fresno elections 2008

I believe Mayor Autry’s fountain district concept has merit and should be investigated. However, the development of such a district should be done in the context of a bigger, strategic effort for the area.

I am a strong advocate for the revitalization of downtown Fresno but I do not believe in “silver bullet” fixes for the area. Unfortunately, our downtown has deteriorated beyond the repair of any one project, no matter how big or small. I believe it is time to get back to the “basics” of downtown redevelopment and employ the tactics that have worked well for other large cities that have brought back to life downtown areas that were as bad as, or worse, than Fresno’s downtown. These include San Diego, San Jose, Pasadena, Portland, Cleveland, and Charleston. Some of those “basic” tactics include:

Removing Barriers and Encouraging 24 Hour Uses. Our limited resources should be used to support businesses that will add to the entertainment and night life in downtown Fresno. When someone proposes opening a downtown business that will increase evening activity, they should receive the highest priority for city staff assistance and experience expedited processing of permits and licenses. When the business opens, I will be present at grand openings to use the public relations resource of my office to let the community know about the good things that are happening.

Programmed Activity and Marketing. Foot traffic is the key ingredient for a successful downtown. Our downtown area needs constant, well-managed activity on the Fulton Mall. Music, festivals, sidewalk sales, holiday activities, art shows, car shows, and ethnic celebrations attract thousands of people to downtowns around the country and can generate the kind of activity that can support retail, restaurants and music clubs from people throughout the San Joaquin Valley. Downtown’s activities, its historic buildings, the urban environment, and the multicultural atmosphere should be built upon and marketed to make downtown a destination in which people want to visit, live and work. A reformatted business assessment district and/or a property based improvement district is in development and can fund these ongoing activities.

Development and Promotion of Downtown Districts. Downtown districts are an effective tool that has been used to revitalize downtowns in major cities across the U.S. Fresno’s downtown districts need to be clearly defined and have their own unique guidelines that build on the strengths of each area and encourage appropriate investments and growth. Each district should have its own graphic identity marked throughout the area on banners and signage so that people know where they are at any time. This will help make downtown Fresno better understood and more accessible to Fresnans and other visitors.

Community leaders and property owners are banding together to create the Cultural Arts District in downtown Fresno. In my first year as Mayor, I will make a major push to ensure the district is formed and fully functioning. We can use the development of the Cultural Arts District as a model for the development and promotion of other districts in the Downtown Triangle.

Façade Improvement Program – Cities around the country have used façade programs as a cost-effective way to improve the historic “feel” of their downtowns. This effort will result in the re-use of second floors as lofts or offices, which adds to the number of people living and working in downtown.

Parking. We need to remove the existing barriers to downtown patrons. For example, parking meters should not be enforced at night. However, meters are a helpful tool to keep the best spaces open for customers during the daytime. Daytime employees should be directed to park in garages and lots. People who park in garages should get discount coupons for various downtown merchants, which will help offset the cost of parking and will promote downtown businesses.

Downtown Directional Signs. Great downtown directional signage has been discussed for years, yet it has not been implemented. Signage is an effective tool for downtown redevelopment that can be implemented quickly and inexpensively.

Vacant Building Code. The City’s “vacant building” code needs to needs to be updated to give the City more authority to require negligent property owners to fix up or sell their buildings in a shorter period of time.

Residential Development in and Rejuvenation of Neighborhoods Surrounding Downtown. It is well known and widely discussed that a key to downtown Fresno’s turnaround is residential development. As people move into downtown, commercial and retail development will follow. When you consider the projects that are planned or are in development in downtown Fresno, there are approximately 700 to 1,200 residential units being proposed. That’s an important step in the right direction, but it is still a long way from creating a critical mass of downtown living.

In addition to supporting residential development in the heart of downtown Fresno, I propose focusing on rejuvenating the local school-based neighborhoods within the downtown freeway triangle, including Jefferson, Yokomi and Lowell neighborhoods, as well as the neighborhoods that surround the downtown like Hildalgo, Rowell, Jackson, Muir, Anthony, Webster, Columbia, Lincoln, King and Kirk. In doing so, we will be positively impacting 15,000 to 20,000 residential units around downtown and will create more opportunity for commercial and retail development in downtown.

