By Ruth Gadebusch
It is easy to focus on the negative but it is much healthier to find the good in the community. As the old saying goes “every cloud has its silver lining.”
Admittedly, I am not finding any joy in the tearing out of the Fulton Mall. Least of all can I accept the reasoning most often heard that people will flock downtown once they can park on Fulton Street. For the life of me I cannot imagine going downtown or any place else just to park. We go for what is there after we park. I know the argument is that parking will draw business to the area but that just does not strike me as likely to happen.
The metropolitan area can support only so much business and everywhere one drives there is construction. There are also abandoned buildings with boarded up fronts as the merchants move to the newer area where, granted, there is parking. Still I think it is the hope of finding something exciting at the new centers more than the ability to park.
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Ruth Gadebusch is a veteran and a community activist, a former member of the Fresno Unified School Board and the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing and an emeritus member of the Board of Directors of the Center for Civic Education.
