you hit it on the head in the Jeopardy category of 'Disheartening':
"now marred by a step backward".

I'm looking forward to some good news someday.

I heard Leo use the word 'synergy'.

We need (and thank God, we have HAD) the combined magic of yer non-profits (Creative Fresno, et al), yer artists (the musicians, poets, mural painters etc who have contributed down there), yer media folks ( FresnoBee'ers, Beehivers, FF'ers , and independent bloggers)----and I guess[CORRECT ME PLEASE>>>>I wanna learn, cuz I want us to succeed]------

------is the missing link The City?????

I mean, if the city talks and plans and meets and talks and plans.....have they *done* anything?

....would some sort of tax incentives (I'm ignorant...any in place already?)..some sort of breaks on this or that....some sort of MAJOR INFRASTRUCTURE COOL CHANGES..can they do SOMETHING??????
Something/ANYthing?

I realize we're fighting our way out of a hole we've been digging for like 40 years....

but it's getting frustrating....and *I'm* not the one who's business is tanking. Geez.

I don't know if we need more patience or a LOUDER Revolutionary movement.

This seriously pisses me off.

There is so much more to the caring and heart that Leo and Liz put into this effort, and it just breaks my heart.

The fact of the matter is?
As much as Cafe Corazon was held up by so many as 'successes,' and 'examples,' of so many plans,

-when Leo reached out to so many who were all 'behind,'
him, and to those who were so quick to claim his efforts as a success and example?
Most of the time his calls weren't answered, again and again.

I understand that there is an idealism and 'motivational' aspect to seeing a business succeed,
and that a lot of businesses don't make it, -but this guy and his lady were basically left out in the water too long plain and simple.

Was there a mindset about the mall?
Yeah.

I mean, just last week I was down there, and a fellow juror was like
'...is it safe? (when I told her about Cafe Corazon)
--and I was like, 'sure, bring a friend, go have lunch tell'em Eric sent you.'

-but there have been times when I've walked back from eating there where I was getting the stink eye from guys just hanging with nothing better to do, and wondered, 'okay, if I get jumped, who do I take out first?,
(and I am not exactly demure by anyone's standards.)
Welcome to the reality of Fulton Mall at Noon.

So, yeah, the location vs the cost of everything did hurt, and it wasn't just 'nervous white folks from Champ/Perr who were to blame.'

But what really upsets me is how,
for all the soapboxing and talk about 'revitalization' and how 'integrated,' this town is,

-here we have two VERY educated Latinos,
who believed in themselves,
believed in their town,
went to the classes,
wanted to give back to their community (as true chicanos) and who wouldn't say a bad word about anyone,

---and once they danced out and put on a hell of a show? Their support system just freakin' ignored them... (yet still claimed them as 'successes.')

This isn't about the 'economy'
-because people NEED to eat, (and Cafe' Corazon's prices are decent and the food is excellent, I eat there whenever I am downtown, which is admittedly not all that often, but I make it a point to go there, not just because they're my friends, but because their stuff is excellent.)

This isn't about the 'economy'
-because once you get a cup of Leo's roast, you don't want to drink anything else, ---and those prices were excellent too.
(You realize at one time they were going to throw a Starbucks almost directly acrossed Cafe Corazon?)

For a fact I know of all the ridiculous rules and hurdles that the city threw in front of these two kids, regarding signage, seating, you name it,
and basically they sat there and said, 'g'head, you can do it, we have faith in you, make us proud.'
---and then lit up another ring for them to jump through.
(all the while collecting fees.)

It's one of those deals, where,
IF the truth was understood about how hard they tried,
and about how fair they played a game that changed on every turn?
NOBODY would try anymore,
and everybody would sour.
That bad.

Having been in the 'coffee houses,' of Fresno, and having been in some excellent coffee houses on the East Coast (up and down the coast, Midwest, and such, I can tell you, that there has been nothing like Cafe Corazon in this area that comes close. (One place, despite comfortable surroundings has coffee that tastes like a wet sock, the other, heralded as a bastion to the downtown set, smelled like somebody had burned a small animal on the grille when I walked in there.)

Leo and Liz have always put on a class act, right on down to the furnishings and choice of music.
They have not had to front
'being cool,' ---because they genuinely are.

They have not had to fall into the usual horseshit of:
'...gee, you can have great atmosphere,
or excellent food and coffee,
but not both, after all, this is only FRESNO..'

I've seen and been in shops that have been highly successful on the East Coast in college towns, in Philly, Manhattan, surrounding 'burbs, ---Leo and Liz had THAT level of product and presentation.
Shame nobody else got it.
--because they have nailed BOTH aspects since they first opened,
---and they even did that when Leo and Liz were sweating their asses off selling the coffee under a tent on Olive and VanNess,
(and they were handed all sorts of rediculous rules and hurdles there too.)
I've been to some really big coin social, musical, culinary, performance, (etc.) events here, and most of the time? their standards aren't half of what Leo and Liz do daily.

