Tag: roeding park

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A look at the construction of the Chaffee Zoo expansion (picture tour)

On By jamesinclair

It’s been just over a year since I posted a picture tour of the construction ongoing at Roeding Park. The construction is removing a significant amount of public park space to create an expanded zoo, with more parking.

Let’s take a look at how that’s going.

What I considered the main entrance, on Belmont, is closed off to vehicles. In red, is the fenced off area, where construction is onoging. The yellow line is the walking tour I took, along the fence. You can still park on Belmont and walk in via small entrances. The Ps are future parking, in what is parkland today.  Note the massive dirt lot across the street on the bottom, with the blue x. That could have made a perfect parking lot, while saving park space. But no. 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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How is Storyland in such bad shape?

On By jamesinclair

If you’re a resident of Fresno county, you’ve surely heard of Storyland and Playland inside Roeding Park. Intended for (small) children, they have been a part of the valley for 50 years. Besides hearing about them, you’ve probably gone to visit them as well. Storyland is a walk-through park, with fairytale stories set up. Playland is a miniature carnival. If everyone knows it, why has it been allowed to get into such bad shape?

I visited them this past weekend for the first time, using tickets given for free as part of a Grizzlies baseball package.

It’s not exactly what I expected. Click to read more!

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Zoo expansion will bring giant parking lot into historic park

On By jamesinclair

This problem deserves a longer post, but I dont have time, so here’s a summary.

-Roeding Park, one of two major parks in Fresno, the oldest and most historic.
-Fresno Chaffee Zoo, located inside the park.

The plan: Expand the zoo by closing off existing portions of the park and making them zoo-land.

The problem: The Roeding Family (they donated the land for the park) is concerned about taking public park land and giving it to the semi-private zoo, and how this will hurt recreation opportunities for the poor (it’s in a poor neighborhood).

My concern: Ignoring THAT issue, the plan has one giant flaw: AN ENORMOUS PARKING LOT! The city wants to bulldoze 100 year old trees to build a giant parking lot. What a great way to celebrate open space in a park! Click to read more!