Walk #34 Fresno City College

REFLECTION ON Walk #34, March 7, from Fresno City College, north through neighborhoods.Five walkers started at Fresno City College and walked north and then bumped into Blackstone. We strolled out of the shady green campus of FCC and along well-loved houses full of character. Within a couple of blocks, with strolled down Vassar and cut through an opening in a chain linked fence and up onto the train tracks. See photo for our view along the tracks. Sloping down the other side of the tracks into a neighborhood mix of apartments, the first building was boarded up. Paul, the security guard sitting in his car, told us that a homeless encampment had just been evicted from an open lot in the back of the building. News crews and fire department had been there the last 24 hours. Warning signs were posted all over, and Paul told us a deceased man had been found in the building after a few weeks. Paul was there to make sure no one returned. His security firm was hired 24 hours a day at first, and now it will be 18 hours a day starting today.There was a concentration of boarded up, abandoned, and trash-filled yards in this neighborhood just north of FCC and west of Blackstone. We saw abandoned mattresses, 7 shopping carts, and trash along the train tracks. At one intersection were two ‘memorials’ to people who had died and were remembered by many. Walkers wondered if the people had died here.Clinton and McKinley were wide awake at 9:30 on Saturday morning. Walking back, we walked through Lafayette Park, with children playing on the equipment, mothers chatting, men at the picnic tables, and a distraught looking woman (her name is Carmen) smoking on the steps. Signs at the park’s community center were for The Way Christian Fellowship, with Rev. Henry Oputa, Pastor. Walkers talked about how this church had ‘adopted’ this park and community center when the City of Fresno could no longer afford to maintain the park facilities. Walkers had heard this church was doing well, and knew of Rev Oputa and his wife Francine Oputa, a professor at Fresno State.Walkers followed a woman walking down the middle of the street with music playing and bouncing a basketball. She knew people she passed. She walked back to a house at Vassar and Glen where about 10 people seemed to be living/staying.Walkers talked about how we might have been perceived walking through these neighborhoods. Walked talked about how grey hair white women seem to be able to walk into any neighborhoods, and while it might be curious, it doesn’t cause a response. Albert talked about his observations as a man of color. Albert grew up in neighborhoods like this. He talked about ‘code switching’, going from the neighborhood culture of his childhood to the professional culture where he lives now. Did Albert add a sense of protection to the women he was walking with or did the women make Albert less threatening to the neighbors? Albert observed that people would look out their windows and doors as we walked through.One walker mentioned smelling marijuana and dryer laundry sheets at the same time.This walk is a great example of why multiple perspectives from multiple walkers is valuable. One walkers focused on trees, one walker mentioned outdoor living and conversation areas, one walker counted shopping carts, one walkers noticed people’s response to our presence.Like every walk in north, south, east, and west Fresno, we see our brothers and sisters, realizing that all our lives and futures are tied up together. By seeing the living circumstances of all of Fresno, our understanding of each other can increase, blame decrease, empathy increase, and the healing process begin that will be the foundation of all that is possible for our city.There is so much to observe and reflect upon – FM Walkers – please add your observation that I have missed.