Join us for a conversation with Pulitzer-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa, hosted by Fresno DRIVE. Register here!
Sparks of Change
1982
Macy Moves
Macy’s rezoning request is approved and the retail store is constructed at Fashion Fair. Originally at Fulton Mall, this move notably marked the northward migration of businesses and would begin the abandonment of Downtown Fresno.
1982
Kaiser Opens
by Fashion Fair
Kaiser opens Fresno location at 1475 First Street, further leading medical services northward and away from the city core and South Fresno.
1982
Stop Reaganism March and Rally at Fresno's Courthouse Park
Fresno County Historical Society, Civil Rights History Curriculum.
1985
Freeway 41 Completed Up to Bullard Avenue
1986
Herndon Avenue is Zoned
The commercial zoning of Herndon Avenue marks northward expansion as desirable and contributes to the continued abandonment of Downtown/Central Fresno.
1987
Freeway 180
"In the 1987 photo we can see that Freeway 180 has begun branching off of 41 and construction is proceeding to the west, barreling toward the Jefferson, South Tower, and Lowell neighborhoods. At this time many homes and businesses were destroyed. Many homes were auctioned off for $1 to anyone who would pay to move them, including the historic Proffitt House which was purchased and moved by Sigma Nu fraternity to Fraternity Row behind Bulldog Stadium (the house is presently occupied by Delta Sigma Phi fraternity). We can also see that demolition of homes for the stretch of Freeway 180 to the east of Freeway 41 was well under way."
1990
Planning Controversies
The 1990s saw the years of rapid northward expansion and planning controversies in Fresno and white flight to North Fresno and East Clovis; previously integrated neighborhoods became mixed minority or predominately Latinx.
1990
Freeway 41 to
San Joaquin River
By 1990, Freeway 41 had been completed all the way through Fresno to the San Joaquin River, facilitating the retail sprawl of the River Park area at no cost to the developers who would profit from those projects.
.jpg)
1991
Kaiser Permanente Builds at Herndon Avenue
City Council approves rezoning of the area so that the hospital can be built. Kaiser facility becomes the second major hospital on Herndon Avenue, welcoming medical offices, imaging services, and specialty clinics that would form the Herndon Avenue medical zone that exists today.
.jpg)
1994
Prop 187 Passes
Known as the Save our State proposition, 187 was anti-immigrant proposition that prohibited undocumented immigrants from accessing public services and empowered education and healthcare professionals to report individuals suspected of being undocumented. California saw a massive public patrolling of who was a "legal" and "illegal" immigrant.
.jpg)
1998
Operation Rezone
John Bonadelle (long time Fresno developer) and two Fresno City Councilmen (Jim Logan and Bob Lunch) are charged for allegedly subverting laws and offering bribes to get favorable zoning rulings during the 6.5-year FBI and IRS investigation of civil corruption in Fresno known as Operation Rezone.
Thus contributing to a history of damaging planning and land-use policies in the city of Fresno.
.png)
1998
Smart Growth Buzz
Smart Growth becomes the talk of the nation; Fresno also catches the Smart Growth buzz. The Growth Alternatives Alliance is formed and advocates for more efficient use of land that would involve revitalizing downtown and compact development.
1998
Valley Children's Hospital Moves
Moves to a new location in Madera, just outside of North Fresno. The hospital would continue to operate smaller pediatric centers throughout Fresno.
1998
Fresno's Freeways
Finally, in the 1998 photo we can see that Freeway 180 was completed between Freeway 99 and Freeway 41, and construction was well under way on 180 east of 41 as well as Freeway 168 heading north toward Clovis.
.jpg)
2000
Smart Growth a Reality
As Smart Growth policies begin to seep into many cities across the nation, Fresno also sees interest in developing a mix of building types and uses, inclusion of diverse housing and transportation options, and developing in currently existing neighborhoods that is informed by community engagement. Smart Growth would help set Fresno on a path to invest in already existing neighborhoods instead of outward expansion.
2001
Land Use, Air Quality, and Health in Fresno
Healthcare practitioners began to observe the clustering of respiratory problems around the construction of the 180 freeway in Southeast Fresno. They found a two and half fold increase in respiratory problems that never returned to baseline levels following the construction (Hamilton 2008). Other notable cases of environmental justice they engaged with were opposition to the development of Copper River Ranch and Fancher Creek areas.
2001
September 11th Attack and Patriot Act
Attack on the U.S. twin towers, results in death of thousands of Americans. In light of events, the U.S. passes the Patriot Act, effectively surveilling thousands of Arab/Muslim Americans.
