Kingsburg was established as a railroad town just after the Civil war as a stop on the Central Pacific Railroad. Soon after Swedish natives settled in the railroad town called at time “Kings River Switch”. By 1921, ninety-four percent of the population within a three-mile radius of Kingsburg was Swedish-American, easily giving the community the nickname of “Little Sweden”. The town has built on this legacy as many of the town’s retail businesses are designed in Swedish architecture along with main street’s streetscaping and the water tower designed as an antique Swedish coffee pot. Kingsburg not surprisingly also hosts one of the largest Swedish Festivals in the Country. Grape and raison productions is equally a part of the town’s history as most of the fields around Kingsburg are grape vineyards. Kingsburg was the headquarters of Sun-Maid Growers of California for a long time before it moved to Fresno.
The town took awhile to grow as it remained very small throughout the 19th century. By 1900 it reached 500 souls, by 1920 1,300 and 2,300 in 1950. Kingsburg is still growing thanks to mostly suburban expansion and now sits at 12K residents. But Kingsburg thanks to its strong identity has invested heavily in its Downtown and boasts many health shops and restaurants with quality urban form and streetscaping. The town also has good suburban amenities (i.e. quality schools, safety, and good parks) and thanks too its Central Californian locations homes are moderately priced. For this to be a great urban suburb Kingsburg needs a lot more density and vibrancy. Rentals are very sparse. There is also horrible public transit and limited bike infrastructure. I’d also like to see some more cultural amenities like a theater or art gallery.
Click here to view my Kingsburg, CA album on Flickr
URBAN STRENGTHS:
* Good sidewalk infrastructure except the northern and eastern edges of the neighborhood.
* ADA infrastructure good in the commercial district but spotty in residential streets.
* Wonderfully maintained historic district in the commercial area. Surrounding pre WW II homes are nice but nothing spectacular.
* Solid street connectivity.
* Good array of public schools and most of them are walkable.
* For sale housing is very moderately priced for CA standards. 2-beds sell btwn 200K-400K, and 3 & 4 beds sell btwn 300K & 600K.
* Good tree canopy.
* A couple very attractive medium sized parks located in the core of Kingsburg.
*This is a very safe community with really no blight.
* Very strong sense of place with a well defined main street and very cohesive Swedish theme. In some ways the Dwtn feels like a Swedish theme-park! The landmark water tower certainly also helps create a sense of place here.
* Good massing in Dwtn especially along Draper. Some vacant lots/parking lots on the side street and Sierra St is rather auto centric. Excellent streetscaping Dwtn.
* Good cultural amenities including many restaurants, several bars, a brewery, a couple cafes, and a train depot museum.
* Good retail amenities as well including 2 supermarkets, a family dollar, a couple banks & drug stores, several gifts stores & boutiques, a couple antiques, a record store, hardware store, lots of dessert joints and a couple gyms. Dwtn also has a Post Office & public library, tons of churches and several medical offices and centers.
URBAN WEAKNESSES:
* Density is very suburban
* Public transit is very limited running 3 times a day. It does provide a connection to Downtown and couple other exurb Fresno suburbs.
* Connection to Dwtn is ok via driving (30 mins).
* Bike infrastructure is almost non-existent in the Kingsburg.
* Rentals are basically non-existent.
* Modern in-fill is limited with a couple good in-fill bldgs dwtn but mostly auto centric strip along Sierra St.
* Missing several important amenities including art galleries, theaters & cinemas, any live music venues,
Evaluating our Urban Communities [with a focus on America] 