No, I’m not going to talk about the sales tax increase that came before Chico City Council last night. I’ve been trying to tell people for years now, Orme has been pushing this tax. To the chirping of crickets. So, when you little crickets get an idea what we should do about the sales tax measure, you just let me know.
In the meantime, I’m going to continue the discussion regarding my Halloween Book in Common, The Road, by Cormac McCarthy.
Like I said in my last post, this is a very dark book. The subject matter is familiar – the world had been destroyed by war, and a man and his child wander through the wasteland, trying to survive. For what?
“In those first years the roads were peopled with refugees shrouded up in their clothing. Wearing masks and goggles, sitting in their rags by the side of the road like ruined aviators. Their barrows heaped with shoddy. Towing wagons or carts. Their eyes bright in their skulls. Creedless shells of men, tottering down the causeways like migrants in a feverland.”
Wow, sounds like Chico, California. From Woody Guthrie: “I never see a friend I know, as I go ramblin’ round…” It’s like an insane asylum.
Years later, alone on the road most of the time, the man and boy move constantly. Driven by bitter cold and constant darkness, masked with filthy rags against the smoke and ash, they head south. They are looking for a way out of “Instant Winter” brought about by years of war and the subsequent natural disasters. I can actually relate to that, and so can most of you – on the day of the Camp Fire, a giant cloud of smoke and ash moved over Chico, choking out the sun. The temperatures dropped from nighttime lows in the 50’s to daytime temperatures in the low 30’s.
Moving down the road at a speed of a mile or so a day, they scavenge what they can. Passing through abandoned towns long looted, the man manages to scavenge something, anything – discarded motor oil, dried up apples, seeds of grain from an old thresher. They don’t dare slow down, or spend too much time in the open, because the of trolling cannibal gangs. Afraid to talk to anyone, unable to trust out of fear, the man teaches the boy to hide like an animal for hours.
Frankly, I can also relate to that. Between what’s happened to Chico, along with summer after summer of unabated wildfires, and then COVID, I feel pretty anti-social myself. I’ve developed an uncomfortable distrust of strangers, I don’t make new friends, and I avoid social gatherings. I have a pair of “throwaway” shoes that I wear out and about. I don’t trust government agencies anymore. I feel the need to become more resourceful and self-reliant. Frankly, we do our eating at home or take out, we don’t even go to coffee shops anymore.
That bugs me, and it becomes increasingly uncomfortable for the boy, as he watches his father descend further into the darkness.
Next time I’d like to talk more about Cormac McCarthy and other books he’s written.
Every now and then I need to take a break and read a good book. As Halloween approaches, I try to read a scary book or story every year. This year my son handed me a book by Cormac McCarthy, a “post apocalyptic” story called “The Road”. He told me it was weirdly appropriate for the times, and he’s right.
I’ll say, this book is scary, violent, and raises images of a world way beyond civilization. Makes Mad Max look like a children’s story. Very depressing as well. But, it’s well written, well thought out, and, frankly, who would expect the Apocalypse to be like a Disney movie?
We don’t know what has happened, we don’t get names. We pick up “the man” and his child on the road, making their way through a burnt and destroyed landscape, ash and smoke from perpetual fires blocking out the sun. Scavengers, continually looking over their shoulders for “the bad guys”.
“With the first gray light he rose and left the boy sleeping and walked out to the road and squatted and studied the country to the south. Barren, silent and godless.He thought the month was October but he wasn’t sure. He hadn’t kept a calendar for years. They were moving South. There’d be no surviving another winter here.“
The first thing that struck me was the vision of perpetual fire – is he describing the California of the future? “Burnt forests for miles… fire-blackened boulders like the shapes of bears on the starkly wooded slopes…The grainy air. The taste of it never left your mouth. The barren ridgeline trees raw and black in the rain.”
And of course, they wear masks. That really made me laugh out loud. Masks are now an institution, I don’t know if Cormac saw that coming.
What a world to raise a child. Well, look around yourself. What are children learning from the perpetual state of disaster we are enduring, the hysteria over disease, and the fascist edicts coming from the state capitol and the White House?
The man repeatedly reminds his son that “we are the good guys,” and “we carry the fire“. I think he means, our culture, our civilization. Isn’t that what most parents expect to hand down to their children? The same values they were raised with, or at least, the values they consider to be important. But right now, right here in Chico, our values are being challenged, our sense of decency is being questioned, by our own government.
