![\"city](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/IMG_9750-scaled-e1781035130936-1200x496.jpg\")
\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
A view looking Southeast on Fulton Street in Downtown Fresno. Photo by Ben Hensley<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tpublished on June 9, 2026 – 2:17 PM Fulton Street in Downtown Fresno was recently ranked No. 2 on a statewide survey of the historic downtown districts Californians most want to see revived, highlighting both continued nostalgia for the city\u2019s urban core and optimism about its future.<\/p>\n The survey, conducted by financial media company MarketBeat, surveyed over 3,000 respondents to find which historic Main Streets and downtown districts they would most like to see restored<\/a>. Fresno ranked behind Stockton\u2019s Historic Downtown and Weber Avenue, with Bakersfield\u2019s Chester Avenue and Marysville\u2019s D Street Historic District rounding out the top four.<\/p>\n For Elliott Balch, president and CEO of the Downtown Fresno Partnership, the ranking reflects long-standing public attachment to Downtown Fresno \u2014 but also progress already underway.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s been a lot of focus on events in the public area,\u201d Balch said. \u201cEvents play the role of the anchor business, anchor tenant, that helps bring foot traffic to the area, which then small businesses can benefit from.\u201d<\/p>\n Balch said Fulton Street\u2019s reopening to vehicles in 2017, infrastructure improvements and increased maintenance have all contributed to downtown\u2019s evolution over the last decade. The city worked to rebuild fountains and streetscape elements during the Fulton Street project, while the Downtown Fresno Partnership worked with the city to improve upkeep, including more frequent pressure washing.<\/p>\n He also pointed at efforts to highlight local businesses and entrepreneurs through storytelling and events, adding that those efforts have helped reconnect residents with Downtown Fresno.<\/p>\n The flexibility of the area has also played a role, with Balch adding that the opportunity to have sections of Fulton Street regularly close and reopen for ArtHop and other events has helped maintain both vehicle- and foot-traffic in the area.<\/p>\n \u201cWe wanted the flexibility to make the street work at different times of day and week,\u201d Balch said. \u201cMost of the time, Fulton is open so businesses can be seen and accessed. But for special events, that flexibility lets us create more programming.\u201d<\/p>\n Balch said taxable sales on Fulton increased nearly three-times higher than the increase seen on nearby Kings Canyon between 2015 and the street reopening, pointing to measurable momentum downtown.<\/p>\n The addition of food-retail hubs like The Garage<\/a>, entertainment downtown including the Fresno Grizzlies and recent return of the Fresno Falcons<\/a> and a new outdoor drinking zone ordinance<\/a> in Downtown add to atmosphere, especially on days that the street is shut down for events.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve designed a street that\u2019s always pleasant to walk on, and we see that in how people show up,\u201d Balch said.<\/p>\n \t\t\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A view looking Southeast on Fulton Street in Downtown Fresno. Photo by Ben Hensley published on June 9,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":353989,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":["post-353988","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\/353988","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=353988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353988\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/353989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Written by Ben Hensley<\/a><\/p>\n