UC-ABF. That is what my mantra was. I just had to do well enough at my highschool to get out of Fresno. I even had to take a detour in my plans and take a year at the community college there. Granted, I took classes that would directly transfer to USC on purpose, but I also got into the Honors Program there, and used it for what it was worth... Hell I am rambling, but hey, "well enough" at my highschool was honors work in college... Our highschool is (too?) great for the city, and would be hailed in other larger cities. In Fresno, it is only in the papers when there is a shooting out in front of it. The glory goes to the so-so schools north of Shaw, or in Clovis and that is ok too, as it is Fresno, and just expected...
Just my two cents...

completely and utterly true. Every word of it. Our school was the science and math GATE magnet and all you ever heard about it was the one time there was a shooting.

Did I mention it was the LAST HS in Fresno or Clovis to have a drive-by? All the others had had at least one already by then.

Do they mention the 20 some-odd AP classes or the County winning Academic Decathlon team (led by yours truly, individual all-around gold medalist 1995)? Hell no.

F*cking Fresno.

I'd agree with you on the problems Fresno (specifically local government) has with mindset, and obviously wouldn't ever recommend Fresno State over MIT or CalTech. But the tide is shifting, and there is a lot going on culturally in Fresno (it seems you don't consider art to be culture, so I'm not sure what you're looking for). It's too bad you didn't find any of it. Feel free to email me the next time you're in town and looking for something to do, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

i'm with jarah on this. fresno is changing. i lived here until i was 12 and hated every moment of it. then at 24, when i moved back, i learned to love fresno. true, at first i thought it was a cultureless cesspool but now i think differently. fresno, like anywhere, is what you make of it. if you make it suck...then it does.

ROFL! And people wonder why I'm HAPPY to live in the socialist paradise of MA now. Took me a long damned time to get out for good, though, since I kept running out of money. How I Wound Up With An English Degree From Fresno State is a good story, really. Heh. But you know, I went to Central High. Back when it was way out in the sticks and they didn't have any, you know, classes. Just a fake gang fight my sophomore year, staged by the football team, that somehow made it into the Bee as the real thing. LOL. There wasn't much hope for my academic future in the first place. :)

The local "celebrities"...so freaking true. I used to work at the Borders at River Park. It was so entertaining when local news people would come in there and they'd draw crowds and leave their dirty coffee cups jammed in the shelves. Nasty freaking people. Hell, the bulk of the River Park shoppers were just so impressed with themselves for living north of Herndon that they could barely function...

People wonder why I ran off and joined the Navy. Heh. Fer goodness sake, when I "met" Jay I'd quit smoking in an attempt to save enough money to move the hell back out of Fresno, even though I was making Really Good Money by local standards. Better poor than Fresnan, no?

Laughing at your original post, BTW, not at bn. True that you can make what you want of it, but it's hard when you've got no material to work with. Hard to knit a good blanket if all you have to make it with are twigs and leaves.

So true about Fresno's quasi-famous.

John Wallace lived down the street from us when I was a kid and his twin daughters were my friends. His oldest (from 1st marriage) is married to Trent Dilfer. Mom knows her mom. Later, Rudy (Rodriguez??)what's-his-name who was also on Channel 30 lived right across from us and I used to baby sit his kids. They were nice people.

I could go on and on. Ben says (and I agree) that there are 2 Fresnos, one that's interconnected and in charge of things, and the other Fresno. That, and that everyone in Fresno knows each other two separate ways....

Fresno sucks. We have pretty good weed here, though.

I'd have to ask my s-i-l about that one.....

there ARE materials to work with...you just have to know where to look. there are many people (myself included) who would like to see things change and we're trying really hard to work with what we've got.

Wow! I really envy you guys. I am from fresno and i live in fresno. It sshure sounds like all you guys are real smart. I am very enviuos of you. I wanted to get out of fresno but cou'ldn't figure out how to do it. It is hard to find a way out! But you guys did it! Cool! Way to go guys! You even went to really smart schools and maybe even got doctorit degrees to boost your self asteem and probably inflate your fragile egos and most likely validate your self-worth by relying on extraneous, institutionalized bench marks! Sweet! Do you feel better about yourselves now? Well you should! You got out of Fresno and made it to the REAL world of Pasadena and/or Chapel Hill, no doubt two of the coolest places to live in the WORLD. I mean, have you seen downtown Pasadena? It is freaking awesome! Oh, and it is also really cool how you find it fun and amusing to poke fun of us less fortunate Fresnans that were’nt smart enough or good enough or pretty enough to get out. It must be a good feeling to be able to lift yourselves up above the lowly proletariat class of the Fresno poor and stupid. Certainly, you have the high ground on every front: morally, intellectually, financially, religiously. You go Caltechgirl! You’re so smart and so comfortable with your success and so eager to share your accomplishments and myriad of talents with the world you put it into your blog name! How corageous and noble you must be. It is so nice how sly you are to cassualy put down Fresno while inconspicuously dropping the names of the top universities you got into. Now that is what I call class! But what do I know? I am just a lazy, raisin-growing Fresnan. (Did I mention I grow raisins? I do! Too bad, cause I hate raisins but that is all there is to do here. Grow raisins! Blah!) No way am I as cool or good or smart or pretty as you! Please, keep living your lives the way you do. Clearly you are good, superior people who are wise in the ways of the world. (After all you lived in Pasadena!) So please keep spreading your words of hate and discouragement. It reflects very well on you and gives us “Fres-lifers” a shred of hope knowing it is, or at least was, possible to get out.

