State leaders should create an Armenian homes cultural center in Fresno | Opinion

By Varoujan Der Simonian,

It’s been over four months since the Fresno City Council, on Sept. 29, 2022, discreetly placed on the agenda selling the homes on the corner of M Street and Santa Clara Avenue to a developer. We were pursuing to convert these homes into a Five Home Town museum, a portion of which we had envisioned to represent the multicultural fabric of our community. I attended the next City Council meeting in November, and within two minutes, I introduced myself and urged the members to revisit their decision. The clerk alerted me that I still had one more minute to speak. I appreciated the opportunity and asked the members if they had any questions; I was ready to reply. I folded my hands, looked into their eyes, and waited. The entire chamber was silent. No one asked a question for the whole minute, and no one spoke. You could have heard a needle drop, even on the carpet.

A retired university president from the Midwest, a native of Fresno, asked me later how I interpreted their silence. I concluded that the council members have yet to study what we have been proposing for the past 13 years. The executive director of the successor agency of the redevelopment agency may have kept our proposal private from successive council members and may have withheld or misrepresented the information. Overall, it gives the impression that besides lip service, the RDA/City Council is not interested in enhancing our city’s multicultural heritage. A week later, Mayor Jerry Dyer expressed that he and several council members were taken off guard when they noticed the proposed sale of the houses placed on the council’s agenda item without advance notice. On Nov. 7, I wrote to the city attorney’s office, ending my letter: “You are the legal oversight department to ensure that transparent and fair transactions take place within the city government in its dealings.” I am still waiting to receive an acknowledgment.

Looking forward is fine, but “carpeting” previous errors are not constructive. Both officeholders know what investigation means; they have dealt with it during their professional careers. Otherwise, the Fresno County DA’s office might be the right office to investigate it. My record shows that on March 23, 2017, I informed Assemblyman Adrin Nazarian, a state Assembly Budget Committee member, of our plan. On Wednesday, April 19, 2017, at 10:30 am, I met him at his Capitol office in Sacramento. On Tuesday, January 23, 2018, 3:00-3:30 pm, I met with the district director for Assemblyman Joaquin Arambula and later with the assemblyman, presenting the proposal to help secure state funding. Our one-time request for $1 million would have been enough to renovate and convert the corner into the Five Homes Town Museum.

Since then, Nazarian has secured $20 million of state funds for the 2021 and 2023 budget years for the Armenian American Museum, under construction in Glendale. In 2022 Assemblymember Arambula secured $7 million for Arte Americas here in Fresno. Kudos to both! I get it; most City Council members in Glendale are of Armenian heritage, and in Fresno, of Hispanic origin. Gov. Newsom and state legislators value preserving cultural heritage in our state. Thus, I ask Assemblymember Arambula to revisit our request and ask the governor to consider allocating enough funds to convert the M & Santa Clara corner to a Homes Town museum. If the city finds it fitting, it could relocate the so-called Vartanian house to the empty spot where the fire destroyed two houses in 2020 and make it part of the complex.. It is not late. You know the saying: “If there is a will, there is a way.” Such an undertaking will contribute to making Fresno a cultural arts district.

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