Regulations coming for Fresno’s growing ArtHop downtown, angering owners and vendors

The city will not allow outdoor vendors at the next Fresno ArtHop , a popular monthly event held downtown, while it figures out a way to regulate it, leaving vendors on Friday displeased and in disbelief.

Councilmember Miguel Arias said the event has become so popular that city leaders look to get a handle on it before safety or other concerns get out of hand.

“So far we have not had any incidents where vendors are fighting with one another; we have not had any incidents where a car hits a pedestrian because there’s no space on the sidewalk. We haven’t had any significant incidents of safety that have required emergency responses from units or from medical services,” Arias said Friday during a news conference. “And we want to avoid exactly that.”

About 15,000 people attend ArtHop , according to the Downtown Fresno Partnership’s data of cellphone information. Arias said that number begins to approach the most popular soccer events at Chukchansi Stadium that draw about 18,000.

ArtHop began in 1996 as a way for local artists to mingle and to showcase their work to the public, but the event has grown to become a popular monthly street fair that stretches beyond downtown into the Tower District.

The monthly gathering offers scores of outdoor vendors with clothing, handmade art and other goods on top of food trucks.

In nearly three decades of the event, the city of Fresno has not required permits or charged vendors who set up on and near Fulton Street.

A downtown event that draws 15,000 people would typically generate an estimated $100,000 in fees, Arias said. That’s money the city could use to pay for officers at the event, fire inspections, road closures and other city machinations that the city has so far absorbed for ArtHop.

No vendors allowed on streets, sidewalks during ArtHop

The next ArtHop, which is Aug. 1, will not allow vendors out on the street or sidewalks, shooing them into buildings in the same areas.

Arias said the idea is to spend the time between the announcement on Friday and the following ArtHop, which is Sept. 5, to come up with a plan to require permits from vendors. That could mean vendors would have to pay for a permit, but Arias said he looks to exhaust any potential alternative funding options before asking vendors to pay.

“It’s one of the few events that the city just doesn’t impose additional costs (on vendors) for police services. It simply reassigns officers from other parts of the district to serve at the ArtHop,” he said. “So as you can imagine a bigger footprint stretches those services even more.”

The Downtown Fresno Partnership will work with vendors and artists looking for an indoor spot for the August ArtHop, according to its CEO Elliot Balch. He said he was optimistic the new version of ArtHop would not damper its popularity.

“We’re reaching out to our merchants, business owners (and) property owners along Fulton Street, and we’ll be next week issuing a map that shows just exactly how you can continue to enjoy the Fulton Street experience during ArtHop,” Balch said.

The news conference held at Kern Plaza on Friday also drew a number of local business owners and ArtHop participants, who mostly expressed skepticism over a new city plan they were not asked to participate in.

Vendors react to new ArtHop ordinance

The event that happens the first Thursday of every month is good for business for many of the downtown owners as well as the vendors.

Sofia Sanchez said she sells clothes she made as well as vintage attire at Bad Girls Market , which is inside Mammoth Mall on Fulton Street.

The night of ArtHop can triple her business compared to a regular day, she said.

Selling items on the street draws many more eyes than when shoppers have to go inside a building, she said. Shoppers will avoid going inside because they feel pressured to buy in a way they don’t while perusing on the street.

“That was ridiculous,” she said after listening to the news conference. “I mean, I don’t really feel like it is for the safety of the people, because ArtHop has been like this.”

She said believes the city is really seeing dollar signs. “All the vendors and all the organizers built this and for (the city) to just step in and say, ‘You know what? It’s gotten too successful. Now I want some part of it,’” she said.

Could Measure P money be used?

Some vendors said it’s not easy for them to move inside.

The food trucks that commonly flank Fulton Street between Tioga-Sequoia Beer Garden and Full Circle Brewery are organized by Fresno Street Eats President and founder Mike Osegueda, more commonly known as Mike Oz.

“This is gonna hurt a lot of small businesses. I hope that what the city is doing, they get it right,” he said Friday after listening to the news conference. “Because if it’s all for nothing, and it’s just sort of very limp code enforcement and nothing really changes, then you’ve just hurt a bunch of small business.”

Osegueda said he generally supports the efforts of the city to avoid problems brought on by a large crowd, but said the city should not treat properly permitted and vetted owners like him the same as a pop-up vendor who has not been through the red tape at City Hall.

He said he was also concerned the city’s efforts might scare some ArtHop-goers who may have the wrong idea about downtown and its safety.

“We’ve come so (far) in the past 10 years to get past that, that a lot of people who maybe don’t come down here or only come down here on ArtHop night are gonna be like, ‘Oh, I’m not gonna go down there anymore,’ because then we’re just kicking ourselves in the face,” he said.

Arias said the city is looking at potentially using Measure P money to regulate the event, and he looks to speak with vendors and downtown owners about ideas before the September edition of ArtHop.

Sign Up for Local Breaking News