What’s at stake?
The improvements to Radio Park mark the latest investment in green space in a city that consistently ranks below most large cities in terms of park access and acreage. Many of the redesign elements were informed by neighborhood residents, city officials said.
Claudia Readwright biked from her home near Shaw Avenue and the 99 freeway to central Fresno’s Radio Park on a foggy Monday morning.
It wasn’t the miles traveled that made the trip special — even if it was “quite a distance” on her recumbent trike, Readwright said.
What was special was the destination: The northwest Fresno resident rode over an hour to go watch the city launch long-awaited renovations to Radio Park.
Officials announced the beginning of a $10.6 million renovation project for the park at the southwest corner of First Street and Clinton Avenue in a news conference Monday morning.
The upgrade includes several new amenities for Radio Park: a splash pad for kids to cool off with in the summer, more trees and walking paths and a shaded amphitheater with a stage for performances.
Several elements of the redesign draw directly from feedback across four community meetings hosted by Councilmember Nelson Esparza’s team over the past few years.
“Residents asked for safer pathways, updated play areas, better lighting and more open space for gatherings,” Esparza said.
“I’m proud to say that those improvements are at the very heart of this project.”
The renovation project received the bulk of its funding — to the tune of $6 million — from a state grant funded by Proposition 68, a California parks and water bond passed in 2018. The city also allocated $4 million in park fees, $400,000 from the general fund and $300,000 from Measure P sales tax revenue toward the renovations, according to Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer.
This marks the latest investment in green space in a city that has consistently ranked near the bottom of the 100 largest U.S. cities in terms of park acreage and access.
The city expects to complete renovations to Radio Park in early 2027.
“Families who have lived in this neighborhood have gone without what so many in our community take for granted in a park: a safe, welcoming, vibrant green space, a place to recreate, to socialize and to create memories,” Dyer said. “Every community deserves that.”
What else is coming to Radio Park?
Other new amenities coming to Radio Park include restrooms, drinking fountains and a shower station where kids can rinse off after using the splash pad.
Aaron Aguirre, the city’s parks director, added that a new inclusive play structure is also in the works for children with disabilities.
Visitors can expect to see more art at the park in 2027, as the city will install platforms for future sculptures and “decorative art panels,” Dyer said.
The park may even expand slightly beyond its approximate seven-and-a-half-acre campus, though that depends on the city’s negotiations with an adjacent property owner.
Last summer, the city set its sights on acquiring the property where a convenience store is currently located on the corner of the park’s campus with the council voting to take steps toward obtaining it through eminent domain.
But the city is still working with the owner on that, Dyer said Monday.
“At the present time, we do not have ownership of that (piece of property),” Dyer said, “but we are working towards that,” adding that the city believes the property is “essential to this park.”
‘Strong parks ultimately make strong neighborhoods’
The bike ride to Radio Park from her home in northwest Fresno isn’t out of the ordinary for Readwright, who averages about 25 miles of cycling a day.
She swung by the house of her friend, Susan Collins, near Fresno High en route to the park Monday. They rode up in their three-wheelers, decked out in Christmas lights and colorful flags from the Children’s Electric Christmas Parade in Clovis over the weekend.
The friends cheered several of the cyclist-friendly renovations to the park, including the addition of restrooms.
“Our Clovis three-wheelers group, we go all over the place,” said Collins, “even to Kingsburg and back. We’re always looking for places that provide restroom stops for the group.”
Readwright, who used to work at Birney Elementary down the street from Radio Park, said she’s also pleased the students will soon have a nicer place to play.
“Those kids at Birney, there’s not really a lot around that school. So they play in their backyards,” she said — and unless they’re good at “scaling the fence” around the school that gets locked routinely, there’s not many options of where to hang out.
Esparza said that’s part of the vision for parks like this one — as “not just green spaces,” but places “where kids grow up.”
“Strong parks ultimately make strong neighborhoods,” he said, “and strong neighborhoods make a stronger Fresno.”
