Fact or fiction? 5 common beliefs that people keep repeating about downtown Fresno

Depending on who you ask, downtown Fresno is either on the verge of major renaissance or being massively over-hyped (again).

Yes, Mayor Jerry Dyer is pushing hard to bring 7,000 new residents into downtown over the next half decade, and he has secured $300 million in state grants to make it happen. And the number and scope of attractions and events (the monthly Art Hop party, for example) proves there is more interest than ever in having a vibrant urban core.

But when it comes to downtown, it can feel like the city has been through this before.

Here are five common thoughts about downtown and some context on why they might need updating.

Myth 1: Too much crime downtown

Fresno Police Chief Paco Balderrama knows better than most that perception can be reality when it comes to crime. And comparing statistics across different parts of city can be a challenge because the issues faced in one part of town (speed racing on Friant Avenue in north Fresno) aren’t the same as in another (policing 12,000+ people for a concert at Chukchansi Park downtown).

But let’s try.

Crime across all categories is down 8% year over year in Fresno, Balderrama told The Bee in an exclusive interview last week.

Homicides in particular have seen a significant drop, at almost 50%. Business burglaries are down 46%.

Of the crime that has happened, 3.36% occurred in downtown, Balderrama said.

“Downtown,” he said, “is a very safe part of the city.”

According to police statistics, there have been two shootings in downtown this year; the same as last year. But that’s two out of 318 in the city, the chief said.

There was a 33% increase in the number of sexual offenses, but at a difference of three cases.

The number of robberies remained flat.

Auto thefts have gone up significantly, both in downtown and across the city, but that’s mostly because of a viral TikTok trend targeting specific models that are easy to steal.

That’s right, “the Kia challenge finally made it here,” Balderrama said, though Fresno hasn’t been hit as hard as other cities.

At the same time, vehicle burglary — that is, having stuff stolen from out of your car — is actually less likely in downtown than the rest of the city. The number of vehicle burglaries is up by 12% overall, but it’s down by 22% in downtown, according to department statistics.

Balderrama is aware that the mayor is placing an emphasis on downtown and that the area will become increasingly important to the growth of the city over the next few years.

“It’s up to the police department to keep pace with that.”

So, the department is being proactive. It created a new beat within the Southwest Policing District known as Fulton One. That keeps one unit assigned to downtown every day from 4 p.m. through the overnights shift.

The department also doubled the number of officers assigned to its Metro Bike Team, which patrols downtown during the day. Those officers will come online in 2024, Balderrama said.

Downtown will also get a portion of 58 state-of-the art cameras that are being added to an updated Real Time Crime Center.

Myth 2: Downtown a homeless hub

Historically, the nonprofits that provide food, shelter and other services for unhoused populations, places such as the Poverello House, Fresno Rescue Mission and Naomi’s House, have all been located downtown.

Five of Fresno County’s shelters are located in council District 3, which includes downtown.

That proximity can’t be ignored.

But it can, and is, changing.

Though the number of unhoused people has increased to a 10-year high, according to the Fresno Madera Continuum of Care’s most recent Point-in-Time census, the city of Fresno has doubled its shelter capacity over the past three years, thanks to hundreds of millions of dollars in state and federal funding.

And that is not just in downtown. In fact, as a mayoral candidate, Dyer got pushback for a proposal to create a temporary shelter on open land near the Fresno Rescue Mission. Detractors argued it continued the concentration of unhoused populations.

By contrast, the city announced in March that it would be expanding its current homeless efforts into other parts of the city — including council districts 4 and 6.

“I’m sure we will get some resistance from some people,” District 3 councilmember Miguel Arias said at the time.

“But this is the right thing to do. It’s a citywide crisis and requires a citywide solution.”

Myth 3: Parking problems

Of the issues that come up when discussing downtown revitalization, parking may be the most debated, at least in social media circles.

Fresnans are used to large, blacktopped lots with plentiful free parking, and don’t like when that gets interrupted (by crowded drive-thrus let’s say).

So, downtown has a hurdle to overcome with its metered parking stalls and paid parking garages. Historically, the city hasn’t helped.

