Quote of the Week
“We hope you are entertained at the Rogue … but we also want you to get a little upset. We want to shake your confidence, unsettle you, horrify you, irritate you, show you the world from a perspective you’ve never dreamed of, and split your mind wide open so you leave the theater wondering what the hell you’ve been doing with your life. Because if art simply reminds you what you already think and feel, it’s wasting your time.”
– Jaguar Bennett, board president, Rogue Performance Fresno
This Week in Fresnoland
All politics can be local again.
Election Day is just two days away, and it’s hard to tell how much people don’t care.
News reports suggest voters could be scarce, even measured against the usual grim standards of most primary elections.
If you’re reading local policy newsletters on a Sunday morning, you’re likely above average in terms of political and social engagement (as well as taste, judgment and hotness). But if you haven’t filled out your ballot yet, I don’t blame you. The national political scene has gotten so viciously partisan and aggressively weird that even Mitch McConnell finally wants out.
But those lonesome voters punching a ballot in Fresno County could have an outsized influence on the local power and pocketbook issues culminating on this not-very-Super Tuesday.
And there’s still enough time to catch up on the local issues and vote responsibly.
Fresnoland’s 2024 March Primary Voter Guide has everything you need to know about local measures on the ballot, from Measure E, the Fresno State tax, and Measure B, the charter amendment tied to the naming of Yokuts Valley, to Measure A, a partisan power struggle over law enforcement elections.
Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer is up for re-election, along with several Fresno City Council incumbents and political rookies, and there are some hotly contested races for the Fresno County Board of Supervisors.
‘Too strange to accurately describe’
The 2024 Rogue Festival is underway today in the Tower District!
Fresno’s beloved fringe theater festival officially kicked off Friday after a teaser show Thursday night at The Howlin’ Wolf before a packed and playful crowd of well over 100 Rogue diehards.
“The Rogue Festival is a non-curated, non-juried, uncensored festival – we don’t select the acts in the festival, we don’t give prizes, and we don’t place any restrictions on performers,” said Jaguar Bennett, the Rogue Performance Board president. “Performers are selected by random lottery from a pool of applicants, we make no judgments about whether any shows are better than any others, and we have no editorial control over what performers do.”
If that formula, with all its glorious potential for theatrical madness, doesn’t sound like the best kind of danger, then probably it’s already too late for you. (Sorry.)
But if, instead, you happen to like delightful things and it’s your first time attending, don’t worry; they’re ready for you.
Navigating the “over 190 performances from 45 different performing groups, in nine different venues for six days of theater, music, dance, improv, comedy, storytelling, performance art, magic and the Rogue’s signature “acts too strange to accurately describe,” is only really daunting on paper.
But check out the aptly named “How to Rogue (It’s easier than it looks)” section of the festival program. You can find it here. (Or here, if you’d prefer.)
A new, monthly cash payment pilot is back.
More than a year after California shut Fresno County out of the state-run Guaranteed Basic Income program, a local effort to kick off the program launched this week, Fresnoland’s Julianna Morano reported.
No-strings-attached stipends of $500 will be available monthly to 150 county residents over 18 who live in Huron or southwest Fresno neighborhoods, according to the Fresno Economic Opportunities Commission.
More than half a dozen nonprofit foundations came together to organize Fresno’s pilot project, but it remains unclear whether the program will win over any local political support.
‘Right-sizing’ the portfolio for one of Fresno’s largest landowners?
Fresno’s powerful Assemi family says it’s “not getting out of agriculture,” but, rather, “right-sizing” their investment portfolio as they weigh the possible sale of hundreds of thousands of acres of rich farmland in California’s central San Joaquin Valley.
But a leaked document obtained by Fresnoland indicates the potentially massive sale could net the powerful family more than $1 billion, Fresnoland’s Gregory Weaver reported this week.
The proposed sale could involve about 28,000 acres of crop land, valuable water rights, and processing facilities like Maricopa Orchards and Touchstone Pistachio Company – the latter boasting annual revenues exceeding $170 million, Weaver reported.
The Assemi family has found itself in the headlines with increasing frequency since at least the summer of 2022 when The Fresno Bee published an investigation questioning why millions of dollars earmarked for Fresno’s downtown hospital wound up benefiting the more affluent Clovis hospital instead.
At the center of The Bee’s conflict-of-interest probe was family patriarch Farid Assemi, who stepped down from the hospital’s board of directors about eight months after The Bee published its investigation.
Then, last year, the Assemi family scored a legal victory over California farming giant Stuart Resnick in a court battle that exposed deep generational rifts within the family.
A day after the family’s case against Resnick ended, Farid Assemi’s son, Kevin, the ex Maricopa CEO, sued his family for control of many of the assets now potentially for sale, arguing that his aging father was suffering from diminished capacity.