You have to ask yourself – how did these people get elected? They don’t represent the community as a whole. I’ll blame the voters there, people don’t follow the issues, they just follow the hyperbole. They vote based on what others are saying, instead of doing the research. That’s the problem with Democracy, you get what you vote for.
I don’t feel our state government reflects the values of our statewide community either. I don’t believe most California voters want to continue to shut down the schools and the economy with mask and vaccine mandates. I don’t think they’re happy with Newsom’s edicts or his blatant hypocrisy, based on his own science. I think most California voters are very unhappy with the state of our state.
So why did the recall fail? Because there was no unified support behind it. The California Republican party is a total disaster. They didn’t support the recall petition, they didn’t endorse any candidate, they just stood by with their thumbs up their asses and let Larry Elder pull the cork out of the whole thing.
So we are enjoying a similar post-apocalyptic scenario today. That’s why I’m declaring “The Road” our “Book In Common” for 2021. Hope you’ll join me! Here’s a link to a PDF copy. There are other sites that carry it for free.
Some guy named Ryan came to the blog yesterday and said Sean Morgan is about to get us sued again. I can only guess – he’s talking about the city’s absolutely ridiculous handling of the bum situation. I know, they really blew that. Why do we need to set up a “resting site” on a piece of baking hot asphalt miles from town when we have shelters that are accepting tax money but turning people away when they have empty beds?
A while back, I said the city should sue the county. If you read county board agendas, you see the transfers they accept, along with cash for each transfer. You will also see that most of it goes to cover law enforcement salaries, benefits and pension deficit.
COVID-19 UPDATE: We are accepting new and returning guests who have a negative COVID-19 test. Please bring a copy of your negative test results with you to the shelter.
New guests: Please arrive between 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. to check in.
Returning guests: If you are seeking services and have stayed at the shelter before, please make an appointment with your case manager.
The Torres Community Shelter is open for guests 24 hours a day. Guests leaving for the day can check back in prior to 3 p.m. Otherwise, check-in is between 4:30 p.m. and 6 p.m. nightly for returning guests. New guests may check in at 2 p.m. to complete an intake. Please call and get prior approval for an alternate check-in time. If you are a guest, please review the shelter guidelines under services.
Read their website further – the requirements are onerous, they aren’t getting people off the street, they’re sending them out to camp in the park and other public areas. You have to make an appointment just to be considered as a “guest”. You have to have a recent negative COVID test – whether or not you’ve been vax’d. The wait time for the results is approaching three days, during which time you could easily be exposed. And, while you wait for your test results and your appointment to be considered for a bed, where are you supposed to go? Self-quarantine at Commanche Creek? Teichert Ponds? Even though the Torres has empty beds?
Meanwhile, the Jesus Center boasts a lot of different programs and shelters for various individuals, but is only housing about 60 people at this time. In fact, they only have one overnight shelter for men, and all their housing requires sobriety, enforced by drug testing.
Anybody who is familiar with the local homeless population knows it’s over 50 percent drug addicted males. These shelters take money from the city and county (Torres is located on city land) but they cater to a fraction of the people that are living on Chico streets.
You might remember “Project Room Key”, a program that handed out motel vouchers good at participating motels. That dried up when those motels would no longer take the vouchers because the guests were not properly vetted, were not supervised, and ended up trashing motel rooms, molesting other guests, and refusing to leave when their time was up. Nobody at Project Room Key would take responsibility. The county also tries to get local landlords to rent to these people – former BCBH staffer Dorian Kittrell wanted them to “make sure their tenants are being respectful and taking their meds…” Here’s what came of that.
“Ramsey said in the release that the assault victim was a 59-year-old CSUC science professor who had rented a room in his home to Muscat as a favor to a friend who was an employer of Muscat. The professor had begun to evict Muscat for his alcohol and drug use when Muscat attacked him during the early morning hours of Oct. 29, 2017. The professor suffered severe and permanently disabling injuries to his face, shoulder and brain.“
The County of Butte, City of Chico, Torres Shelter and Jesus Center get millions a year to “serve the homeless“, but anybody with a set of eyes can see they aren’t doing anything but paying 6-digit salaries and bringing more transients in for the money.
