I was raking up a mess of leaves and clutter out in front of my house the other day when I realized our neighborhood has been annexed to the city for over 20 years and we still have none of the services they promised when they nailed us. All we got out of it was Utility Tax. My street has no drainage, no sidewalks, and about once a year a transformer blows up out on the street and shuts power off for a few blocks.
No, it’s not just my neighborhood. Before he left, Mark Orme admitted that Chico internet is hit and miss. It’s true, all over town, people are paying for internet that is not supported by any infrastructure. I just went out the other day to buy a gift for a friend from a shop located in an East Avenue shopping center, and it took almost half an hour to ring up my purchases because the shop had poor internet. The woman fussed and apologized, but she finally decided to write out my bill by hand because she couldn’t get her computer to respond. It’s Christmas folks, how many hours will you spend in line waiting for the internet?
According to former city manager Orme, the city does not have the infrastructure in place. It’s true, as you drive around town, you find whole neighborhoods where people still have to make phone calls from their front yard, and their kids can’t use their computers to do school work.
So the city of Chico has decided to use hundreds of thousands in Camp Fire relief money to do another remodel of Downtown Chico. According to my council rep, “complete replacement of the sewer, power and water lines would be part of this project.” This after former manager Orme had announced the Camp Fire refugees had put undue strain on city services, not just Downtown. So why is the money being spent Downtown, on stuff like parklet for bars?
There’s more outrage to the new Downtown remodel, we’ll talk about that next time. This is just another reason to overturn Measure H, as far as I’m concerned.
Chico Taxpayers Association 
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