Walking the Walk: How a Neighborhood Audit Is Reshaping Accessible Streets

As thunder clouds billow and rain splatters the pavement during a storm, a child’s clothes get caked in mud while walking to school. Dirt-filled roads instead of sidewalks, are common in the Addams neighborhood located in Central-West Fresno. According to Live Again Fresno Founder and Executive Director Richard Burrell, experiences like these were the driving force behind the Addams Neighborhood Walking Audit: a desire to improve the quality of life for the next generation.

The need for safer walkway access is essential to a community’s wellbeing. For decades, there were not any crosswalks in the Addams neighborhood. A recent tragedy underscored the dangers of not having a designated walking area when a pedestrian was struck by a vehicle and killed while crossing the street.

The lack of crosswalks is also detrimental to inclusion and community belonging. “With no crosswalks, law enforcement would watch and profile people,” Richard said. “People with darker skin tones, who were not perceived to be dressed nicely, were stopped by police officers.”

Residents are also faced with navigating difficult walking commutes, with mothers and grandmothers who walk with their children being forced to trek in littered fields or on the shoulders of roads to reach their destinations.

In the spring of 2025, in partnership with Toole Design, the Addams Neighborhood Walking Audit was initiated by Fresno County Safe Routes. Jane Addams Elementary School was selected as one of the schools assessed by the County. As the study was launched, the Addams neighborhood were also hosting their own community meetings, so neighbors became an integral part of the study by providing their insights on neighborhood infrastructure safety. “Rather than having the assessment rely only on what outside representatives observed that day, community members were able to walk alongside them, identify specific concerns, explain how those conditions affect families and students and provide historical context,” said Alondra Martinez Belmontes, Jane Addams Elementary Community Schools Coordinator. “Their participation helped ensure the audit reflected the lived experiences of the people who actually navigate the neighborhood.”

The outcome of the audit was formal documentation of neighborhood residents’ concerns that are now compiled in a report. The neighborhood residents are now waiting to hear from Fresno County Safe Routes on potential next steps and explore how the findings can be utilized to determine future improvement projects. The community has expressed interest in initiatives that encourage physical activity, family bonding and community connection such as Walk & Bike to School Day, an annual national event in October that encourages students to walk and ride bikes to and from school.

Richard would love to see more community-led infrastructure projects initiated due to the walking audit's progress. “My hope is that it not only sparks but ignites more community-led projects,” Richard said. Over the past 14 years, Richard has seen numerous organizations visit the Addams neighborhood with honorable intentions of doing impactful work but missing the mark by not establishing resident outreach. “If we are not willing to walk through a neighborhood, people will never really experience what is going on there,” Richard said. “The importance of having resident-led walking surveys is that residents understand where to walk and who to talk to,” Richard said. “Just as important, is the folks watching from their homes will be far more likely to give feedback to those they have seen around town.” He underscored that issues that plague the Addams neighborhood community, such as trafficking, homelessness and gang culture, have been studied by numerous outside groups but rarely have these groups spoken to residents to attempt to understand the scope of these problems.

Richard is hopeful that the potential passage of Measure S, a citizen-led transportation measure on the November 2026 ballot that extends local funding for Fresno County roads without raising taxes, will result in more secure transportation and foster input from community members. “The folks who have written Measure S have done an excellent job of centering these conversations on people in need,” Richard said. “Measure S can help create safer ways for folks to walk across the street, receive food and create clearer ways to cross streets.”

 As residents lead projects in their own community, real change follows. “When we invite community in, there is a sense of ownership, and once we have that sense of ownership, we have a sense of victory,” Richard said. “We start to believe our voices matter; they matter on challenges that exist within our neighborhoods and issues affecting our city and nation. We start showing up to vote and change written policies. Then our children see: I matter and my voice matters and how I contribute to my community matters.”

To learn more about Live Again Fresno or to get involved by volunteering or donating, visit https://liveagainfresno.org/get-involved/.

Disclaimer: The Central Valley Community Foundation is a financial contributor to the Yes on Measure S campaign.