Fresno County Bicycle Coaliton

We have had some very productive meetings with several local officials
so far. Fresno Councilman Brian Calhoun (northwest), though at first
hesitant to support the Bicycle-Pedestrian Advisory Committee (BPAC),
has become a strong supporter, pushing for the completion of the bike
path along Herndon by the Coventry Court development (paid for with City
money instead of by the developer as originally stipulated). He says he
usually takes care of complaints on prohibition of on-street parking
within his office and doesn't see this as a big political liability. He
has disagreed with Councilman Dages' assertion that bike lanes always
need to be eliminated when there is a conflict with a property owner and
that they are inherently anti-business. He also plans to ride with us
during BtWW on May 21.

Supervisor Phil Larson (east county, including Kerman) was also very
receptive to having more bike lanes, especially maintaining the bike
path along Kearney leading to Kearney Park. The road itself will be
reconstructed this year and next.

He may come to the beginning of the BtWW ride. An email to him might encourage him to do so
(jbarlow@co.fresno.ca.us).

We had an extensive and substantive meeting with Supervisor Judy Case
(south and east county including Sanger). She and her husband are avid
runners but she will ride with us during BtWW. She was aware that we
need to push the County staff to think more about adding and maintaining
adequate shoulders along County roads. She likes the idea of having a
bike path along the Friant-Kern Canal and thinks Goodfellow should have
a bike lane. She would like to see bike lanes along Highway 168 to
Shaver Lake, even if the road is not expanded to 4 lanes. Lastly, she
would like to see bike lanes along Golden State Boulevard to improve the
existing shoulder AND add a bike path because it serves 3 small
communities and Fresno: Fowler, Selma and Kingsburg.

Fresno Councilman Brad Castillo (east central) has always been a strong
supporter but only has the remainder of this year in office (defeated by
Larry Westerlund last election). He is a runner and bike rider and will
join us again for BtWW. We had an intense discussion regarding FCBC's
role in local politics because he would like to see us get much more
involved, including supporting and working for certain candidates. He
took a lot of heat before and during the recent campaign for his remarks
about supporting bike lanes when confronted with complaining property
owners. He will come to speak to FCBC after May to explain more fully
what he'd like us to do and promised to continue to be in politics after
leaving office.

We also had a cordial meeting with Fresno Councilman Jerry Duncan
(northeast) and thanked him for carrying the BPAC enabling proposal last
year. Because he has voted against some bike lane projects, we wanted
to know his thinking and see if there was a way to continue to get his
support. His number one issue is that property owners be adequately
notified early in the process and he won't support any projects where
this isn't done. He has also worked out conflicts within his district
so bike lanes could go in when businesses complained about loss of
on-street parking. He thought it would be a good idea to have projects
go before the BPAC so owners could air their issues.

Our most important meeting was with the Fresno Redevelopment Agency
(RDA). We had hoped to meet with Director Dan Fitzpatrick but were
passed off to his administrator, Marlene Murphey. We have been
particularly upset with the reconstruction of Van Ness for two blocks in
front of the Fresno Metropolitan Museum, downtown, as the southbound
lane has been narrowed to 13 feet due to the addition of a median and
expanded sidewalk in front of the Met, just enough room for one vehicle
at a time, bike or car or whatever. This is particularly galling because
we had met with Fitzpatrick two years ago and he assured us that, of
course, he would take bikes into consideration in RDA projects. (We
have also been mentioning this to the councilmen we talk to because they
also sit as the RDA Board. And note that the entire downtown is within
an RDA project area.) We made it clear that the reconstruction of Van
Ness sends a message to cyclists that the City is not interested in
their concerns or safety, and it is very important to have biking
facilities included downtown. An email to the RDA would reiterate our
concerns so future projects will not have the same errors
(suzanne.moffat@ci.fresno.ca.us with a copy to
marlene.murphey@ci.fresno.ca.us).

See? You can have an effect. Upcoming meetings: this Wednesday
afternoon with Supervisors Arambula and Anderson and soon with
Supervisor Waterston (east county) and Councilman Boyagian (Tower and
Fresno High areas).

Gene Richards
497-0570
Political Relations Chair
Fresno County Bicycle Coalition