Let me say it – most of the “homeless” belong in jails or mental hospitals. But, like I said, the money that comes with the transfers of prisoners and mental patients is spent on salaries, benefits and pension deficit. The highest salaries at Butte County are in Behavioral Health – shouldn’t that mean we shouldn’t be having this problem?
But we have the Happy Wanderers, the folks who say we need to provide shelter other than jail or a mental hospital for these individuals. Until you have housed an indigent druggie under your roof, with your family, or spent a week living with them in your tent at Commanche Creek or Teichert Ponds, don’t even talk to me.
Happy “9/11”! While the government reminds you how many people died on that day and in the days following, I’d like to remind you how many of your civil liberties you’ve surrendered since then. The following list, made five years after the incident, sounds a lot like the COVID shutdown!
Frankly, I don’t read the Enterprise Record these days unless somebody sends me a link. Dave sent me the following excerpt from a recent editorial by Mike Wolcott, along with his questions for Wolcott.
Dave answers, “You’re right. It is hard to imagine. Because it’s not true at all. You cited articles quoting Dr. Jason McElyea. Regarding McElyea, here’s the rest of the story, as Paul Harvey used to say.” Go get ’em, Dave Baby!
“Although Dr. Jason McElyea is not an employee of NHS Sequoyah, he is affiliated with a medical staffing group that provides coverage for our emergency room. “With that said, Dr. McElyea has not worked at our Sallisaw location in over 2 months.
“NHS Sequoyah has not treated any patients due to complications related to taking ivermectin. This includes not treating any patients for ivermectin overdose.
“All patients who have visited our emergency room have received medical attention as appropriate. Our hospital has not had to turn away any patients seeking emergency care.”
Finally, Dave asked Wolcott, “Will you be printing a correction? If not, would you please tell me why? Thank you.”
I will be surprised if Dave gets any response, least of all a correction. I’ll add, Wolcott used two questionable sources, one of which is locked unless you have a subscription. The second is a media group owned by Wall Street investors, one of the founders and biggest donors to the group having been Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com That is questionable to me, I think these people are more interested in manipulating public opinion than in journalism.
And yes, it looks like Wolcott only quoted the part of the articles that he liked, leaving out the rest of the conversation. That is a new low for a guy who has run our local newspaper into the ground.
If Dave gets any response from Wolcott I’ll be sure to run it. But I won’t be holding my breath.
Woke up to another nosebleed today. Our tiny ac unit, R2D2, died yesterday. We were using it more for air filtering than cooling, for those days when we don’t dare open the windows. But Dave sent me some good news.
Seems the Butte County Board of Supervisors stood up on their hind legs and sent a “scathing letter” to the Secty of Agriculture and the USFS Chief, calling them on the carpet for poor maintenance of our forests and using wildfires as controlled burns. Go get ’em Bill Connelly! Here’s an excerpt.
Scathing Letter
Butte County Board of Supervisors Chairman Bill Connelly on Aug. 12 drafted a letter to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and U.S. Forest Service (USFS) Chief Randy Moore over how the Dixie Fire and last year’s North Complex Fire were handled. However, the letter was revised to “make it less tense,” and to reflect the views of the entire board before it was sent.
The original draft accused the Forest Service of dereliction of duty and demanded an investigation into the way the Dixie Fire and last year’s North Complex Fire were handled.
“Because of the gross negligence of the USFS fire management philosophy, we no longer have trust and confidence in the decision-making process being used by the USFS,” it read.
The final letter was sent 12 days later. It stated: “The fire suppression philosophy of the USFS needs to be questioned. The ‘fire use policy’ which has been used consistently by the USFS [which allows a fire to burn provided it does not pose an immediate risk of damage to homes or lives] is clearly not effective in these times. This practice in recent years has not worked. With the extreme dry conditions and weather patterns, fires are able to burn over 15 miles in one day.”
The letter also acknowledges that the Forest Service has recently stated it “will discontinue this policy for this fire season.”
Both versions of the letter request reimbursement for costs related to the county’s response to the fires and recovery efforts.
I’ve also read recently and posted here that USFS Chief Randy Moore has called for an end to the current “let it burn” policy. “The letter also acknowledges that the Forest Service has recently stated it “will discontinue this policy for this fire season.” What does that mean? If only Moore would make them put this fire out NOW, instead of “managing” it for overtime and other benefits. I’m not talking about the kids who hike in with shovels and backpacks, I’m talking about the management types who drive in and out every day in their emaculate uniforms and glistening white pick-up trucks. There’s too many salary hogs at Cal Fire, not enough “boots on the ground”.
