Tonight Chico City Council will consider another year of funding for the skating rink – staff is asking for a budget allocation of about a quarter million in “start-up” costs. The last two years have cost the taxpayers over a quarter million in “expenses over revenues“.
According to Staff’s report, “In 2021, the program had a negative project cost of $142,557.76, and in 2022, a negative project cost of $188,779.43.”
In previous discussions Public Works staff blamed rain. Oh gee, like that’s a shocker, a rainy winter in Chico. Here’s his new excuse for running a bottom-out waste of taxpayer money.
“Like parks, it is a community feature that provides an experience, which does not necessarily function as a successful business venture. Rather it sets the stage for people to enjoy downtown and come downtown on a more frequent basis. By nature of that, it offers more opportunities for foot traffic and sales of goods.“
Measure H proponents included members of the public works department who were caught going door to door in their city provided uniforms to hand out ‘Yes on H” signs – both workers and signs paid for by the taxpayers. Proponents, including the contractors who get all the city contracts, told us we needed the money sooooo bad, as well as city management staff who admitted that the streets have been neglected for 20 or 30 years and needed hundreds of millions worth of repairs. Now they tell us, it’s okay to flush a quarter of a million a year on “an experience”, for one part of town
Furthermore, the public works manager admits in his report – it’s all about Downtown. Wow, if I owned a business in any other part of Chico I’d be talking to an attorney right now. Actually, I am a landlady, and I feel my neighborhood is on the bottom of the dog heap when it comes to any type of services.
Business owners and residents who do not live in the Blessed District should be outraged – Downtown already takes an undue amount of police attention, that area has always been a distraction for law enforcement. Now our $180,000/year public works director wants a quarter of a million a year for “an experience” for less than 1% of the population – the people who can afford to shop Downtown.
The whole skating rink bamboozle has just been a ploy to get the bums out of Plaza during Christmas shopping season because Downtown sales tax revenues have been going down with every boarded storefront – you can find that in the finance reports filed on the city website. The parking kiosks were just insulting, everybody knows the real problem is the transients/drug addicts/mentally ill, the crime, the daily depredation. But council, at the recommendation of Staff, continues to sign on to the Shelter Crisis Designation that makes Chico just another link in the Homeless Industrial Complex. They continue to play the Whack-a-mole game with Judge England while Chico goes right down the toilet.
And just as many people have predicted, the routing of the camps only produces tiny camplets all over town, that can’t be cleared, without 14 days notice. Gee, why aren’t there any campers at city hall, or Downtown Plaza anymore?
Maybe it’s time for the rest of us to talk to our own lawyer.
Chico Taxpayers Association 
…the real problem is the transients/drug addicts/mentally ill, the crime, the daily depredation.
Ok, I have to ask that we stop tying “mental illness” to people with drug problems, people without housing, people who choose to commit crimes and the general depredation of a community. First, there are many people with a mental illness that are productive members of society, who own a home and a car, have bank accounts, pay taxes and give back to their community. Second, using the term mental illness as a collective continues to feed the stigma that keeps so many people from reaching out for help. It’s a person experiencing a mental health issue. Thirdly, not all homeless have a mental health issue just as all with a mental health issue are not homeless. Lastly, research shows using the term mentally ill v person with a mental health issue has a huge different “feel” to it and adds to the stigma. There was an advertisement in the News and Review a few years back from a local CPA that the very first sentence said something to the effect of the “bipolar stock market.” Had I not just returned home from surgery, I would have addressed the horrible choice of words by the CPA and the terrible decision to print it (or not be aware of it) by the N&R. Rollercoaster market? Up and down of the market? Highs and lows of the market? With so many options, why was bipolar the word of choice? Let’s stop feeding the stigma of mental health and mental illness.
Now, back to the crap council decision…
If we’re going to continue to do this can we at least upgrade those crappy orange plastic rental skates. Let’s also serve alcohol. Drunks skating should be a blast.
I’m actually sure that there are far better uses for a quarter of a million dollars in the city budget than this ice rink.