It looks like the area known as “Devil’s Triangle” (at the intersection of 12th and Mulberry Streets) is filling up with illegal campers again. The camp disappeared when the Red Cross set up their Camp Fire evacuation shelter at the Silver Dollar Fairgrounds, but now that Red Cross is pulling out, the little tents and trash piles are starting to appear around town again.
It was no secret that for the last few weeks, maybe more, there have been more transients than evacuees at the Red Cross Shelter. Within days of the evacuation a Norovirus outbreak was announced, but we won’t know how many people became sick. There was also at least one death – a 62 year old Magalia woman became ill at the shelter earlier this month, and “was rushed to the hospital”. She later died, the cause was released to be pneumonia. Pneumonia is a killer, highly contagious, and spreads readily in sub-par conditions, like a dirty overcrowded shelter full of transients.
Karl Ory, a member of the local Red Cross board, indicated as much in a recent letter to the News and Review.
Apparently, our mayor Randy Stone has been trash talking on Butte County Fires and Accidents website, saying that anybody who doesn’t support the establishment of shelters for these transient criminals and druggies is a “homeless hater”. What a change of heart Stone has undergone in the last few years since he used a gun to chase a transient out of his house in the middle of the night, firing two shots into the air in his crowded Chico neighborhood.
https://www.newsreview.com/chico/close-encounter/content?oid=3190696
A juvenile high on drugs crawled through Stone’s dog door and woke Stone and his wife in their bed. Stone chased him out of the house and then fired a couple of warning shots? When my friend did that the cops showed up and told him it was called “negligent discharge,” and don’t do it again.
In 2015 Stone told me he kept a gun, using it to patrol his neighborhood at all hours with his neighbors. He used Nextdoor and his position in the community to get help from then police chief Mike Dunbaugh.
“I created our neighborhood on NextDoor.com after discussing NextDoor’s benefits with then-Interim Police Chief Mike Dunbaugh. I’ve always respected and appreciated Chief Dunbaugh and after he indicated he’s used NextDoor for some time I knew it could be beneficial if correctly constructed. I started on the effort gently in January of this year. That kicked up quickly once we realized (ironically through NextDoor) that there was a serial tire slasher operating in the early morning hours. Our efforts through NextDoor helped focus safety efforts and pool our data and resources. Last Summer we coordinated bicycle and walking patrols (really just eyes and ears on the street) in the middle of the night. I was out with neighbors on our streets sending the message that we were done with riffraff in our community. I was with neighbors when we thwarted a few petty crimes and ran off other n’er-do-wells.”
Oh yeah, in 2015 they were riffraff and n’er-do-wells.. If we say that now we’re “homeless haters”.
So forgive me if I find Stone’s sudden concern for transients and drug addicts to be insincere. He just wants the funds that come in with “Shelter Crisis Designation.” In the last year the city has received over $8 million in grants related to the shelter crisis designation and the consolidation of services at the fairgrounds.
Chico Taxpayers Association 
Will/can/are they taking part of that money into the general fund? And if they do how much of that money would wind up as a payment to CalPERs for the pensions?
Oh gawd that’s a good question. Might have to dive into the budget to find out.