covid-19 diary 2: old stomping grounds
I took a walk in Chinatown, taking photos of buildings and scenes significant to my life. Chinatown is a unique part of town that I have deep personal history with. For well over a decade it has been the heart of Fresno’s hardcore and punk scene. Much of my teenage years and early adult life were spent wasting away down here. Almost always empty during the day, these pictures were taken under circumstances similar to pre-coronavirus conditions.
This is a view of the Buddhist temple anyone in the scene should be able to recognize. This is one of the more beautiful buildings in Chinatown. One of the rare buildings that actually look like they’re part of a Chinatown at all.
This is a front view of what’s left of CAFE Infoshop, flanked on the right by the ruins of the Peacock building, a low income housing project, and on the left by the ruins of Paris Cafe, an old Chinese restaurant. Infoshop’s doors were open from 2006 all the way to the beginning of 2019. Infoshop hosted countless shows and was the headquarters for the local Food Not Bombs chapter. I spent countless hours, days, months of my life wasting away here. I began going to shows here in 2007 and became more involved with the people there from 2011 to 2015. Many of my friends lived there and at times it seemed like I did, too. This entire block will likely be demolished to make way for new developments.
This building is Happy’s Liquor. Happy is an interesting guy. You go in asking for a 40 of, say, Mickey’s, and he’ll try to convince you to buy a 40 of King Cobra instead. You used to be able to walk inside this store, but lately Happy keeps the gate shut and does business at the door. Because of its proximity to Chinatown’s punk venues, many of my friends are very familiar with this store. It fueled our alcohol addictions.
The iconic Happy Liquor Store sign. Friends of mine have discussed getting the sign tattooed on them.
Chinatown Gallery. Next door to Peacock on the other side, this building was briefly a local punk house from roughly 2013 to 2015. It was treated as more of a living space than a venue, but living room shows did happen here from time to time. I wish I could go inside and take pictures. From the living room window, you were able to see the balcony of the Infoshop just two units down. During the time that this space was open, there were three local punk spots all within a block of each other.
The back and side of the Chinatown Gallery. The windows were the bedroom windows of the Gallery. Friends of mine used to stick things in the windows, like disparaging mockeries of then police chief Jerry Dyer. My cat, pictured in other posts, was found before a gig featuring Sordo from Oxnard down the street by Bank of America. I picked him up and walked down to the Gallery and stashed him in one of my friend’s rooms so that he wouldn’t be in any danger during the show.
The only currently active remnant of Chinatown’s punk scene, going strong since 2008. A previous photoset was shot inside this building.
This building is found across the street from CAFE Infoshop. One time when we found the front door to this place wide open. The Gallery crew immediately sprang into action, exploring the inside, going up the stairs, seeing what was behind. The building is in ruins. The second story had massive gaping holes in the floor. You could climb out of the windows on the second story onto the rooftops of the building next door. I spent a 4th of July up on that roof watching the fireworks from Grizzly Stadium.
A detail of Paris Cafe. Much of Chinatown is in ruin. When I would frequent the area more, several of the buildings on F St were active still. Brother’s Bakery, Peacock, Paris Cafe, CAFE Infoshop were all active at the time. I miss the old days.
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