Quote of the Week
“This transfer request before you tonight, I find particularly troubling. I say that because it doesn’t really appear to be about education, about community, or any of the traditional reasons for such transfers. What I see here is a developer-backed petition.”
—David Soldani, Sierra Unified attorney on efforts to expand Clovis Unified, by removing 600 acres in the foothills, including the Ventana Hills gated community
This Week in Fresnoland
Uphill battle
A new proposal to expand the Clovis Unified School District received a chilly reception this week from the mountain community that would lose more than 600 acres of territory under the plan.
Fresnoland’s Julianna Morano was on hand late Thursday at Foothill Elementary School in Prather when a crowd of more than 200 literally booed the transfer effort spearheaded by a handful of residents from Ventana Hills, a gated community of luxury homes east of Friant, and developer of those pricey houses, Darius Assemi, CEO of Granville Homes.
Marc Thurston, the chief petitioner who is also a Bakersfield realtor, said the transfer effort is needed because Ventana Hills residents feel like they have stronger ties to Clovis Unified than Sierra schools.
“They would all say that they consider themselves to be part of Clovis and not part of this here mountain community,” Thurston told the school board this week.
But critics, including the Sierra Unified School Board, say the effort to expand Clovis Unified is nothing but a cynical money grab.
Not hopping
The first new incarnation of Fresno’s ArtHop was bleak. Confusion, anxiety and heat helped keep crowds away from downtown Fresno on Thursday.
And while any new endeavor experiences some growing pains, for food truck vendors in Fresno, recent changes have come with a lot of pain and little growth, Fresnoland’s Diego Vargas reported.
Mike “Oz” Osegueda, president and founder of Fresno Street Eats, said the changes have hurt small businesses.
“This was their biggest night of the month, so when you take that away for any business, it obviously hurts them,” Oz said.
ArtHop changes have also affected Tower District businesses that benefited from the downtown event’s popularity spilling over.
“Our ArtHop is very quiet now, very slow, very dead,” said Priscila Perez, co-owner of Sour Milk Shop on Van Ness. “Everyone thinks it’s over.”
Mysteries solved
Genealogy — the formal study of ancestry and family history — once helped Melissa Scroggins solve a decades-old family mystery, Fresnoland’s Charlotte Burks reported this week.
Scroggins’ great grandfather was a family legend — a counterfeiter whose last name was Bond — but he was only a story, a myth — the family had no photos or records.
After many years of research into birth certificates, death certificates, and prison records, Scroggins finally located her great grandfather’s prison record in Kansas City, filling a decades-old hole in her family’s history.
“He was sentenced to a year and a day [for counterfeiting]– I got his mugshots, finger prints, court records,” said Scroggins. “He counterfeited quarters, because he was a blacksmith.”
Scroggins now shares her own research and hours of experience to help others solve family mysteries at the San Joaquin Valley Heritage & Genealogy Center.
Equity vs equality at Fresno Unified
Fresno Unified unveiled drafted plans for how they are planning to allocate November’s Measure H bond money, focusing on aging infrastructure and upgrading existing facilities, Fresnoland’s Diego Vargas reported.
During the FUSD board meeting on Aug. 28, Paul Idsvoog, the chief operations and classified labor management officer, presented how Fresno Unified’s $500 million bond could be allocated but much of the discussion centered on how to divide about $100 million among the school board’s individual districts, if approved by voters in November.
Some — like Sunnyside Trustee Valarie Davis and Bullard Trustee Susan Wittrup — favored dividing the money equally among the individual board members. Others, including Roosevelt’s Elizabeth Jonasson Rosas and Hoover Trustee Claudia Cazares, called for an “equity-based” approach that would divy the money based on need.
“I recently had a conversation with a voter in the district, and one of the first things out of her mouth was, ‘Fresno Unified asking for more money, but South Fresno doesn’t get anything, so why should I give more money?’” Jonasson Rosas said.
‘We’re not doing enough’
In the weeks immediately following the Oct. 7 massacre in Israel, large numbers of protesters gathered in Fresno regularly to raise awareness and call for justice for the thousands of Palestinians caught in the war.
But that enthusiasm appears to have waned in recent months, organizers of a recent panel discussion said, who turned the discussion into a rallying cry, Fresnoland’s Gisselle Medina reported this week.
“We’re not doing enough,” said Faisal Naser, a second generation refugee. “There’s a genocide going on. I don’t necessarily think that people should either go to protests or come to these events, but you should find something and do it. And if you’re not doing anything right now, you’re failing Palestinians.”
More than 140 Fresnans came together at the Big Red Church on Aug. 31 to learn about how they may be contributing to the violence against Gaza, how to get involved in community advocacy, and how to provide resources to Palestinians.
Outside the Lines
California’s push to expand rights and resources for undocumented immigrants faced a setback as Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a Fresno bill that would have allowed undocumented immigrants to access a homebuyer loan program. Merced Focus
The Wall Street Journal recently ranked UC Merced No. 1 in the nation for social mobility and No. 18 overall. Fresno Area Hispanic Foundation
Fresno Assemblymember Jim Patterson will co-chair a state committee to address gasoline price spikes. Spectrum News
A fight between The Walt Disney Co. and DirecTV has millions of customers, including some in the Fresno area, without access to ESPN, ABC and other Disney channels this week. The Fresno Bee
Block Beat
DOWNTOWN: Fresno residents are invited to Fiestas Patrias 2024 beginning at 11 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 15 with a parade followed at 12:30 p.m. by a festival on Fulton Street.
CLOVIS: The City of Clovis cleared a roadblock to a controversial student housing development residents say is being mishandled. The Fresno Bee
LOMA VISTA: The intersection of Shields and Locan Avenues will close on Monday, September 9, 2024, for infrastructure improvements related to the new Terry Bradley Educational Complex within the Clovis Unified School District.
MADERA: A two-decade effort to bring a new casino to Madera County will culminate Saturday at a groundbreaking for the new North Fork Mono Casino & Resort. The Fresno Business Journal
Around Town
Every third Wednesday of the month, starting Sept. 18, downtown Fresno plans to host “Why Not Wednesday,” the new food-focused event that recently was forced to break away from downtown’s popular ArtHop event. The event will run from 5 to 9 p.m. every third Wednesday along Fulton Street. For application and permit information, click here.
Starting Monday (Sept. 9), Fresno County will seek input from residents in rural and unincorporated communities for its High-Speed Broadband Internet Project survey. Responses are needed from the residents of Biola, Calwa, Cantua Creek, Caruthers, Firebaugh, Huron, Lanare, Mendota, Orange Cove, Parlier, Raisin City, Three Rocks, Tranquillity, West Park, and Westside. The survey link and QR code will be widely shared through social media, prominently featured on the Fresno County website home page, and distributed to community leaders in unincorporated areas as well as at outreach events. The survey remains open until Oct. 4.