Who, in their right mind, would call this mess “management”?
Gee, doesn’t this wildfire scenario put COnVID in it’s proper perspective? I mean, I don’t know one person who can prove to me they had COVID (in fact, I only know one person who has claimed to have it), but I know people all around me right now are getting sick from breathing the cancer-laden smoke from these human-made and human-manipulated fires.
Wildfire smoke is a mix of gases and fine particles from burning vegetation, building materials, and other materials. Wildfire smoke can make anyone sick. Even someone who is healthy can get sick if there is enough smoke in the air. Breathing in smoke can have immediate health effects, including:
Coughing
Trouble breathing normally
Stinging eyes
A scratchy throat
Runny nose
Irritated sinuses
Wheezing and shortness of breath
Chest pain
Headaches
An asthma attack
Tiredness
Fast heartbeat
Let me add, stomach ache. The last few nights I think I’ve been swallowing air because my sinuses are so glued shut I can’t get it any other way. I wake up at 3 am with a horrible stomach ache, walk around belching and blowing my nose for 15 minutes. I’ll also add dehydration – I’m waking up several times a night, thirsty as hell, even though I’ve been drinking more water than ever. My mouth is sore, my tongue is dry, and my voice has been reduced to a croak.
So what’s the solution? “If you are told to stay indoors, stay indoors and keep your indoor air as clean as possible. Keep windows and doors closed unless it is very hot outside. Run an air conditioner if you have one, but keep the fresh-air intake closed and the filter clean to prevent outdoor smoke from getting inside. Seek shelter elsewhere if you do not have an air conditioner and it is too warm to stay inside with the windows closed.”
This advice might be useful in a short-term emergency. We’ve been force-fed smoke and ash and other cancer-causing particulates for about 2 months now. Stay inside? How the fuck is a person supposed to make a living? And, according to the CDC, masks are suddenly worthless?
“Do not rely on dust masks for protection. Paper “comfort” or “dust” masks commonly found at hardware stores trap large particles, such as sawdust. These masks will not protect your lungs from smoke. An “N95” mask, properly worn, will offer some protection. If you decide to keep a mask on hand, see the Respirator Fact Sheet provided by CDC’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.“
But I’m supposed to believe that a mask will stop a virus? Wow, this just gets more ridiculous every minute.
After over a year of the COnVID shutdown, we are now forced indoors and isolated by wildfires left to burn half the state. We already know what happens – more depression/mental illness, more domestic violence, more suicide.
These wildfires, like the COVID shutdown, were human-made and human perpetuated. In both instances, the cure has been worse than the disease.
This morning I saw a letter in the Enterprise Record from a regular letter-writer who stated, “So with money from outside our state supporting the recall of Newsom, we are spending millions of tax dollars to respond to this bogus claim of corruptness.”
Yes, there have been claims of corruption against the Newsom administration, including his meeting with PG&E lobbyists at a closed restaurant to “broker a deal” for PG&E bankruptcy, as well as his mishandling of the Employment Department scandal. It’s true that proponents of the recall have charged the governor with corruption, and they have plenty of evidence to back up those claims. It’s also true that our state will spend millions of dollars on this election.
But where does the writer get her claim, “With money from outside our state supporting the recall of Newsom“? She does note explain. That’s a pretty serious charge, I had to search that. I found a couple of articles about the funding in this recall, and I didn’t see that anywhere. In fact, Cal Matters has this neat-o “live-tracker” that updates the information daily.
I was shocked to see how much disparity there is in the funding – “Supporters of the recall have raised approximately $8.0 million and opponents have raised about $62.2 million.” According to the LA Times, if you include money raised by candidates for governor, the YES figure is $32.6 million.
But I found nothing about any “money from outside our state supporting the recall of Newsom” Anybody else?
Here’s why I’m asking – when he announced a limit and a cut-off date for recall letters, Enterprise Record Editor Mike Wolcott posted a list of rules, including, “We don’t print purported facts that can’t be independently verified. When using facts, cite a source. We don’t print letters that require substantial research to verify.“
Was there any verification of this writer’s claims? It took me less than a minute to find the correct information, from respected sources. In fact, the ER often runs pieces from Cal Matters, the SF Chronicle, and the San Jose Mercury News.