2002
Fresno City Council Passes 2025 General Plan
"Sought to reach a balance between the outward growth pressures and downtown revitalization. The plan directed 80% of growth inside of the city’s existing boundaries and the remaining 20% of population growth would be accommodated into the two expansions of the urban boundary – North to accommodate the upscale Copper River development and Southeast to a new town concept, that would be designed for higher densities and “green style” living, with the help of prominent Bay Area Smart Growth consultant Peter Calthorpe."
2002
Department of Homeland Security Founded
The U.S. legitimizes the surveillance and policing of immigrants and Arab/Middle Eastern populations by forming DHS.
2003 – 2005
Darling Rendering Operates Above the Law
The rendering plant processed 850,000 pounds of raw material a day, well above what was allowed in their 1953 permit. In 2003, the plant applied to expand its operations to 1,115,000 pounds a day and was denied. In 2005, the plant attempted to expand again to 1,510,560 pounds a day and sent out letter notices to residents within 3/4 miles of the plant. This drew backlash that forced the city to uncover historical documents, showing the plant was operating outside of its permits and bounds and were required to obtain a conditional use permit. The city would later side with the plant and request additional upgrades in order to expand the plant's operations.
2003
Central Valley Air Quality Coalition Formed
Formed among 70 community, medical, public health, environmental, and environmental justice organizations to advocate for the full enforcement of federal and state clean air legislation in the Valley (CVAQ 2013).
2003
Fire in West Fresno
Goes Unchecked
A five-acres dump of construction and 40-foot pile of wood, concrete, and green waste materials in West Fresno caught on fire and burned continuously for one month, polluting the air and making residents ill. The cleanup cost more than $6.4 million. From a state audit released in December of 2003 (California State Auditor 2003), the public learned that the City had not enforced its own land use regulations on the dump.
2005
Fresno's Concentrated Poverty Problem
The spatial clustering of the city’s poor population earned Fresno an inglorious reputation as the metropolitan area with the highest concentration of poverty in the United States based on the 2000 Census (Berube and Katz 2005).
.png)
2005
Concerned Citizens of West Fresno Founded
Formed by Mary Curry and residents to advocate against the meat rendering plant in their community, effectively winning with the company agreeing to close the plant by December 2023.
Mary Curry, her daughter Dr. Venise Curry, and the Concerned Citizens of West Fresno continue to advocate and push for better land use policies.
The enduring case of the Fruit-Church industrial area demonstrates both a lack of enforcement of land use regulations in a poor area, the complicities of government agencies in increasing nearby residents’ exposure to the hazards of the plant and at the same time privileging the plant’s rights to the land while dismissing the voice of residents.
2005
University Medical Center Closes in Southeast Fresno
University Medical Center board approves closure in Southeast Fresno as Community Medical Center to consolidate services in the downtown Community Regional Medical Center. Leaving that area of the city without hospital services.
2006
Worlds Apart,
Futures Together
Fresno ranks #1 for the concentration of poor people in poor neighborhoods, which prompted several social equity leaders to convene at "Worlds Apart, Futures Together" in 2006, to lay out actions to deconcentrate poverty such as workforce development, housing dispersal and inclusionary zoning.
2007
Global Financial Crisis
A catostrophic worldwide economic crisis that resulted in job and home losses throughout the U.S.
2008
Barack Obama,
44th President
A pivotal moment in U.S. history as voters elect the first bi-racial/Black President.
2010
Fresno Ramps Up
on Social Justice
"Since 2010, nearly a dozen social justice organizations have sprouted in Fresno, harnessing community power to spark change. These groups, many of which are led by educated women of color with deep Valley ties, have mobilized coalitions that stood up to local politicians, combated vicious attacks and emerged with political victories.
The challenges triggered sharp tongue lashings from some elected leaders, who publicly rebuked advocates from the dais. But other local politicians now are rethinking their relationships with advocates and the residents with whom they work.
The victories, coupled with new community leaders and changing voter registration, signal a power shift in Fresno."
-Fresno Bee article in 2019
2011
Downtown Neighborhoods Community Plan
The plan had ambitions to create more mixed-used buildings and more walkability. Despite this, community stakeholders were critical about the plan's inability to incorporate social planning and criticized that the plan was more focused on physical planning and the built environment. The prioritization of physical planning was evident that this plan was more focused on the economic development efforts, rather than people centered. ""...to the extent that health goals coincided with economic development strategies they were supported
Other critiques arose, such as the lack of community engagement in decision-making from both the community and city staff.
