whole foods for health conscious people.

With Fulton Village opening soon, there will be a place professionals can live and work, which may bring more lawyers like myself to the area. (many would say that is a bad thing, lol but it might also bring doctors and dentist or architects)

As far as the hang ups, I think it is just a matter of time. Downtown was neglected for years. It took a while to get that bad, it is going to take a while to get better.

The mainstream question is interesting because I don’t know if the current inhabitants entirely want this neighborhood to become mainstream. I guess I would be alright with sharing the sidewalk with stroller pushing soccer moms, but I like the current vibe. I think we just want more to like. More entertainment venues, more shopping choices, more food choices.

Those questions are:

Have we reached the cap of Downtown Pioneers willing to make sacrifices to build an urban lifestyle in Fresno?

What are the hang-ups? Are there any low hanging fruit not being picked?

When will downtown become mainstream? What is that tipping point?
So readers, what is needed for you to take the plunge and move downtown? If you’re an existing resident, what will it take to keep you down there?

Lori

I think your a little misguided in saying that “the city has…impeded downtown development.” The city has done the exact opposite actually by waiving fees and rebuilding infrasture. Also Granville has gotten over a million dollars of public money for their downtown work. That’s ok though, the city should probably do these things for downtown’s sake. Though, when you count all the money the City has spent building infrastructure to Granville tract homes and the secondary,longer term effects of this(traffic congestion,road maintenance, air quality, culture),and the effects of the rezones they got by shady dealings, these specific developers don’t deserve one more dollar of public money.

It’s also a little upsetting that they have a guy who went to jail for bribing public officials as their VP. It just reflects a disregard for justice or any kind of guilt for wrongdoing.Though I guess they had to because he went to jail for one of the GV owners.

I see no reason why influence is a necessity to build apartment complexes downtown when that’s what the city has been rooting for for years.

Thanks for the response Lori, if my thoughts are unclear please let me know.

Though AAF’s comment may be a rant, his sentiment is valid and most of the things he said have merit. Especially the bit about Jeff Roberts and the influence developers have in the council. These things are true. The history of the city proves them to be.

To me AAF’s comment reflects the sort of disgust that the general public should have towards big developers who, for most of their careers, have done things without regard for the civic good, and who now try and act like they’re positive forces in the community, without doing business, on the whole, much differently.(e.g. Westlake mentioned in AAF’s comment)

I don’t think the Granville people are especially bad, they just lack thoughtfulness in their public actions. What allows them to develop the way they do, and this goes for all large developers in this city, is a public whose attitude has been much closer to that of Lori Pollard than AAF. The public has failed to uphold it’s civic duty-to be informed and involved- just as much as developers have forgotten their’s- to think of the city’s future when they build. That’s what is so great about this site, it’s a step towards a better informed and involved public, which is exactly what we need.

* It’s a fact that a lot of the failure in fresno’s development has been because of larger forces in the state. So maybe it’s 60% our fault and 40% unavoidable.

Same for Downtown. Currently there are no design guidelines. Now as Kiel knows, guidelines themselves are not a solution, and they too have their problems. Hopefully if the Specific Plan moves forward, it will address this issue.

Also – the real solution to improved design downtown is competition. That’s the real way to raise the bar.

Kiel- thanks for the response and I appreciate what you do on this blog. My feeling is that the development community(including local officials responsible for guiding development) have been given a pass for past grievances without doing anything worthy of redemption. I look forward to your criticism of Iron Bird Lofts, negativity has been lacking in the local’s media coverage of local development. Although it seems the Planning department has made moves in the right direction it remains to be seen if they deliver, they continue to approve overbearing Walgreens,CVS, and Rite Aid buildings without asking them to deviate significantly from their standard designs.(which other communities manage to do)