Fresno Today
Fresno is the 6th largest city in the state of California. Its population is now over 420,000. Fresno county population is now well over 800,000. Fresno is a melting pot of ethnic heritages such as Basque, Asian, Indian, Armenian, Hispanic, Hmong, Chinese, Portuguese, and Japanese.
Growth of Fresno has historically been towards the north side. Shaw
Avenue used to be the center of most commercial activity and while
there is still plenty of activity on Shaw, another area of focus has
emerged.
North of Herndon at Blackstone Ave, there is a new shopping area called RiverPark, with shops and restaurants ranging from Lowe’s and Home Depot to Best Buy, Borders, Barnes & Noble, Target, Nordstrom Rack, OfficeMax, Macaroni Grill, 21-screen movie theatre, etc.
The area at Herndon and Palm (“Palm Bluffs”) is home to a slew of professional offices. There are many new high-end residential homes being built in the north east side. These homes are now priced in the $300Ks or higher.
A $100+ million Save
Mart Center opened in November 2003 and will be the location for
basketball games, concerts and other events. Italian tenor Andrea
Bocelli was the first performer to take stage on November 07, 2003.
Other performers such as Elton John and Matchbox Twenty have performed
at this center that is located just east of the California
State University, Fresno at Shaw and Cedar. This impressive 450,000
square foot building has a seating capacity of up to 18,000.
The Tower District is an older, central city neighborhood in Fresno. It is bounded by Shields Avenue to the north, Blackstone Avenue to the east, Belmont Avenue to the south and Fruit Avenue to the west.
The Tower District is unique for its art deco architecture and its pedestrian oriented design and serves predominantly as Fresno’s art and entertainment district.
The city of Fresno is working aggressively to revamp the downtown area. There is a huge undertaking going on right now called the Fulton Street Revitalization.
It is an effort by the city to clean up the downtown area and make it a place where people gather to work, play and eat.