Fresno Bee Archives - Stop and Move

Categories : UncategorizedTags : city view at van ness cityview at van ness downtown fresno droge droge building Fresno Bee grand openingLeave a comment

CityView at Van Ness (Droge) now open

On January 28, 2015February 19, 2018 By jamesinclair

Remember the photo tour from last Thursday? Well as of today, the building is open for people to move in.

The Fresno Bee posted some additional images, including some of the interior. The public spaces are looking great.

That Fresno Blog has an image of the retail space that is available. She also has news that the manager of Joe’s Steakhouse, across the street, is one of the new residential tenants. Apparently, they will extend their hours due to an expected increase in business.

Kiel Schmidt has linked to an album showing the process for the art that lines the outside of the building, which is looking great! Click to read more!

Categories : UncategorizedTags : crosswalk fresno Fresno Bee fresno pd fresno state officer cooley pedestrian pedestrian killed shaw unmarked crosswalk23 Comments

3rd pedestrian killed in two weeks, Bee jumps to blame victim

On November 21, 2013February 19, 2018 By jamesinclair

In all of 2009, four pedestrians were killed in Fresno.

Over the past 3 weeks, three were killed by motorists, and one by a train. This is actually the second time this very year in which three pedestrians were killed in such a short span of time. I don’t know the total, but I would wager it’s trending higher than the 14 last year.

The latest incident happened at an intersection adjacent to Fresno State. The person killed was a high-school special ed teacher, who apparently was also studying at Fresno State. It happened on Shaw, between the college campus and the student neighborhood, filled with apartments, frats, and some restaurants. You know, the kind of place one finds heavy pedestrian traffic. Click to read more!

Categories : UncategorizedTags : broadway crosswalk downtown fresno fed-ex fresno Fresno Bee fresno pd pedestrian pedestrian killed selma venturaLeave a comment

Add “short driver” to the list of excusable reasons when a pedestrian is killed

On November 6, 2013February 19, 2018 By jamesinclair

Once upon a time, “I didn’t see him” was not an excuse. The rule was, if you hit something or someone, you were “driving too fast for the conditions,” or “not exercising due caution.” Most cops, it seems, have forgotten the rule, and take “I didn’t see him!” as a perfectly valid excuse. Fresno PD seems to have recently expanded that leniency in the death of a pedestrian this week in Fresno:

Officers also determined it would have been impossible for the driver
to see the pedestrian because of the driver’s short stature and seating
position. The driver faces no charges.
Fresno Bee
Click to read more!

Categories : UncategorizedTags : downtown fresno Fresno Bee fulton mall patterson building renovation restoration1 Comment

Renovating a historic downtown building

On April 25, 2013February 19, 2018 By jamesinclair

The Bee ran an article the other day about some great renovation work going on in a 90 year old building on the Fulton Mall. With a 72% office lease rate, which is actually good for Fresno, this story proves that businesses aren’t scared to locate downtown – as long as the building isn’t falling apart.I believe the ground floor retail is fully occupied.

Over the last two decades, a Fresno financial adviser and his
family have poured nearly $3 million into repairing and renovating the
historic T.W. Patterson Building on the Fulton Mall hoping to attract
more businesses to the city’s central core. Click to read more!

Categories : UncategorizedTags : downtown Fresno Bee fulton mall office tower vacancies vacancy woodward parkLeave a comment

Downtown vacancy rate not so bad

On March 27, 2013February 19, 2018 By jamesinclair

Last week the Bee ran an interesting graphic showing office vacancies around the city. One would expect that with all the doom-and-gloom surrounding downtown, that the vacancies there would be much higher than elsewhere.

Surprisingly, that is not the case.

For the entire city:

The vacancy rate at the end of the year was 13.01% compared
to 13.03% at the end of 2011, the report said. That means about 2.7
million square feet of office space out of the 25 million square feet of
office space in the market, which includes government-owned offices, is
empty.

Downtown, the vacancy was 11.66% – or below the city average. East Shaw had the absolute worse vacancy rate, at 20.48%, with West Shaw not far behind.