The old advice is, believe none of what you hear, and only half of what you see. I’ll add, don’t believe what you read in one newspaper, or from one source. Check your own facts. Use different sources, including those you don’t necessarily agree with. Don’t just take it from me – check it! And check it again!
I saw this story from KHSL Chico Action News on the Google News Chico site. Google is a better source than the ER lately. But, these don’t stay up forever, eventually the website refreshes, and I have never found any archives. So, I cut and paste the transcript, but if you want to see the entire interview you can see it at the link below for a few more days maybe. I also included most of the comments I found posted below.
I would like to remind everybody, Mayor Coolidge seems to have forgot – in 2018, this ninny went along with the council’s liberal minority and signed the Shelter Crisis Designation. That is why he lost reelection in November 2018. In 2020 the council went with districts, I don’t believe Coolidge would have got reelected in an at-large election. The “conservative backlash” also helped – I was shocked when Coolidge got the endorsement of the Republican Women Federated and other groups that had been pretty pissed at him a couple of years earlier. One local pundit even mentioned Coolidge’s support of the SCD, but opined he was the only choice in that district. As if, “just hold your nose and vote for him”. And here we are.
Here’s another question Haley should have asked – how much has this lawsuit cost the city so far? Maybe next time.
CHICO, Calif. – Action News Now spoke with Chico Mayor Andrew Coolidge about the state of the local homeless crisis and the ongoing lawsuit between the city and a group of eight homeless people.
For the time being, the city cannot enforce park rules that ban overnight camping until the judge approves a homeless shelter compromise.
Below is this transcription of our conversation with Mayor Coolidge:
Q: Mayor Coolidge, the first thing I think we should address here is, where are we at in the process of finding some sort of compromise when it comes to finding a shelter solution?
A: I think the community really wants to know that, where are we in the trial process, where are we in terms of actually getting some resolution? Because I think we all want to move forward and I’m among those folks. So if you look at it today actually they’ll be submitting briefs to the magistrate in terms of the settlement conference, that will be proceeding on the 30th, so there will actually be a settlement conference at that time. Hopefully, there will be.. some sort of resolution. That’s really the issue we’re dealing with. The two parties coming together. I believe the other side wants the moon. We’re really just dealing with providing a solution that will work within the city’s budget, so we can end this and get back to enforcing the in the parks and waterways, so it’s complicated.
Q: One of the things the judge brought up was at the airport shelter site, we’re not seeing beds, a roof, walls, all of the things that might entail what a shelter is. Is there a plan in the works to make that site more of a shelter? Or is there some other solution you’re cooking up?
A: A lot of people like to talk about the airport site and say, a lot of things were missing. But at the same token, a lot of things weren’t in place yet. We actually had a request for a proposal out for that site to have organizational management. And to have them manage it in a way that would provide some of those things. But the county backed out of that site, we had other difficulties and that never came to fruition. So we have the site out there, it has the spaces and we are actually providing additional shelter above the tents, but that site, even though a lot of people have said that’s not a great site, not a great location – it has about 29 people out there. They’re staying. So it’s grown on its own. Whether the city continues to do it because we have gotten some push back because the judge did not like it – that’s something that we have to look at and see whether we tailor that back and look into something else, I think that’s where the settlement conference comes into play.
Q: It feels like this all seems so far down the line. Everyone wants some sort of compromise reached, and yet we’re still not even sure if we make (the airport site) work go a completely different direction at this point?
A: Certainly the city has an idea of what we can do. There are some sites being considered, some sites being offered. We want to put that together, we want to make this problem a problem of the past. We want to move forward. Whether the plaintiffs are on board with that? Some folks would say they’re just trying to delay, trying to keep this process going as long as possible because it works in their favor? The city’s of course pushing for the judge to make a decision quicker to get to a settlement sooner. So we’ve offered some pretty big things that I never thought we’d put on the table and the response we’re getting is just not even…
Q: Can you tell me what some of those things are?
A: I can’t tell you specifically what they are, but I can tell you that we’re considering things that are more similar to Comanche Creek. Sites that have some shade and trees, that have access to water. So we’ve put some pretty hefty items on the table but I don’t ever see us moving to an indoor shelter, because that would be really difficult. it would be difficult for the entire ninth district to actually comply with that. You’re talking about San Francisco and L.A., if they had to do that, even those cities would be on the brink of bankruptcy. So to require cities to provide indoor housing when some of our residents don’t even have that? To provide air conditioning when some of our residents don’t even have that? I don’t think that’s a very realistic outcome. I don’t think the judge is going to burden the city with that and every city in the ninth district with that.
