Part of the RETAIL APOCALYPSE, just shitty landlords or both. This place is dead. And no, Halloween Superstore does not count!
There is not one tenant at the back of West & Shaw, now that Nina’s Bakery has moved (Remember when it was a Pioneer Chicken? No? Ok. I guess I am old then).
I know nothing of the landowner other than they are not into their property.
They seem content with their tenants closer to Shaw Avenue (Starbucks, Taco Bell, Broilers and Colorado Grill). Not giving two shits about how the property looks or what a blight it is to the neighborhood.
I have not seen one improvement to that building since the long-closed Chinese buffet place was put in. And just look at the lovely landscape:
It feels like we should be ripping the whole thing out and putting up a condo building, instead of another retailer that will move out in a year. This feels like the trend we should head for in Fresno. If the lot can not maintain a business, make it a residence. Infill it.
A park would be nice too but we know that ain’t happening.
Developers whine about Fresno’s Master Plan and how they want seemingly endless amounts of land to keep building track suburban houses. Yet, roaming around Fresno as I do for my Day Job, I see SO MUCH land being underused, misused, or not used at all, it makes me want to FREAKING FRESNO THE FUCK OUT!
So I started Dead Lot, a first in a hopeful series of post, in the faintest of hopes that it will spark something somewhere to improve Fresno’s lame negative space. Fresno has a lot of negative space.
Hell, I hear that Save Mart fixed their PA after my post, let’s see what other weird things we can get accomplished here.
Sometimes Fresno has to figure things out its own damn self.
That’s what Measure P is. Fresnans having to go around the Mayor and the City Council and get something done for Fresno when nobody else will.
Fresno is horribly behind the rest of the country when it comes to green space. At times we are the worst. The damn worst. Like, no other city in the County is worse, worse.
For a little numbers perspective on how bad we are:
A good piece by the @FresnoBee. The most jaw dropping stat:
Per capita spending on Parks: Fresno: $35.33. Bakersfield: $73.56. Sactown: $118.56.
Sactown spends so much more it isn’t even comparable and Bakersfield doubles us! Really!? BAKERSFIELD?! … Bakersfield? Fucking Bakersfield.
Aren’t we better than Bakersfield at, well, everything?! I guess not.
No on P People are just scared.
Having a completely funded Police and Fire force and occasionally filling in a pothole is all they care about. Apparently, that is all a city is good for.
The Mayor and all those that oppose Measure P do not trust me, don’t trust you. They think you can’t do two things. They think, if you vote yes on P, there is no way you have enough fire in your belly to vote yes for something else. That something else being more taxes to bolster Fire or Police.
If we really need to, we can vote yes for all the things. It’s fine. Please stop selling Fresnans short.
Best thing is, I don’t have to do anything but mark YES!
I won’t have to plan any of this. Won’t have to dig a hole or grade a field. Just fill in the box next to yes.
You might say I won’t even have to pay for it because there is no way in hell I am going to notice a 3/8 cent sales tax.
What does it matter that my table’s bill at Pismo’s is $141.85 instead of $141.03! I don’t know if that is the right math. I stopped fancy math learning around Freshman year at Bullard.
But that is pretty close to what it would look like, you get the point. It’s not going to be noticeable and it will do a lot of good for our city.
If nothing else. If you never vote. Vote for this!
On Tuesday. Walk in. Mark “Yes” on P. Get sticker. Walk out.
Then one day expect to find a trail or park where there wasn’t one before and you didn’t have to do a damn thing.
If we don’t vote yes for this now, Fresno will be stuck with the same amount of Parks. The same amount of sub-standard existing Parks. It will be that way for a long time.
You KNOW that our Council will not do anything on its own. You KNOW our current Mayor won’t do anything. You KNOW it will be more of the same.
We can not have “more of the same”!
Please let’s go around city leaders and get this done for Fresno our own damn selves! Vote “YES!” on P!
Fulton Street Party! Glad that Tioga is around, otherwise this might not have happened.
The Fulton Street Party is Saturday, celebrating one year of traffic returning to Fulton. It won’t be the hullabaloo that was last year’s party.
