by: Mario Jauregui
feel free to comment :-)
Downtown Fresno has much more than I thought. My first experience of downtown Fresno was
when I was 10 years old. I was crossing the street with my mother and
grandmother when suddenly we heard this tremendous SLAM and then right in front
of me I see a rim rolling across the street. We all looked at the middle of the
road and saw what was left after the accident, then I heard my mother say “Oh,
this place always has something bad happening”. Needless to say, all the
naysayers in Fresno reinforced the image of downtown Fresno as the place “NOT
TO GO”, “where all weird people are”, “where all the homeless people live”, “if
you want to get shot or have your stuff stolen”, and “where the worst parking
is in Fresno is located”. Well, these are only half-truths. If you want bad parking,
try Fresno State, three or four quarters are not going to hurt as much as a $75
parking pass for 4 months so you can still park a good walking distance of
10-15 minutes away. Your scared of shooting or being robbed, hey just don’t
leave the house, oh wait, you might still get some unwanted visitors. Homeless
people! I see them everyday at Riverpark. And the weird people, come on now, we
all see this world differently.
Downtown
Fresno has Art Hop that happens every 1st Thursday of every month. I
have attended a few times already and I have to say that I am captivated by
most of the work and creations that I have seen. It is also nice to meet the
artists that made the creation or drew the drawing that is right in front of
you. Most of the art is really nice and I can see what they wanted it make into
realization, some of it is just too all over the place and it is tough to
believe that they want to sell it so high. These Art Hop nights is something
that people should really consider coming over to experience. There are so many
enjoyable things to see and the atmosphere is friendly. You can network and apprehend
those painting better so that you can have a better eye for seizing creativity.
It is nice to know that there are many people in our city that have so much
creativity and outside the box thinking.
All I am
saying is this, every town has a culture to it. Downtown Fresno is going
through many revitalization efforts and I think that as a Fresno citizen we all
have a right to share some culture with the efforts that are being put forth. If you believe that we
have a culture of strong educational values, set up some space downtown that
will honor teachers and will have some student work on display for everyone to
see on a certain night of the week or month. If you believe that we have a
culture of sports then save some space to sell some Fresno sports memorabilia.
There might be some true fans out there that would be interested in purchasing
them. Whatever you consider the culture is that we should share to our
traveling friends and to our young people who are growing up, we should be
proud to share it. Downtown Fresno, make it yours, make it happen.
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