Skip to Content
Streetsblog California home
Streetsblog California home
Log In
Fresno's Fulton Street pedestrian mall is no more. Photo: Melanie Curry/Streetsblog
Fresno's Fulton Street pedestrian mall, seen here last year, is no more. Photo: Melanie Curry/Streetsblog
Fresno's Fulton Street pedestrian mall is no more. Photo: Melanie Curry/Streetsblog

One of the oldest pedestrian malls in the U.S., the Fulton Street Mall in Fresno, is no more.

The modernist mall was built in the 1960s in an attempt to prevent Fresno's downtown economy from being sucked dry by suburban development sprawling on the outskirts of town. It failed, as many such malls did, because investment was all happening away from the center, and the downtown mall has since become a quiet refuge for people of color.

There is no other way to put it. Take a walk down Fulton Street any day of the week and look who's there, sitting under its trees, shopping in the few remaining stores, gathering with their friends.

Or who used to be there. As seen in a series of photos taken by James Sinclair for his blog Stop and Move, the mall is disappearing behind construction fences, trees are being chopped, and much of the remarkable artwork—including a Rodin sculpture—is being removed and stored, to be replaced later somewhere along the reconfigured street.

From Sinclair's update:

The speed of this project has surprised me. Kickoff was a year delayed (original completion date was next month) but they've since moved quickly after a March groundbreaking. That's certainly good for the businesses which are in a bad shape right now. However, I was surprised to see how superficial the construction was. It appears that they scraped off the mall and are laying the new road straight on the dirt. That is, I didn't see any digging. I assume the area has very old sewer and electrical systems, and now would have been the very best time to replace those. Maybe lay some fiber cable as well? Seems short-sighted to ignore that. If the area "booms" as the project component claims, will the existing underground infrastructure support it?

When it's complete, the downtown mall will no longer be a place for pedestrians and bicyclists. That's because the city decided that to fix its problems, the mall needed to be opened up—to cars. And parking.

Never mind that the rest of Fresno's downtown has the burned-out look of any area that used to be an economic center but has been decimated by years of commercial development elsewhere. Fulton Street is surrounded by parking lots, empty storefronts, empty industrial areas, and thrift stores. It's a familiar sight in many California areas that saw their downtowns emptied out.

Fresno has decided that the culprit is this one street where cars aren't allowed because it's filled with (long-empty) fountains, trees, sculptures, benches, and other things that get in the way of driving and parking.

“Downtown should be the financial, historical, and cultural place of the city,” says local developer Sevak Katchadourian in this video, a heavy-handed bit of PR that fails to explain how opening the mall to cars will create the “great city center” it says Fresno desperately needs.

The mall needs “visibility, accessibility, and connectedness,” says another developer—meaning for cars, because of course the pedestrian mall is utterly invisible, inaccessible, and unconnected. Except to the people who currently use it.

“If we could just park right in front,” moans one would-be mall user, who can't convince her friends to join her because they drive cars.

And only people who drive cars matter.

Here are some more Fresno links:

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog California

StreetSmart7: Sam Speroni and Automobile Debt

In StreetSmart Episode7, Streetsblog California editor Damien Newton and Sam Speroni from UCLA discussed the unequal distribution of car ownership costs in Los Angeles, using data from 2021 to 2023. 

May 23, 2025

Friday’s Headlines

CA vs. Republicans is national news, but there's plenty of other news happening around the state.

May 23, 2025

Metro Quietly Withdraws Lyft Bike-Share Contract Vote

The current twice-botched will-they-won't-they procurement process is not doing Metro Bike Share any favors.

May 22, 2025

SGV Hikes and Bikes: Duck Farm River Park

Tucked in the crook of the 605 and Valley Boulevard is some much needed breathing room for the East Valley.

May 22, 2025

Revealed: MTC Canceled Bridge Bike Lane Meetings Because Staff Findings Showed it Should Stay Open

Thanks to a public records request from Bike East Bay, we now know why two public hearings were cancelled at the last minute.

May 22, 2025
See all posts