Archive | crime in Chico RSS feed for this section

Malls are turning into crime zones

6 Oct
Mangrove Plaza

My husband  and I spotted this big ugly tag from the parking lot in front of Bubbles laundromat at Mangrove Plaza.

I think the biggest problem facing Chico right now is increasing criminal activity all over town. I won’t use the word “homeless” – that is not  the right word for the transient street people that are ruining our town.

One reason this problem has festered into such a mess is the agencies that get funding for feeding, housing, and otherwise facilitating these people. They blame mental illness, bad luck, tough breaks – things that every human being has to deal with in life, regardless of station. One difference being, how we all cope. Do you cope by shitting all over the rest of our parade?

Another difference being, how we are treated. It seems the more responsibility a person shows in life, the less slack they are given when they have a little mental breakdown, bad luck, tough breaks. The suits come after your money, your car, your home, your kids.  But today I read about a consultant who will be speaking before “homeless advocates” next week who says we should spend $30 – 50,000 per person on no-strings-attached housing for transients.  You have to be a total loser to get compassion from the homeless advocates.

According to Butte County administrative officer Paul Hahn, we already spend half the county budget on mentally ill and homeless individuals. I’ve sat in meetings listening to members of county Behavioral Health staff talk about adding “bed” (a space in a shelter facility) after bed to the county’s various facilities, 10’s of thousands of dollars per individual. That’s not to mention the salaries and benefits at Butte County Behavioral Health.

http://publicpay.ca.gov/Reports/Department.aspx?entityid=4&fiscalyear=2015&departmentid=1117

Wow, I was shocked this time, looking at the new information recently posted by the State Controller’s office. Can that be true? An administrative salary of $298,000? $54,000 in benefits? That’s – excuse me, I’m not a professional – fucking nuts!

So, get my point? A person who is yanking in that kind of dough to sit in meetings discussing the homeless problem

http://www.orovillemr.com/article/NB/20160411/NEWS/160419957

https://www.newsreview.com/chico/all-hands-on-deck/content?oid=20684307

would want to keep the conversation going as long as possible. By their own admission they enjoy a budget of over $57 million.

Click to access BehavioralHealthDepartmentOverview2013.pdf

Chico Police Department and Chico Chamber of Commerce also masturbate away a considerable amount of time and paid energy toward the homeless. Regular public meetings held in different parts of town have been worthless. The last time I had a complaint about an incident I witnessed at Bubbles Laundromat there on Mangrove, Katie Simmons simply told me she’s meeting with those business owners on a regular basis. But the problem not only persists at Mangrove Plaza, it’s getting worse – should I send Simmons, who is paid with money received from the city of Chico “Community Block Grants”, a copy of the photo posted above? 

Tuesday I realized there are certain businesses that continue to be part of the problem. Mangrove Plaza merchants could do a lot more to help themselves. Like, how about cleaning up the sidewalks in front of your store Folks? Tuesday afternoon, my husband and I strolled by one pile of dog shit after another, stuck to the sidewalk in front of businesses like Sports LTD and Heel and Sole Shoes. You really have to watch your step on that sidewalk, all the way around toward Safeway, or you will get shit on your shoes.  And the general appearance of the sidewalk looks like Downtown San Francisco – looks like it’s never had  a broom to it. It gets worse as you wind your way toward the sandwich shop, Bubbles Laundromat, and then Rite Aid. The filth continues right into Rite Aid, where the smell of human excrement will take you a step back.  Not even the perfume and cigarettes stench of the dry cleaners covers up the scent of human filth that is starting to pervade that section of Mangrove Plaza.

The public sector is not going to do anything about this problem.  It’s time for property owners and citizens to step up.  I think we need an ordinance that says malls like Mangrove Plaza need to hire their own, on-site security patrol. I don’t believe the police department should have to patrol private property.  When you have a piece of real estate where no one is going to be at night, you are inviting creeps to do whatever they want. It is a crime zone, and it will get worse.

