Fresno

Isn't the crime rate in Fresno horrendously high?

Fresno? FresYES!

I once made a pitstop there on the way from LA to Yosemite. I had to buy snow chains.

She's a beauty.

They already did the mini-series, so there's really not much else to see.

It looks like a hellscape.

"All the leaves are brown and the sky is grey

California dreamin, on such a winter's day..."

Moment in the sun: the fuck you talkin' about? It's 43F there right now and mostly cloudy.

The entire miniseries in one YouTube upload

Indistinguishable from Bakersfield, really.

Honestly, I thought Bakersfield was much more landscaped and manicured than Fresno.

What happened? It’s got a relatively big population with a large metro population (over 1 million), but there are no skyscrapers, no really high class residential districts, nor any really redeeming qualities. Its really very amorphous without any real “center” of activity.

It’s very odd

They're really banking on the high speed train. hope it works out for them.

Fresno is home to the Reel Gay Film Festival. The 6th oldest gay film festival in North America.

The Dems are really investing a lot in the Central Valley in order to modernize it and make it more progressive.

So far it is working for them since Bakersfield single handedly flipped District 21 to the Democrats.

It's the home of raisins.

Whenever you eat a raisin, whisper a quiet thank you to Fresno.

Say what you will about it, and most Californians do, but the central valley has produced some great authors ⸺ Steinbeck, William Saroyan, Gary Soto, Maxine Hong Kingston.

Fresno is dreary.

Where dreams go to die.

I was under the impression that it was a dump?

It's surrounded by vast farmlands. I almost choked to death on the fertilizers and other chemicals in the air. The entire Central Valley is polluted like this.

Add the surprisingly high crime rate, lack of culture, and lackluster landscape and you have a candidate for the worst 1 million metro in the U.S.

[quote]Say what you will about it, and most Californians do, but the central valley has produced some great authors ⸺ Steinbeck, William Saroyan, Gary Soto, Maxine Hong Kingston.

Steinbeck was from Salinas -- definitely not part of the Central Valley.

Six-time Tony winner Audra McDonald grew up in Fresno.

Fresno has a pretty nice entertainment district called "The Tower" where the Roger Rocka Dinner Theater is and it is where I saw Audra McDonald play Dorothy in "The Wiz". After the performance, the artists stand at the exits and thank the guests and I got McDonald's autograph and told her that when she was a big Broadway star, I would come to see her and show her the Playbill. I got backstage at one of her concerts and she almost cried when I related the story.

Fresno is super hot in the summer and very cold during the winter as well as foggy. The primary industry is agriculture and I suspect in the years to come, the primary crop will be pot. A lot of people from both directions have moved to Fresno for it's affordable housing and fairly good quality of life, comparatively speaking. Still a lot of pollution and crime is bad in certain areas.

Fresno has a lot of smaller towns nearby like Selma or Kingsburg where you can still score a pretty nice house for about 350K and still be within 20 minutes of Fresno and 200 miles to LA.

I personally don't like the bucolic feel of those smaller towns but it's an interesting parallel to Palm Springs.

Looks bleak.

This looks pretty though.

Ooops, forgot the link.