From River Park to downtown on foot. Walking Fresno’s gritty, deteriorated main drag | Opinion

Of all the streets in Fresno to traverse by foot, Blackstone Avenue wouldn’t be anyone’s first option.

Perhaps that’s why I chose it. Stretching from River Park to the edge of downtown, Blackstone is both the city’s signature commercial main drag and enduring testament to poor land use and visual blight.

Fresno has streets longer than Blackstone — Fresno Street, Herndon and Shaw avenues, just to name three. But none so archaic and in such obvious and dire need of re-imagining.

For a true immersive experience, I placed a few essentials (i.e. water, sunscreen, extra shirt) in an old day pack, laced up comfortable shoes and set out from Park Crossing Shopping Center near Woodward Park. Even though Friant Road doesn’t officially become Blackstone until the Highway 41 overpasses, I figured what the heck.

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Almost immediately that decision nearly backfired. While crossing the freeway exit after waiting for the pedestrian signal, a silver SUV failed to stop (or slow down much) for the red light and proceeded to make a right onto Friant from the far left turn lane at about 40 mph.

This happened 15 feet in front of me. But at least the driver was kind enough to mouth “Sorry” through the passenger window as she sped past.

That was the closest I came to becoming a traffic fatality. Otherwise, the percentage of drivers who waited at crosswalks (a couple even nodded and smiled) to those who barreled through them without even a glance in my direction was roughly 50-50.

Besides completing the walk — 9 miles according to Google Maps — the itinerary was somewhat loose. It included lunch at the original Taqueria Don Pepe, stops at a few unique local businesses and talks with people I encountered along the way.

Just for fun, I kept a running tally of fast food restaurants (anything with a drive-thru), auto repair shops (including smog and collision), car dealerships (new and used), tire and wheel businesses and furniture stores. Basically, everything Blackstone boasts in abundance.

I also counted the number of doughnut shops and gave myself silent kudos for strolling right past Krispy Kreme.

Even though Blackstone was clearly designed for cars — and getting people from their cars and into business — there’s pretty much always a sidewalk. As one might expect, the nicest and widest sidewalks run alongside River Park.

Strangely, though, I didn’t encounter any fellow pedestrians, nor people on bikes and skateboards, until south of Herndon.

Revisiting old outdoors haunt

My first planned stop, mostly for sentimental reasons, was a small shopping center that used to be home to a specialty outdoors store owned by Shane Krogen, a dear departed friend.

The space where California Outfitters used to be is vacant — just like it has been for all but a brief period since Krogen shut the doors in the years preceding his untimely death in 2013.

That bit of information came from Moira Orsi, who manages Elsmore Swim Shop next door. Orsi said the store’s local customers used to appreciate its central location and convenient access from both Herndon and 41. (Until a couple years ago it was known as Swimsuits West.) Today, she hears the opposite.

“People don’t do Blackstone anymore, wouldn’t you agree?” asked Orsi, a Fresno native who has worked at the store since 2006. “People only travel Blackstone if they have to travel Blackstone.”

Dana Bentley, owner of Bentley’s Drum Shop on Blackstone south of Gettysburg, offered a different perspective.

“I like being on Blackstone, and customers don’t have any trouble getting here,” said Bentley, whose store is looking extra spiffy thanks to city-funded new signage and facade improvements.

A north-south arterial, Blackstone cuts through Fresno’s well-documented socioeconomic layers, but in some respects is quite egalitarian.

By that, I mean even though the buildings are newer and nicer on the north side, and the names on commercial storefronts more recognizable, that doesn’t mean the streetscape is any prettier.

If anything, the ugliness is shouldered evenly. It was somewhat a surprise to see the prettiest tree medians (with decades-old pines growing in them, as opposed to recently planted sprigs north of Herndon) around Shields and Olive avenue.

Old commercial to new housing

The south end of Blackstone is also where most of the redevelopment is occurring. The largest, most prominent new building is the close-to-finished Fresno City College science building across from Ratcliffe Stadium. Half a mile to the south, the massive grade separation project near McKinley Avenue is just getting underway.

At the same intersection stands an 88-unit senior living facility with an attached health-care clinic (The Link @ Fresno) that represented the first new housing project on Blackstone in decades when it opened in 2022. Since then, two more have been built (The Clinton Avenue Apartments and The Arthur at Blackstone) along with the conversions of motels into homeless shelters.

To address their housing needs, several California cities are busy converting vacant commercial buildings and dilapidated shopping centers into apartments and townhomes — a process streamlined by recent legislation.

In Fresno, despite zoning changes and planning strategies designed to transform Blackstone into a high-density mixed-use corridor, the economics of sprawl hold sway. Infill development isn’t as profitable, and there’s always more land for sale on the outskirts of town.

That isn’t to say we don’t need commercial businesses on Blackstone. It’s that we don’t need a 9-mile stretch surrounded by parking lots, and little else, taking up so much real estate.

By the time I reached the FAX station at Eaton Plaza, five hours after setting out, the final tabulation was 53 auto repair shops, 46 car lots, 21 tire and wheel shops, 36 fast food restaurants, 17 furniture stores and five doughnut shops.

Plus two tired legs.