The Fresno Bee is moving to a new building — but we’re not going anywhere
I don’t believe in ghosts. Well, most of them.
Lately, though, there’s been an apparition in my life. Its name is Charlie Waters, and I see him standing on the far loading dock, puffing on a cigarette, every time I enter or exit my place of employment for the last 22 years.
Never mind how long it’s been since Waters, The Bee’s executive editor from 1998 to 2006, actually stood in that spot. Forget that he died six years ago from lung cancer. Charlie’s still there in my mind. I can’t look in that direction without seeing him, or at least imagining that I do.
Charlie has been in my thoughts lately, as have other long-departed Bee colleagues whose faces, voices and pursuits of journalism are stored within my hippocampus. And next week, those memories will be torn from their moorings.
The Bee is moving, in case you haven’t heard. We’re leaving the sprawling edifice with the pebble facade, tiny windows and faded blue trim at 1626 E Street, our home since the mid 1970s, for nicer and more tidy digs on the opposite side of downtown Fresno.
Rather than tucked away off Highway 99, we’ll be on the second floor of the highly visible Bitwise 41 building at 2721 Ventura Street within earshot (literally) of Highway 41. Thursday was our final day at the old office. Our desks are cleaned out and personal effects packed.
Come Monday, just driving to work will be a new experience. My truck might still take Highway 180 to 99 South and exit at Stanislaus Street, purely out of habit.
Even though it will be good for us to get out of this dreary building designed for newspapers of a bygone era and into a work space that’s brighter and better suited to our current needs, the move does stir emotions.
Old Rolodex prompts realization
Which is why it was oddly comforting to come across another relic while cleaning out my storage cabinet: my old Rolodex, which predates my time in Fresno.
When I got my first journalism job in 1993, the Rolodex was an essential reporting tool. Smartphones and synchronized contact lists hadn’t been invented yet. So unless you planned to memorize hundreds of names and phone numbers, that information would get jotted down on a card and placed inside the carousel.
“I got him in my Rolodex,” was a phrase we used practically every day.
While glancing at the familiar names, I came to the realization my Rolodex is very much like our office building that will soon sit empty, at least until someone else buys it.
Sure, the Rolodex still functions. The phone numbers are clearly legible and the wheel turns just fine. Still, there’s a reason why it has been sitting in a drawer for more than a decade. Simpler to look up someone on your iPhone and click.
Much like my old Rolodex, which has outlived its usefulness, so too has the E Street building. We no longer need such a massive space. We have no use for the old press (the newspaper has been printed in Sacramento since 2016), nor for all the cubicles and warehouse spaces that sit empty in the digital age.
The Bee is not a building
And even though it contains 45 years of our history, which I am proud to be a tiny part of, it’s still only a building. The Bee is not four walls, a roof, some blue-flecked carpeting and fluorescent lights. The Bee is the product of the journalism that we diligently produce every day. Regardless of how those stories, videos and photos are consumed.
While the long-term future of local newspapers is far from assured — McClatchy’s recent Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing is proof enough of that — I’m feeling pretty good about the one I work for.
Following years of staff reductions through buyouts and layoffs, it is heartening to see our numbers swell with the new Education Lab and soon-to-be-hired staff of the Fresnoland Lab. Using philanthropy to pay for journalism is a novel idea, and Bee readers have already started seeing the results.
The Bee might be moving into a new office suite, but we’re not going anywhere. We’re still doing the same important work you have come to trust and expect. Our commitment to Fresno and the central San Joaquin Valley remains anchored.
So when you’re zooming past our new office on 41, give us a wave. Or if you prefer to keep both hands on the wheel, a friendly nod works, too.