Infrastructure. If we want a thriving downtown, the City must ensure the infrastructure is in place to support it. Based on the information I’ve received from city officials and downtown developers, our water and sewer infrastructure in downtown Fresno is aging and needs significant upgrades. Making those kinds of investments requires advanced planning and budgeting. I will begin the work now to ensure the infrastructure is in place to support and sustain the comeback of downtown Fresno.

Coordination of Efforts. The downtown Fresno “Triangle,” as defined by Freeway 41, Highway 99, and 180 is two square miles, which is a very large area for a downtown. There are a lot of agencies, non-profits, neighborhood associations, and property owners that are encompassed in the downtown Fresno area, and there are many well-intentioned efforts under way by those organizations to rejuvenate downtown. However, the efforts lack coordination and an effective across-the-board strategy. As the Mayor, I will work hand-in-hand with the Chairperson of Fresno’s Redevelopment Agency board and staff and the City staff to make sure our efforts are coordinated and leveraged in order to get the best results for the people of Fresno.

In general, I believe the City should be willing to help defray the cost of infrastructure to incentivize downtown redevelopment. I believe those investment decisions should be based on well-thought-out criteria and locally adopted policy. Unfortunately, the City of Fresno does not have a policy or clearly defined priorities in place to guide investment decisions like the one proposed by Forest City. The first step should be to develop policy and then evaluate Forest City’s proposal against the investment criteria set forth in the policy. This approach will take a little more work up front by our elected officials and staff, but it will serve the City and our downtown redevelopment plans well down the road. We have very limited resources for these efforts. We must do everything we can to make sure we get the greatest possible (and measurable) impact from our investments.

Rejuvenating our aging neighborhoods and reducing the concentration of poverty in those neighborhoods is extremely important. According to research compiled by the Brookings Institution, Fresno has the highest number of neighborhoods in concentrated poverty of any other large city in the United States. We cannot be a top-tier city in California if we do not address the conditions in these neighborhoods. The No Neighborhood Left Behind project implemented by Mayor Autry is a first step that is helping to address the basic infrastructure in 71 of Fresno’s oldest neighborhoods. However, there is so much more to do.

I have been working with business and community leaders in southwest Fresno on a demonstration project called the “93706 Asset Map” that will serve as a model for rejuvenating aging neighborhoods in south and central Fresno. The 93706 Asset Map will result in an economic development plan that is customized to the unique assets of the 93706 area. The revitalization effort in the El Dorado Park neighborhood is another good example that can be used as a model for other parts of the City. The guiding principles of these projects are that (1) there are no “silver bullets” to improving distressed neighborhoods, and (2) positive, sustainable improvements to neighborhoods have to start at the grass-roots level and build from there. I will institute this approach to neighborhood redevelopment on a broad scale and will encompass other areas of the city impacted by concentrations of poverty.

Some of the obstacles to revitalizing our older neighborhoods are outdated planning policies. We must make sure that our land use plans support the revitalization goals. Unrestricted development can hurt our efforts. When the City demands quality for our neighborhoods, investment will follow.

Regarding large-scale versus small-scale efforts, as outlined above, I believe the most successful approach starts at the grass-roots level. However, once that foundation is in place and a vision and plan are developed for the area, large-scale investments from the private sector will be required to implement the plan.

There are three important steps the City of Fresno needs to take in the next administration to prevent sprawl.

Implement the General Plan. This is a must. The General Plan accommodates 75% of our city’s growth over the next 20 years within our current urban boundary that was established in 1983. We’ve got to maintain our commitment to implementation of the General Plan.

Work with Surrounding Communities to Adopt Greenbelts and Clearly Defined Urban Boundaries. It is imperative that the City of Fresno work with its neighboring cities to adopt clearly defined urban boundaries and promote “greenbelts” that separate our communities from one another. Otherwise, we are in danger of creating “run on” cities – a sprawling metropolitan area with no distinguishable boundaries.

Support and Implement Policy Recommendations from Long-Term Planning Efforts. There are some unprecedented, long-term planning efforts under way in Fresno and the San Joaquin Valley right now. They include the Regional Blueprint, the Fresno Activity Centers Study, the Public Transportation Infrastructure Study, the South East Growth Area, and the Metro Rural Loop feasibility study. These planning efforts will be completed within the next 18 to 36 months and have the potential to help shape the development of the four-county Central San Joaquin Valley for the next 50 years. It is imperative that the next Mayor of Fresno support the completion of these plans and then put into place the policies needed to implement these plans. I am not the type of leader who lets plans sit on shelves. I will ensure that we move from the planning stages to the implementation stages. We will have a window of opportunity in the next administration to preserve transportation corridors, agricultural land, and urban boundaries. Making those decisions today will serve our community and region for fifty years or more.

