Fresno Planning Director Nick Yovino is back on the job after suffering a heart attack in January, and that's great news, for Nick and his family and for the people of Fresno.

It's easy, even conventional, to speak the word "bureaucrat" with a sneer. It's also unfair in most cases, most especially so with someone like Nick Yovino. His vast expertise and his passion for Fresno and its people combine to make him valuable all out of proportion to his public servant's pay.

And more good news from today's story in The Bee: High on Nick's agenda now that he's back in the saddle is the need to "Breathe life into downtown by prodding developers to build homes that young adults would want to live in." May it soon be so.