I know the management at Safeway cares. I feel for the employees at Safeway – they have to park in that parking lot at all hours. We don’t go to Safeway after dark if we can help it and neither do our adult children. Remember when Mangrove Safeway was considered “The Nice Safeway”?   One afternoon  we ran into a friend of ours at the check out, and we were discussing some ne’er do wells at the south entrance. They’d tried to start something with our friend when he didn’t respond to their request for a hand-out – he’s a big man, he’s used to people making remarks. He’s always telling us what a trial it is to live in his Chapmantown neighborhood with them walking right past his gate, sometimes tossing cigarettes into his grandson’s play yard.   He says he’d like to rip their arms off, but he knows he’d get the shit end of that stick from the cops, so he holds his temper.  The manager happened to overhear our conversation, and asked our friend about his encounter,  then went immediately out the front door and confronted the creeps, telling them they had to leave. 

Safeway Corporation doesn’t care, they don’t have to work there. Same with the owners of the malls at the south end of town, where the cardboard signs and shopping carts are stored in the bushes along the road. 

Chico PD should be patrolling Bidwell Park, but that’s another post.

 

 

Tags: , , , , ,

Randy, you have got to be kidding

4 Oct

I noticed a person had come over to this blog from city councilman Randall Stone’s campaign website. I won’t direct you there – I’d rather direct you to this:

Because at least Robert Preston is entertaining. Stone is just obnoxious.

Saved the Esplanade? Is that the way you remember it? 

I have been studying the candidates, and I’m not looking forward to this year’s election. 

Tags:

You have to read the agendas

30 Jul

I haven’t been hitting the public meetings lately folks – when I realized this the other day, it was like waking up at the wheel of a moving car.

You know, Butte County public works manager is threatening to close the poo ponds at the dump, he says this will double the cost of having your septic tank pumped (!), and our local government officials are sitting around with their thumbs up their asses cause most of them are on sewer.

I just realized, my supervisor is on sewer. She represents two of the hill-billiest communities around here, Forest Ranch and Cohasset, and a district full  of septic tanks in Chico, and she doesn’t have a clue about septic tanks. Does she think the residents of Cohasset will pay twice as much to pump their tanks? No, when their tanks fail, they will call “Midnight Septic Service” and neither the county nor the city will be the wiser.

I told Maureen about the new soda machine at the Cohasset Store. Within a week somebody had shot it full of holes, leaving a note: “What? No Budweiser?!”  

Maureen is over her head, I don’t think she knew what she was getting into with that district. When the county made their trash franchise deal, County Administrative Officer Paul Hahn said his office’s phones “rang off the hook for two weeks with complaints.” I’d say, he was lucky people used their phones.

Maureen’s constituents had been blind-sided. She’d offered up a little public meeting at the Forest Ranch store, but didn’t notice it properly, and nobody came. When the deal rolled out and rates were increased while service was cut,  they were really pissed. I made a point to make sure they all knew who was responsible – most of my neighbors in Forest Ranch did not even know what district they were in, much less who was their Supe. Now they sure as hell know. 

Did Maureen learn anything? I don’t think so, this poo ponds thing has been kicking around in meetings for the better part of a year, and she has not notified her constituents. She has an office, and a staff, paid for by us, and she could get a list of her district addresses from Candy Grubbs, send regular notices as to what’s happening – especially stuff like, “the cost of pumping your septic tank is about to double…” – but she chooses not to.  She could have a website, but does not. 

So, I will have to attend the “Local Goverments” committee meeting next week, how exciting. I’ll try to keep you awake.

Click to access LGC-8-3-16-AgendawithAttachments.pdf

Actually those meetings are full of interesting topics. At the same time they are discussing screwing septic tank owners all over Chico, they will give us an update about how they are trying to force more people onto city sewer. They will also discuss an accusation made by the Grandiose Jury that Chico does not spend enough “local taxpayer dollars” on the homeless. I’m sure some of you might have something to say about that. 

Of course there’s nothing on this agenda or any other I’ve received about pending rate increases from PG&E and Cal Water.  Nor is there an update on the trash franchise deal.

Does anybody pay attention to this stuff? No, at least half the residents of Chico are butt in air, head in gopher hole. That is a position that leaves a person is prime position for a good screwing.

How will you celebrate “The Fourth”? Try acting like an American

4 Jul

I always wonder, how many Americans have even read the US constitution? How many of you have read the California constitution? The city charter?

Good homework for “The Fourth.”  

