Fresno Famous

It isn't

homeless and supposed gangs. I've seen people step over a homeless guy to walk into Macy's in San Fran. The comment on gangs is unfounded.

There just aren't enough different reasons for a lot of people to hang out on that mall all at once. At least a different people from the people that already do hang out there.

Synergy is part of what has the Tower District thriving nearly every day of the week. It's rare that a night goes by without parking being at some kind of premium. All the businesses that are there compliment each other in some fashion. The other thing is that the Tower District is surrounded by neighborhoods and a college not too far away.

The Fulton Mall's synergy is wrapped around a lunch crowd and hispanic businesses. In order to attract people that aren't already there frequenting the mall several things need to be improved. From infrastructure improvement to signage to vacant buildings to housing and a new synergistic focus.

There are several things being planned that are aimed at attracting more people downtown.

Personally, I feel a series of festivals and old school stunts like pie eating contests and the like are social events that many people would enjoy. And these things need to be done consistently.

Currently there is a plot developing to build the worlds largest taco on the Fulton Mall running the length from Fresno to Tulare. A food stunt that would likely never be beaten and belong to FRESNO! More things similar to this need to belong to Fresno.

In the early 1920's the tallest skyscraper west of the Mississippi was built, in Fresno. Fresno owns that title. Fresno needs to be first at something again, and not stop striving for first.

Diablo

Hard Rock Cafe' or House of Blues

I think if the Mall got the new downtown Libarry built on it at one of the ends or if a Hard Rock Cafe' or House of Blues were built on it it would really help since shopping on that mall is a joke, I say that because on the Black Friday the super shopping day of the year I visited the mall and I wondered where were all the shopping Zombies that storemed the Walmarts around the nation, why were none of them marching on to the Mall to shop... because the Fulton Mall was never really that much of a place to shop at... in fact if you read some Fresno history the Fulton was a place for Bars and Pool Halls and other places for Entertainment and Fun and it is becoming that again, and thats were it needs to go. It's never going to have a Gottschalks or a JCpenny again but I think it could have a Hard Rock Cafe' or a House of Blues and a New Library.

Fulton Mall

Most of the successful downtown pedestrian malls in the US are either next to a major public transit hub, or a college campus. They also have a high concentration of development and activity surrounding.

Fresno doesn't really have any of that yet. We have something like 1 million square feet of vacant office space downtown, most of it right on the mall. If even half of it were occupied, the downtown economy would greatly improve. Also, additional development is needed on the west side of the mall, not just a lot of surface parking lots.

The homeless, the gangs.

Nicer shops and more customers won't show up until the homeless clear out, the younger kids who are gangbangers are outnumbered by kids who dress like gangbangers, and property/violent crime stats come down.

pictures aren't always worth a 1000 words

i see a bunch of pictures, but we don't have context for the locations, if they really work, or what it means for them to work.

fresno is different place. that doesn't mean that a pedestrian mall can't work, but it currently isn't working on a large scale. and i say that as a person who likes the fulton mall.