I have long viewed Fresno as the geographic center of of California's armpit, but lack of Draconian land use laws (or "planning") aint the reason. Other than similar metro area population, trying to compare PDX with Fresno is apples and oranges. Also doubt Mr. Moore knows much more about the San Joaquin valley than does a Fresno columnist about Portland.

The cumulative total of 23 years I spent in the San Joaquin Valley makes me far more of an expert on the area than I'd care to be. Thanks though!

mr. moore grew up in the fresno metro area. i can vouch for this, as we went to the same high school. thus, we are both perfectly qualified experts on fresno's crapholeness. (sorry, mom. there's a reason i didn't move back after college.) fresno is half a million people's worth of gresham, minus the water, and if portland ever becomes similarly chain-store choked and soulless, i will move far away from here as well.

Hey, all these comments are a little "reasoned" and "objective." BLOG FIGHT! BLOG FIGHT! COME ON!!!!!

i was born and raised in fresno - or F***NO, as my friend ashod likes to refer to it. my mom and brother still live there, as do several of my friends - which means that i'm forced to occasionally visit. (most recent - mid-feb.) i will personally vouch for the crapholishness of my hometown. since when do 'small town charms' include a ridiculously high homicide rate, tule fog, a complete lack of city planning and racial tension?

My mothers side of the family live in the San Joaquin valley and my sis & me had to go to BOTH Fresno AND Modesto a couple times a year. These visits (always spent in trailer parks) were the low point of our summers. Even as a kid I remember sitting in the car in some strip mall/gas station parking lot and thinking "this is hell on earth".

Barbara: Do you mean, "Fresno or FUCKNO?"

It's FRIDAY!

OK, so you are well familiar with the community you speak ill of. I stand corrected. Still not seeing many significant parallels between Portland & Fresno. Historically, geographically, demographically- it's just a bogus comparison.

It pray that the cities dotting Hwy 99 & I-5 will become more desirable places to live in the near future, causing many to want to return to the crap holes in which they were spawned. Amen

Right--they're nothing alike, and we should do whatever we can to make sure that persists. That was the point, Joe.

You Fresno bashers are total assholes. Just because you have a trashy family in the valley or you blame your personal shortcomings on an actual town, instead of looking at yourself, doesn't give you the right to label Fresno as a "craphole."

Thankfully, you don’t represent Fresno in Portland. I know other Fresno natives in Portland that are okay enough with their lives in Portland and their time in Fresno, that they don't need to demean Fresno any chance they get to make themselves feel better about their lives or the choice they made to move. They can love Portland, but also speak with objectiveness about Fresno.

I'm guessing when native Portlanders learn you bashers are from Fresno they think to themselves "Why does Fresno have to dump so many of their assholes here?"

Hey Matt Davis, you didn't by chance go to Clovis High '91-'94?