Mayor Lee Brand

Fresno Mayor Lee Brand and Mayor-Elect Jerry Dyer announced Tuesday the police department’s next chief. Juan “Paco” Balderrama will be the first Hispanic police chief in the city’s history.

“It’s been clear from the start that Fresno wants a chief who can make changes, build trust, and increase safety for all of our residents,” Brand said at the press conference, referencing the many public community discussions and surveys conducted by the Fresno Police Reform Commission. 

With state approval, dine-in restaurants can now reopen in Fresno County, as long as measures like social distancing and employee face coverings are used. This comes just after the city of Fresno announced an end to its shelter-in-place order, starting Tuesday.

Fresno Mayor Lee Brand said the decision to end the order was not made half-heartedly.

At about 10 a.m. Aaron Foster heads to Ivy and Lorena streets in southwest Fresno. In his pickup truck, he goes around neighborhoods in this area every day, or what he calls “hitting the loop.”

“This is just the hood, we call it the block,” he said. “Every neighborhood got a block. This is the southwest Fresno that no one sees. The poverty is obvious.”

He does this to “sustain the peace” and to prevent shootings from happening.  

Aaron Foster stands outside Wayne's Liquor store on East California Avenue. There’s a park across the street buzzing with people, a taqueria around the corner, and a library a few blocks away.

“This is the heart of Southwest Fresno,” he says. “There’s rival gang members that come by but they know this is a safe zone.”