It’s relevant to note that while the city wants to destroy the Fulton Mall to “bring back business”, the very auto-focused Shaw has the highest vacancies in the area, well above the pedestrian oriented downtown. It’s no surprise that Clovis got a grant to attempt to revitalize their portion of Shaw, and that the feedback given was to make the area friendlier to non-automobile users. Click to read more!

Categories : UncategorizedTags : Fresno Bee hit and run killed pedestrian killed pedestrians skateboarderLeave a comment

Three pedestrians killed in one Fresno day

On January 20, 2013February 19, 2018 By jamesinclair

Saturday was quite the bloodbath for pedestrians out in Fresno area streets this Saturday.

17 year old skateboarder killed in mountain community. Bee report says he “ignored” the stop sign, but stop signs do not legally apply to skateboarders, which California law considers as pedestrians (as it does for roller skates and wheelchairs). Either the Bee made a mistake, or more likely, the CHP person they spoke to failed to understand California law. As such, the motorist is considered 100% innocent, and a kid is dead, a kid who may have been in the crosswalk (impossible to tell from report). Click to read more!

Categories : UncategorizedTags : assault cycling fresno Fresno Bee friant sheriff1 Comment

SUV passenger shoots cyclist in back

On November 8, 2012February 19, 2018 By jamesinclair

Shocking story in today’s Fresno Bee. A man cycling in the outskirts of Fresno was shot in the back by a passenger in a vehicle, using a rifle.

Mike Montanez, a 22-year Sheriff’s Office veteran, was cycling when he heard a sound and felt something strike his back, a sheriff’s spokesman said. The deputy was knocked from his bike.

When he looked up, the deputy saw a passenger in the rear of an SUV pull a rifle back inside the vehicle.

The deputy said there were three people in the vehicle, which was driving north on Friant Road.

The vehicle was described as a dark blue Chevrolet or GMC Suburban-type SUV. It appeared to be a model from about 1990. Click to read more!

Categories : UncategorizedTags : 180 expansion Fresno Bee high speed rail HSR widening2 Comments

Why is Fresno Bee being so critical of HSR?

On May 30, 2012February 19, 2018 By jamesinclair

And why hold the project to a higher standard than anything else?

The Fresno Bee has taken to writing a front-page article about the California High Speed Rail (HSR) project every Sunday. On their part, it’s an excellent idea. HSR is a huge project, not just for Fresno, but for the entire state and the country. Because Fresno is ground zero for the project, as construction is slated to start here first, it makes sense for the Bee to stake their claim and try and become the authoritative source on all news related to it. Not only will that preserve their subscription base, but it grows web readership as their articles are linked into from around the country. Click to read more!

Categories : UncategorizedTags : FAX fresno area express Fresno Bee route signage tiger5 Comments

The new FAX bus signs

On May 14, 2012February 19, 2018 By jamesinclair

A few weeks ago I wrote about FAX taking out an ad in the Fresno Bee to promote new signs coming to bus stops. I thought it was absurd. The sign itself wasn’t very good, and the concept of a bus agency taking out an ad in the paper to tell people about a new sign was baffling.

There is some good news. Kiel Famellos-Schmidt of archop posted a picture of a new sign today and I was happy to see that large route numbers were included, even though the ads didn’t mention them.

Where do those routes go? What is the service frequency? What are the service hours? Who knows, but at least the sign does do the bare minimum and inform people of the routes that stop there. Click to read more!

Categories : UncategorizedTags : FAX Fresno area express FAX fail Fresno Bee route signage2 Comments

FAX: Wasting money on ads about bad signs

On April 24, 2012February 19, 2018 By jamesinclair

Once again, a Fresno Area Express (FAX) ad in the Fresno Bee newspaper caught my eye. The ad was absurd, almost comical really. It was an ad about the transit agency putting up new signs at bus stops.

I found many things about the ad to be absurd. Simply the idea of spending money to tell Bee readers that bus stops will have new signs is odd. I’m all for giving the Bee advertising revenue, but this doesn’t exactly seem like a good use of transit money. Also, if you’re going to be spending money on something like this, I’d hope that the signs would be amazing. On the contrary, the new signs appear to be quite poor, and the three bullet points explaining the virtues of the new signs are pretty bad. Super bad. Finally, the last time FAX ran an ad in the Bee, it was for service changes that never happened. Click to read more!