But thankfully, Tioga Sequoia Brewing pushes for something to happen and is making a day out of it, highlighted by the Battle of the Bands style competition happening all day with all local acts.
The two “best” bands will win slots at next year’s Grizzly Fest.
This will be a great snapshot of the state of Fresno’s music scene and it’s free to check out. Gaze at the flyer above for set times. I definitely have a couple picked out already.
Tioga will also have super fresh Fulton Street IPA (nice and hazy) flowing all day along, with other things going on within the block surrounding Tioga’s Beer Garden. Including the main stage for bands in the lot across the street from TS.
Sounds like a damn fine day to me. Hope I see ya there!
What do you not put in the blue bin? What goes in the trash? Sadly more than you think.
I have never considered recycling as a money-making endeavor, for cities. They are Government. They are supposed to help society do good things, make things better, even if it does not make money.
I am a dummy.
In the case of recycling, the City of Fresno and a lot of cities across the nation, for the most part, only accept recycled material they can make their money back on.
Recently, this reason has caused the city to accept less material in the blue bin.
If you’re in the County and use Republic Services or some other garbage dudes, these rules seem to apply the same, I was unable to find a definitive difference.
Things you can’t put in the blue bin but thought maybe you could (the bummer facts).
Plastic drinking cups (from places like Dutch Brothers, ect.)
They all go in the grey trash bin, in case you are wondering.
The plastic drinking cups and bottle cap thing threw me. The City of Fresno site says ALL plastic can be recycled, but I don’t think it has been updated in a while.
This sucks. I have been putting all those things listed (with the exception of pizza boxes) in the recycling bin. Now what?
Well, it apparently relates to something called “Operation Green Fence.” This was a thing to clean up the amount of recycling material that China takes in.
China was the main customer for most of the United States recycling materials. But for reasons, it is no longer profitable enough for China to take all our junk so they started weeding out the less profitable material.
That’s why things like bottle caps and plastic cups are no longer allowed in our recycling bins, it’s not profitable enough. You would think it would not matter, you pay decent money for the service, they should take all the recycling you can toss at them.
But, that is not the real world.
You and I may not like it but we are own on how to deal with much of the recycling. The City of Fresno can only do so much, I guess.
Pack in. Pack out.
What can we do?
Bring your own cup.
Places like Dutch Bros. encourages you to bring your own cup for them to use (since the drinks they put in plastic cups are the cups you can’t recycle).
You can also try to find a recycler in town that will take the plastic the city of Fresno won’t. I want to recommend some but I can’t because I have no knowledge of any. If they can’t make money back on it, why would they?
Buy reusable water bottles.
Even though you can still recycle plastic water bottles, maybe there are times you can lug around your own and reduce plastic production. Perfect for all those disgusting looking kombuchas you drink.
Does Fresno still recycle more than other cities?
We are supposed to be the top (per capita) recycling city in the country. Even if that is still true, it doesn’t feel like it anymore. If these rules apply to all cities, I guess we are cool.
I’d like to know we are working to find ways to take more stuff in the blue bin. Hopefully, Fresno is.
In the meantime, if I am not sure which bin my junk goes in, I will put it in the blue one and let them sort it out. Maybe there is the off chance it will get recycled, even if it does not make money.
Yo! I have some details you need for the Kelly Slater, World Surf League, Surf Ranch Pro. I really want to say it’s in Fresno. I can’t because, technically, it is in Lemore. But hey, it’s the Fresno region. So with all due respect to Lemoore, I might say the Surf Ranch Pro is in Fresno, once or twice in this post.
How is a pro surfing even being held outside of Fresno (errr, Lemoore)?
This is the second event held at the Surf Ranch. The first was the Founder’s Cup in May. Kelly Slater built the Ranch in secret as he fine-tuned the wave machine so that it could produce the perfect wave (or pretty close to it) for surfing. It’s now ready for regular competition.
This is a little of what it looked like when they tested out doing a surf event at the Ranch:
The inaugural Surf Ranch Pro is what’s next. Let’s figure out together what days we want to go.
When is the Ranch Surf Pro and what is the schedule?
