Social media being too negative about what’s going on in Chico?

My neighbor gets the Sunday print edition of the Enterprise Record, which he hands over to me as soon as he has read the stuff he’s interested in – mostly the obits. I read it slowly, as I spread it out under my cat dishes. Yeah, the obits are always interesting, but I like the editorial page.

Seems Editor Mike Wolcott is concerned about what he sees as an unfair negative impression “social media” is spreading about Chico. Retired CSUC public information officer Joe Wills joined in, insinuating misinformation is being spread around about our fair city.

Two guys who have made their living making bad things look good, that’s just too funny. Wolcott is not a journalist, he’s an ad salesman. Selling ads depends on making your advertisers happy, not investigative journalism. Wills is a “damage control” wizard. He worked for Chico State when Playboy declared the college “Number One Party School” over out of control parties, through the Pioneer Days riot, various hazing scandals and drinking deaths, years of Halloween, racist attacks, and other dark days. He was the guy who had to put the fire out with the media and convince parents from other towns that Chico State was a good place to send their 18 year old kids. These two have made their careers out of turning shit into Shinola.

I get most of my news from Butte County Fires and Crimes on Facebook. They have 24 hour reports about what is actually going on in Chico, including weather and road closures, with submissions from members who send in photos, videos, official alerts from local agencies, even ring camera footage. No, they’re not journalists, but they have a lot more current useful information. And yeah, you see a lot of negative stuff you don’t see in Wolcott’s paper or on local news – shootings, car thefts, break-ins, doorstep thefts, etc, etc, etc. Having these two men tell us we are making this crap up is just insulting.

It’s a fact that the crime rate in Chico has gone up dramatically over the last 10 years while the city has hired more cops and raised their salaries and benefits to unsustainable heights.

It’s a fact that the Shelter Crisis Designation has cost Chico Taxpayers millions of dollars, money down a legal rabbit hole, with no end in sight, just homeless camps popping up all over town and drugs overdoses becoming every day ordinary.

It’s a fact that while housing construction has continued unabated the price of those houses has continued to go up, out of reach for working people.

It’s a fact that while new housing is being built on the fringes of the city with new roads and new sewer lines, older neighborhoods are suffering from blight and neglect, potholed roads and inadequate or nonexistent sewer lines.

It’s a fact that while the city divvied out American Rescue funding to design and build “parklets” for Downtown businesses, the sewer lines running under Downtown streets, more than 100 years old, are in dire need of replacement, and no funding in sight.

I’m sorry Mike, you’d have to be a magician to put lipstick on that pig.