On Sept. 5, a protest called “ReHop” (@rehopfresno on Instagram) took place on Kern and Fulton streets in Fresno. The event was carried out by artists unhappy with the City’s recent decision regarding ArtHop, the traditional twice-a-month cultural event that attracts hundreds of residents to art galleries and into the surrounding streets.
City Council members decided to limit the presence of food trucks and vendors around the art galleries arguing the need for more police presence and better control of the food. So it split the event into two separate ones: the traditional ArtHop (to be more limited indoors, at art galleries) and a more open event with food trucks and street vendors. ArtHop will continue to be organized by the Fresno Arts Council, whereas Why Not Wednesday will be held under the guidance of the Downtown Fresno Partnership (DFP).
“The community we know was being completely disregarded” by the City Council and the DFP, said Joseph Rodriguez. He and Crystal Rocha are part of an art group called Gooey Stranger (@gooeystranger on Instagram).
Both artists, among others, have attended City Council meetings, special meetings and DFP board meetings to voice their concerns regarding the changes to ArtHop.
“In their meeting minutes, they were calling them [ArtHop street vendors] junk vendors and [saying] we have to do something about them,” said Rodriguez, referring to the public minutes of DFP Board meetings.
The artists feel that negotiations with ArtHop vendors were done in bad faith. They intimated that the DFP, the City and the Fresno Police Department were slowly pushing the vendors off the streets and into unaffordable, overbooked venues that many small business artists could not afford. At the same time, the DFP and the City “wanted to own an essential symbol of the Fresno community that they did not have a hand in creating.”
“Artists will be pushed into dilapidated, underserved areas, then revitalize the areas with their art before people with money come in and say ‘love what you did with the place’ and then take it for themselves,” notes Rocha.
Zypher, an artist and member of the Rocky Horror Shadow Cast, confided that ArtHop was an integral part of her community and livelihood. Coming from Florida to a completely new area left Zypher feeling disconnected; that was until meeting the Gooey Strangers.
“I think this is one of the few things left in the city where you can just sit and socialize and relax in public,” says Zypher.
The artists also feel that the timing of Fresno’s recent “homelessness ban” and the restructuring of ArtHop was convenient.
As to the economic impact of ArtHop’s shift, Zypher said, “It’s anywhere from $15 to $45 for a spot at an ArtHop venue—that’s gas money!”
Zypher is also a teacher in Hanford and conducts her art business to supplement the low income she receives for teaching. She sees the same financial insecurity affecting the Rocky Horror Shadow Cast’s ability to maintain its rent at the Labyrinth Art Collective. “One missed rent could end it.”
Although social media and public support for ReHop’s mission seems to be growing, the DTP nevertheless premiered Why Not Wednesday on Sept. 18; that is the DTP’s new outdoor, vendor-oriented event to be held the third Wednesday of the month. ArtHop, the original flavor, will continue the first and third Thursdays of the month.
