☀️Good Morning, Fresno! It’s Sunday, Nov. 29, 2020.
Hey friends,
I hope y’all had a great and safe Thanksgiving! This is going to be the last newsletter of 2020 before we go on a month-long hiatus. First of all, I want to thank every single one of you who signed up and read this. All 147 of y’all. From the bottom of my heart, thank you.
Tommy and I have more plans for Fiveby and we already cannot wait to share in January. Five By Five Nine is my dream for Fresno and it’s a dream I want to build with y’all. After all, it is meant to serve you, the community. The thing about Fiveby is that while it’s just me and Tommy, you can still have a direct influence on how it grows and morphs. That’s been my idea for local journalism since 2017 and I’m finally executing it.
There is still time to tell us what you think and what you want out of Fiveby through our Big Reader Survey. Enter before Dec. 4 and you can win some coffee from Fulton Street Coffee! I am going to send another email before then so pleeeeease take it, I swear I’ll stop being annoying about it.
I hope you have a wonderful holiday season, a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
—Love, Ram 🧡
Fresno by Five
🦠 Coronavirus Update: Back to Purple
As of Nov. 27, the most recent data available at the time of writing, there have been a total of 37,724 (+2,996) total confirmed cases and 481 (+18) deaths in Fresno County. Currently, there are 265 (+90) hospitalized. A total of 23,365 people have recovered.
We remain in the purple tier. We had a positivity rate of 8.4 and 17.2 new cases per 100,000 residents this past week. To reenter the red tier, Fresno County must meet the following requirements:
An adjusted average daily rate of seven new coronavirus cases for every 100,000 residents.
Have no more than 8% of residents who are tested for COVID-19 show positive results for the infection on a weekly basis.
Testing is available around Fresno. Visit lhi.care to set up an appointment. It’s free even without insurance.
Speaking of testing, Fresno Bee’s Manuela Tobias wrote an in-depth look at how rural farmworker communities in Fresno County—because of the long distance for tests, years of disinvestment and the fear of losing their jobs—cannot afford to be tested. Read it here.
⚫ Black Friday during COVID-19
Despite COVID-19 restricting malls to 25% capacity, people still lined up outside of shops on Black Friday. It wasn’t as big as previous Black Fridays with a huge focus of people trying to cop a Playstation 5. They didn’t have any though. Let’s get an F in chat for them. Just wait for the PS5 Slim that will definitely come out next year, gamers.
On a national level, Black Friday hit a record of $90 billion in spending. That’s a 21.6% increase. Small businesses also had a huge boost with a 545% increase in sales. I hope y’all supported our own local businesses yesterday.
🍷 Curfew Easy as ABC Agents Telling You to Stop
Agents from the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control have been seen going around town making sure businesses are following the curfew set in place by Governor Gavin Newsom
No citations were issued but these ABC agents are making 2,200 site visits in 17 different counties. Most businesses have complied and since our own sheriff and district attorney won’t enforce these orders, they may be the only threat of citation to follow these COVID-19 guidelines
🏃♂️ Valadao Trumps Cox + Final Fresno County Election Results
The Associated Press has officially called the Cox-Valadao race for David Valadao on Friday. After losing by a narrow margin to TJ Cox in 2018, Valadao was declared the winner of the 2020 race with just 1,700 votes more than Cox. The remaining yet to be counted ballots are unlikely to make a difference. Cox has not yet conceded and made a statement on Facebook.
The official election results for the Cox-Valadao race will be certified on December 11.
Fresno County’s election results have been certified. Look here for the final results of the election.
🚜 Fresno County Ag Still the Top Ag County in the Country
The Fresno County Ag Commissioner Melissa Cregan presented her report for 2019’s ag receipts. Fresno leads the way with a total of $7.72 billion worth of crops sold in 2019. This is down 2.31% from 2018, a shortfall of $183 million.
Tailing Fresno County were Kern at $7.6 billion and Tulare at $7.5 billion
Almonds lead as the top crop with $1.5 billion worth of almonds sold. That’s nuts. Grapes tailed with a gross of $962 million with pistachios next at $660 million. For the full report, check it out here.
That’s a lot of money huh? Can undocumented ag workers have some food security or more PPE and labor protections, please? As a treat? Just a treat please. Just a crumb.
🍺 New Taproom open in River Park
Remember the Wavelengths Surf Shop in River Park? Yeah, that closed a while ago and now it is BarrelHouse Brewing Co., a new craft beer taproom. The new taproom offers patio seating and River Park has allowed them to have a special open sides tent on the main plaza.
The most interesting bit is that they plan to partner with neighboring restaurant The Hangarr to let customers order food from The Hanger and have it delivered to their table at the BarrelHouse.
🎅 Digital Santa
Local businesses are trying to get creative on how to still do Santa photos in the Covid era. Most notably is Holiday Magic Studios that will have families pose next to an empty chair and they’ll digitally superimpose Santa into the chair. You can check them out here.
Fashion Fair mall and Sierra Vista mall are still planning on doing physical Santa photos but of course, it’s socially distanced and no physical contact.
⛽ Fresno is TikTok Famous
Akram Moshin, the manager of Tower Gas & Mini Mart, and the homeless patrons that come through the gas station are viral TikTok stars. Fresno Bee’s Bryant-Jon Anteola talks to Moshin and asks how they managed to garner 2.1M followers on TikTok and building bonds with the homeless community around Tower.
🎧 On the pod this week
The fiveby fellas field your questions about friendship, Fresno, and the future of Five by Five Nine. Also, stan Loona I guess?
Listen to the episode on these other podcasting platforms:
Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Anchor | Google Podcasts
This newsletter was written by Ram Reyes (@vibesradiator) and Tommy Tribble (@tomiiwrites) | Follow Five By Five Nine on Instagram & Twitter