Month: January 2014

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Is the Fresno city council about to give the finger to fed funding?

On By jamesinclair

BRT is in the news again in Fresno. It’s sad for a variety of reasons, including the fact that they’re arguing about funding when the system was originally supposed to open this year. Fun fact: the RFP for the BRT buses went out in 2011. A winning bid was selected but obviously the buses have not been ordered.

Today, the city council will vote yet again on approving funding. Not city funding, but federal funding, free money that has fallen from the sky and is intended to help the city fix a portion of its terrible transit system.

The money didn’t come by chance. Two different mayoral administrations have supported seeking the grants (one democrat, one republican). A variety of city staffers have worked hard to submit applications for grant after grant, and have gotten the money secured – a giant coup as transit funding is limited and every city in the country is hungry for it. For example, the city grabbed onto $17 million in 2011, and a final $10 million earlier this year. Click to read more!

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Construction well underway at GV Urban’s Crichton Place townhouses

On By jamesinclair

I swung around downtown a couple of weeks ago to take pictures of a variety of different projects. Today I’ll be posting an update of the Crichton Place townhouses which are being built at L St and San Joaquin.

These technically broke ground 2 years ago, but were held up in a lawsuit. Granville knocked over a couple of 100 year old homes, and the lawsuit claims they didn’t go through the proper process to do so. Now that the lawsuit wrapped up, construction is underway.

The project is two blocks from Fulton, where most of the other GV projects sit. The buildings are pretty much a carbon copy of the units put up at Van Ness near the 180. Click to read more!

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Enterprise Trail Construction Under Way

On By jamesinclair

It was only a month ago that I posted about Clovis getting a new trail extension. The Enterprise trail currently runs adjacent to a canal from Nees (near Temperance) to near Fowler and Shepherd.

The new extension starts at Temperance and runs along the canal towards the 168 freeway.

Oddly enough, the new construction does not connect to the existing trail. existing is green, new is in orange.

Let’s have a look at what’s been done:

While a gravel road runs along the canal, as is always the case, the trail runs besides that. I think it’s a shame because you don’t get to run/bike along the water. Click to read more!

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Deadline for comments on Fulton Mall Draft EIR is TODAY (Monday January 13, 2014)

On By jamesinclair

The Draft Environmental Impact Report for the Fulton Mall deconstruction project was put out near Thanksgiving. 

Tomorrow is the deadline to submit your written comments.

The report can be found on this page:

http://www.fresno.gov/Government/DepartmentDirectory/DARM/DowntownCommunityRevitalization/DowntownRevitalization/fultonmall.htm

Comments
should be submitted to Elliott Balch, Downtown Revitalization Mgr, 2600
Fresno St., 2nd Floor, Fresno, CA 93721 , 621-8366. 

They can be sent
by email to elliott.balch@fresno.gov

Here’s some tips on how to submit good commentary:

– Be specific
– Separate your concerns into different paragraphs (don’t mix)
– Simply list items of concern, no need to go into background prose, although if you are an expert in a certain field, use that as a way to back up your points
– That being said, you do NOT need to be an expert in any field, but try to provide as much concrete evidence as possible


The meat of your comment should be around the following:


Click to read more!

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Roeding Park Destruction / Zoo Expansion Begins

On By jamesinclair

A few weeks ago, I was in Roeding Park and noticed some serious work underway. This week, the Bee confirmed that it’s related to the zoo expansion, although the Friends of the Park filed one final lawsuit to halt the project today.

Here’s some of the background on why the expansion is bad for the park. 

I also wrote about how the new entrance on Golden State would be bad for the neighborhood. Ironically, the lawsuit filed was because the county had to cancel those plans due to the High Speed Rail project. The entrances to the park will remain where they are today. 

The work is taking place at the south end of the park, with a side road seeing heavy deconstruction. Pardon some of the blurriness, it was darker than the pictures let on. Click to read more!

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Drought and poor air: Short-term thinking will haunt 2014

On By jamesinclair

This country has a serious problem with planning for the future, and the lack of forward thinking is no clearer than in Fresno.

If you’ve read the Bee over the past few months, you’ve been hit over and over again in the head with two major themes:

-California is in the middle of a serious drought
-Air quality is worse now than it’s been in years

The two are linked of course, and are the result of long-term weather patterns; the same system that is keeping the rain away is stagnating the air. The problem is that many local planning decisions can help alleviate these concerns, but instead, local government turns a blind eye and makes it worse. Click to read more!