It is a three-day event, which is pretty rad. Begins Friday, September 6th and goes through to Sunday, September 8th. Located at 18556 Jackson Ave, Lemoore, CA 93245. Or you could say it is just outside of Fresno, off Highway 41.
Friday Schedule:
The competition begins!
Gates open at 8:30 AM.
Surfing begins with the women’s comp at 9:00 AM, men begin at 12:30. There are a couple of hour-long breaks but it’s pretty much surfing all day. A day that ends at 8 PM.
Saturday Schedule: Gates open: 7:30 AM.
Ranch Pro competition continues. Surfing begins at 8:00 AM with the men’s. Women go from 3:00 – 5:30.
Concert at 7:30.
This is the night that Blink 182 Social Distortion will be playing. To you, this may mean the day to avoid because you don’t want to be just the girl at The Rock Show. Or this may be the day to make sure you are there to enjoy All The Small Things. The concert is included in your Saturday ticket.
Again, here is the breakdown of the schedule, if you need it.
Sunday Schedule: Gates open: 8:30 AM
Men’s and women’s quarter/semifinals begin at 9 AM.
Men’s and women’s semi/finals begin at 1:30 PM.
2018 Ranch Pro Men’s and Women’s Champion is crowned at 4 PM!
What kind of Ranch Pro ticket situation is there?
Surf Ranch photo by LAtimes.com
Ticket price. This is where people have been freaking out.
A single day General Admission Ticket is $100. That is the cheapest you can go. You can get your kid in (10 & under) for only $10 bucks. Or you can choose the full 3-day and only pay $199, $25 for a full pass for the kid.
This may sound shocking at first.
Especially if you are new to WSL events. But it is a legit pro event in a unique setting in your backyard, Fresno. It will be ok.
I am willing to bet that you will drop $100 going out that weekend, why not just go to the Surf Ranch Pro instead?
To ease some price pain, you can get 50% off GA tickets for Friday and Sunday if you use the promo code “local” at checkout.
If you want to do it up, take advantage of a rare inland surfing event in Fresno (whoops I did it again) and watch a pro surf event like a rockstar, the full VIP 3-day experience is $499.
Probably. Parking is shuttled from a nearish lot and is included in your ticket. Or you can pay $50 to VIP park. You also might convince a Lyft or Uber driver to take you there from Fresno and back but I dunno.
Answers to more of your event questions can be found here. Including camping and other frequently asked questions.
Surfers to watch making critical carves at the Surf Ranch.
The World Surf League is the premier league for surfing. It is legit, which makes it that much more awesome that is coming here. The next stop for the Tour after this is in France, for freaks sake!
The men’s leaderboard looks like this coming into the Ranch Pro. The Top Ten is dominated by Brazilians with Filipe Toledo leading the pack.
Leading the women is Austrailian, Stephanie Gilmore. Check out Steph going up against Tyler Wright in a competition from 2017:
DOES KELLY SLATER STILL SURF IN THE WSL?
Yes. But he has had to drop out of WSL events this year due to a foot issue that has been slow to heal. He has not been able to surf in the WSL events this year because of it. Unsure if he will be able to surf for the Ranch Pro. He is a surfing legend and I hope we get to see him out there somehow.
Sorta unrelated but check out pro skimboarder, Austin Keen, spending some time at the Surf Ranch and doing things at Millerton Lake I wish I did:
Things to do in Fresno or Lemoore.
If you have wandered into this blog via Google, have never been to the Central Valley and are wondering what to do in the area around the Surf Ranch, I can help.
Let’s keep this SUPER simple.
I have no recos’ for you in Lemoore. Sorry, Lemoore, but I want you to stay in Fresno. I am going to keep you close to Highway 41 because that is what is close to the Surf Ranch and it will be easy to come into town using it.
Tioga Sequoia Beer Garden picture by twpatterson.com.
Downtown Fresno is the closest thing to the Ranch. I would check out Tioga Sequoia Beer Garden for your beer drinking and hanging out. Food is just one street away from there with Hop PK.
Tower District in Fresno is another area to check out. Lots of options for eating and nightlife and beer.
