FRESNO, Calif. (FOX26) \u2014 Fresno city leaders and police met with community members at the Tower Theatre to discuss proposed changes to the Tower District, giving residents, business owners and street vendors an opportunity to ask questions and share their concerns.<\/p>\n
Some changes are already visible, including newly painted loading zones. Other proposals could affect parking, lighting, street vending and policing in the popular entertainment district.<\/p>\n
The proposals include converting 18 parking spaces along Olive Avenue into loading zones Thursday through Monday, increasing lighting from 38 to 75 watts, relocating food vendors to a designated area and asking certain businesses to fund two police officers Thursday through Sunday. Another proposal would establish a 10 p.m. curfew for minors.<\/p>\n
The meeting at the Tower Theatre drew a large crowd, with nearly every seat filled as community members voiced a range of opinions about how the changes could affect the district.<\/p>\n
\u201cPolicing is a problem, not a solution,\u201d one attendee said.<\/p>\n
Antonio, a Tower District resident, suggested considering designated areas elsewhere in the city where people could drink.<\/p>\n
Other residents said the proposed changes may not address the district\u2019s deeper concerns.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don’t know necessarily if painting over parking and designated vendors are the issue,\u201d said Maya Alexander. \u201cYou know, deeper than that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The proposed curfew for minors also generated discussion. Some residents said stronger measures are needed to prevent underage drinking and keep young people safe at night.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have concerns being there should be a curfew,\u201d said Michelle Longoria, who lives in Fresno. \u201cI’ve seen that, I read about that, and I think that is needed in this area. There’s nobody at that age that needs to be out there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brian Vartanian, another Fresno resident, agreed that minors should not be in the district late at night.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that anyone under 18 should not even be down here at night,\u201d Vartanian said. \u201cThere’s no reason for them to be down here after 10 o’clockat night.\u201d<\/p>\n
The proposed relocation of street vendors to a designated area near the corner of Van Ness and Olive avenues was another point of concern. Some attendees questioned whether moving vendors farther away would hurt their businesses, while others urged city leaders to consider the challenges vendors already face.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you move them over that far, I would suggest moving them closer,\u201d one attendee said.<\/p>\n
Another person urged the city to stop targeting vendors, saying they already face difficult circumstances.<\/p>\n
Councilmember Miguel Arias said permitted vendors would be allowed to operate in the designated area without being charged for the opportunity to work there.<\/p>\n
Despite differing opinions, some attendees welcomed the opportunity to discuss potential solutions with city leaders.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it’s good we can have a forum to talk about what an actual solution could be,\u201d Alexander said.<\/p>\n
City leaders said some proposals could change based on community feedback. They hope to finalize the details by the weekend.<\/p>\n
The city will discuss the proposed street vendor location during its next City Council meeting. Officials are also working with the property owner to secure a lease for the proposed location and plan to enhance the area.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FRESNO, Calif. (FOX26) \u2014 Fresno city leaders and police met with community members at the Tower Theatre to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":503862,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":["post-503861","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\/503861","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=503861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503861\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/503862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=503861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=503861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=503861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}