If the other 'coffee houses' see it as a slight? Welp, sorry, too bad.
Nothing has been like Corazon.
And the only thing that will come close?
Is if these two open up another shop.
(A thought which I'm sure terrifies both of them.)
That's it.

And what really pisses me off?
Leo has HAD opportunity to relocate,
but he DIDN'T want to because he wanted to see 'his' section of town come back,
-he drank the endless cool-aide discussions about how folks are so in love with Fulton Mall,
-and he sincerely believed that he could reach both (his) people, and anyone who walked in the door with an excellent product and caring, would come back and spread the word.
I hope that flame isn't dead, but I can tell you, it's probably not that strong anymore.

He and Liz (and their staff) have been running this thing from the blood from their own veins for months now. I've known this, I've been praying about this, and I've been praying more that they'd have the sense to pull out before the plane went down and they had at least enough room for the chutes to open, -but you never know when it comes to love, and Leo and Liz love their town, love what they do, and love any opportunity they get handed them, ---even one that is damn near impossible.

I know they're not bitter people,
I know they still have it in them to succeed, and one day they will.

But few things have me angrier in life than a hope defferred,
-and somebody with good intentions danced out onto a plank and then forgotten.
And that's excactly what happened to them.

The people who 'mentored them,' the people who 'developed the plans,' the people who 'taught them how to do it,'
---and the city that burned them for the sake of endless rhetoric,
misguided optimism,
and complete lack of the balls it takes to get out there and do it (rather than talk about it,) or put their money where their mouth is
You know who you are,
You know what calls and Emails you never responded to.
-hang your heads in embarrassment and take this one 'success story,' off your brochures,
---and go find another coattail to ride to glory on.

I personally?, need to go seek out two people who deserved a hell of a lot better than Fresno has given them,
hold them,
and cry with them.

This was a beautiful dream, and it was true for a while, and that's what I'm going to choose to focus on, for the sake and pure hearts of my friends.

But, with all due sincerity:
Damn the unbelievers,
profiteers, and those who make meat of those who serve with all their heart,
and
Damn the wet cement downpour that that the municipality of this place was.

Sometimes, you just have to wonder:
Does Fresno really want to have a Downtown?,
and see life come from vacancy, at all?
Or is this simply a town hell-bent on hating itself, it's efforts and future, any culture past wonderbread,
--merely so that it can bitch about being picked on,
and last,
like it's some martyr's noble badge.

Leo, Liz: Non Illigitementes Carborundum!

You've had a beautiful Dream,
my two beautiful friends,
thank you for letting me and any I could drag through your doors share it.

It's not dying, it just needs to sleep for a while, to regather strength, and to heal it's wounds.
You've learned a lot from this, I know.
You've done more in your short lives with this than most will ever think of doing,

You are tired.
Let it go.
Let us hold you.

It will come back, we promise.

Sincrely

Eric L. Field

Downtown just became that much harder to defend.

I wish Leo and Liz the best.

Abe Lopez

We'd be there all the time if we lived upstairs in the Guarantee bldg or the Hotel Fresno or (fill in the blank).

I agree with onomuse.
But who's tree do we have to shake to make it happen?:
property owners who wish to sit on the property and do nothing with it as they dream it will someday be worth a zillion dollars ?
City leaders who can smooooth the way??
I MEAN, they *wanted* to build a freakin' LAKE, can't they smooth the way(and I mean REALLY smooth, not just say it in the soundbites) and make it happen?

Obviously, a bunch of swingin' downtown apartments in those high rises would add up to customers wanting to hang out in coffee shops during their times of relaxation.

I mean really. Don't you think it's time to really start calling people out on the carpet about this?

As much as I liked Cafe C. I think we need to be careful when making comments like these, "What was looked at as a great success for the mall and for local business, is now marred by a step backward." I think to often we take a small thing and attach the weight of "revitalization" on it's back, which in turn just smothers any hope of success.

FUSE was a great success in the sense that it now has other organizations considering doing festivals like it in the future. And that is a step in the right direction.

Is it a little late for Cafe C.? Sure, but it did move things forward none the less.

Let's stay positive folks, even in the face of adversity. Okay that's all the Kool-aid I'll be serving today.

Thank you all, your words help keep that fire strong.

It will be hard for me to stay on a train of thought here cause any one of those subjects can take me off on tangent. I'll try to be quick.

What kills me is reading how the city spends so much money, millions, supporting big businesses and not supporting mom's and pop's. What kills me is reading that no one had to shake a tree to get Kern Street rebuilt with a million dollars. No contract bids and no competition for the work. Idea, fund and build. Wow. What a novelty. There is no transparency to this city government and methinks it is for a reason. Right down the way on Van Ness, a major street with it's own exit off of a freeway, there are uplifted panels of concrete sidewalk. Why? Why are those not fixed with a million dollars? Why this side street instead?

