1/ This summer, I spent time visiting the impoverished neighborhood of Southwest Fresno in California — a place that's intimately linked to Donald Trump in two curious ways, spanning 11 years. apps.publicintegrity.org/abandoned-in-a…
2/ Let's first go back to 2007. That year, @realDonaldTrump smelled opportunity in Southwest Fresno involving a massive golf resort project called "Running Horse."
3/ Trump wooed @CityofFresno officials, and talked *BIG* about how he’d save the cash-strapped Running Horse project, schedule a @PGATOUR event there and transform SW Fresno right along with it. "I have a feeling I can make this the hot side of town," Trump told the @FresnoBee. 
4/ Neighborhood residents — many impoverished — fantasized about new businesses and low crime and @TigerWoods spottings, to say nothing of a billionaire’s imprimatur stamped across their blighted blocks.
5/ Chief among the smitten: then-Fresno Mayor Alan Autry, a Republican, who viewed the project as a way to help a place where people can expect to die up to two decades earlier than Fresnans elsewhere. (Autry, a.k.a Carlos Brown, once played @NFL football & acted professionally.)
6/ But instead of a deal, Trump brought demands via his then-lawyer Michael Cohen. (Yes, *that* Michael Cohen.)
7/ Cohen sent Autry a laundry list of deliverables. Among them, according to emails from 2007 obtained by @publici through a public records request:
8/ Many @CityofFresno officials (and residents) wanted desperately to make a deal. But they ultimately concluded that Trump was trying to hold them over a barrel.
9/ Negotiations crumbled in late 2007. No golf course got built, no economic development halo effect occurred.
Running Horse is now an almond grove.
Running Horse is now an almond grove.
10/ Flash forward to 2015. Fresno breaks ground on the first station for California's 11-figure high-speed rail project. Then-Fresno Mayor Ashley Swearengin, also a Republican. A “significant point in time for the city of Fresno” is how she described the groundbreaking.
11/ Southwest Fresno in particular stands to benefit greatly from what city officials predict would be an economic boom around the station, which would sit near where SW Fresno meets downtown Fresno.
12/ But the project, which aims to run trains between Los Angeles and the Bay Area via Fresno at 220 mph, has gone off track financially. Current estimates put the price tag at $77 billion. Just a fraction of that is secured. State and local $$ alone likely can't fund it.
13/ That means federal dollars are needed. Lots of federal dollars. Enter a man familiar to Southwest Fresno: President Donald Trump.
Trump last came to Fresno during a 2016 campaign stop. He said nothing of high-speed rail one way or another.
Trump last came to Fresno during a 2016 campaign stop. He said nothing of high-speed rail one way or another.
14/ It’d be difficult enough for a united Fresno to sell the Trump administration on high-speed rail and its potential benefits for its residents. But the divisions among greater Fresno’s own political leaders are profound, and both anti- and pro-rail forces are wooing Trump.
15/ Anti-high-speed railers say CA's project has overrun its costs, blown its deadlines and simply isn’t worth it. They also predict trains won’t run nearly as fast as projected —a major point of unresolved debate. This includes most of California's GOP congressional delegation.
16/ Here's what the GOP delegation had to say to Trump's @USDOT and @SecElaineChao about California high-speed rail: documentcloud.org/documents/4941…
17/ Pro-rail supporters, such as area Rep. @RepJimCosta, D-Calif., contends high-speed rail would be a massive catalyst for Southwest Fresno if coupled with investments in health care, job training and education.
18/ Here's what CA's @JerryBrownGov (whose office declined to comment for our story) had to tell @POTUS earlier this year: documentcloud.org/documents/4883…
19/ So I asked the @WhiteHouse and @USDOT where they stand on California high-speed rail, particularly given Trump's previous assertions that infrastructure investment is a top administration priority. This is what they told us:
20/ Residents in Southwest Fresno, meanwhile, are tired of waiting, frustrated with inaction — both concerning their short- and long-term needs.
21/ “Donald Trump — we haven’t forgotten about you. Come on back. Keep your promise,” said the Rev. Floyd Harris Jr., assistant pastor of New Light for New Life Church.
22/ This story was the fourth installment of @publici's "Abandoned in America" series. You can read all the stories here: apps.publicintegrity.org/abandoned-in-a…
23/ And for an excellent local conversation about the north/south divide in Fresno, follow the work of @BriannaCalix of the @FresnoBee fresnobee.com/news/local/art…
24/ Finally, a wonderful report about hope in Southwest Fresno from Fresnan @LauraTsutsui of @KVPR, @Publici’s regional partner on our story. Listen here: kvpr.org/post/boost-sou…
