Quote of the Week
“It appears that southeast Fresno and southwest Fresno is being screwed over and over again.”
—Councilmember Brandon Vang, speaking out against the latest effort to rezone a southside neighborhood for industrial use.
This Week in Fresnoland
Well, that got weird
Allegations of corruption, collusion and bad faith plagued a scheduled Fresno City Council vote during a heated clash over the Central Southeast Area Specific Plan, Fresnoland’s Pablo Orihuela reports.
The fight broke out Thursday during the regularly scheduled council meeting when Council President Mike Karbassi tried to postpone the vote in connection with a finger-wagging email threatening to sue the city if the vote proceeded as planned.
Attorney John Kinsey’s email came just minutes into Thursday’s meeting. Kinsey fronts a group of developers and their yearslong campaign to get about 50 acres of land – mostly along Elm Avenue in southwest Fresno — rezoned for industrial use.
In his email, the longtime lawyer shared his “concern” that the Elm landowners would sue for “significant” taxpayer dollars if the council went ahead with Thursday’s vote. He told the council to reschedule the Central plan vote for the same day as the landowners long-expected Elm Avenue rezone hearing.
Councilmember Miguel Arias called Karbassi’s move “dirty” and accused the council president of trying to curry favor with fat-cat developers and local political fixers amid Karbassi’s campaign for higher office at the Fresno County Board of Supervisors.
And Councilmember Brandon Vang lashed out at the idea of tying the contentious southwest rezone hearing to a planning hearing for neighborhoods miles away from Elm Avenue.
“It appears,” Vang declared, “that southeast Fresno and southwest Fresno is being screwed over and over again.
“Represent the people who elected you to this position,” Vang also said Thursday, “not the next position you’re seeking.”
Karbassi called his fellow councilmember’s claims out-of-line and unfounded and demanded Arias apologize to the whole council.
He didn’t.
November’s ballot could be crowded
The long-expected alternate plan to fund transportation projects in Fresno County for years to come finally emerged this week, officially kicking off the race between competing ballot measures — one backed by westside mayors and nonprofits, and the latest proposal, backed by transportation lobbyists.
Fresnoland’s Julianna Morano notes the original plan puts more money into public transit projects, while the latest plan spends more on fixing local roads, among other key details.
Lobbyist Henry Perea defended the group behind the plan released this week, describing it as a small group of transportation experts “who have spent many years working with elected leaders to build the transportation system of our County.”
But when asked about possible conflicts of interest between his committee members and their proposal project list, Perea dodged. Without providing evidence, he suggested the original committee might have conflicts of interest.
Why so silent?
In a recent interview with Fresnoland’s Diego Vargas, the president of the Fresno Unified school board acknowledged the district could have been clearer with the public when the trustees doubled their own pay last month — but says “I don’t think it was listed to intentionally confuse anyone.”
But at least Board President Veva Islas was willing to explain and defend her reasoning behind her Jan. 14 procedural vote that resulted in an enormous pay bump for the trustees.
Trustee Andy Levine was the only other elected board member willing to even acknowledge that the pay hike happened. Levine was also the only trustee to vote against the pay raise and one of just two who refused to take the money. (The other, district officials say, was Elizabeth Jonasson Rosas, who apparently also didn’t want to talk about not taking the money.)
The other four trustees — Susan Wittrup, Keisha Thomas, Claudia Cázares and Valarie Davis — all took the money and refused to talk about it ahead of a budget season that’s expected to get very ugly as districts across California begin announcing layoffs.
Fresno artists in limbo (again)
The dominos are already falling on the heels of a million-dollar theft scandal at the Fresno Arts Council and some of the earliest hits are landing in downtown Fresno.
Local artist hub Hella Fresno pulled the plug on studio space for their “heARTS of downtown Fresno” project, which paid local artists to teach classes in a neighborhood where the mayor’s office has been trying to jumpstart new growth for years, Julianna Morano reports for Fresnoland.
Hella Fresno isn’t the only organization now left searching for answers with zero percent of the funds they’d been promised in hand — and no detailed plans yet from the City of Fresno on how they’ll make artists and organizations whole, now that the city has taken the reins from the Arts Council.
“I’m always on this soapbox — a Measure P soapbox — of how great it is,” said Hella Fresno co-owner Jennie Guerrero. “I don’t know if I can be that way this year, and it kind of sucks.”
Community rallies around targeted immigrants
From organizing or joining homemade community-alert networks and donating food, clothes and money, many Fresno-area shopowners are finding ways to help their friends and neighbors as the Trump Administration’s anti-immigrant crackdown enters its second full year.
Fresnoland’s Gisselle Medina spoke with business owners like Jackelyn Madrigal, owner and creative force behind the Tower District’s Color Me Chula who said sometimes the only thing you can do to help is listen.
Since the final days of the Biden Administration and the rise of a second Trump White House, salons, barbershops, book stores and other neighborhood third-places have taken on new roles — information and reporting hubs monitoring immigration enforcement activities and handing out reliable information about the ever-diminishing legal options available to immigrants and their families.
“There’s been a lot of grief and all I can do is just hold space,” Madrigal said. “I don’t want to plant false hope, but I want to plant seeds to just reinforce that strength and that resilience.”
Outside the Lines
On this week’s podcast, Jordan and Danielle speak with Fresno City Councilmember Miguel Arias about the fallout from the alleged embezzlement of $1.5 million in Measure P arts funding from the Fresno Arts Council. Fresnolandia
Steve Green, the president and CEO of Hobby Lobby, spoke to more than 2,000 people at the annual Fresno Clovis Prayer Breakfast yesterday morning. Fresnoland
Amid the latest freeze warning, the City of Fresno will open its warming centers for the unhoused and others that need a place to warm up. ABC30
Clovis-born Alysa Liu brings home historic figure-skating gold medal at the Winter Olympics — and gives a shout out to Fresno! YourCentralValley
Two Central Valley truck-driving schools appeared on a federal list of closures that reportedly includes more than 550 commercial driving academies across the county. YourCentralValley
After more than three decades as “the face of weather, news, and humor in the Central Valley,” Kopi Sotiropulos plans to retire at the end of March. KMPH
Central Unified schools plan to explore adding Spanish and Punjabi dual-emersion programs. ABC30
The CEO of California’s contentious High-Speed Rail Authority is on leave after his arrest earlier this month in connection with a suspected domestic battery incident at his Folsom home. The Sacramento DA’s office has already dropped the case. The AP via KVPR
Efforts to improve access along the San Joaquin River got a $2 million boost. KMPH
Block Beat
WEST FRENO: The City of Fresno unanimously voted to approve funding for dozens of emergency shelter beds alongside Parkway Drive. Fresnoland
DOWNTOWN: The Historic Crest Theatre will host a free, all-ages red carpet premiere of the independent film The Chicano Story at 2 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 21. Historic Crest Theatre
DOWNTOWN: A new bar is opening inside a century-old home in Fresno. YourCentralValley
FRESNO STATE: Accusing Fresno State and the CSU system of playing a “bunch of lawyer games”, some Fresno State employees walked off the job. YourCentralValley
TOWER DISTRICT: Tickets are on sale now for a special screening and opportunity to meet some of the cast from the 90s classic ‘The Sandlot’ at the Tower Theatre
TOWER DISTRICT: Desmadres Con Las Comadres runs from noon to 4 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 22 at St. Dulce, 1445 N. Van Ness Ave. Fresno. The live music, 21-and-over event costs $20 at the door for 20 games of Loteria. St. Dulce
