Publications
Summer 2003 Newsletter
New School Construction Could Catalyze Urban Renaissance In
Fresno
In
one of the largest single investments in Fresno's history, residents
recently passed a $200 million bond for the construction of new
schools. To discuss the effort, NSBN is pleased to reprint this
interview with Dan Whitehurst, the former Director
of the Maddy institute of Public Affairs at Fresno State
University and former Mayor of Fresno; Deborah Nankivell,
the Executive Director of the Fresno
Business Council; and Barbara Steck,
Chief Operating Officer of the Fresno
Business Council.
Dan, as a former public official and now the Director
of the Maddy Institute, how do you evaluate the opportunities
presented by Fresno's adoption of the school bond? What do you
see the opportunity being?
Dan: This is the largest single investment in
the older parts of Fresno perhaps ever. We have a declining downtown
core. And city funding for parks and recreation and social services
has declined over the years, too. We've had a lot of investment
in the north end of our city-new homes, shopping centers and schools.
But not in the south end.
Now, all the new schools planned are targeted for the older
parts of the city. This presents an extraordinary opportunity
to begin a renaissance of our inner city neighborhoods.
Barbara, you had a forum recently in Fresno called "Mixed-Use
Schools and Revitalized Inner Cities." What was the purpose
of the forum? What came out of that?
Barbara: We wanted to bring together varying
interest groups who could play a part in using schools as centers
of community. As Dan mentioned, we passed a $200 million school
bond. This was the time to get the stakeholders in one room all
at the same time.
Who are the players? Who were the panelists?
Barbara: The panelists included David Dent, the
Director of Human Services; Henry Perea, the President of the
Fresno City Council; H. Spees, who is the CEO of One By One Leadership,
a community group that is working in some of the inner city neighborhoods;
Robert Wood, President of CSE Homes; Santiago Wood, who is the
Superintendent of Schools; and Dan Fitzpatrick of the Redevelopment
Agency.
Deborah, what's your take on this opportunity?
Deborah: The Business Council's primary agenda
was economic development. But with all the problems we have in
the community, community development has become the focus. This
opportunity looks like the best chance we've had to really deal
with many agendas all at once and stabilize neighborhoods, help
economic development, and help educational outcomes.
Dan, as a former mayor, what's the unique challenge of
Fresno? The challenges of building schools as centers of neighborhoods
with these bonds is a statewide phenomenon, but what are the peculiar
challenges that Fresno has with this opportunity of school, park,
library and other bond funds? What are the particular problems
you face?
Dan: One of the things people should know is
that while the rest of California has had a 5% unemployment rate,
Fresno has had a 14% rate. We have a large number of low-income
unemployed people in Fresno. Many children do not speak English
as their native language. A lot of children are living in poverty.
And schools are under-performing, even relative to socioeconomic
standards. Fresno arguably is one of the poorest cities in the
United States. That makes the challenge of improving our schools
and our neighborhoods all the greater.
Barbara, what is the potential for collaboration here?
Barbara: The potential is terrific. In the last
few years, our elected officials and public agencies have begun
awakening to the idea of people working together for the good
of the community. That word, "collaboration," has become
part of everybody's vocabulary in the last couple of years. I
think we're on track for that.
What are you hearing from the communities? Do the neighborhoods
want this? Is this something that's bubbling up from the bottom
or coming from the top down, this collaboration idea of schools
as centers of neighborhoods?
Dan: Frankly, a lot of people aren't tuned into
it right now. A lot of people in our communities aren't aware
that they can play this kind of role in planning their schools.
There is one neighborhood that has been involved in planning for
a new school. But candidly, there are many parts of the community
that aren't even aware that they could possibly play this kind
of role, but would be very excited about it if they knew.
Deborah, the state has a significant role to play in Fresno's
future, both with schools and other services. What's the relationship
between the state's processes and your ability to be the architects
of your future here in Fresno through programs such as these?
Deborah: We learned a long time ago that Fresno
concentrates the unintended consequences of policies at state
and federal levels. Now, as we become more and more visible on
the radar, people are recognizing that customized programming
is appropriate for the Valley because the differences are so obvious.
We're hopeful that the state will give us more and more leeway
as well as additional resources when necessary to solve the major
long-term problems.
But the shortfall on revenues must have impacted the planning
capacity of the public agencies, whether they be the city, schools
or redevelopment agency. What resources do you need to do this
kind of collaborative planning?
Barbara: You are right that they have depleted the resources!
In the last 10-12 years we have seen a real loss of professional
planners in public agencies. We need people with the skills to
pull this together and do the work that needs to be done in their
communities.
Who would be the kind of partners, stakeholders in this
kind of collaborative planning effort for these new schools?
Dan: The people in the immediate neighborhoods
are the primary stakeholders. But we need to pull to the table
the city and its agencies (the redevelopment agency, parks, planning,
police, public works, traffic, transit), the county and a number
of its agencies (child protective services, social services, health,
mental health, library, probation), and a range of community groups
(ethnic organizations, faith-based organizations, sports groups,
arts groups).
We hope this would involve literally thousands of people.
Barbara, what's the next step? How do you accomplish this? How
do you take it from idea to execution?
Barbara: The next step is figuring out exactly
what people need, and in what order, and to start moving forward.
Obviously we need the funding first. That opens up everybody's
minds. The collaborative sentiment in Fresno has grown tremendously.
We need a directed leader. Directed leadership seems to work in
Fresno. That would suggest we have a facilitator that can just
pull people together doing what they really want to do anyway.
And if we came back a year from now, Barbara, what would we hope
to see happening?
Barbara: That our first master plan is wrapped
up and ready to go after doing all of the work in the communities
and that we're ready to break ground.
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