Fresno ‘poised for greatness’ year after COVID began, says mayor at first State of the City
Six months into his term as Fresno’s Mayor Jerry Dyer said Friday the city is “poised for greatness” as residents gradually move out of the pandemic and back into a sense of normality.
The first-term mayor picked a decidedly more festive style for his first State of the City address than the typical luncheon-style versions of past mayoral addresses.
Dyer said he wanted the event at Chukchansi Park to mimic a party as the pandemic wains. Before he spoke, he wore a baseball jersey that was marked with a “One Fresno” seal, a reference to his campaign slogan.
Plus the event also featured a multicultural slate of entertainment, including Folklorico and Polynesian dancers. There was also international pastries and choir performances of both the Star Spangled Banner and “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” commonly called the Black national anthem.
At one point Dyer launched a T-shirt from a launcher into the crowd. “We are a city that is poised for greatness,” he said. “I believe that with all of my heart, and if I did not I would not be standing here today as your mayor.”
Dyer’s first six months came amid the COVID-19 pandemic, which infected more than 100,000 and has killed more than 1,700 people in Fresno County. The past year also saw social unrest sparked most notably by the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd.
“If we are to become a great city, we are to set aside our differences and focus on those things that unite us,” he said. “Regardless of our political affiliation, the color of our skin, the neighborhood in which we live, we are one Fresno.”
Homelessness
Dyer touted his Project Offramp effort, the first major action under the newly elected mayor that targeted hundreds of people who erected tents and begun sleeping on embankments and other unsafe areas along Highways 41, 99, 168 and 180.
More than 75% of the 400 people on the highways were housed in newly refurbished motels, according to Dyer. The effort will soon move to neighborhoods.
“With multi-year state and federal funding on the rise combined with our current strategies, we are poised to be homeless-free by the end of 2024,” Dyer said. “I am committed along with the council to achieving that goal.”
The project is not popular among all advocates for unhoused members of the community. About a dozen people protested Dyer and the project outside Chukchansi Park, where they held signs and set up a tent.
Dyer has also established Beautify Fresno, a government led volunteer effort to clean up the city and return its “curb appeal.” The lion’s share of those weekend cleanup events have happened south of Shaw Avenue, he said.
Housing
Revitalizing downtown Fresno has been a focus of many city leaders, and many have said drawing people to live there is a key piece of that renewal. The apartments in the area have a six-month waiting list for vacancies.
“We must grow our downtown population from 3,000 to 10,000 residents if we are to sustain a vibrant nightlife downtown,” Dyer said. “It is time as a city we meet that demand. We must build, build, build.”
The mayor said he recently appointed city planner Dan Zack as his downtown czar, who will oversee a “concierge service” to developers and others needed to grow that housing sector.
The city is also in conversations to try to bring another Amazon fulfillment center to town. That would pencil out to 1,000 more jobs, Dyer said.
Police and firefighters
Dyer said he has asked Police Chief Paco Balderrama to hire 120 officers in the next 15 months to fill vacancies, including future vacancies, and grow the overall force.
Another 40 support staffers will also be added to the police department, and the Fresno Fire Department will get 42 new firefighters by May. Those positions were funded in the budget adopted this week by the Fresno City Council.
This story was originally published June 25, 2021 at 12:41 PM.
