Why Fresno Feels Like A Small Town
Hi there and welcome back to this nerdy Fresno newsletter. I hope you’re good and if not, give it a few days, it might get okay again.
There are people I have known in Fresno for 40 years and have managed not to bump into in 30 years. And there are people I barely know, or know the face of, that I see all the time.
There are reasons that Fresno, a place with 1,000,000 in the region, feels like a small town.
This morning, two of the reasons dawned on me. You have likely already figured this out, but I am slow to things, and so you’ll have to indulge me here.
We are a small city, so we “share” things that we have only one or two of. There is one Trader Joe’s, one Whole Foods, one Fresno State football game, one small airport, one Dog House Grill…(you get the idea).
You are drawing a lot of your friends and partners from your community inside Fresno. It’s the hidden town in the city. Your community (music people, foodies, golfers, art, knitters, work friends, whatever) might only have 1000 people in it and they hang out at the same places - that’s the actual small town you live in. That’s why you can hardly go anywhere without seeing an ex in this town, you met them in that same “small town” you live in.
Almost Time To Brighten Up Your Tower Porch
If you haven’t yet, make sure to check the Porch Fest map and start planning your day for NEXT Saturday (the 26th) - it’s become my favorite day of the year in Fresno.
Fresno Is Flowing With Swedes Again!
Also, this month’s Flowing With Famous is up. Josh and I brought in Roque and Brian to talk about the return of one of Fresno’s most unique festivals, Swede Fest. Not only do we talk about that, but there is Fresno film scene talk, Randy’s Donuts in Fresno, and more! (Find Flowing With Famous on most podcast apps)
Thank you for opening Fresno!Fresno! and for sticking with my random posting behaviour lately.
-Mike, The Fresnan!
Yo Mike, the funny thing is when I listen to you and Josh on FWF yall talk like Fresno s this large city when you describe it. I think its funny. But in actuality I agree with you on this article that Fresno is a small city. People want to say "idk how come Fresno has more people than Sac, Cleveland, Miami etc but we don't have anything cool things to do here or we don't have a pro team". But somehow these idiots don't realize that these cities (besides Sac) are destination cities that have a metro area of a 50 mile radius of 2 to million people. Whereas Fresno has a mere mil. Aside from city limits the Fresno metro drops significantly. I like to say that Fresno even though has a city pop of 550K it 'pushes' the weight of a city half its size.