{"id":77274,"date":"2025-12-01T22:02:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T22:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/77274\/"},"modified":"2025-12-01T22:02:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T22:02:08","slug":"mariposa-plaza-reopens-with-new-stages-seating-and-ice-rink","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/77274\/","title":{"rendered":"Mariposa Plaza Reopens With New Stages, Seating, and Ice Rink"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After $4.3 million and two years of renovations, Mariposa Plaza in downtown Fresno has reopened. City officials held a ribbon cutting Monday morning and expect big things.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI anticipate and expect that this plaza will be the busiest outdoor plaza in the city of Fresno,\u201d Fresno City Councilmember Miguel Arias said.<\/p>\n<p>The first event is the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fresnoahf.org\/mariposawintervillage\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Winter Village<\/a>, featuring a public skating rink opening Friday. The plaza is on Fulton Street, across from the Pacific Southwest Building.<\/p>\n<p>Mariposa Plaza Locator Map<\/p>\n<p>Mayor Jerry Dyer sees the renovated plaza as a place to host events and gather.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt will be a place of vibrancy, a place of nightlife and, again, a place of entertainment,\u201d Dyer said.<\/p>\n<p>The money comes from a larger $65 million state Transformative Climate Communities grant.<\/p>\n<p>The renovated plaza, closed since November 2023, features two elevated stages; planter boxes that double as seats with mosaic tiles; a power supply for events; and new shade structures.<\/p>\n<p>The public can reserve the stages through the city\u2019s parks department.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/gvwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/The-reopened-Mariposa-Plaza-features-two-stages-with-shading.jpg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-221518\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/The-reopened-Mariposa-Plaza-features-two-stages-with-shading-1024x686.jpg\" alt=\"The reopened Mariposa Plaza features two stages with shading\" width=\"1024\" height=\"686\"  \/><\/a>The reopened Mariposa Plaza features two shaded stages. (GV Wire\/David Taub)<br \/>\nPart of Downtown Revitalization<\/p>\n<p>Dyer said the plaza is just one aspect of improving downtown. His mantra since taking office in 2021 has been \u201cgreat cities have great downtowns.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The city will break ground on two new parking structures \u2014 a 600-space garage at Tuolumne and Fulton streets later this month and a 900-space garage at Inyo and H streets across from Chukchansi Park next year.<\/p>\n<p>Dyer said several businesses have expressed interest in locating downtown.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe more people you attract to this location, the better it is for businesses. And we want to make sure those businesses have customers, and that\u2019s the purpose of the plaza,\u201d Dyer said.<\/p>\n<p>To keep the plaza free of loitering and the homeless, Dyer said bicycle police units will regularly patrol the area. City ambassadors will also monitor the plaza.<\/p>\n<p>The plaza has long been a place for free speech, and the city expects that legacy to continue. A historical marker notes a labor free-speech fight at the location in 1910.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/gvwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/New-planters-at-Mariposa-Plaza-in-downtown-Fresno-includes-artfully-designed-areas-to-sit-and-a-historical-placard.-_1280X720.jpg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-221514\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/New-planters-at-Mariposa-Plaza-in-downtown-Fresno-includes-artfully-designed-areas-to-sit-and-a-hist.jpeg\" alt=\"New planters at Mariposa Plaza in downtown Fresno includes artfully-designed areas to sit, and a historical placard\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\"  \/><\/a>New planters at Mariposa Plaza in downtown Fresno include artfully designed seating areas and a historical marker. (GV Wire\/David Taub)<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/gvwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Fresno-workers-continue-to-construct-a-public-ice-rink-scheduled-to-open-Dec.-5-2025-at-the-Mariposa-Plaza-in-downtown-Fresno.jpg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-221517\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Fresno-workers-continue-to-construct-a-public-ice-rink-scheduled-to-open-Dec.-5-2025-at-the-Mariposa.jpeg\" alt=\"Fresno workers continue to construct a public ice rink, scheduled to open Dec. 5, 2025 at the Mariposa Plaza in downtown Fresno\" width=\"1024\" height=\"686\"  \/><\/a>Fresno workers continue constructing a public ice rink scheduled to open Friday, Dec. 5, 2025, at Mariposa Plaza in downtown Fresno. (GV Wire\/David Taub)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After $4.3 million and two years of renovations, Mariposa Plaza in downtown Fresno has reopened. City officials held&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":77275,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":["post-77274","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\/77274","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=77274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77274\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}