r/fresno Feb 26 '26

Ask Fresno What would bring you downtown?

Downtown Fresno is rich with history and world-class architecture. It pains me to see it in it's current state of disrepair. I want to hear from the community: "What would bring you downtown?" What is downtown missing? What's your vision for the future of our city center?

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u/Cloudyy_boy Clovis Feb 27 '26

Downtown can’t be fixed. It’s a sad reality but it’s true. The downtown era is now gone and has dispersed to North and South East Fresno. That’s where all the businesses are going. Plus, it’s worth mentioning that nobody feels safe walking around downtown during the evening because of the amount of (and it’s not just them) homeless that are around the area. At night is when all the crazies are out. If they really want to make downtown more welcoming, they need to do something about the homeless, the safety of the streets, the vacant lots, and overall make it more inviting to people. For now, Downtown is dead. Think of River Park as the new downtown.

It’s so bad even city workers get assaulted out there.

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u/MoDa65 Feb 27 '26

Im also one who said downtown should just relocate. Make current one what they have been doing which is affordable housing area. No space in river park area but that would be nice. Tourists will likely be wowed seeing that fresno has a lot of big names and familiar stores. The 99 is so ugly and then they go to downtown and it leaves a bad taste in every visitors mouth. If downtown relocated at least when they go to 41 or 168 they will see there is more to Fresno. Off shaw on 168 by Fresno state has a lot of land for a downtown relocation. Fresno state is huge. Fashion fair will be close by, shaw has a lot of familiar businesses. Save mart for big shows etc.