Southwest Fresno-specific health effort won’t get $1M support from city. Here’s why
Southwest Fresno advocates were dealt a blow Thursday just days after celebrating a victory over an embattled meat-rendering plant.
The city had earmarked $1 million to help relocate the Darling Ingredients plant out of southwest Fresno, but corporation officials confirmed this week they would be closing the plant by the end of 2023.
The Concerned Citizens of West Fresno touted the decision as a victory over the neighboring plant that residents have complained has been a foul-smelling neighbor.
Without needing the $1 million to move the plant, the Concerned Citizens chairperson Mary Curry and other leadership presented a plan where the money could be used to improve the health of residents in the historically underprivileged part of town.
Residents in the 93706 zip code alone have a life expectancy about 20 years shorter than north Fresno, according to a 2014 Fresno County Public Health study. The zip code also has the highest number of emergency room visits for asthma-related issues
The infant mortality rate in that zip code is 11.4%, compared to the 7.1% average across Fresno County.
“At some point in time we have to start making corrections,” Curry said. “We’ve been neglected for years.”
But the proposed program ran into some snags Thursday as several Fresno City Council members said the money should benefit people living in poverty throughout the city.
Ultimately, the City Council decided unanimously to not to pursue the southwest Fresno program.
Councilmember Luis Chavez said the $1 million was meant to help save the jobs and continue the tax revenue generated at the plant. Those will be lost as the plant closes, he said.
As cities and other municipalities will soon see the economic effect of the coronavirus and orders to shelter-in-place, Chavez said people will be hurting across the city.
“We’re going to have a tremendous amount of need in the city of Fresno,” he said. “I have to be able to tell people in my district that they’re eligible.”
The southwest community in Fresno has been historically affected by a large industrial presence.
Councilmember Miguel Arias said the level of pollution is also affected by recent city decisions.
Fresno has in recent years agreed to tax rebates with large warehouses, like the Amazon deal from 2016. Those deals create thousands of new truck trips through that part of town, and in turn more pollution.
“We recently created a lot of pollution in one part of town and didn’t mitigate (the pollution),” Arias said.
The poor air quality can create real health problems for residents. Shantay Davies-Balch said she grew up near the Darling plant and moved away as an adult.
She said she was often treated for asthma as a child. “It wasn’t until I moved to another zip code that I realized you breathe different air by zip code,” she said.
Advocates for southwest Fresno said they are worried that part of town will be left behind if the city pursued a program less focused on those neighborhoods.
Instead, of pursuing the program, the council asked staffers to look at a more robust plan that would focus on southwest, southeast, central and other parts of Fresno, like Pinedale, that suffer from poverty.
Some members of the council were hesitant to promise money to the program until after the city has a better handle on how much COVID-19 will shrink city coffers.
“Before we start spending $1 million on this, we need to know where we stand financially,” Councilmember Mike Karbassi said.
