Quote of the Week

“I’ve basically just been asking my dad simple questions like, ‘Are they alive?’” 

– A 20-year-old Palestinian Fresno resident with family in Gaza.

This Week in Fresnoland

Residents capture two wins in fight over Fresno’s La Hacienda Mobile Estates 

Council members have signaled that they’re open to finding a new park owner, even if that means seizing the property through eminent domain, Pablo Orihuela (Fresnoland) writes. Councilmember Miguel Arias said that Harmony Communities pursued “aggressive evictions,” breaking the promises they made when they took over management of La Hacienda. He said that the company’s argument – that it must close to prevent losses – is contradicted by the tenants, whose offers to pay have been rejected. 

Harmony’s lawyer, Jason Dilday, maintains that they still plan to close the park in August 2024. He writes: “This is an optional hearing … City approval is only necessary when local government permits are required.”

Harmony has proposed raising the rent by $350 per month, but the commission granted an increase of about $25 per month, instead. Park operators had said they’d be forced to close the park without the $350 increase.

For more on this story, check out Pablo’s latest Fresnoland reporting and this timeline of events showing how we got to this point.

$9 million in grant money is on the table for arts and culture organizations in Fresno. 

Measure P has a three-eighths cent sales tax which is generating profits for “expanded access to local arts and cultural programs,” Julianna Morano reports for Fresnoland. Fresno Poet Laureate Joseph Rios said that, “It’s hard not to be optimistic, and it’s so weird to say that in Fresno because artists (and) poets from Fresno are not characterized by their optimism.” 

There are some who worry that the funding won’t make it into the right hands. 

The Fresno Arts Council will receive the grant proposals and distribute the funds. They expect to receive $9 million this year and $5 million each year after that. Grants will be either project-specific (ranging from $2000 to $200,000) or general operating grants to support eligible nonprofits (capped at $300,0000). 

Carissa Garcia, an artist and arts consultant in Fresno, is concerned that the funding will be distributed top-down, going toward the largest organizations in the hopes that the money will trickle down to the smaller, local artists. Artist Adrianna Sorondo, who moved to the Bay Area but still maintains her Broadway Street Studio in downtown Fresno, says her ultimate goal is to return to Fresno one day, which this funding could make possible.

It’s pretty easy to write off Fresno. I was at a party in San Francisco recently and when I mentioned that I was from Fresno the person I was speaking to – who by the way was from Lemoore – said, “Ah, yeah such a small town.” I told him it was the fifth-largest city in California, and I wish I’d also known to tell him that MacArthur geniuses, Pulitzer prize and Academy Award-winning writers, state and national poet laureates, Broadway stars and plenty of other artists have called our city home.

Palestinians in Fresno feel unsupported by their local government. 

While Mayor Jerry Dyer has been an outspoken supporter of the state of Israel since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas that claimed the lives of 1,200 people (even going so far as to hoist the Israeli flag over City Hall), he had remained silent about the 11,000 Palestinians who have been killed in subsequent airstrikes. Fresnoland’s Omar Shaikh Rashad writes about some of the Palestinian Fresnans he spoke to about this issue, many of whom are waiting by their phones for news from family in Gaza. Israel has repeatedly cut off electricity, water and the internet in the region, making it difficult to maintain contact. 

Dyer finally addressed Palestinians last Thursday, though he stopped short of apologizing for his prior and prolonged silence. “We want you to know that you have value in Fresno, you have a place in Fresno, you have a place in my office,” he said. 

So far, it seems that activists, organizers and regular residents are not convinced by this apology. “It’s not genuine,” Yusuf Robinson, one of 24 people who spoke in solidarity with Palestinian people, said. “I don’t believe that.” Some are calling for the City Council to pass a ceasefire resolution, but it has gained no traction. 

More than 100 United Nations aid workers and more than 35 Palestinian journalists have also been killed, and the UN warned that the Gaza Strip is at risk of being ethnically cleansed by the Israeli government.

Some blindsided Bitwise employees have made their own company. 

Reclaim Technologies, a small team made up of eight software developers and engineers  hopes to fill the vacuum left behind by Bitwise: the beleaguered tech company that unceremoniously laid off – excuse me, furloughed and then laid off – all 900 of their employees. Esther Quintanilla’s KVPR story about Reclaim Technologies details their slogan “Tech with a Heart,” and their goals to continue creating opportunities for disadvantaged communities. Their office is in downtown Fresno.

Bitwise faces significant debts and its co-founders are accused of swindling $100 million out of investors by federal investigators. The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged the company with inflating its financial records.

Following a Fresnoland investigation, the ACLU is suing the City of Fresno. 

Allegedly, the city has been breaking the law for the last several years, Omar Shaikh Rashad writes. Our earlier report detailed how the city’s budget committee might be violating transparency laws in the Brown Act, which governs local legislative bodies and guarantees the public’s participation in the political process.  Fresno is the only major California city that claims a Brown Act exemption for its budget committee, and city officials deny any wrongdoing. 

The ACLU and the First Amendment Coalition filed their lawsuit Nov. 15.

“What I understand is this committee is the effective final word on the final budget,” David Loy, legal director at the First Amendment Coalition said, “that the final budget is often rubber stamped by the full city council and the committee is where the real work gets done.” The lawsuit says that the budget committee was created by formal action and has had continuing subject matter jurisdiction since 2018, which would subject it to the Brown Act.

While the committee’s members – Tyler Maxwell, Annalisa Perea, and Mike Karbossi – did not respond to a request for comment, Fresno City Attorney Andrew Janz released a statement to other news organizations, which claimed that the lawsuit was more about imposing a “radical unworkable process” on the city rather than transparency, because it was sent to the media before it was sent to the parties named in the lawsuit. I don’t follow the argument, but I’m not a keen legal mind. 

Outside the Lines

The Fresno Bee has a story about the sexual harassment faced by field working women. Over in Madera, the deal to save the Community Hospital has fallen through. Additionally, a pair of rural communities in Fresno were awarded $2 million for infrastructure, accessibility and safety improvements. Lastly, there is no trash collection on Thanksgiving Day. 

Block Beat

OLD TOWN CLOVIS: A new senior center opened yesterday. It is more than double the size of the old center and features a gym, billiard room, art room, commercial kitchen, conference hall and other classrooms. KMPH

NORTHWEST FRESNO: Veterans Boulevard officially opened for business yesterday following a grand opening ceremony. It was completed ahead of schedule and under budget and, the hope is, cut down on commute times in the area. KMPH

WEST FRESNO: The Boys & Girls Club on 930 Tulare St. suffered a peculiar crime: grass and mulch were snatched from their lawn two nights in a row. The Business Journal

Around Town

Apparently the businesses in downtown Fresno are doing a storefront decoration contest starting Nov. 25. A cheap ploy to lure your eyes and your wallets for Christmas shopping?  Yes, obviously. Downtown Fresno

Strummers has a Y2K night this Friday starting at 9 p.m. It’s so odd to see the aesthetics of your childhood spiral back into the public consciousness because of the nostalgia cycle. The clock keeps ticking and I draw closer every day to death. Instagram

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.