Six Flags in Fresno? Just as soon as we get a PGA Tour stop, lake, speedway and aquarium
Six Flags over Fresno? Might be time for a caution flag.
Whispers that a major theme park company could be making moves toward the central San Joaquin Valley have circulated for months, and the excitement shown by local politicians and job creators is understandable.
But if nearly 25 years of living here has taught me anything, it’s that Fresno is a place where a lot of big development dreams go bust.
In other words, we’ve been on this roller coaster before. And we know how the ride almost always ends. For example:
Trump National, Fresno
Seldom, if ever, has more ink, paper and breath in California’s fifth-largest city been wasted over a project that had little to no chance of ever actually happening.
Which is exactly what transpired in 2007 when Fresno’s city leaders let themselves get charmed by a New York business tycoon/celebrity/con man named Donald Trump. Who flew into town one afternoon and raised hopes of rescuing a bankrupt residential and golf development west of Highway 99 named Running Horse.
With Trump’s name and stamp (“How does ‘Trump National, Fresno’ sound?” asked a Bee story from that July), the Jack Nicklaus-designed course surrounded by expensive homes was bound to be a regular stop on the PGA Tour while giving southwest Fresno a much-needed economic boost. Right?
Wrong. Despite agreeing to fork over $40 million for the development ($25 million up front and $15 million from sale of future homes), Trump soon yanked his support and sent then-27-year-old daughter Ivanka here to smile for the cameras and smooth over any hurt feelings. (Of which there were a few.) Today, almond trees owned by the Assemi family grow on those 400 acres.
Lake Fresno
Wouldn’t it be cool if downtown Fresno had a lake?
It’s an idea that has been floated by local politicians since 1972 to serve as an attraction for a housing development. Mayor Alan Autry vowed to build the artificial lake during the early 2000s, but by his second term Autry’s lake had shrunk to a river and then into a water feature “that would extend no longer than a street block.”
If only Fresno had a natural water feature (or two) the city’s forefathers could’ve settled closer to instead ...
Fresno Aquarium
Perhaps I’m being harsh by including the Fresno Aquarium on this list. The project is technically ongoing, with 10 acres of land overlooking the San Joaquin River, a website and semi-active social media accounts to prove it.
You’ve got to admire the Aquarius Aquarium Institute for its dogged pursuit of a goal, which is entering its third decade. But at some point it’s fair to wonder if a sign overlooking Highway 99 near the Herndon Avenue exit is as close to an aquarium as we’ll ever get.
Hope I’m wrong.
Valley motor speedways
The Valley boasts a thriving midget auto racing and dirt track scene, but that hasn’t stopped some folks from dreaming bigger.
Think NASCAR and Indy Racing League bigger.
In 2000, promoters of the Yosemite Motor Speedway claimed they had enough capital to build a one-mile, paved speedway on 480 acres of Madera County farmland. (“Our bank money’s there,” one claimed. “This is a financed track.”) In 2008, the Tulare City Council endorsed a developer’s plan for a 711-acre Tulare Motor Sports Complex featuring a one-mile oval and drag strip with combined seating for 92,400.
Neither project made it off the blocks and out of the garage, though not for a lack of gassing by the local media.
Ski Disney
Six Flags wouldn’t be the first major theme park chain with grand plans for Central California. In 1965, Disney emerged as the Forest Service’s preferred choice to construct an “American Alpine Wonderland” in Mineral King Valley, complete with 22 ski lifts and gondolas, a 1,030-room hotel, 10 restaurants and cafes, a movie theater, general store, pools, ice rinks, tennis courts and a golf course.
Alarmed by Disney’s proposal, environmentalists (led by the Sierra Club) waged a lengthy legal battle that finally culminated in 1978 when the Mineral King area became part of Sequoia National Park.
Today, Mineral King Valley and the eight glacial cirques that Walt Disney envisioned as a skier’s paradise remain an unspoiled wilderness. Good thing, too, because much has changed in half a century — none more so than the local climate. Most years, we’d be schussing down dirt and rocks.