What kills me is having to deal with not one, not two but three different entities to get a sign replaced on a store front. At any point in time, because they are so well coordinated, structured and standardized, they do not agree on their own rules and regulations. What does this mean? This means the poor lady on the Fulton Mall who spent so much money having plans approved by the city, built and put up by a contractor has the sign taken down by code enforcement. Code enforcement reads the same rules and regulations the planning department read, but does not interpret those rules the same way. That is your city, those are the kinds of things that happen to the people that cannot afford those kinds of mistakes, literally.

What kills me is reading reports pointing out how the city needs to improve. In one report by the Urban Land Institute dated 1999;
"most disheartening to the panel and detrimental to successfully revitalizing downtown is an obvious polarization among and between the private, political, and public sectors with respect to implementing plans and accomplishing goals. Local expectations for the significant revitalization of the downtown appear to be low. The panel senses a lack of vision and focus where the urban core redevelopment is concerned. Committed leadership is lacking on both the public and private levels; there are too many overlapping organizations, all with good intentions but without cooperation or collaboration among them. No effective community-driven development process exists and the panel questions whether all of the important players are even at the table. There is little reason to go downtown and no positive sense of downtown identity. All of these factors have contributed to the following problems and missed opportunities:"

What kills me is what was true ten years ago, is still true. It is time to change things, time for people that care as much as yourselves to stand up as you have. It is time to choose a vision and make a decision. That is the only way to move forward. Become part of the Downtown Association, one of the elements pointed out in that study is a community-driven development process. The DTA is it. Creative Fresno is it, and there are others. Join up and help hold people accountable.

I'm not a political person. I'm not a confrontation kind of person. I crunch numbers and design freeways, I'm a details and numbers person. I had a dream, I built it with hard work and heart, WE built it stronger with a move to downtown. Many in this town see the hard work and feel our heart. I want to think this is why people support us and care about what is happening to us.

The thing to come away with is a fire for yourself. Learn what is happening, adjust and overcome. That is a fight plan. I have been, and plan to go down swinging. The rest of this city needs to put the mouthpiece in and tape up the fists and gloves. You all ARE the revolution.

*Ding*

...nicely said Leo.

Ashley liked the coffee, btw, I just made it to class on time, and she was a little late...
(I can't believe I was driving through traffic like an escaped mental patient for a Republican, but a deal's a deal...)

She seemed to be disheartened about you guys closing this Friday,
When I mentioned where the coffee was from?
She was like 'I love that place!'
When I said you guys were shutting doors at the end of the week?, she was like 'I know..'

(She had been talking about the Business Incubator and how important it was to take care of small businesses and such, hope for the city's economy and helping businesses to grow and thrive and all...
When I explained that you guys were one of the 'prototypes,'
....basically she stated that 'your efforts weren't for naught,'
and that 'entrepreneurs tend to bounce back,'

she also stated that she felt like, '...had she not been running for mayor and such, she felt that she may have been able to do more to help,'
(which, honestly, I think she meant as a genuine sentiment.)

Still, it was awkward to point out that
the 'plan and hope for business and all,'
-had one of it's figurheads (Cafe Corazon,) go paws up.
-while she was drinking one of the last cups of coffee, like ever.
(very awkward, actually.)

She genuinely loves your efforts (and shouts out to Liz.)

But, honestly?
-it seemed like a lot of theory, and benefit 'for the cause of improvement down the road,'
(like you and Liz were some sort of pioneers who didn't survive re-entry,
-but have established a lot of good data for future flights.

Personally?
(not regarding Mrs. Swearingen, she seemed like a sweetheart,
-regarding the handling and summation of the issue?
Screw that.

I want to see things go well for you two.)

One thing that I DID suggest, (for the Incubator,) would be 'aftercare,'
--you know,
so folks aren't just photographed on the deck all smiling, given a bottle of gatorade and a package of crackers, then shot off the aircraft carrier and wished 'rotsa ruck,'
-and then left up a creek without a fondue fork.

I just want to see this go from a lot of theory to reality,
-know you did too.

-So regarding that 'bouncing back,'
-How's it bouncing?
It bouncing good?

(I mean, you're a bouncing enough guy and all... (I for one am impressed by your bounciness...)

The bounce, is like the bounce from a dead blow hammer or one of those liquid filled balls that just lands. It's pretty much intentional at this time. We're at the regroup phase, plus we have a baby coming. So we're kind of looking at the start of the year as being a real new start to our lives. She's supposed to be a new years baby.

--see that?

I think that's a GOOD thing to look forward to.
A new beautiful Girl Baby, --who if she's anything like her Mamma and Da, is going to be a real ball of fire...

(to Quote Tom Petty,)

'...Sometimes I just want to tell the whole wide world to shove it,
-Here comes my Girl! ...'

(..'course, we know Liz is doing all the work on this,
-I'm hearing labor and delivery is not exactly a walk in the park...)

-best to Liz

E