The Tower District radiates throughout the Olive strip, and connects from business to business. It develops a spirit that creates an atmosphere that is even warmer than the weather of Fresno. From great eats to historic staples, the businesses and people here cherish their community.
By Ali Harshaw and James Pewthers
The main question: why do people like the Tower District, especially the people who live there?
The LGBTQ+ community’s community
“I grew up in southeast Fresno, grew up in the hood, moved away for a while, came back and it’s just really the only area of town I like to live in,” said Alicia Rodriguez. “I like to bike a lot, I like to walk around, so it kind of gave me the feel of the city more than any other place in town.”
She’s the co-owner of Labyrinth Art Collective, and also the former president of the Tower District Preservation Association, who helped spearhead its revival because of the uncertainty around the ownership and management of the Tower Theatre.
She also pointed to the area being “queer-friendly” as another reason she likes living there.
“There’s areas in town where people aren’t as openly queer, and I’d rather live and hang out somewhere that is,” Rodriguez said.
These sentiments mirror a lot of Tower residents’ feelings about their neighborhood, and even people that don’t live there. The fact that it’s walkable and welcoming to the LGBTQ+ community draws in people from all over the Fresno area.
“You have Splash, you have FAB, Richie’s Pizza is owned by an LGBT individual, like everybody’s really accepting,” Rom said. They live in Clovis, but frequent the area for that reason.
“When I’m walking down here, I see so many pride flags in different windows and that’s really nice. Anywhere else in Fresno or Clovis, you go and you don’t see that anywhere. It’s the opposite, I would say,” Owen, Rom’s friend, said. “It’s nice to see that, you feel like you’re not unsafe because of that.”
A Richie’s Pizza employee echoed that sentiment. “I think they probably feel very safe here and very welcomed, like this is their community as opposed to someplace else,” they said.
Virgil Grecinn came from a small town in Canada, and found his heart in Tower almost immediately when moving to California 7 years ago. He appreciated the diversity in Tower, which led him to move there, and now he works at Perfect Blend Fine Cigars.
”To me, it’s like a place where I want to set down roots,” Grecinn said. “It’s a crucial part of my life now. If I can help it, I’ll never move away from Tower.”
A strong sense of community
Another common theme is that, because of the welcoming nature of the area, it feels like there is a real sense of community in Tower compared to other places in Fresno.
Liz Sanchez, the owner of CDT Cocina, says it’s a strong community and a family also.
“I walk out of my house and literally, [people are] like, ‘Oh – Liz – that’s the tamale lady over there!’ So I see people near my neighborhood,” Sanchez said. “I frequent the other businesses here as much as I can, and they come in frequently as well.”
Jess Woods, a CDT employee, moved away to Oakland for some time then came back, and appreciates the similarities between the two areas.
“It feels really unique and cool to hang out in, and this is like the closest in Fresno – this and downtown – that you’re gonna get to that whole life,” Woods said.
She also reminisced about Valentino’s Rock N’ Apparel, a clothing store that her cousin owned and ran for a little over three decades.
“It was a Tower staple for a very long time,” Woods said. “It was the original goth and punk rock kind of establishment in Fresno.”
Ties between small businesses
Because a lot of them have developed deep-seeded relationships with one another, there is a strong trust between the small businesses in Tower. They give and take from each other in order to keep money and resources within the community.
“We’re all in it together because we are all small businesses,” said Rayana Perez. “We are all just taking care of each other.”
Perez is an employee at Tower Health & Diet Foods, which has been around for 70 years. She says one of the best parts of working there is getting to talk to older locals who know a lot about Tower and Fresno.
“Probably 70% of our customers are senior citizens,” she said. “It’s so much fun talking to the elders.”
Ryan Urpuidez, an employee at Ragin’ Records, has lived in the area for nearly a decade, and has worked there since it opened. He feels like Tower businesses and venues offer so much that there’s not much of a reason to go elsewhere.
“I live out here, I work out here, eat, drink out here, I don’t really go anywhere else. Everything’s all here,” he said.
He also said that in the aftermath of the pandemic, people have came back out wanting to participate in local art.
“[There’s been] a lot of new venues opening up for artists to perform in, not just for music but also for poetry,” Urpuidez said. “Like if you go into Van Ness Village, there’s all kinds of stuff now.”
He also mentioned Labyrinth, a part of Van Ness Village, which Rodriguez says is a tight-knit group of friends at this point.
“We frequent Spokeasy, Root Access Hackerspace, and Sour Milk, they’re all friends of ours and they’re all community minded,” Rodriguez said. “[It’s a] really good group of people, I think we lucked out heavy with that block.”
Referring to how bonds and ties within the Tower District community survived the pandemic, Urpuidez said that “if anything, it’s only gotten stronger.”
Flourishing Fresno 