"When health equity goals did not conflict with the New Urbanist and revitalization logic of attracting wealthier residents, incentivizing development, and increasing property values, uncontroversial elements to promote health equity such as increasing neighborhood walkabiltiy and workforce development remained. Also relatively uncontroversial was the need for more community engagement in planning, which consistently emerged from both the concerns of community groups and City staff alike, which I will explore in greater detail in Chapter 5. However, when health equity goals appeared to conflict with economic development arguments, such as the idea of adding additional oversight to study the health impacts of developments, they were removed. Finally, anxieties about the City’s reputation for concentrated poverty justified planners’ efforts to keep out additional social services and affordable housing from the downtown neighborhoods, resulting in an exclusionary ethic."
"When policies that would redistribute investments, constrain development, or impose additional cost on the government were introduced in both the Downtown Neighborhoods Community Plan and the General Plan Update, health goals were deemed inappropriate or infeasible." p. 98
2011
Fresno Building
Healthy Communities
A philanthropic investment of The California Endowment sees Fresno as a Building Healthy Communities site, one of 10 throughout California that sought to mobilize better health and social conditions for the most underserved.
2013
Black Lives Matter Founded
The US continues to bear witness to violence on Black people and the Black community, resulting in the founding of a national campaign to bring light to the murder of Black people.
2014
Fresno Updates
General Plan
"The Plan describes a balanced city with an appropriate proportion of its growth and reinvestment focused on the central core, Downtown, established neighborhoods, and along Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) corridors. A successful and vibrant Downtown is necessary to attract investment needed for infill development and rehabilitation of established neighborhoods, which are priorities for the Plan.
Balancing a vibrant Downtown will be self‐sufficient suburban Development Areas. This will result in a city with a revitalized Downtown and established neighborhoods and with livable new suburban neighborhoods supporting one another.
A contentious point in updating the general plan was the discussion on affordable housing, with community stakeholders continually pushing the city to include affordable housing with its land use planning and the city taking the stance that affordable housing did not belong in planning, but rather with programming such as section 8.
2015
Measure P Kicks Off
Led by community organizers and the Central Valley Community Foundation, the Measure P campaign kicks-off. The measure focused on increasing investment into parks and green spaces and to update the 1952 Parks Master Plan.
2015
Housing Crisis at Summerset Village
Local news report on inhumane housing conditions at a central apartment complex that's home to a large population of Southeast Asian refugees/immigrants. In the middle of the winter season in Fresno, the entire apartment complex was without heat and hot water for several days.
2015
White Population Shifts Towards Friant
One of the consequences of northward investment is transportation, single family housing, and amenities like healthcare lead to a further shift in White population. Once concentrated slightly north of central Fresno, now becomes concentrated further north of Herndon Avenue.
2016
Murder of Dylan Noble
Noble was 19 when he was shot and killed by Fresno Police in 2016, outside a gas station. Officers said they were looking for an armed suspect, however, Noble wasn't armed-- but an autopsy showed he was intoxicated.
All of it was captured on body cams, and Police Chief Jerry Dyer ruled the incident justified.
City of Fresno agreed to pay $2.8-million to the parents of Dylan Noble.
2016
Muslim Travel Ban
President Trump enacts an executive order that banned visitors from seven countries with major Muslim populations and indefinitely banned the resettlement of Syrian refugees, the order would be known socially as the Muslim Ban.
2016
Transformative Climate Communities Program (TCC) Established in Fresno
This program was created 'to fund the development and implementation of neighborhood-level transformative climate community plans that include multiple coordinated greenhouse gas emissions reduction projects that provide local economic, environmental and health benefits to disadvantaged communities.'
TCC is being implemented in downtown, Chinatown, and Southwest Fresno.
2017
Southwest Fresno Specific Plan Adopted
The purpose of a Specific Plan is to develop policies, programs, regulations, and guidelines to implement the jurisdiction’s adopted General Plan. A Specific Plan effectively establishes a link between implementing policies of the General Plan and the individual development proposals in a defined area. The Plan implements the goals and policies set forth in the City of Fresno General Plan (General Plan) by building upon its concepts for the Southwest Development Area. The Plan also includes ideas and measures that have been extensively tailored and reviewed by the Southwest Fresno community and stakeholders. The Plan provides guiding principles, policies, development criteria, and implementation strategies to coordinate private development and public improvements given the unique opportunities and characteristics of this important part of the city of Fresno.
2017
ACLU Releases Reducing Officer Involved Shootings in Fresno Report
The report finds that between 2001 and 2016, the Fresno Police Department were involved in 146 officer-involved shootings This high number of shootings, along with it's disparate impact on low income communities and communities of color, and the department's policies and practices, have significantly damaged police-community relationships. "Between 2011 and 2016, Black and Latino people accounted for 80 percent of people shot by police in Fresno, while only making up 52 percent of the population."