I’ve been reading up on the laws regarding tax measures, how they are enacted, and how the public citizen can resist an avaricious government.

First, we must “Watch the skies!”   Actually, we have to watch the agendas. That is where the initial discussion of putting a tax measure on the ballot is supposed to happen.  We all know it actually happens in private meetings, but, legally, it has to pass through a public discussion before it can be handed to the county clerk, so there’s a place for the observer to begin. I’ve been watching agendas not only for council meetings and county supervisor meetings but the smaller committee meetings in between.

I have to admit, I’ve been distracted with Chico Area Recreation District, trying to figure out whether their tax grab will appear on the November ballot or whether they will go the slimy way and deliver assessment ballots by mail.  Assessment elections aren’t the same as regular elections – they are rigged with bigger property owners getting more votes, the “weight” of each property owner’s vote being determined by the very board that is asking for the tax. These shouldn’t be legal – that’s our fault. We need to try to get rid of the entities that can attach us this way, starting with CARD, and including the Butte County Mosquito and Vector District.

I haven’t heard an elected official at either the city of Chico or Butte County mention a sales tax increase, but with municipalities all around us seeking, and in some cases, getting a sales tax increase out of the voters, I’m worried. Ex-city mangler Tom Lando, the guy who came up with the MOU that attached city salaries “to revenue increases but not decreases,” has been stumping for a sales tax increase for a few years now, saying he wants this and that amenity for the public, as well as better paid cops and fire fighters. 

Wow, what’s better than a base pay of $62,000/year with automatic step increases and mandated overtime that can as much as double that base salary? Not to mention paying only 12 percent toward a retirement of 90 percent of your highest year’s pay at age 50? What the helllllll could be better than that? 

Ask Lando, a guy who is in the regular habit of dropping a C-note for lunch.

I don’t believe Lando is worried about the public, I think he is worried about his $12,000/month pension payments.  Can you imagine living on $134,000/year, without having to work? Just getting a check for the rest of your life.  Ask Barbara McEnepsy – how’s life out on Keefer Road Hon? I don’t even know what Barbara McEnepsy did for the city, but she receives an even higher pension than Lando. 

Here’s the real stinker – these two individuals retired before the rules were changed to make employees “pay their own share” – neither Lando nor McEnepsy paid a dime toward their pensions.

If you are not outraged about paying these pensions, I’ll say – you’re not an American.

 

Short Attention Span Theater – we have the government we deserve in Chico

18 Jun

I’ve just been having a frustrating conversation with a friend about public participation. 

Sorry if I have been rude, Friend.

Friend tried to explain to me how overwhelmed most people are in their lives, they can’t pay attention.

That just got my skivvies in a bunch. I pay attention, and let me tell you, I got stuff going on.  I won’t bore you with my epic problems of the past months, but through it all, my close friends have been annoyed with my constant complaining about what the city and county and various local agencies are doing. My husband keeps telling me the government stuff is stressing me out, I should concentrate more on what’s going on at home. At least we can do something about our private problems, he says.

I have a hard time keeping it all under my hat.  Every morning, when I give my dog her insulin shot, I have to mentally prepare – “don’t think bad thoughts, don’t think bad thoughts…” as I skewer that needle into a lump of flesh behind her collar.   She lays on the floor behind me as I read the paper, read e-mails, she can hear me grumbling about stuff. I have to be careful or she’ll slip into the bedroom and stick her head under my husband’s side of the bed. I can feel the tension in her neck, makes it hard to get loose skin, sometimes she lets out a yelp and a half.

What bugs me is how people are so quick to use any excuse to stick their head in the sand, but they still expect to be allowed to complain when something finally gets under their skin.  I won’t mention names, but I’ve watched the local gadflies make big stinks about stuff, after a few months, the stink dies down, and the problem still exists.  All that blab about volunteers for the park – the park still looks like shit. The work they did at the One Mile parking lot last year has become completely overgrown with non-native invasive plants again. An area they did earlier this year is also going back to a mess.   Whole sections of the park are sub-code – if it was your yard, you’d get a notice to clean it up or pay the city to do it. 

And this conversation about keeping public restrooms open has been going on for two years now. Meanwhile, the million dollar One Mile restroom is pretty hit and miss – here’s the conundrum – if it is open, will it be usable? 

