Fresno

[Jaybee]

I heard of some folks interested in the unknown cities out there. I had a few pics of downtown Fresno, and a project rendering, so here they are. Downtown Fresno has a perfectly intact (albeit old) beaux-arts skyline. Dare I say that downtown Fresno is the best example of Central Business District decay of a major (top 50) city in the United States. If I get more pics I'll post them.

Proposed Fresno Sheraton

Rear of Fresno City Hall

New Federal Building

Water Tower

Bottom of Security Pacific Bank Building

Hall of Records

Train Station

Public Art in front of Old Federal Building

[bobliocatt]

I always have been interested in seeing what lesser known California cities like Fresno look like. Thanks for posting and I'm looking forward to seeing more.

[Jaybee]

More images of Downtown Fresno from the web...

New Baseball Stadium:

This bldg's been built:

The Fresno Arch:

[053e'de]

I always have been interested in seeing what lesser known California cities like Fresno look like.  Thanks for posting and I'm looking forward to seeing more.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I am too, anyone got more background info or pics of Bakersfield/Stockton/Modesto?

[Showtime24]

Stockton needs to gets its things straight they need to fix there crime thats why there on the map

[MZT]

I thought Fresno bottomed out in the early 1990s.

People used to say "If they'd just demolish the downtown and plant wheat in it's place, then maybe developers would be willing to build there." The city library was especially sad and neglected.

[davidb]

Looks a lot like Boise, Lansing, or Toledo.

Thanks for the pics

[ZachariahDaMan]

Nice pictures Jaybee, thanks for posting them.

[Florida]

I love that Fresno City Hall.

Thanks for sharing those.

[bobliocatt]

Nice graphic. Up to this point, I always thought Fresno had no skyline at all. Now I see its small, but there is one.

[Jaybee]

A great article in yesterday's LA Times talked about Fresno's "Brain Drain", which is apparently worse than almost anywhere in the Country. All of my friends from High School have left Fresno, so it reminds me of my own situation.

Click here to see the article (registraion may be required).

Fresno's Brain Drain Has Left the Town Smarting

Young people with good educations are leaving the struggling southern San Joaquin Valley in a search for better prospects elsewhere.

[tombarnes]

Any chance the old Hotel Fresno will be renovated?

[tombarnes]

Renovations Crawl Forward at the Hotel Fresno

The historic Hotel Fresno is still a mess, but renovations are proceeding. From Hotel-Online/ The Fresno Bee

[nomad1]

I lived in Fresno for two years. I moved in 1976. I remember going on a field trip to the Fresno Bee. They used to have a radio tower there. Has it been dismantled? I can't locate it with Google Earth. Does any one have any pics of it or an older downtown skyline pic?

[FromCityToRural]

Fresno? FresYES! (actual shirt I saw back when I lived in CA)

[MJLO]

You know, for having a mediocre skyline and having a rough time getting developement downtown, hasn't Fresno had a good deal of population growth? I know it's a city that's been disadvantaged by an undereducated population, but Is the city on the rise?

[Dale]

Fresno's city hall has been likened to Madonna's pointy bra she wore in concerts a few years back.

[fieldmarshaldj]

You know, for having a mediocre skyline and having a rough time getting developement downtown, hasn't Fresno had a good deal of population growth? I know it's a city that's been disadvantaged by an undereducated population, but Is the city on the rise?

Here are the population figures for Fresno since 1970:

1970: 165,655

1980: 217,491

1990: 354,202

2000: 428,873

2005 (estimate): 457,719

As you can see, that's the kind of growth many cities would kill for !

[krazeeboi]

The sitcome Girlfriends has probably singlehandedly given Fresno a bad name among millions of TV watchers.

[richyb83]

Are there some tall buildings in Fresno outside of the downtown/CBD ?

[Chris-LA]

I lived in Fresno for 5 years, and moved back to LA in 1995. Sometimes when I visit (which is 2-3 times a year) I'm almost in shock at the growth as the city expands even further north. For the guy who lived there back in 1976 you probably would get lost . The majority of the focus in on the north side of the city, everything is new. When I lived there anything north of Shields was the areas to live. Then it went anything past Shaw Avenue, and now its even further north at Herndon. Woodward Lakes is suburban and yuppie heaven, its a planned community with homes built on a man made lake. You can even have your own boat docked in your back yard, which happens to be the lake. Its actually a nice community if you like that lifestyle. Its your typical middle to upper class area where it common to see joggers, and dog walkers strolling the landscaped sidewalks outside the community walls.