Q: While we’re tied up, while the city can’t do anything when it comes to enforcing (some) park rules, what are the key public safety issue that you’re worried about?
A: You’ll start to see some movement on those issues. When it comes to extreme drug use, when it comes to the fires, obviously anything with criminal activity, that’s something that we’re looking at and working on to stop that kind of activity. So we are rolling out a program to do that. We know and realize that these areas are high-crime areas as well. So there’s a lot of folks in the community pushing for enforcement in that area, but according to the city attorney in how we move forward, it has to be in a way that isn’t targeted. We don’t want to target that community or seem like we’re targeting that community. So for example we can’t go in there and say we’re going to fine everyone for smoking and cite them. We really have to look at doing something more complete and inclusive in terms of the entire city and just enforcing laws on the books.
COMMENTS FROM ACTION NEWS WEBSITE (I didn’t get all the comments, some were snarky.)
William 1 day ago I think the airport was meant to be a temporary solution. That’s why it was named a resting spot, not intended to be a shelter, which is why it probably didn’t help with satisfying whatever the judge wanted. I mean isn’t homelessness supposed to be temporary? Unfortunately, when the airport spot was put up in June, multiple news websites including the Chico ER posted an article that said Chico offered sanctioned camping for homeless. Two months later, here we are with even more homeless than before because of this news. Only an estimated 29 spots used for camping at the airport. You can see where the rest are now. I have no clue what the solution is, but if we go all Oprah with homeless saying “You get a house” and “You get a house”, no doubt it will attract a lot more homeless people. We have hard working people struggling to pay rent and then they see their taxes go to what seems like wasted resources. $45K/month for 29 homeless spots used? You could rent 29 houses for a month with that money. I’m all for giving a hand up to the homeless of this area, but let’s not make Chico the homeless destination capital of the world. Honestly, if I had a warrant for my arrest, I would hide out in the parks and homeless areas. I know Shasta county does homeless sweeps for people with warrants. You bet I’d be coming to Chico if I lived up north.Lastly, I think the City Council doesn’t want to go too far with resources as to attract out of area homeless.
Regina Erekson 1 day ago Replying to William Homelessness should be temporary. It took 2 years at Torres and assistance from Behavioral Health to receive rehousing help There is apparently no Continuum of Care for that, as it seems I will need to repeat the process after having a HAP defunded, couldn’t afford to use Section 8 lease in place and then moved to TBRA somehow. It’s been 3 yrs processing my disability claim through Social Security so TBRA refused me any further assistance. So do I go back to Torres to start over again? Also, now that I’ve been here 5 years, I constantly bump into former Torres roommates that are back on the street. If you don’t have the ability to maintain housing one way or another… Inadequate finance, substance abuse or infirmities it’s a merry go round of uselessness that seems to primarily rely on billing Medicaid/Medi-Cal and to qualify for grants that apparently go to administrative costs or eventually gets rolled to other budget lines. For example, when Coolidge said YOU would pay the $350k for the 29 capers on the Tarmac and then magically the COVID funds that were going to be applied to widening Bruce Road for the unaffordable housing developments. I really think there should be more transparency on how the city uses residents money. BTW if you want every homeless person to be self-sufficient take inventory of the things you require to get to work and function. .. that’s what is needed. Without addressing the cause of homelessness, it will never go away.
Regina Erekson1 day agoReplying to William Also, fires add to the local homeless population annually. Chico isn’t an attractive place to be homeless FYI. For example meth and heroin are far more available and cheaper in port cities. Maybe city council can make up those flyers so you can divert the crowds down to L.A., S.F. NY, FL … heck, China, India, Africa…trade for refugees, euthanasia, rural development, Soylent Green…
Unknown1 1 day ago Replying to Regina Erekson If housing is so expensive I would suggest you get together with other homeless people and use your joint resources to rent a place. College kids do it all the time.
Fred Spenger 2 days ago The Homeless are asking for the the moon? The Homeless are delaying the process? Some citizens don’t have a roof over their heads or air conditioning? Aren’t the homeless citizens also?
