What's at stake?
Tulare Avenue, which runs through southeast Fresno, can be dangerous for residents. A survey found 40% of the 3,300 people who responded had experienced a close encounter with a vehicle on Tulare Avenue.
It was a Thursday afternoon and Heidi White prepared to cross East Tulare Avenue to pick up her oldest son from preschool. Standing at the corner of Sixth Street, she waited for the light to signal it was safe and then pushed forward the bright green stroller carrying her 11-month-old son. Her 2 ½-year-old son, Noah, rode ahead on his push bike.
Heidi saw a Nissan Pathfinder coming towards them and waved for the driver to slow down. But, as it turned eastbound from Tulare onto Sixth Street, it struck Noah, throwing him diagonally into the pavement.
“I ran to my son and picked him up,” Heidi recalled of that day, Nov. 3, 2016. “He looked up at me and said, ‘Mommy. Hit. Car.”
Her husband, Joseph White, had been on a Zoom call at their home when he took Heidi’s call and rushed to the intersection to find her holding their son’s bloodied body in her arms.
Noah was wearing a helmet and suffered minor injuries, but would be OK. “That helmet and angels saved his life that day,” Joseph recalled.
But later the Whites learned that on the same day, another child — a girl in fifth grade at nearby Jackson Elementary — was also hit by a car while crossing the same road and suffered more serious head injuries that required hospitalization.
The pair of near tragedies inspired the Whites to demand improvements for their neighborhood of Jackson, a community of more than 900 homes southeast of the 41 and 180 freeway interchange.
Over time, by building support with their neighbors, they came together to create a nonprofit organization, the Jackson Community Development Corp.
In just a few more weeks, they’ll celebrate the completion of a multi-year project to create bike lanes, install a sidewalk and upgrade curbs and gutters along Tulare Avenue in their neighborhood. It has been a long journey for the Whites and their neighbors.
“We are grateful things are moving,” Joseph told Fresnoland in an interview, “but does it really take seven years to do the right thing?”
Jackson area is one of Fresno’s historic neighborhoods
About half a square mile in area, Jackson is made up of smaller neighborhoods named after three investors from Los Angeles who developed the Fresno neighborhoods in the early 1900s: A. C. Balch, W. G. Kerckhoff, and Henry Huntington, according to HistoricFresno.org, a site documenting Fresno’s architectural history.
It’s divided by tree-lined East Huntington Boulevard, where its mix of grand homes and bungalows were “marketed to Fresno’s leading citizens,” according to the site.
In researching the neighborhood, the Whites discovered their three-bedroom Craftsman-style home once came with a racial covenant, as did many Fresno homes of the era. “Our title stated that this home may never be sold to an Armenian, Chinese, or Black person and that was legal until 1968,” Joseph said.
Today, the neighborhood is ethnically diverse, with about 70% of residents identifying as Hispanic, 14% white, 10% Asian and 4% Black, according to 2022 Census data. More than a quarter of residents live below the poverty line, with a median household annual income of $56,000, compared to $63,000 for Fresno overall.
“This is one of Fresno’s first neighborhoods and it was named after rich people,” Joseph said. “We have to tell a better story for our neighborhood and it’s important that residents understand how this started and where we’re going.”
Accident inspired Whites to organize neighbors
The Whites, who have four children, have lived on Kerckhoff Avenue for nearly 10 years. They are the lead pastors for Neighborhood Church, a Christian congregation of about 100 members that meets at their home and at Jackson Elementary.
Following Noah’s accident, the Whites met with Councilmember Luis Chavez, whose District 5 includes the eastern half of Jackson, and with other city officials to talk about improvements.
They partnered with the Center for Community Transformation, a community engagement association at Fresno Pacific University, to study traffic patterns and document incidents of speeding and red-light violations.
Tulare Avenue, between Sixth Street and Cedar Avenue, is a busy four-lane lined by homes and small businesses such as restaurants, a convenience store and an auto shop. The road is a boundary line for several local schools across Fresno.
A survey created by students at the center and shared throughout the neighborhood, found 40% of the 3,300 people who responded had experienced a close encounter with a vehicle on Tulare Avenue.
The study also showed that parents’ main concerns for Tulare Avenue included speeding, heavy traffic, the need for more crosswalks and a lack of signage alerting drivers to slow down and be cautious of pedestrians.
After years of work, the community’s efforts began to pay off. Last October, the City Council voted 7-0 to allocate more than $2.3 million toward the Tulare Complete Streets Project that would install a sidewalk and bike lanes, upgrade curbs and gutters between Cedar and Sixth.
As of April, the project was 40% complete, including the installation of underground storm drains, manholes, and drainage inlets. Full completion is expected by the end of June, according to the mayor’s office.
The addition of bike lanes and a sidewalk will shrink the avenue from four lanes to two, a change the city expects will slow traffic.
Other improvements in the area have been in the works, but were slowed by staffing shortages, according to city officials. Public Works Director Scott Mozier said at a City Council meeting last fall the department has seen a consistent 30% job-vacancy rate since 2017.
A project to repave Dakota Avenue between First Street and Cedar was approved more than a year ago and was completed in April.
City Manager Georgeanne White, who is not related to Joseph or Heidi White, said the department is working to improve efficiency by contracting larger projects to third-party companies. This process was used for the Tulare Complete Streets Project, with the work awarded to Clovis-based Agee Construction Corp. and overseen by the city’s construction management division.
“We’re grateful that what we, and the residents, worked for is being accomplished and hope that this impact will outlive us,” Heidi said.
Today, Noah is 10 years old and walks the four blocks to Jackson Elementary. While he doesn’t fully understand the implications of the street improvement project, he knows he is connected to it.
Last October, he appeared at the press conference where it was announced. “He enjoyed standing next to Mayor Dyer,” Heidi said.
The 40-year-old driver at fault in the 2016 accident did not face criminal charges. Court records indicate the case was settled out of court for an undisclosed sum.
Recently, Heidi said that the family drove past the intersection at Sixth and Tulare, Noah said, “That’s where I got hit and now they are working on it!”
The impact of community organizing and how others can get started
The approaching completion of the project is building up excitement among the community, according to Sarah Valentine, program manager for Jackson CDC. For residents, this is more than improved infrastructure, she said, they are aware that their efforts made an impact for the region that will last into the future.
“I hope this will motivate other communities to take action and together work towards a goal that will better their neighborhoods,” Valentine said.
Organizers of Jackson CDC were assisted early on by Every Neighborhood Partnership (ENP), a faith-based organization that encourages people to be more connected with their neighborhoods. ENP trained and supported the Jackson residents to help them achieve change for their community.
ENP offers an 8-week Community Land Use Academy program that teaches community members how to plan and organize. The next program starts in June.
“Our dream is that every neighborhood is organized like the Jackson neighborhood,” ENP Executive Director Andrew Feil said. “We support neighbors working together to address problems and create the world that they want for them and the next generation.”
Other organizations in Fresno also are working to help residents build connections in their communities.
Last month, a “residents summit” organized by an advisory board made up of The Children’s Movement, GO Public Schools, ENP, Ives Torres Foundation, Stop the Violence, and The Fresno Center drew about 750 people to the Fresno Fairgrounds.
Speakers addressed housing, education, mental health and environmental justice, encouraging residents to build relationships in their communities and learn how to become advocacy leaders to create change.