There are other areas of the city that are doing well on the south end of the city like the Tower District. Its an older part of the city close to downtown that attracts a lot of the college kids, hipsters, and gays. Olive Avenue is the main drag in this neighborhood. Some of the surrounding streets also have restaurants, and night clubs as well. Also the area around Fresno City College (south side) have some of the city's most beautiful homes that aren't your typical mass produced modern home. There are some huge homes in this area, but mostly its just middle class. Old Fig Garden is also an area on the south side where the well to do live. I guess its more like the old money, because there is also Fig Garden (aka New Fig Garden) thats further north where you have a lot of newer custom built Mc Mansions. A cruise down Van Ness from downtown to the north end of the city is quite interesting. It would make you think everyone is rich in this city. It loaded too with huge tress, and is quite green and shady. There is also another street on the south end of the city that is breathtaking. Its Huntington Drive, and its about the only rich community that is out of place. Its so beautiful and I suspect this is where the well to do live long before Fresno expanded north. Surrounding this area is quite shocking because once you live this long single blvd of mansions and well manicure lawns, there is poverty all around it. Its not a total slum, but you know its the ghetto.

Now back to the far north side of the city is Riverpark. Its the big draw in the city today, and this is where they have one of those huge lifestyle centers with everything from a mutiplex movie theater, sports bars, restaurants, Barnes & Noble, and Borders Books. Fashion Fair Mall on Shaw has a lot of renewed interest as of late. They did some redesigning of the mall, and brought in chains such as the Cheesecake Factory, PF Chang, and a few other trendy spots.

Pretty much Fresno is a medium size city, but it also has a sort of college town culture. Yet as someone already mentioned many graduates leave Fresno for the bigger cities. Anyway I hope this adds to those interested in learning a little bit about the less known cities of California. Oh I almost forgot, the city has some of the worst fog I've seen anywhere. I swear you can't even see the road in front of your car, thats how thick it can be. San Francisco can't even compete when it comes who has the worst fog. Winter time can get depressing for some because you can go a month without ever seeing the sun. It just looks dark and dreary, and some days its almost hard to tell if it day or night because of the very thick fog. . Yeah its not what most outsiders would think about winter in a California city. In fact most of the valley is like this during the winter months, some cities have it worst than others, but its all (fog) pretty bad. It typical for the airports to close and even Fed-Ex have a different schedule (early pick up) during the winter because as the after roll around they often close the airport. A few times I was stuck in Fresno trying to get back to LA, and I ended up waiting all day and they may open the airport for a couple of hours and then close it again.

[colin]

To tie into another thread, do you have any info on Fresno transit developments? I found some light rail proponent stuff on Google, but you get that with almost any city. Is there actual interest in light rail or some bus-alternative alternative transit?

I was also amazed at how large Fresno is. I had thought quarter million but the city is almost half a million. I guess it's just so overshadowed by the coastal cities that you never really think of it.

[Chris-LA]

To tie into another thread, do you have any info on Fresno transit developments? I found some light rail proponent stuff on Google, but you get that with almost any city. Is there actual interest in light rail or some bus-alternative alternative transit?

I was also amazed at how large Fresno is. I had thought quarter million but the city is almost half a million. I guess it's just so overshadowed by the coastal cities that you never really think of it.

They have been talking about this since I lived there in the 90's, but I doubt if will happen anytime soon. Fresno still has a kind of small city culture, and many polictial leaders haven't grasp it is now a big city. Traffic is heavy during rush hours, but outside of that time period its not bad. The bus systems isn't great (getter better) but its possible to get almost anywhere without a car. I have used it several times when I visit and come in on Amtrak. Transfers are easy and they seem to have the schedules set up where the buses meet up and are in sinc. They also have a couple of transfer centers that makes it easy as well. The buses just don't run that late, yet I think they have improved on this since I live there. The only area its does not serve is Woodward Lakes where my friends live, but I think the residents want it that way. I can get to Riverpark from the Amtrak station and this is where I will sometimes have them meet me at a local Starbucks.

Oh btw that is a old picture of the Amtrak station, they have since remodeled the the part where you see the fence. Its a very nice station, and is quite busy as a lot of valley residents take advantage of this service.

[jpatrick]

Regarding Fresno's skyline, here is a picture of downtown Fresno the 1920s:

Fresno was originally designed to become a big city. During the 1920s it was the fourth largest city in California. Most of Fresno's skyline was built prior to 1930 when downtown Fresno was a vibrant commerce hub.

[jpatrick]

Yes there is activity for building a light rail system, however, this system is new. By new it includes everything being new. Privately funding a new transit technology through real estate development. Good riddance to the status-quo of freeways and stick-built tract homes.