No way I could see Fresno Mayor Ashley Swearengin as she delivered a 30+minute  "State of Downtown" pledge to several hundred people Jan. 26.

That's because the old PG&E building, restored and renamed "The Grand," wasn't designed as a viewer-friendly venue. So, sitting behind a pillar, I got to concentrate on her message. And she certainly does know the lingo of redevelopment and understands 10-pounds of regulations make a dandy paperweight but do nothing more than tax and regulate innovation to death.

And I sure hope she and other electeds and bureaucrats make good on simplifying a path for this 10-year downtown renewal she envisions.

But in chats with colleagues afterwards, I was transported to the early 1990s when Community Regional Medical Center was being born. I was a Fresno Bee reporter, and Fresno Street was so narrow that if cars parked on the street, other drivers had to plan how they would get past them.

Eventually, the roads were widened. A 58-acre campus was developed. There was demolition and an infusion of, so far, nearly half-a-billion dollars in new buildings and services by Community.

Still, in 2010, as one of my colleagues noted, when 4,000 Community Regional employees look for a place for breakfast or lunch, there is but a handful within walking distance -- and some encourage a risky crossing of  busy Tulare Street without traffic signal control.

The mayor made a number of good points. Forty thousand people come downtown to work. But few of them dally here after hours. There's 1.5 million square feet of vacant commercial office space. I work near where two coffee shops have died in the last three years.

So, there's a reason I often pack a lunch from home. There are reasons why I was a regular at Beiden Field when the Fresno Grizzlies played there, but not so much at the nifty downtown stadium. There's a parking garage near the stadium being propped up by beams wedged into the street. When you drive by Selland Arena, the electronic marquee is still advertising concerts that occurred last December.

I wish the mayor good luck in wooing me and others to shop and stay longer in downtown. She said she faced a "big, hairy audacious mission." An understatement. But at least she's not talking about putting a lake somewhere. Even though Community Medical Centers is sometimes overlooked/taken for granted by the business community, despite being the region's largest private employer, with a huge presence and historical commitment to downtown Fresno, we're comfortable tackling big, hairy audacious challenges. We've got lots of skin in the game already.