The solution is water…again

Six years ago Mayor Alan Autry floated the idea of creating a lake in order to revitalize Fresno’s downtown. As with many of Autry’s ideas, long on idea, but short on implementation. It went nowhere because he had not checked first with the business community to see if they would support it.

Now Autry is looking at the final two years of his job and has begun to think of his legacy, or in his case, lack thereof. He has done little of what he promised. One noticeable area of failure has been downtown revitalization.

Today’s Fresno Bee has a column about creating a riverwalk in downtown. Now, as it happens, I spent a week in Sacramento this summer. Sacramento is a city that has not allowed itself to die and has wonderful areas around its rivers. Restaurants, shops, Old Sacramento, and more abound.

Could this work for Fresno? Perhaps. But it would need to be a project with buy-in and not another of King Alan’s whims. I get that legacy is important. He should get that improving Fresno is even more important.

Bill McEwen, Bee columnist, puts it best:

The riverwalk is vintage Autry. He thinks big and asks questions later.

McEwen, like me, though, see this as a real possibility. He asserts that making it happen will require state, local, and federal money as well as significant investment from the business community.

Can Autry pull it together? Hard to tell. It would require Autry working with the city council to make it happen, something that he has not done well in the past.