One of these specters still confounding City Hall planners is that original founders allowed the Southern Pacific Railroad to determine the original Fresno City lay-out. And so, downtown Fresno streets remain in that odd alignment today, some 17 degrees slanted to the left, while adjoining neighborhoods are aligned along a perfect North-South axis, as one faces the map of Fresno. Thus, downtown Fresno now has a different 'heading' than its neghborhoods, and is a symbol of poorly coordinated City governance. This week an excellent example of the good intentions of those with a limited perspective that places form over function has again raised a ghostly image in Fresno City Hall. It was a statement attributed to Fresno Redevelopment Agency director, Dan Fitzpatrick, in a statement to a news reporter opposing the Fresno Grand Jury recommendations on City Hall coordination.
Redevelopment is another form of bureaucracy in Fresno and most urban centers.
In Fresno, since the late 1950's redevelopment was a local agency controlled by the Fresno City Council members. It has been alarmingly ineffective in accomplishing its econoimic objectives. Today City Hall is hard put to cite any long term economic benefit for the hundreds of millions in tax dollars lost on shaky business dealings that City Council members get the City involved in through their control over the Redevelopment Agency funds. No wonder, there are, by this time, many people in Fresno with a vested interest in keeping City Hall and the voters in the dark. But, it is really time for redevelopment to come out into the light of a new day.