This Week in Fresnoland: A Fresno boomerang on a quest for better transit

Good morning.

The Fresnoland team continues its Measure C sprint, supported in part through the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism.

This week in Fresnoland, Cassandra also wrote about how the Clovis City Council voted on Nov. 1 to reduce its sphere of influence by 1,000 acres because a developer discovered a habitat of California tiger salamanders — which are threatened in the Central Valley.

Dympna wrote about how residents of Fresno County rural areas struggle to accomplish basic tasks because of a lack or insufficiency of public transit.

Danielle wrote about whether Fresno County is ready to stop building freeways.

Do you love the public service journalism Fresnoland provides? Can you help Fresnoland meet our goal of raising $18,000 by December 31st? Donate here today. (Fresnoland is an independent nonprofit separate from the Fresno Bee, and we rely on donors like you to survive!)

This is Dympna Ugwu-Oju, editor of Fresnoland.

Measure C — a half-cent sales tax dedicated to funding new roads, freeways, sidewalks, trails, and public transportation in Fresno County — is connected to everything in the county. Availability or lack of transportation impacts a community’s economy.

One cannot get a job or hope to hold on to it without a reliable way of getting to it. It affects when you can see your doctors, even in dire cases. If you do not own a car and your community has no transit service, you can rule out recreation outside of a walking distance completely.

One of the first things we learned separately and as a team is how complex the issues are and most importantly, we realized we had plenty of questions for which we found no answers.

So I was blown away when I finally spoke to someone who had nothing but answers. Matt Gillian — founder and operator of Inspiration Transportation, a private nonprofit based in Fresno — is turning his dream into reality, and, in the process, providing a means for carless rural residents to get to where they need to be.

Gillian grew up in Fresno, attended Bullard High School, but like many young people, went away for college. Afterwards, he lived and worked in the Bay Area, pursuing a career in music while working in multiple different jobs, one of which was as an Uber driver.

Six years ago, Gillian became a parent and made the choice to raise his son in Fresno — the place he calls home. But how does one take a concept that works in the Bay Area and adapt it to the needs and peculiarities of Fresno County? One needs to consider the demographics, the terrain, the lack of resources, the jobs or lack of them and expendable income.

Most important to Gillian was making a difference. “I want to be able to create something here in my hometown, that my son can look back on and be like, ‘Man, Dad had an effect on our town here’,” Gillian said.

So he started tinkering with the idea of starting a nonprofit, using the Uber model, but adapted to local needs.

“I was like, how do I turn what we were doing with Uber in the Bay Area into a viable job for me here in Fresno?” He said. “Uber doesn’t really work. When you’re talking about these rural areas, the sprawl, the distance that you’d have to take an Uber doesn’t really work.”

With some support from the Measure C tax funds, Gillian started Inspiration Transportation and is now offering micro transit service to residents in West Park and Biola and exploring how to expand the service to other communities. Rides cost $5 for a round trip.

Gillian said he was driven to meet needs that exist but which no one was meeting. For example, a rural resident whose community has transit service is still severely limited by schedule and where the buses can go or stop.

“If you’re coming from wherever you’re coming from, let’s say it’s West Park, and you ride and then you can get dropped off,” he said, “Now you have to get another form of transportation to go [to where you need to go] unless your appointment is at that courthouse park. You might be going to a doctor’s appointment on the other side of town.”

So, Inspiration Transportation provides transportation for specific appointments such as to social services and medical appointments, and to employment as well as education, but not for recreation.

On how he got the Fresno County Rural Transit Agency to partner with him, Gillian said it took persistence. He kept attending meetings “and hearing about what the rural transit agency was trying to do as far as changing their buses to electric buses, and how they had gotten a small fleet of electric cars, but they weren’t using them yet.”

He persisted, “kept trying to get a meeting with the rural transit agency, they kept listening to what I was trying to do, and they were willing to partner with me.”

The rural transit agency was already working in some communities, like West Park, with a peculiar transportation history and was eager to try something different. “They said, ‘you know what, here’s a good community that we can start a pilot project in and see if this different perspective on transportation, hybrid transit, as opposed to fixed route public transit, works’,” Gillian said.

So, in October 2020, in the middle of the pandemic, Gillian got one electric vehicle; then the rural transit agency gave him another electric vehicle. At first, he was the only one doing all the work for the non-profit, including, driving and scheduling.

Inspiration Transportation has huge successes already. Take the case of Maria del Carmen Valencia, 45, who has lived in West Park, an unincorporated community just a few miles west of Fresno, for 16 years. Before Inspiration Transportation, Valencia was unable to work in areas that were more than a walking distance.

“She had not had a job at that point in time, because she didn’t have a way to get there effectively. So she had just gotten her first job as an in-home care provider,” Gillian said. “And the same week she got the job, she heard about our services, so I was able to start taking her three times a week to her job.”

Valencia said that the transportation service started by Gillian transformed her life, so much so that when her daughter got a paid internship position with a doctor’s office, she had no concerns about how her daughter would get there.

“This program [Inspiration Transportation] helped me a lot because I would just call them and they were here,” Valencia said. “They never made me late to an appointment; I’m very happy with that service.”

Gillian is happy with the difference the year-old transit service is making.

“It’s how I affect multiple families’ lives and multiple families can be lifted up, because if multiple families are lifted up in my own town, in my area, I’m going to be lifted up,” he said. “It’s going to be better for me and my family.”

THIS WEEK IN PUBLIC MEETINGS

Be sure to catch live-tweeting of the Clovis City Council (Nov 8) by Heather Halsey Martinez at @heatherhalsey.

At the Clovis City Council meeting on Nov. 1, Documenter Heather Halsey Martinez reported that the council approved a request by Wilson Homes to reduce the acreage in its Shepherd North Sphere of Influence from 1,050 acres to just 155 acres, due to some acreage being identified as potential breeding habitat of the threatened California tiger salamander. The acreage could be considered for development again in the future should a developer express interest. The council approved an employment agreement with future City Manager John Holt, which is effective Jan. 1, 2022. His salary will be $18,246 per month, plus benefits including CalPERS, deferred compensation, health, dental, automobile allowance, sick leave and vacation comp time. Read here for more info.

At the Tulare County Board of Supervisors meeting on Nov. 2, Documenter Dani Huerta reported that that the board moved forward the Modified Wells Map, New Wells Map, New Verduzco Map, Modified Kindschuh Map, and New Kindschuh Map. Most members of the public who spoke on redistricting during public comments supported the Wells Map; a few voiced support for the Equity Coalition Map. The board approved a request from the Resource Management Agency to approve applications for establishing and/or enlarging Williamson Act Agricultural Preserves. Read here for more info.

At the Fresno County Board of Supervisors meeting on Nov. 2, Documenter Rachel Youdelman reported that at a specially scheduled public hearing, the board dismissed an outpouring of input from the public and voted to move forward with a redistricting map which generally preserves the status quo. Read here for more info.

This story was originally published November 8, 2021 at 10:20 AM.