Hey Lifer, blow me.

I made the choices that are right for me. Too bad you are so frigging jealous that you can't see straight.

This is who I am. I don't see you laying it on the line.

And sadly enough, my friend, you are exactly why I left. Small minds who only want to put down other's achievements, who can't see past the Tule fog in their own head. I am doing what I want to do. What I have always wanted to do. Did you always want to grow raisins? If so, you're no different than me. I just find it sad that because you do that, you could stay home and do what you like, but I couldn't. And that sucks. And that's why Fresno sucks.

Did I say what I have done is the best? That where I live is the best? No. Just that it is right for me.

Or is this just sour (raisin) grapes over the FSU loss?

HA HA HA HA HA!!! now that's funny!! i DO think it's strange that people who USED to live in fresno can spend so much time complaining about it. you've moved on....so move on. fresno is not your problem anymore.

See that's just it. In a way we haven't.

I still go back there. My family is there. I would like to live close to them, but I can't make a living.

oh, and BTW, I used to complain more before I moved away.

point taken...but still...there are so many good things here...and i am certainly not small minded. i agree with a lot of what you said but complaining about it gets us nowhere! what we need is for people to focus on what's GOOD and go from there. i attend poetry readings, concerts, art openings, the opera, etc...and i feel that fresno is not lacking in culture. what it lacks is people who are truly seeking culture.

the job thing is another story. i am unemployed right now and i am feeling frustrated because there is really nothing that i want to do here. i know that jobs exist...but finding the right one is hard. i moved back here from a rather expensive area...that had great paying jobs...so this is hard for me. but i will still stay here and do the best i can for now.

opera? There's opera? Cool. I could go for that.

And certainly, not everyone in town is small minded. Just enough to make it uncomfortable sometimes. It does sometimes seem to be the prevailing mindset, though.

see what i mean...you said there's no culture but you didn't even know about the opera. unfortunately, there are only two a year but there is also the fresno philharmonic. there is PLENTY of culture here!! i am so sick of people saying that there isn't.

oh please. I was waiting for someone to bring up the Phil. I was practically raised backstage. It isn't much to cheer about.

fine. i won't comment anymore. obviously your mind is made up.

I'll agree that Fresno sucks in many ways. I can also tell you didn't spend much time in the Tower District. I lived there from the late 80s to mid 90s.

True, historically the Tower has "always" been the Gay District but with that acceptance you find much more opportunities for diversity and ideas that are not mainstream Fresno.

In a lot of ways the Tower is comparable to Haight in San Fransisco or Melrose in Los Angeles. There is the Rogue Festival which hosts numerous performance artists, writers and actors.

I can say the only hope for culture in Fresno lays in the Tower District. To dismiss it as you did, "only if you're gay or into art and coffee", does not do you credit. In fact, it makes you sound a little like a hick from Clovis.

pfft. Yeah. Have you been to Melrose or Haight? I agree that Tower is the best Fresno has to offer, diversity and culture-wise but that's simply not good enough. Culture is a HELL of a lot more than a few galleries, some indy bands, and a theatre.

I'm definitely not from Clovis. I have black friends.

This has really gotten off the mark.

Rather than defend myself against each of you who have pointed out something interesting or cultural about Fresno, my whole point was to demonstrate that a lot of things in town are shit, and they're not improving, and that's why people leave. It's not about culture, honestly, except that the overall mindset in town seems to be against growth or openmindedness or embracing diversity.

Yes, Fresno has some good things, so does every town or city, ok? The point is, unless things change I will never live there again, and I find that utterly sad. And I'm not alone.

I'm also adding this to the end of my post. So maybe you'll read it before pointing out another nit-picky thing that's good about Fresno.

I was born in Toronto, grew up mostly in Orlando, went to college in Boston, spent plenty of time in NY, SF, DC and Chicago, and since college have lived in St. Pete, Fresno, and most recently, Minneapolis. And wow. Even my New Yorker friends by and large wouldn't have the hubris to dismiss an entire city with a phrase like "small town, small minds." Especially a city with so much perspective to offer, and a city where you can trace so clearly the story of its country. Even after a relatively short while there, I have an interest in seeing it evolve stronger than in any of the other places I've lived.

I'm glad you enjoyed your time there, Matt. But that doesn't change the fact that a lot of attitudes have to change before Fresno lives up to its potential.

I wouldn't characterize it as hubris but rather repeated disappointment.

I'm so glad you moved away Caltechgirl. Fresno is better for it.

We don't need your small, shallow thoughts here. You belong in that sea-of-suburbs called So Cal, thinking your a bigger person because you moved to a "big city".

Simply moving to a percieved better place, doesn't make you better than Fresnans, or anyone.

hey Mikie, you are exactly the reason I left. How petty and shallow was that? Did I attack you personally? Why no. I didn't.

So you can fuck off. Consider yourself banned

You started your blog off with: "Let me 'splain. Real easy so's you Fresnans can understand: Fresno sucks."

I'm a Fresnan. Fresno is MY town. So excuse me if I took you personal attack "personal".

I'm a Fresnan too. If I can take it what makes you such a pussy? It doesn't make me feel insulted, just sad.

BTW I didn't start either the blog or the post off with that phrase, so perhaps you'd do well to read the entire post.