Quote of the Week

“Residents of Calwa and Malaga have a message for Caltrans: You cannot use our community as a toxic dumping ground for polluting industry.”

— Edith Rico, project director for Fresno Building Healthy Communities, calls out Caltrans directly. Rico’s organization is one of the parties in a complaint that seeks to stop  Caltrans’ controversial highway expansion project. 

This Week in Fresnoland

An appeals court ruled that the City of Clovis hasn’t done enough to provide affordable housing or combat segregation.

California cities are required by the state to plan and zone enough land to meet the demand for affordable housing, and in May 2021 the Fresno County Superior Court ruled that Clovis was not meeting this demand, Danielle Bergstrom writes for Fresnoland. The Clovis City Council appealed the ruling, but ultimately Dez Martinez – housing advocate, activist, and plaintiff in this case – prevailed. Clovis will now have to zone for 4,400 medium to high density homes.  

Further, the court ruled that the city’s housing policies have been discriminatory to people of color. One of the plaintiff’s attorneys called the ruling monumental for putting the onus on cities to proactively reduce segregation through housing and land use policy. 

Speaking of lawsuits, South Fresno community groups are suing Caltrans.

Astute readers will recall that Caltrans said that their environmental review – for their controversial project to upgrade a set of highway interchanges along Highway 99 – wouldn’t impact air quality or public health. The South Fresno groups are claiming in the suit that this review was illegally deficient, Gregory Weaver reports for Fresnoland. Lawyers from Stanford say that the project will indeed have public health impacts. “They refuse to even recognize the existence of thousands of residents living near the interchanges or to consider the possibility that residents will be harmed,” said Jacqueline Maldonado, a lawyer at Stanford University’s Mills environmental law clinic. 

The J.G. Boswell farming company defended their decision to divert floodwaters from their natural path – the Tulare Lake Bed – thereby preserving their tomato fields and jeopardizing the lives and property of others.

Boswell’s resource chief told the Kings County Board of Supervisors that while Boswell is planting tomatoes, they aren’t planting any in areas that are “currently, or planned to be flooded,” Lois Henry reports for SJV Water. Supervisor Richard Valle wanted to know if that meant there were areas of the Tulare Lake that the Boswell company isn’t planning to flood at all. The Boswell representative didn’t have an answer. Phil Hansen of Hansen Ranches, who accused Boswell of premeditating flooding a few weeks ago, said that Boswell’s deep parts of the Tulare Lake Bed remain dry while areas that normally don’t flood at all, or flood last are already underwater.

The task of preparing for a disastrous flood that will almost certainly strike Firebaugh falls to a Central Valley school district.

Six of Firebaugh-Las Deltas Unified School District’s seven schools are considered “high risk” for flooding by FEMA, Emma Gallegos reports for Edsource. The district must prepare for the possibility that snowmelt from the Sierra will prove devastating. They’ve drawn up an evacuation plan and are moving to protect their records. District employees are preemptively filling out FEMA paperwork, and they’re considering building their own levee around Bailey Primary School, the most vulnerable of the most vulnerable. 

However, the district has recently learned that the schools’ access to joint services through a joint powers authority – an arrangement whereby public institutions can exercise powers common to all of them, in this case collectively purchasing economical insurance programs – does not cover flood related damages. Outside of their joint powers agreement, the district would need to purchase insurance by itself, and there are fears that it would be exorbitantly expensive. 

Firebaugh had commissioned a 2020 study to learn how to mitigate its own flood risk. Besides pinpointing the lowest points in the nearby river to bolster with sandbags, the study found that the city should restore and strengthen their levees, a process that would also create a recreational path (projects with multiple uses are more likely to attract federal funding). It would cost an estimated $140 million for a city whose annual budget is just $4 million.

Fresno has the largest gap between white and Latino households who can afford homeownership.

Our story by Jacqueline Schuster details the California Association of Realtors’ 2022 housing affordability report. Only 30% of Latino and 31% of Black households can afford Fresno county’s median home price of $410,000, compared to 48% of white households and 47% of Asian households. 

But please consider the ongoing efforts to combat the housing crisis here in Fresno. Mayor Dyer worked to connect homebuyers with Bank of America’s homebuyer assistance programs. Also, the Fresno City Council approved the No Place Like Home initiative, our very own down payment assistance program. Plus, Miguel Arias is working with Self-Help enterprises to bring affordable housing to Southwest Fresno.

Block Beat

WEST FRESNO: Fresno Housing, in partnership with Valley Children’s Healthcare and their Kids Eat Smart initiative, provided West Fresno children with access to free fresh fruits and vegetables at the 93706 Market. Press Release

RIVER PARK: Lots of changes at River Park. The old, empty Starbucks by the AT&T building is being demolished, and a new J. Crew store, as well as a plus-sized women’s brand called Torrid, a wedding shop, and hopefully a new sushi restaurant will be moving in. The separate IMAX theater, which has been empty since the movie theater remodel, will become an indoor playground. Fresno Bee

MADERA: The Madera County Sheriff’s Office is trying to find the family of Christopher Joseph Chiasson, 73, who died at a local hospital. Anyone with information regarding his next of kin is encouraged to call the Madera County Coroner’s Office at (559) 675-7774. KMPH

OLD TOWN CLOVIS: Wildflowers are finally blooming across the National Sierra Heritage Scenic Byway that hugs the foothills. It’s a 70-mile trail with a popular starting point in Old Town Clovis. ABC30 

EDISON HIGH: Thomas Stewart, a senior at Edison, was accepted to Yale, Columbia, Brown, Cornell, Stanford, and UC Berkeley. Let’s all take a moment to celebrate his success and mourn our own incredible mediocrity. Amen. ABC30

Department of New Construction

SOUTH TOWER: A conditional use permit was filed for the construction of a new monopine tower on Belmont Ave, west of North Fulton Street.  

FIGARDEN LOOP: A development permit was filed for a shell building with three tenant spaces on W Figarden Drive, west of North Brawley Ave.

Around Town

Fresno City College is celebrating Asian American Month throughout April. While the kickoff event was yesterday, there are several cultural events and performances planned throughout the month. Fresno City College

April is also apparently National Poetry Month. Four poets – Joseph Rios, Corrine Clegg Hales, Kenneth R. Chacon, and Megan Bohigian – will perform readings at the Fresno Arts Council Gallery at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 11. Facebook

Two days later, on April 13, the 2023 Respite by the River series begins at the San Joaquin River Parkway barn with music at 6 p.m. and a reading by Cynthia Guardado at 7 p.m. Facebook

The Fresno Grizzlies have a home game tonight at 6:50 p.m. They’ll face off against the Stockton Ports at Chukchansi Park. MILB

Also, consider this free R&B Love Dance Party at Full Circle Brewing Co. at 712 Fulton St. on Friday, April 14 at 7 p.m. Downtown Fresno

The Alley at the African American Museum is a pop up market on the third Sunday of each month – this time it’s on April 16 starting at 1 p.m. Eventbrite

The Central Fresno Public Library is holding an interactive story time for all ages. Events like these are meant to build an early relationship between kids and their local libraries. It starts at 3:30 p.m. on Monday, April 17. Fresno County Public Library

Next Week in Public Meetings

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Tommy is the author of Toplines, the Fresnoland newsletter curating the top stories in the Central Valley. He thinks he's very funny.