The homeless people will take it.

Hello Ms. Chavez. I'd like to address your observations about Fulton Art Mall being "scary" and "full of drunk homeless". This statement is a fallacy, since about the end of 2014 and beginning of 2015, the homeless/vagrant problem has been virtually wiped out. Because the Downtown Fresno Partnership hired a private security company to patrol and monitor the mall, day and night, for littering in alleys and most importantly the homeless or vagrant problem. Once again, we'd like to state that the City of Fresno and the Downtown Fresno Partnership made ABSOLUTELY NO EFFORT to deal with this homeless/vagrant problem before the February 27, 2014 City Council vote to accept the Tiger Grant and destroy the Fulton Art Mall. Why did they not make this effort before the vote? Simply to make the Fulton Art Mall seem dangerous and scary to citizens before the vote. Then the public would be convinced that this "scary" place needed to be ripped out and replaced. The Downtown Fresno Partnership is an organization made up of Fulton Mall building owners, the City of Fresno, and other well-known national businesses like Wells Fargo etc.

+p caetano Yes, will ask Fresno Bee if they have it.

Hi Jeffrey! I know this a very late reply to your comment but I'd like to address some points you mention. Professor Tokmakian is not saying Fresno will ever be a destination city but rather the City of Fresno needs to promote the Fulton Art Mall as a destination to the outside world. I agree with you that most Fresnans don't care about the Fulton Art Mall. But that's because almost all Fresnans have not been educated by the City of Fresno or the Educational or Art community in Fresno about the Fulton Art Mall's outstanding collection of art and the unique design of the whole mall itself. I have to disagree with you in the fact that the outside world does consider the Fulton Art Mall as unique in all the world. There is no place like it on earth. Also, the majority of retailers DO NOT want the mall torn up. They want it to refurbished and maintained. They know that most of them will not survive the street construction. This is already happening now as the street is being put in. My claims about how retailers along Fulton Mall feel is not my opinion. It is documented fact from the public meetings the City of Fresno had to discuss alternatives to the Fulton Art Mall which started in 2002 all the way through 2010 or so. This is documented in the film about the "How Public Opinion was Ignored" kzbin.info/www/bejne/l6fchYGPnrp_eZo