A Citizen 1 day ago Replying to Fred Spenger Coolidge not only doesn’t consider the homeless citizens. He doesn’t even consider them human. The city is bringing in a snake oil salesman for “advice” on how to “fix” our homeless “problem”. Coolidge is whining about money. While tossing $50k to this “expert” aka conman aka snake oil salesman. What an absolute joke!
Flaunts 2 days ago Replying to Fred Spenger>>> the homeless need to accept a hand up instead of expecting a hand out
Unknown1 1 day ago Replying to Fred Spenger Unproductive citizens.
Regina Erekson 1 day ago Replying to Unknown1How did you get that demographic information?
Unknown1 1 day ago Replying to Regina Erekson Probably from the same source that you got yours that says they could lead productive lives and if enough money and freebies are given to them they will become what they should have become without all of the money and freebies. They wasted their chance by burning their bridges and refusing to be a part of their own life.
eholohan 2 days ago The judge should have to give us a plan. In stead, he wants Chico to come up with a plan and he will say IF it is OK or not. Unacceptable!
Alley Oop 2 days ago Agreed. We shouldn’t be hostages to this judge and the Transient Invaders.
Wow, three days of sweet oxygen, and then the winds shifted – back to breathing cancer! Thank you, Cal Fire. The Dixie Fire, for one, has now been masturbated for over a month, plenty of overtime for management, who file in and out every day in convoys of immaculate white trucks. What do these people do? They don’t get dirty, that’s for sure. You see them on the news, you see them in videos released to the badge bunnies like Karla K. Larsen. A phalanx of management pencil pushers, racking up overtime as much as three times their contractual salary.
If you’re okay with that, go ahead and ignore the recall. Get yourself a good gas mask.
Are you sick of reading about drug overdoses and crime? Yeah, Dave got his car back, two weeks and 2,000 miles later, beat up, parts stripped off, full of trash including hypodermic needles, driven all over the county by junkies. At one point, Chico PD had the car and the driver, but let them get away while they flustered over whether or not to pursue a stolen car. Chico PD is indeed, overwhelmed. The statewide policy of “transferring” criminals and drug addicts from one locality to another for money is driving Chico off the cliff. The AB109 money isn’t spent to improve prisons or jails, it’s dumped into the county pension deficit. Read the county agendas for yourself – Debra Lucero said I was spreading “falsehoods” – but the transfers, the money received and paid, and the payments toward the burgeoning county pension deficit are all in there. Then our Sheriff Kory Honea complains he doesn’t have enough room at the jail to hold car thieves, drug dealers or human traffickers, and they’re released onto the streets of Oroville and Chico. Another dealer just arrested recently, with methamphetamine, cocaine, and fentanyl. There’s a warning circulating right now to watch out for meth and coke laced with fentanyl.
If you’re okay with that, go ahead and ignore the recall. Maybe you should move to one of the towns that’s transferring them out instead of transferring them in!
Are you tired of higher taxes and deteriorating infrastructure? Right now Chico City Council, led by an idiot, is working on putting at least two different tax measures on the 2022 ballot. They are also working on a business and rent tax, which I have read will need to go before the voters, but wow, they sure aren’t talking about it in front of the voters. Meanwhile, the city of Chico only does projects that come with state grants, like roundabouts that have to be driven over by big trucks, and bike lanes to nowhere.
If that’s okay with you, go ahead and ignore the recall.
I’m sick of having my summers stolen by wildfire, I’m sick of drug dealers and junkies running my town, and I’m sick of overpaid administrators ripping me off to feather their retirement nests. It’s time for a change in leadership.
A recent letter to the ER from union operative, Tom Reed, seems to be saying that we don’t have the right to recall our elected officials. I think Kevin Kiley answers that pretty well with this comment from his Facebook page:
This election is happening because many, many, Californians have demanded it, people of all political affiliations, all background , who have looked around and seen we have the highest poverty, the most homelessness, greatest level of inequality, failing schools, crumbling infrastructure – how did our beautiful state become the last in everything?
As I’ve seen as a member of the legislature for five years, we have a broken state government. If you are someone who is frustrated with the direction of our state, you want to stay here, raise your children here, retire here, but you are afraid to cross party lines – take a chance on change, the recall is for you.
My administration will be about “Back to Basics”. Pave our roads, manage our forests, store our water, maintain our grid, fund our police, things government is supposed to do.
I’ve voted for Kiley, but I will have to ask him exactly what he means by funding our police. I’ll get back with any response I get.
