Dear Mr. Trump: Do the Right Thing
Story by Jesse Andrews (In the Know Writer)

FRENSO, Calif. – Celebrity billionaire Donald Trump has proposed backing the construction of Running Horse Golf Course in Southwest Fresno, promising the project would bring economic development to this area known for unemployment, crime, and poverty. Many people in the neighborhood fear the jobs and economic benefits of this establishment will not go to them, and they might even lose their homes. I have decided to address the issue and make it known to Mr. Trump how I feel.

Dear Mr. Donald Trump,

Imagine this: Seven-hundred-and-eighty luxurious homes, each fully equipped with beautiful back yard scenery. The astonishing sight of your first tee off on the gorgeous green designed by Jack Nicklaus, next to a luminous lake, as you prepare for the superb PGA Tour coming to Southwest Fresno next year. Oh, it is a dream-come-true, life-couldn't-get-any-better-than-this kind of thing.

As a 16-year-old 11th grader at Edison High and resident of Southwest Fresno, I like fairy tales, but only the kind that has a happy ending.

Your fairy tale has a lot of “probably” in its ending. As I rode my bike by the proposed site of Running Horse, for example, I did not see that there would be space for 780 homes, unless you are planning to take over more land in order to accomplish your plans.

Then it occurred to me you would have to destroy something to get these homes built. Our homes. Maybe even my home.

The homes where Big Mama made her delicious Jambalaya. The homes where Momma Ray raised the neighborhood children. The homes that were passed down from generation to generation to generation of families so we could go to Papa Smith's house and be comforted when life was tearing us apart. Our homes.

You mean to tell me that you want to buy our homes? Where will we stay? And if we refuse to go, you will just force us to leave? I don't think so.

Families have put in too much hard work and sweat to get their homes. You want 780 new high-priced homes. I don't even want to know how high the price is. Many of the neighborhood's families are living on low incomes, from paycheck to paycheck. The key word here, if you missed it, is “low.”

The people of this community do not need high-priced homes, but low-priced homes. The Fresno West Coalition for Economic Development's CEO, Keith Kelly, made this clear when he told the Fresno Bee that the community “wants to make sure that they don't lose anything either, or lose as little as they possibly can.”

I believe your project should increase economic development in our lower income neighborhood, but not by taking anything away from the citizens of this community.

I live in the community; no one needs to tell me what we need in this community but us.

We need more jobs here in Southwest Fresno, where the unemployment rate is extremely high, which means many people are poor. The Fresno County's current unemployment rate is about 8%, which is much higher than California's average of 5.2%. Wow! Fresno needs to sit down somewhere with those numbers. Will your project create job opportunities to only have them filled with people from another city, town or state? Southwest Fresno citizens should receive priority for these jobs.

According to the LA Times, you have your “eye on improving a down-and-out area of Southwest Fresno for a mile on all sides of Running Horse.” That's all good, but we don't need your eye, we need your heart to understand what we are going through, to feel what we feel.

Fresno Mayor Alan Autry told the LA Times: “The impact of this thing will be just enormous” – enormous enough to have you prosper off the profits and revenue that will be generated, or enormous enough to see one of the best communities in Fresno whither and die away?

Many people are saying that you are going to do the right thing; these are a few of the “right things” I suggest:

Establish a program that ensures that residents of this community have the opportunity to be employed first.

Have a one-on-one dialogue with the community, so we can understand each other.

Make sure that you mean what you say. If you want to help Southwest Fresno, make sure some of the profit goes to the community.

Find a better solution to accommodate the people of the community rather than removing them from it.

Please take this into consideration. I am simply saying we are willing to stand with you all the way, as long as we stand in unity and communicate about concerns. Will this fairy tale come true? Or will Southwest Fresno citizens be left without the opportunities? It's up to you.

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