La Hacienda residents score ‘huge win’
Calling it a “huge win,” residents of an embattled mobile home park in northeast Fresno celebrated a court ruling this week they say protects them from swift evictions and blocks the corporate owners from shutting the park down without city approval, Fresnoland’s Pablo Orihuela reported Friday.
Fresno County Superior Court Judge D. Tyler Tharpe upheld a prior ruling that grants the tenants of La Hacienda Mobile Estates protections against a park closure and swift evictions, said Mariah Thompson, a senior litigator for California Rural Legal Assistance.
Outside the Lines
More – or less – transparency at City Hall? The Fresno City Council overhauled its process for creating committees, Fresnoland’s Omar Shaikh Rashad reported, eight months after a Fresnoland investigation brought into question the city’s budget committee.
Getting young and diverse voters to show up in Fresno elections? Trong Yang reports on community organizations helping to encourage stronger turnout through creative methods for Fresnoland.
Fresno added 20 properties to their ‘slum enforcement’ list. Fresnoland updated this story featuring news and information helpful to renters as well as detailing the city’s latest efforts to hold property owners accountable.
Dale Messer, the first Fresno State football player to have his jersey number retired by the university, passed away. The former San Francisco 49ers defensive back was 86 years old, The Fresno Bee’s Robert Kuwada reported.
Speaking of Fresno State, the Collegian, the university’s student-run newspaper, came out against Measure E, the hotly debated sales tax measure that could raise over a billion dollars.
Friends and family launched a fundraiser for some of the Kerman farmworkers killed and injured in last week’s devastating crash in rural Madera County, The Fresno Bee reported. A van full of farmworkers from Kerman collided head-on with a pickup truck just as the sun was rising around 6:30 a.m. on a rural county road. Seven farmworkers died along with the pickup truck driver. GoFundMe.
Block Beat
CHINATOWN: AJ’s Commissary Kitchen opened this week, offering a new safe space for the city’s beloved mobile food vendors and caterers to prepare and package their food, and also provides space for vendors to store their carts. ABC30
MCLANE: Beautify Fresno invites the public to participate in a neighborhood clean up from 10 a.m. to noon, Saturday, March 2 at the corner of Shields and Cedar avenues. Register at beautifyfresno.org. Beautify Fresno
WOODWARD PARK: You are invited to Woodward Park’s BMX Race Track on March 17 for a St. Patrick’s Day bike race. Same-day registration opens at 9 a.m. March 17 and the race starts at 10 a.m. at the park, 7775 N. Friant Road. BMX Race
SUNNYSIDE: Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer on Monday is expected to announce a road-widening project on Peach Avenue, between Butler and Florence avenues, converting the road from two lanes to four over the course of the two-phase project.
EAST TOWER: The Senior Crochet Club meets each Tuesday in March from 10 a.m. to noon at the Blackstone Senior Center, 1525 N. Blackstone Ave. in Fresno. Ages 55 and older. No registration required. FRESNO PARCS
Department of New Construction
DOWNTOWN: Permits have been filed with the city to start a new ‘speakeasy’ bar called The Basement in the basement of the Sun Stereo Warehouse.
EINSTEIN PARK: Permits have been filed to convert the Armenian Church of Evangelical Christian Faith at Dakota and Millbrook Avenues to a 22-room assisted living facility.
WEST CENTRAL: Permits have been filed to build 48 new affordable apartments on the corner of Garland and Pleasant Avenues, near Dakota and West.
Around Town
Celebrate International Woman’s Day on Friday, March 8 at Moto Delicatessen and Bodega at 1916 N. Echo Ave. in Fresno High from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. The event will feature musical performances from Shaphill and DJ Soulflower, art curated by Erin Webster, a menu curated by Chef Lindsay, and treats from Breadroom Bakery.
The second annual Great Easter Egg Hunt is set for 11 a.m. Saturday, March 23, at Einstein Park, 3566 E. Dakota Ave. in Fresno. Kids will hunt over 3,000 Easter eggs and get a picture with the Easter Bunny—family games and free lunch available (while supplies last). CITY HALL
Superhero acting legend Lou Ferrigno will visit Legends Comics and Games, 1752 Clovis Ave., in Clovis from noon to 2 p.m. Sunday, March 10. The actor and retired bodybuilder is perhaps best known for playing the title role in the 1970s television show The Incredible Hulk. LEGENDS COMICS
The Fresno community is invited to celebrate emergency first-responders during the Community Heroes event from 4 to 6 p.m. Friday, March 8 at Quigley Park, 808 W. Dakota Ave. Connect with resource vendors, meet first responders, and enjoy thrilling carnival games. It’s a day of community, safety, and fun for everyone! All are welcome. No registration required. Community Heroes
Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer will be the keynote speaker during the annual State of Downtown event, which runs from 4 to 7 p.m. Friday, April 19 at Warnors Theatre, 1400 Fulton St. Downtown Fresno