River Park in Fresno, if you like to play it safe, do some chain shopping or chain eating. There are a few local places worth checking out though, namely Pismo’s and Westwood’s BBQ & Spice.
The food Fresno is famous for?
Tacos and tri-tip. You can start your tri-tip journey at Doghouse Grill (if you find parking) and start your taco journey just about everywhere, or ask Fresno Tacos.
Any more Fresno questions, feel free to ask me on Twitter or leave your question about the Ranch Pro or Fresno, in the comment section of this post.
Hope to see you out there and thank you Kelly Slater and the WSL for coming to Fresno! *Lemoore.
The Northern California brewpub chain, Pete’s Restaurant & Brewhouse, is coming to Fresno at The Marketplace.
That’s the drunk whispers I am hearing. Fresno is adding another brewpub style place to eat and drink and it’s called Pete’s Restaurant & Brewhouse.
I thought Pete’s was going to be on the empty pad along Herndon (near 99), next to the Target and the Panera. Thankfully, Fresnan reader, Redd, pointed out that it will be next to the new movie theater being built during phase two of construction:
It was rumored that Southgate Brewing in Oakhurst was going to open up a second location there but they are planning on building at Avenue 12 & Highway 41.
When Does Pete’s Restaurant & Brewhouse Open?
Summer. Summer of 2019. That’s all I got for now. Things change I suppose. Fall through. Get drunk, stumble around, knock over a few street signs, wake up in the morning and forget it signed a three-year lease. But it seems it will happen.
What Is This Pete’s Brewhouse All About?
I had never heard of this place before but they have 13 freaking locations. They all seem to center around Sacramento but they don’t actually have a Sacramento location.
What Kind Of Food?
It’s brewpub food, people. We all know what that is about. I have not looked at the menu yet but I feel like there will be sliders. Lots of versions of sliders. Okay now, let’s look at the menu and see.
I’m shocked. I didn’t see any sliders. Lots of food. A bit more extensive than the standard restaurant brewery. Sometimes that’s a good thing and sometimes too many dishes is a bad thing. At least there will be choices.
What Kind Of Beer?
For a beer geek like me, usually, the most exciting thing to look for is not the beer that the place makes but the guest taps. These are the beers they serve that are not the ones they make.
Usually, the beer that a brewpub makes is very generic. Just kinda OK. So the beer they offer other than theirs becomes the interesting part. Pete’s other locations seem to lean towards craft beer, which is a good sign.
They serve a lot of Norcal area beers so I assume the Fresno location will have locals like Tioga, Full Circle, House of Pendragon, Dust Bowl and maybe by that point Zack’s.
Fresno Is The New Brewpub Capitol.
Even though Fresno is still underserved for actual breweries, we seem to be doing just fine for brewpubs. We already have chains and homegrown.
We have Mad Duck at Campus Pointe. They are even opening a second location at Herndon & Marks that is being built as we read:
We also have Sequoias (wish we could still call it Butterfield’s) with a Tower District location and an NE Fresno location. There is also the chain, BJ Brewhouse at Fashion Fair.
Brewpub or Brewery? What Is The Difference?
If you’re kind of fuzzy from drinking the night before and were wondering what the difference between a brewpub and a brewery is, I think of it this way:
BREWERY:
Focused on making their own beer.
Distributes their beer to other places.
Packages their beer for stores.
Food is not offered or comes second to the beer.
BREWPUB:
Food is the main focus.
Beer is an afterthought or feels almost like a gimmick to get you in the door.
The beer that they brew is safe and generic, does not push the limits of brewing.
Very little to no packaging of the beer, little to no distribution.
We have roughly the same amount of brewpubs as we do breweries in Fresno. That is odd and I hope the brewery side passes up the brewpub side soon.
Until then I will still be sampling both because beer research is essential to local blogging. Says me.
![SRP_Logo-1024x581 A Guide To The WSL Surf Ranch Pro 2018 at Kelly Slater's In Kinda Fresno [Lemoore]](https://i0.wp.com/thefresnan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/SRP_Logo.png?resize=648%2C368&ssl=1){kind=logo}
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