'Sin City' changes will take a village

Published online on Saturday, Oct. 31, 2009

City leaders have been trying to figure out what to do with "Sin City" since the 1980s, when paint started peeling on its ticky-tacky apartments and Fresno State students fled to better digs.

No surprise there. You don't lift up a poor neighborhood by playing around the edges with good-enough-for-Fresno ideas. Especially an area that was butt ugly from the start.

So even though the ink hasn't dried on the latest land-use plans for the neighborhood officially known as El Dorado Park, my advice to City Hall is to get serious about rebuilding the gritty blocks west of Bulldog Stadium -- by collaborating with Kathy Garabed, Stan Spano and others who have shown it can be done.

Garabed is the director of Stone Soup, a nonprofit that has lit the path of success for Southeast Asian immigrants looking to move out of El Dorado Park. Spano is a developer whose wife, Darlene, taught many low-income children during her 32 years at Birney Elementary School.

Garabed's proposed centerpiece for El Dorado Park's transformation is a three-story, 21,000-square-foot Early Education and Cultural Center on half of the property Stone Soup owns on Bulldog Lane.

Yes, the economy is tough. Yes, the center -- which would include a Hmong Museum and a roof-top amphitheater -- is estimated to cost $8 million.

But, you should see the Arthur Dyson-drawn plans, which incorporate the latest green technology and reflect traditional Hmong culture. Build this "capstone," says Garabed, and you can turn "Sin City into Eden."

Money for the design was provided by First 5 Fresno County, which could be a source of construction funding as well. Garabed envisions the center as a site for job training, and that opens the door to government grants. She also hopes that Fresno State will help out. Many of the university's graduates have interned in Stone Soup's education programs.

"We need something here that will raise the bar and bring people from all over the city," Garabed says. "The children need to see successful role models in their neighborhood."

Spano proposes "S Village," a 400-apartment community for low-income young families and senior citizens. The nonprofit village would have a health clinic, child-care and both academic and vocational classrooms.

"My wife used mentors in her work and had a lot of success," Spano says. "What I have in mind is that the families will be on one half of the village and the seniors on the other half. The seniors that are capable will pair off with families and be mentors. And, if a senior becomes ill, the adult member of the family can assist them.

"Our goal for the young families is to help with their education. We see them being here for a period of time -- until they make enough to buy a house."

Let's cut to the bottom line.

Stone Soup's Early Education and Cultural Center fits the city's new land-use plan. If it raises the money, the building is a go.

But, to make the village a reality, the city likely would have to approve El Dorado Park as a redevelopment area. And it would have to invoke eminent domain if owners of existing apartments aren't willing to sell to Spano.

One more thought: Why doesn't Fresno State participate in the restoration by teaming with a developer to build faculty housing in the neighborhood?

Subsidized housing is a sure-fire way to recruit up-and-coming professors and faculty presence would be a big plus for El Dorado Park.

These are all tough assignments. But, if completed, they would help a thousand times more than a fast-food joint and Starbucks.