Your opinion of Fresno

[Sam Or I]

It is the town I live in. I know it's reputation. Your opinion? Just a heads up I plan on writing a blog about Fresno, but I will not quote anyone. I just want a general opinion.

[Arthur_Tuxedo]

The one place in CA where someone from Stockton can feel good about his hometown.

[Sarevok]

Never been there but from what I heard it has very awful and hot weather.

[KhyronTheBackstabber]

At least it's not Detroit.

[General Zod]

I think I passed through it when I was a kid, otherwise that's about it.

[Kodiak]

I'm from there, born and raised. It's the biggest town with nothing to do I've ever seen.

[CaptainChewbacca]

Also born and raised. Its a convenient place to leave from and go to other places. The beach, the mountains, San Francisco, LA...

Fresno is really great to start.

[muse]

Allegedly, a lot of cow tipping goes on in the surrounding area.
It's possible I'm being lied to but I maintain that it's true.

[Superman]

Fresno is a dump.

[Erik von Nein]

It's a shit-hole, but at least it doesn't lie about being one. Every time I've been there I've seen an electric sign describing various bits about the weather and, without fail, every single time it's said the air quality was unhealthy. Hey, thanks for the heads up and reassuring me I'm not missing anything by not staying.

I'd say it's better than Salinas or King's City, but at least you're closer to the ocean in those cities. Better air quality, too.

[CaptainChewbacca]

Allegedly, a lot of cow tipping goes on in the surrounding area.
It's possible I'm being lied to but I maintain that it's true.

You can also slide down the hills in the park on ice blocks.

Fresno is a dump.

WEST Fresno is a dump. 5 or 6 miles from the highway and you get nice neighborhoods. That's the part I grew up. Its also HUGE for a town that size, just over 100 square miles.

FunFact: Robert (Chakotay) Beltran is from Fresno.

[Bob the Gunslinger]

It is the town I live in. I know it's reputation. Your opinion? Just a heads up I plan on writing a blog about Fresno, but I will not quote anyone. I just want a general opinion.

I have stayed overnight in Fresno several times and driven through it dozens more times, and that's about the limit of contact I would like to keep with Fresno.

It seems like a small, backwards town that somehow grew too large, like Bakersfield, leaving it with the unfortunate combination of rural attitudes (in my rather limited experience) and urban blight (well, more like a district full of unsightly buildings and crazy people, but whatever). Really, I tend to associate Fresno with Bakersfield, Modesto, Hayward, and Escondido, but I'm probably just being too harsh a critic. Maybe I just don't like Central Californian cities (and Escondido).

[Terralthra]

Hayward, the city near the geographic center of the Bay Area? Are you sure you know what you're talking about?

[Pollux]

At least it's not as ass-fuck tiny as Redding.

[Bob the Gunslinger]

Hayward, the city near the geographic center of the Bay Area? Are you sure you know what you're talking about?

Yes. My wife is from Hayward and I've been there many times. Hayward is the city where I had to dial 911 from inside the goddamn police station. I'm most familiar with Hayward's BART station, Hesperian and A street (all dumps), but the last few times I've been there, I've heard about the community college and certain residential streets because of their reputations for having a high number of rapes.

And Hayward is not near the center of the Bay area. It's near the south end of BART's route, at least 20 minutes from Oakland and a good 45 minute drive from Berkeley.

[Terralthra]

More like half an hour from Berkeley. As for near the south end, you must be unaware that San Jose, along with all of Silicon Valley, is part of the Bay Area. Looking at any map of the areas surrounding the bay will clearly show you that the center of the region is in the water between Hayward and San Mateo.

[Bob the Gunslinger]

Conceded. I tend to think of the Bay Area more along the lines of what was important when I lived there: San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley and BART. For me, the center of the bay area is in Oakland, where all the BART lines converge--the beating heart of all the civilized parts of the Bay Area... and Oakland. To make a long story short, yes, I am thinking of the same Hayward.

[Ford Prefect]

I assumed that it was a chain of American retail outlets that primarily dealt in bulk sales of frying oil and chip fat.

[CaptainChewbacca]

I assumed that it was a chain of American retail outlets that primarily dealt in bulk sales of frying oil and chip fat.

I'm sure you think this is funny, but I have no clue why.

Fresno is actually the 5th-largest city in California, with a bit over half a million people.

[Count Chocula]

I've been to and through Fresno several times. To me, it's like Ohio...with mountains. And the cool places to go are cooler than those you can reach in 2 hours from Ohio.

[Ford Prefect]

I'm sure you think this is funny, but I have no clue why.

Fresno is actually the 5th-largest city in California, with a bit over half a million people.

I've never actually heard of Fresno before I saw this thread. But just saying Fresno to myself did not conjure up images of a city, it conjured up images of a poured concrete building with automatic doors and dull-eyed teenagers in tacky tee-shirts, and all manner of people pushing trolleys stacked high with bulk items. Tins of beans so large you could go swimming in them. Blocks of butter big enough that to replicate the Great Pyramid. Metric fucktons of jelly. It just sounds like that kind of place. Fresno.

[tim31]

I get what Ford's saying.

But when I hear Fresno I think FUCKIN' MOTORCROSS!

[Ilya Muromets]

All I know about Fresno is that it got used as a running gag in an episode or two of that I am Weasel cartoon.

[loomer]

All I know about Fresno is that you have - even by my standards, which are damn high - cheap and plentiful methamphetamine.

[Phantasee]

All I know about Fresno is that I should be glad Modesto isn't like it. And all I know about Modesto is that there aren't Mounties there (but I have in-laws there now).