bill McEwen Archives - Stop and Move

New businesses and bad air

On August 20, 2012February 19, 2018 By jamesinclair

Sunday’s Bee had a couple of interesting articles which on paper had no relationship to each other, but in reality do have a strong connection.

The first was a column: McEwen: Diesel truckers should pay for bad air

The second was an article about new businesses on West Shaw: National businesses flock to Fresno’s West Shaw Avenue

In the opinion column, McEwen brings up the continuing problem of the valley’s bad air, and how it will be especially pronounced this week with “air alerts” being called.

The column hits on a few ideas I called upon a year ago such as tolling trucks and closing drive-thrus. Click to read more!

Categories : UncategorizedTags : 2035 plan bill McEwen city council developers Fresno Bee planning council sprawlLeave a comment

Important planning decision at city council meeting tonight

On April 5, 2012February 19, 2018 By jamesinclair

This merits a long and lengthy post, but I’ve no time at all, so I shall let some other sources speak to what is going on.

The Fresno City Council is to vote on the 2035 general plan as recommended by the planning commission. A long list of developers who depend on sprawl development to make all their money are lining up on one side, so it’s important to either attend the meeting or email the council-members asking them to oppose the developers and approve what the planning commission came up with (after months of community input).

The planning option is far…(far!) from perfect, but if the developers oppose it, you know they’ve done something right. Click to read more!

Categories : UncategorizedTags : bill McEwen fail fresno Fresno Bee pedestrians planning council rail trail sugar pine trail yosemite ranch1 Comment

Rail-trail land grab

On March 5, 2012February 19, 2018 By jamesinclair

In his Sunday column in the Fresno Bee, Bill McEwen informs us of a plan by a restaurant owner to grab some of the right-of-way used by the Fresno-Clovis rail trail and convert it to private restaurant space.

While the land-grab wouldn’t decrease the size of the currently paved path, it would take a large portion of the publicly held land, and so block any future improvements, including something in the far-future, like a rail-transit line. It would also remove mature vegetation which makes the path comfortable to use.

Most importantly, it would take public land, held by the city and useable by all, and privatize it. Walls would be built and only paying customers would have access during business hours. If the business were to fail, then nobody would have access to the walled off section. Click to read more!