Increasing employment and educational opportunities in Fresno will have the single biggest and most lasting impact on the quality of life in our community. Jobs and education are like dominos: low education rates lead to high unemployment and high poverty rates. High unemployment and poverty rates lead to high crime rates. Therefore, the most effective way to lower the City’s crime rates and keep them down is to improve employment and educational opportunities in Fresno.

I have dedicated the last ten years of my career to developing and implementing creative solutions to Fresno’s unemployment problem. Based on that experience, I developed a five-point plan for job creation and a thriving economy. You can view the complete plan at www.ashley4mayor.com. The plan includes the following:

• Expand Vocational Training – The fastest way to stimulate economic growth in Fresno is to fill the jobs that are available today. Literally thousands of jobs are going unfilled every day in Fresno because of the mismatch between the skills of the available workforce and the skill requirements of the open jobs. As Mayor, I will work with the education and training communities to put a comprehensive system in place to ensure Fresno’s workforce is job ready.
• Grow Fresno’s Existing Businesses – I believe Fresno’s economic development resources should be spent primarily on supporting local businesses and have proposed several specific ways in which the City and its economic development partners can support the growth of local firms.
• Prepare and Preserve Industrial Land – We run the risk of losing our most promising businesses to other communities because of the lack of “shovel ready” industrial park space. This long-standing roadblock needs to be removed.
• Spark Downtown Revitalization – Fresno’s downtown is its calling card. It is impossible to meet our long-term goals in job creation and economic development without a thriving downtown. Please see my recommendations on downtown redevelopment listed above.
• Support the Cultural Arts and Creative Community – To be economically competitive, Fresno must have a thriving cultural arts sector to develop, retain and attract our brightest talent. As the Mayor of Fresno, I will be a champion for Fresno’s cultural arts and will work with the leadership from the cultural arts community to establish a long-range plan to expand and strengthen the sector.

One of the most important quotes from Mayor Autry has been, “We can’t arrest our way out of our crime problem.” We need to have a strong police department with the best trained and equipped officers possible. When the “hammer” of law enforcement is needed, I want our police officers to respond as swiftly and effectively as possible. I believe Chief Dyer and his team are doing just that. To make a long-term impact on crime, we must do a better job of offering “hope” – enhancing our community’s prevention and intervention efforts. That is best accomplished through community based partners, education, and employment opportunities.

For more information on my public safety plan, please see www.ashley4mayor.com (select “Policy Papers”).

I support the implementation of a plan to safeguard the community’s trust in law enforcement. Within the first 100 days of my administration, I will convene a group that includes the President of the City Council, the Chief of Police, the President of the Fresno Police Officers Association, and three community members to seek agreement on a mechanism that enables us to safeguard the community’s trust. The proposed independent police auditor is one model that we will examine, but I would like to explore other models to accomplish the same objective. Ultimately, we must come up with a solution that succeeds in safeguarding the community’s trust in law enforcement and that will be supported by the City Council.

Yes, I believe the amount of parks and open space should be expanded in Fresno. Providing a good quality of life for its residents is the primary reason that cities exist. Economic opportunity and safety are high priorities, but recreation and culture are also extremely important and support improvements in the economy and public safety. Fresno should provide recreational opportunities to our citizens and must be competitive with the amenities that other cities offer.

I have been working with the Regional Jobs Initiative and Tree Fresno on a project called “TreeTOPS” (Trees, Trails and Open Space) that seeks to develop a metropolitan trail system throughout the City of Fresno that would link to other trails in the area and eventually connect to regional trails leading to the national parks. I am very optimistic about the potential of this project and will work to bring it to fruition as the next Mayor of Fresno.

I’m also encouraged by the improvements and new parks that the City’s Parks and Recreation Department have advanced in the last several years. The Department’s vision of becoming the outdoor recreation capital of California is an inspiring one, and I will provide my full support to their efforts.

I will work with the City Council and staff to ensure the City’s Parks Master Plan is updated so that the appropriate policies are in place to support the expansion of parks and open space in our community.

