The new center at the Link @ Blackstone is staffed by the City of Fresno PARCS Department and will feature senior programming, hot meals, and computer literacy courses. Photo by Alex Scott

Mayor Jerry Dyer and Councilmember Esmeralda Soria were in attendance Monday for the ribbon cutting of a new, city-run senior center at The Link @ Blackstone affordable apartment complex.

The 1,800-square-foot community space will give seniors a chance to socialize and participate in technology and fitness classes and arts and cultural activities.

“This project represents the city’s ongoing commitment to senior recreation and wellbeing,” said Dyer. “We in the City of Fresno are committed to our seniors and committed to making sure that we do whatever we can to enrich their lives.”

In conjunction with the City of Fresno and PARCS Department, the center will be the city’s eighth senior programming site and was designed and constructed by Integrated Community Development.

Through this partnership, the facility will be leased to the city for $1 per year for 15 years.

 

The new center will be staffed by the City of Fresno PARCS Department and will feature senior programming, hot meals and computer literacy courses. It is part of the 91-unit affordable housing development that will eventually include a Clinica Sierra Vista health care clinic.

Soria said the project came to fruition after the housing crisis when she recognized that affordability was an issue that needed to be addressed on a city level. After connecting with the Lingo brothers, Principal Ben Lingo and Vice President Jake Lingo of Integrated Community Development, the project became a reality after deciding on a spot for the center to be built near Blackstone and McKinley avenues.

When choosing the location of the center, Soria and the Lingo brothers took the holistic needs of the neighborhood into account, based on a letter from 2016 that brought attention to the lack of services that Fresno had for the senior citizen community.

After acquiring the property and five years to get it off the ground, the project became fully funded and constructed.

“We thought about the health care needs. We thought about our seniors,” said Soria. “This is the beginning to really make sure that our seniors are not only invested in, but prioritized.”

Another project in the works is a new community center that will be opening later this winter at the corner of Bulldog Lane and North Sixth Street, which will offer both senior and youth programs to the residents of El Dorado Park as well as the surrounding area.

There is also a state-of-the-art, city-wide senior center expected to be built at the corner of Blackstone Avenue and East Holland Avenue in a former Vons location, however the timeline is unknown.