While there has never been a shortage of parking downtown, the restrictions, exceptions and payment options on parking meters were at best confusing and/or inconvenient. You could park for free after 6 p.m. and on weekends, unless there was an event at Chukchansi Park or the Convention Center or Saroyan Theatre or Selland Arena. Then, the two-hour meters become four-hour meters with enforcement until 10 p.m.

And as recently as 2018, the majority of the meters were still coin operated. The only alternative was a trip to city hall to buy a prepaid SmartCard or a $150 monthly meter occupancy permit.

That part, at least, has changed.

According to the city, all of its downtown parking (2,100 metered spots, along with five garages) is set up for credit/debit card use. There is also the Parkmobile app, which allows drivers to find a spot and pay through their phones.

And more parking is coming.

At least $82 million of infrastructure money is being set aside to build new parking structures, according to the city, including one near the closed CVS Pharmacy building at Fulton and Tuolumne streets.

At the same time, public transportation could play a roll in helping alleviate parking issues, or at least any anxiety that comes with finding and paying for a spot. Earlier this month, the city unveiled the FresnoHop Trolley, with service into and out of downtown, the Tower District and Campus Point.

Myth 4: We need a major retailer, like Ikea

Let’s call this the magic bullet theory.

The idea is that if downtown could attract a major national retail, restaurant or entertainment chain, then that business could single highhandedly transform the entire area.

Think Bass Pro Shop, which in the early 2000s Alan Autry courted during his tenure as mayor. The sports retailer would have been the anchor tenant of the massive Forrest City project, a mix of housing and retail south of Chukchansi Park.

Bass Pro opted to open in Manteca and the project never materialized.

Reality check: companies, especially the largest one, don’t take risks. They have very specific requirements for incomes and population densities in the places they open. Ikea, for a popular example, needs a customer base of 2 million people to open a store, a representative told The Bee in 2018.

Even then, those businesses are typically looking for high-profile, high-trafficked areas of town. Think River Park or Campus Pointe.

Fresno’s downtown isn’t large or dense enough to support even a retailer like Target, especially given the accessibility of freeways and the proximity to existing locations.

All this said, there is still work being done to attract national businesses into downtown.

In an interview with The Bee last month, Dyer confirmed that the comedy club chain the Laugh Factory will be opening a location in Fresno. Though the company said it is looking at several spots around town, the mayor said the club will be downtown, in a recognizable spot and it will open “sooner than you know.”

This all brings up a final point.

Myth 5: Revitalization hasn’t worked, yet

To be clear, all of Fresno’s mayors the past 25 years dating back to Autry, at least, have tried to make inroads on downtown revitalization.

And for every big success — the building of Chukchansi Park, the proliferation of downtown housing, the reopening of Fulton Street — there have been ideas that got left by the wayside.

In the late 1990s, a pitch to create a downtown lake went nowhere. Autry got slightly more traction with a slightly tweaked version in the 2000s. He wanted to create a “riverwalk” along a six-block area along Van Ness Avenue, H, Ventura and Inyo streets near Chukchansi Park.

Preliminary designs were drawn up and everything.

Autry also pitched the idea of reinstalling a trolley line with overhead power lines along Fulton Street from Olive Avenue to Kern Street near Chukchansi Park. The two-mile stretch would have cost $60 million. It was eventually nixed.

As recently as 2021, there were plans to create a soccer complex, including a 5,000 seat pop-up stadium, outside Selland Arena and Valdez Hall.

Still, work has been happening to bring downtown to where it is now. When the city adopted new development code in 2015-2016 it repealed decades of regulations that had made it almost illegal to build housing in downtown, according to Dan Zack, who served as the city’s assistant director of planning from 2014-2022.

Ten years ago, the process was “clunky, slow and unpredictable,” Zack said.

Now, it’s not. And while the mayor is looking to add 3,500 downtown housing units, the potential capacity is 25 times that, Zack said.

Said Reza Assemi, who developed and opened the Pearl Building on Fulton Street near Sacramento Street in 2001: “It’s like night and day,”

At just four units, it was the original loft-style living project in downtown.

At first, it was just Assemi and three friends living there, hosting DJs and throwing arts shows. Even then, Assemi could see the potential.

“It would always be packed,” he said.

That demand has exponentially grown, and now, there is a generation that has seen and expects vibrant activity in downtown Fresno.

“Imagine,” Assemi said, “a whole other generation in 10 years.”