{"id":290081,"date":"2026-04-28T18:40:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T18:40:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/290081\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T18:40:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T18:40:09","slug":"downtown-fresno-partnership-takes-over-arthop-will-safety-improve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/290081\/","title":{"rendered":"Downtown Fresno Partnership Takes Over ArtHop. Will Safety Improve?"},"content":{"rendered":"

After a night of mayhem at the April 2 ArtHop, the Downtown Fresno Partnership says it has key changes in store for May.<\/p>\n

\"Portrait<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a more complete vision for a street that\u2019s got lots of eyes on it. That\u2019s the key to safety. That\u2019s the key to the feeling of safety.\u201d \u2014 Elliott Balch, president-CEO, Downtown Fresno Partnership<\/p>\n

A new permit held by the partnership means that for the first time the event\u2019s disparate attractions will be united, said the group\u2019s president and CEO Elliott Balch.<\/p>\n

He said the \u201cFulton Street Hop\u201d would be a collaboration between organizations long familiar with ArtHop.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

By dividing up leadership amongst vendors, food trucks, and artists, the event can close security gaps that allowed a stabbing and a massive brawl to occur in April, Balch said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a more complete vision for a street that\u2019s got lots of eyes on it. That\u2019s the key to safety. That\u2019s the key to the feeling of safety,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Downtown Partnership Divides Up Duties<\/p>\n

The partnership involving the Fresno Arts Council, Hella Fresno, the Bad Kids Club, Alley in the Valley, and Fresno Street Eats will spread out ArtHop\u2019s different attractions on Thursday, May 7.<\/p>\n

Fresno Street Eats is in charge of coordinating food trucks at the Brewery District and at the Cultural Arts District Park.<\/p>\n

The duo behind Hella Fresno would, along with the Fresno Arts Council, work with Fresno artists. Bad Kids Club and Alley in the Valley will work with vendors and performers.<\/p>\n

Mike \u201cOz\u201d Osegueda, president of Fresno Street Eats, said it\u2019s a good plan with everyone focusing on their specialties.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving a larger group of people all working toward the same goal is a good next chapter for this,\u201d Osegueda said.<\/p>\n

Available Leadership for ArtHop<\/p>\n

After street vendors were reunited with the formal ArtHop event, the lack of any official presence in large stretches of Fulton Street helped contribute to crime on ArtHop, said Fabio Linares, organizer with Bad Kids Club, a vintage clothing vendor and collaborative.<\/p>\n

He said at the April ArtHop, a DJ playing near the Social Security Building went well past 9 p.m. \u2014 the event cutoff.<\/p>\n

If organizers had followed the rules, he said he doubts the fight and the stabbing would have happened.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s kind of why I\u2019m in support of what the partnership is doing, what the Arts Council is doing,\u201d Linares said.<\/p>\n

For May, Linares will spread vendors between Inyo and Tulare streets, expanding from the normal 20 to anywhere from 50 to 100, he said.<\/p>\n

He said people know his face and know that when there is an issue in that area, they can turn to him.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere needs to be areas where there is someone in terms of leadership and in term of questions, et cetera,\u201d Linares said. \u201cI think that\u2019s what the partnership and the Arts Council \u2014 I know that\u2019s what they realize.\u201d<\/p>\n

Safety Goes Beyond a Police Presence<\/p>\n

Days after the April 2 stabbing and brawl downtown, along with a stabbing in River Park Shopping Center, Fresno Police Chief Mindy Casto held a news conference announcing a crime sweep<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In addition to seizing a cache of weapons and making dozens of arrests, police arrested six suspects in connection to the two stabbings.<\/p>\n

Casto also said increased police presence at ArtHop would help counter any fear created by the events.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just the stabbings, it\u2019s the fear created by those stabbings,\u201d Casto said.<\/p>\n

Safety goes beyond a police presence, though, said Balch.<\/p>\n

The footprint of the event will create clear sightlines for police and security, he said. Small details such as keeping garbage cans empty throughout the night plays a role in the perception of organization.<\/p>\n

He said for ArtHop to be successful, people need to feel safe.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat means not only security, but having spaces filled, and even keeping trash cans empty,\u201d Balch said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After a night of mayhem at the April 2 ArtHop, the Downtown Fresno Partnership says it has key…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":290082,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":["post-290081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/290082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}