2017
City of Fresno Adopts Rental Housing Inspection Program
After the housing crisis at Summerset, local grassroots organizers push and won for more renter's protection. The city would adopt the Rental Housing Inspection Program in February 2017, though the program was slow to begin work, with reports in November 2017 that the city had not begun any inspections.
Today, the program is still not enough to protect renters.
2017
City adopts Parks
Master Plan
City Council unanimously approves adoption of Parks Master Plan after years of work from residents, advocates, and collaboration with city staff.
2018
Unequal from Birth Project Launches
Unequal from Birth project is launched by UC Berkeley School of Journalism's New Media Program. This project explores Fresno's disparities between rich and poor, immigrant and citizen, white and Black and brown.The stories are based on hundreds of interviews, dozens of public records requests and reams of court records and historical documents. Taken together, they reveal the consequences of growing inequality in the country’s richest state.
2018
Adoption of Southwest Fresno Specific Plan and Final Program Environmental Impact Report
Fresno City Council unanimously approves the plan, bringing hope to a community that has been at the margins of investment and environmental issues.
2019
CVCF establishes DRIVE
The Central Valley Community Foundation establishes the 10-year collective impact initiative Fresno DRIVE to build a racially inclusive economy for all.
2019
Evicted in Fresno Report
Faith in the Valley releases the Evicted in Fresno Report, uncovering an alarming rate of evictions in Fresno.
"The Judicial Council of California reports 4,587 eviction filings for the 2015/16 fiscal year.12 UniCourt reports 3,700 eviction filings for 2016, while AIRS data shows 3,461. We manually extracted 3,694 unlawful detainer lawsuits, while Desmond’s Eviction Lab shows 3,058 for Fresno County and 2,342 for the City of Fresno.”
"In areas defined as experiencing “severe” poverty (i.e. over 50% of households are in poverty), the eviction rate is over twice as high as in areas with low to zero poverty.”
"The eviction rate is nearly three times as high in neighborhoods with the lowest median household incomes compared to neighborhoods with the highest median household incomes."
2020
Racial Injustice and Worldwide Pandemic
Community organizations and City/County of Fresno come together to establish a community response to COVID-19 with targeted outreach to communities of color. Community organizations also rally behind racial justice to address ongoing systemic racism experienced by the Black community and the surge of anti-Asian racism as related to the pandemic.
2020
Bringing Advance Peace to Fresno
Fresno looks to a new program that will curb violence through investing in a community based public health and safety strategy. Advance Peace’s goal is “to transform lives and build healthier, safer, and more just communities by putting an end to cyclical and retaliatory gun violence in urban neighborhoods.”
.jpg)
2021
Eviction Protection Program
City of Fresno adopts the Eviction Protection Program. The program defends tenants renting an apartment or house in the City of Fresno from unlawful eviction. If the City determines a tenant is potentially facing unlawful eviction, the tenant may be eligible to receive a City-appointed attorney or legal services to assist in the judicial process at no charge.
2021
Fresno's Unhoused Neighbors Take on Advocacy
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact Fresno and the nation, the unhoused community of Fresno takes advocacy into their own hands to gain better conditions, support, and services.
"Together with FIV and Stockton’s Housing Justice Coalition, the WE CAN (Work Economic Collective Advancement Network) Ambassadors, a group of unhoused leaders, hosted a first-of-its-kind encampment listening session last summer. They then hosted a town hall on the subject of housing and homelessness with broader community stakeholders and local policy makers. In Fresno recently, FIV partnered with We Are Not Invisible, another advocacy group led by former and currently unsheltered individuals, to host a first-ever listening session between chronically unhoused individuals and city council members."
2022
Regional Park and Sports Complex in Southeast Fresno
A win for development in Southeast Fresno with Fresno City Council approving a regional park and soccer complex.
2022
Operation No Fly Zone
A multi-agency investigation that sought to address a rise in the number of shootings and homicides in Fresno. Of those arrested were an employee of Advance Peace, a grassroots organization working to address gun and gang violence in Fresno, leading to outcries of the continued over policing in Fresno.
Activists push back against the operation and question the City's inability to address the root causes of violence in Fresno.
2022
BitWise Layoffs and Closure
Over Memorial weekend, the Bitwise company abruptly closes and lays off 900 employees causing tension, anger, and distrust in corporations who promised to make investments into the local economy.
2023
Greenfield Coalition Organizes
The Greenfield Coalition released an independent study with ECONorthwest that shares about Fresno's urban decay issues and the overall negative effect of decay on Fresno's neighborhoods.
