2020 was a tough year, but the future got brighter for west Fresno residents. Here’s how
2020 was a rough year: COVID-19, epic wildfires, economic crisis, QAnon, far-right militias, and a proto-facist presidency. But 2020 was not all bad. It was also the year that we experienced residents’ ability to transform the politics and institutions that maintain systemic inequity in Fresno. As a result, Fresno in 2021 will move one step closer to being a city where everybody’s social needs are met and all have the opportunity to thrive.
Here are some highlights:
Measure P: Fresnans know that our park and green space infrastructure is poor. It is particularly lacking in south and west Fresno due to the racist and classist sprawl-oriented politics of members of City Hall and those who support them. But after years of youth-led organizing through Fresno Building Healthy Communities, Measure P has been upheld as victorious by court ruling. Fresnans can now start building an equitable parks and recreation infrastructure worthy of the fifth largest city in California, one that will reinvest in youth, community connections and public space.
Darling plant: The egregious lack of public green space in southwest Fresno is exacerbated by its existence as a “sacrifice zone” where City Hall locates noxious facilities. This inequity has been challenged by residents for decades and supported by the work of Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability. As a result, a City Hall-tolerated blight on the community, the Darling rendering plant — one that has ruined residents’ health, depressed property values, and scared away alternative economic options — will be closing down. Southwest Fresnans will soon be able to breathe cleaner air in their backyards and at parks and greenways, thanks to Measure P.
Peaceful protest: Southwest Fresno has long borne the brunt of our “tale of two cities,” due in part to “popular” public policies that criminalized poverty and sought to contain residents left out of the city’s growth-oriented development politics by way of mass incarceration. The result has been fractured families, disappeared youth, blocked opportunities, and a municipal budget that invests half of its dollars in a war on the poor, rather than a war on poverty. This was the local context that led the Fresno State NAACP to organize the largest peaceful protest the city has seen in years to address racial injustice in Fresno. The protest eventually led to a Police Reform Commission report detailing 73 recommendations to improve and alter how the city does policing.
Advance Peace: Coinciding with these efforts was Faith in the Valley’s successful push to bring Advance Peace to Fresno, an innovative program that provides educational, employment, and social supports to gang members to reduce gun violence, a clear break from the same old failed “law and order” policies. Both of these efforts built on decades of community mobilization in South Fresno to end the “New Jim Crow.”
Looking back on 2020, as well as ongoing efforts to protect tenants’ rights, it is clear that power relations in Fresno are changing. Members of Fresno’s political elite fought against many of these proposals, sometimes vigorously, and lost, a tale rarely told.
From our perspective, such wins, grounded in youth, communities of color and multiracial organizations, are merely the beginning of a movement that will hold City Hall accountable for ensuring that the benefits and burdens of urban planning, economic development, and the municipal budget are shared equitably throughout all of Fresno.
Elected leaders should embrace this movement if they truly love this city and want all Fresnans to flourish.