As usual, finding the funding necessary to support the development of these amenities in our community will be a challenge. We will work with our existing resources that include development fees, Quimby Act resources (state funds), and some Measure C funds (provides for trails projects). My administration will aggressively pursue state and Federal grants. We will also look for creative partnership opportunities with school districts for mutual use and shared maintenance agreements in order to open up hundreds of acres of existing green space for our community.

The City’s general fund has increased by 45% since 2002 from $173.6 million to $251.1 million in 2008. While the economy has slowed and the years of double-digit revenue growth are gone, the general fund has leveled off at revenue levels that will be higher than just a few years ago. That suggests to me that there are still sufficient resources to meet our expenses within City Hall. To make sure our current revenues are used most effectively, there are several measures I will implement.

First, I will initiate an efficiency review of city departments within the first 100 days of my administration. It has been approximately 5 to 6 years since such an evaluation was conducted. I am confident there are cost savings and efficiency improvements that will be found.

Second, I will institute multi-year budgeting. It is imperative that we begin to budget real costs of equipment, raises, borrowing and facilities over time. This approach to city finances will reduce the annual bickering over the budget and will help to constrain spending. This is an example of the “best practices” approach to governance that I will bring to City Hall.

Third, I will ensure the City of Fresno is utilizing e-government wherever possible to improve efficiencies and customer satisfaction. The citizens of Fresno should be able to spend their time on-line, not in a line.

Fourth, I will direct city departments to utilize volunteers wherever possible to maximize the efforts of city personnel. For example, Fresno Citizens Corps has 48 volunteers working across the community through the Americorp Safe and Proud Neighborhoods initiative to support our police department and make sure our city personnel are operating at their highest and best use.

Fifth, as we improve our urban neighborhoods, we will reduce the demand on city services and increase revenues from property taxes, redevelopment tax increment, and business license taxes. Improving the overall health of our community will result in increased revenues.

Finally, if revenues take a dramatic and prolonged downturn and the above measures do not yield sufficient savings, I will prioritize programs and services and make cuts where necessary. I would not cut basic and essential services, but would rather look to cut programs that have been initiated during good financial times that can be suspended during challenging economic times.

The above actions will help address revenue shortfalls for the ongoing operations of City Hall. In addition, as the Mayor of Fresno, my administration will aggressively pursue private foundation, state and Federal grants for special initiatives. Finding creative solutions to persistent problems and attracting private and public grant resources to implement those solutions is precisely what I’ve been doing for the last ten years. Through my past experience as the Director of the Central Valley Business Incubator and my current role as the Director of the Regional Jobs Initiative and the Governor’s Partnership for the San Joaquin Valley, I have been involved in attracting literally millions of dollars in private foundation, state and federal grants for small business support, increasing vocational training, helping to clean our air, improving our roads, and helping to meet our water needs.

I support the creation of a special agency for utilities because I believe that a single-purpose agency will do a better job in the long-run of managing the utility infrastructure and providing quality services as efficiently as possible for the citizens of Fresno. However, this agency should be developed with careful consideration. The development of the agency will represent the single largest asset transfer in the history of the City of Fresno. If the groundwork isn’t properly laid, we could end up with an ineffective, bureaucratic organization that does not work well with the City of Fresno. Assurances need to be put into place to make sure that doesn’t happen.

The first and most important thing we can do to improve Fresno’s image is to be excellent in all that we do at City Hall in our community. I have two degrees in marketing and have run the marketing departments for three local companies. I have extensive experience in public relations and communications and can say with certainty that there is no substitute for excellence when it comes to image, branding and marketing. A clever slogan or well funded advertising campaign may get some results in the short-term, but you cannot change the image of a product in the long-term without being able to deliver on quality and excellence. The same principle applies to branding for cities and regions. As we push towards excellence within City Hall and as we partner with other agencies to make improvements in regional issues like air quality, education, water, and transportation, we will do so knowing that it is a part of our long-term strategy to improve Fresno’s image.

As we are making those improvements, we will celebrate our accomplishments. I will work closely with the Fresno Convention and Visitor’s Bureau, Fresno State, the business community, and the cultural arts sector to build and implement a sustainable campaign to promote our region and to attract visitors. I will also use the public relations opportunities that come with the Mayor’s office to promote our accomplishments in innovation, business, arts, athletics, water technology and clean energy, and education. I will do my best to make sure that everyone in the community is aware of our individual and collective accomplishments.