Mood:  celebratory

From the trash piles of Sunriver to Clovis Beautification project: World of differences

Who would not want to live in a place where city officials care about your investments? They work well with the local builders and developers to cough up the money to beautify the major Highway, (Highway 168), leading to the city? Yes, you may pay a premium in fees for the priviledge, but it is worth living there. Officials who receive complaint reports will actually do something about them. We were elated to read in the local paper that Clovis invests more than $15,000 in purchasing wildflower seeds to spread along the highway. For those of you who have never seen the beautiful collage of color during the Spring months around here, you will be in for a huge surprise.

What should you expect to find in the Spring?

The wildflowers from the highway will lead to the doors of the city. If you choose to follow Clovis trails, you will be pleasantly surprised by these varieties of flowers: snapdragon, lupine, African daisy, toadflax, tidytips, desert goldfields, yellow, red and white California poppies. It is a feast for the senses. You will not have to put up with construction waste left behind or stored by a major builder such as Sunriver. Well, let us just add that it has been announced that Caltrans will also spread seeds along Highway 168 interchanges and the freeways's grassy areas. That is good news. Guess who are the contributors in the Clovis's Wildfflower Beautification project?

The Clovis City Engineer said that a bunch of builders and developers chip in to raise the money. Among the donors, you find such great local home builders such as Wilson Homes, home builder Wathen-Castanos, home builder Lennar Fresno, Gary McDonald Homes, the engineering firm of Blair, Church & Flynn, landscape architects Broussard & Associates, Garret Construction, Agee Construction etc. etc.

How great is this? Unlike Sunriver that stores trash on its vacant lot in a top Fresno residential area, Clovis wants to remain attractive. Its officials seize any opportunity to showcase its beauty. Around here in Fresno, there is inertia.

Way to go, Clovis! We just hope to survive this stinking mountain of trash from Sunriver!

Posted by Fashionista Shopping Analyst at 11:57 AM EST

Updated: Friday, 3 February 2006 11:58 AM EST

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We have fresh trash to show you. We have some news. Yesterday a load of waste was hauled away. Sunriver is just making more space to dump new trash. It seems that they only take away the least amount of trash after complaints from the residents.

Street cleaning truck

Posted by Fashionista Shopping Analyst at 11:44 AM EST

Updated: Wednesday, 1 February 2006 11:50 AM EST

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Would you buy an expensive home only to see that the company that built it is trashing the neighborhood?

A home appraiser told us the story of a Clovis resident who had to do some odd things to get Sunriver to clean its acts. He was trying to tell us to put up a huge sign facing the street. On the sign, we are to write, "Do not do business with Sunriver. Do not buy homes from Sunriver. The company does not pick construction waste." Well, that is exactly what the guy did in Clovis. Sunriver responded by trying to shut him down. When everything else did not work, the company was willing to negotiate with the Clovis resident. He agreed to put down his sign for a large sum of money with the promise that Sunriver developers and builders would clean its trash. When the company failed to meet its goals, the guy erected the sign again. Once more, Sunriver paid him or entered into some kind of agreement with him. Finally the company pleased him. He put down the signs.

Do we, residents of this neighborhood, think about doing the same thing? Why not? It may work for us too.

Wait until you see these revealing pictures right here

Posted by Fashionista Shopping Analyst at 8:26 AM EST

Updated: Wednesday, 1 February 2006 8:52 AM EST

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It is true that this lot located in the 93722 zip code belongs to Sunriver. But we, residents, don't think they have any rights to put all this stinking trash right under our nose. For God's sake, they are not willing to pay to have it picked up. These employees are adding fresh trash to the piles of construction waste that has been sitting here for months. Would Sunriver do this in Clovis? Would the city of Clovis officials allow such practices?

Phone calls have been made to Fresno officials' voicemail. There is nobody to talk to. We wonder whether they even come to the office to get their paycheck. I never have the luxury of finding an employee I can talk to. I always have to leave messages. So far, Sunriver does not do much to pick up this festering trash which becomes the habitat of all kinds of vermins and pests.

We already know that Sunriver is not in a hurry to complete any of the buildings it is working on. That means we will have to endure their trashing of the neighborhood for a long time. The lot on which the mountains of trash sit is located between two houses whose residents and/or owners are minority people. Of course, across the street from the vacant lot live caucasians who also have to look at the trash day in and day out. For sure, they complain about it. Nothing has been done to effectively manage this waste output. Would we want the company to store all of this trash right here? No, but what can we do? The land is theirs.

The city officials are not willing to do anything yet. They may have other pressing priorities, but public health and residents' safety are not part of this priority list.

More revealing pictures will come soon.

Where Is Sunriver's Construction Waste Storage?

Zip code: 93722; cross streets: Cromwell and Hanna. This is the same zip code with expensive homes and delicate architecture shown in tourism publications and other writings or marketing books.

If you want to have an idea of the zip codes that are in district 2, Check out District 2 Home page.

You will read the following info, " Fresno City Council District 2 is bounded by the San Joaquin River (on the north), Blackstone Avenue (on the east), Shaw & Ashlan Avenues (on the south), and Grantland Avenue and Highway 99 (on the west)" (City of Fresno, District 2 home page, Retrived on 2-1-06).

Posted by Fashionista Shopping Analyst at 8:19 AM EST

Updated: Wednesday, 1 February 2006 9:02 AM EST

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This is meant to be a Neighborhood Watch blog that will try to show the zip codes and areas with development, construction and waste management problems.

Welcome to FixwhatsBroken Creative!
Here is your chance to get things fixed at your workplace,
in your neighborhood, and in the community!

Fix What's Broken, Don't Fix It If It Ain't Broken!

Read more about broken service, companies' products we paid a lot of money to acquire but don't work.
Read about digital products, cars that do not function, expensive items we lose money on!

Feel free to browse and give your opinions in the comment area.

Welcome to Driving Down Property Values! We hope that you are not going to learn how to drive down the values of your property. After all, all of us, homeowners want the values of our properties to go up. In the following pages, we hope to highlight the actions of some home builders who are not accountable for the mess they create in residential areas. We hope to call the attention of public officials who care about public health issues. After all, our officials are supposed to solve our problems. We also hope to spotlight the problems, show the public employee/official who is responsible for fixing, tell you whether anything has been done.

We hope you will pass this along to your friends, city officials who can do something about it. This may be our last resort to bring some key players to accountability.

We will document, post pictures and a brief note about what needs to be fixed, who is responsible to get it fixed and how long it takes.

Posted by Fashionista Shopping Analyst at 7:58 AM EST

Updated: Tuesday, 7 February 2006 10:18 AM EST

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