Short Attention Span Theater.

I’m going to tell you Esplanade lovers – don’t go back to sleep! Isn’t it pretty obvious, they’ve shelved the roundabouts until after the election? I’m hoping Cheryl King and friends are quietly looking for somebody to run for council, but I’m not going to bank on it.  

I’d like to see somebody run for CARD. Why don’t I do it? I would if I had some support – I ain’t going into those meetings without a posse anymore.  If they pass their bond, it means the people of Chico are completely gone fishing.

Tony St Amant said it in this morning’s paper – we have the government we deserve.

 

 

Pic of the Day, Chico California

10 Jun
Gotta love this town!

Gotta love this town!

I have a sense of humor just like the next guy. I am not too uptight to laugh at a fart joke.  

But property crime kind of bothers me. If somebody scrawled something like this on my fence, I’d call the cops and report it as vandalism.  

Hold it there – after a second thought, I wouldn’t bother calling Chico PD. I’d put a game camera on my property and find out who is doing it for myself. Chico PD is fairly worthless, you should really ask yourself – is it worth getting involved with those idiots?

Did you know, they demand overtime to patrol the Downtown area? I just don’t know what to think of that. Well, yes I do – I’d call it “insubordination” and show them the exit, telling them not to let the screen door hit them on the ass.

But, council has their hands tied, seeing as the majority were elected with Chico Police Association money, or money channeled through ex-chief Mike Maloney’s PAC. Mark Sorensen tried to deny he was paid for by the cops – read the election reports, it’s all there.  Big developers and cops own your mayor.

I would have sent this into the Enterprise Records “Hot Shots” pics, but you know, David Little is so uptight, you couldn’t pull a needle out of his ass with a tractor. He is down on any kind of body humor.   He once sent back one of my letters because I’d used the word “crap”.  He said, “we don’t print ‘crap’…well, I mean, we don’t print the word ‘crap’…”  I guess there’s some sort of humor there.  

Anyhoo, there’s your ‘Pic of the Day’ for Chico, California.

 

 

Taxpayers pay about three times the “employee” share of benefits and pension

5 Jun

What a week! I’ll ask  you a question people around here have asked for ages – is it hot enough for you?

I bet you’ve been thinking about your electric bill.   A couple of months ago, I got a notice from California Public Utilities shill Cody Naylor, inviting me to a sort of private (not noticed to the public) meeting regarding implementation of “time of use” rates, for everybody, starting in 2018.  “Time of use” means, the price of your electricity rides the stock market all day, between 10 am and 7 pm. Meaning, you pay whatever electricity is selling for, at  that moment.  Right now you can volunteer for time of use, and PG&E will give you reduced rates the rest of the day. But forget about using any of your major appliances during the day – like local Fascist Mark Stemen once sniggered at me – “get used to doing your laundry in the middle of the night Juanita!” 

Well, what about my refrigerator Mark? Where’s the social equity, Mark, when people like you, on a public salary, are able to run their air conditioner all day, damn the torpedoes, while those of living on normal salaries are balancing our PG&E with our food bills? Don’t cook in the house!

Naylor had sent me the notice, telling me he hoped I’d spread the word!  What a liar – they didn’t want people to come, are you kidding. When I complained that they weren’t running ads in the paper or sending notices in bills, Naylor’s co-shill, Claudia Portillo (Office of the Rat-out Advocate) just handed me a pile of limp excuses.  She said the utilities (this was shoved into a Cal Water rate increase meeting) missed their printing deadline and the CPUC doesn’t have the money (!?!)

The utility was originally supposed to send the public hearing notice as a bill insert. However, they were unable to meet their printing deadline to include it with customer bills. Normally the customer notice is sent only once as either a bill insert (most common), or a separate mailer (used by Cal Water for these PPHs). Unfortunately, TV and radio ads are not used because of the high costs which are allowed to be passed on to ratepayers. This is also the reason notices are usually only sent once. The CPUC keeps the costs and their passing through to ratepayers in mind when working with the utility company on customer notifications.

As a government agency, the CPUC has a very limited budget and usually cannot afford to pay for ads. However, it is customary for the CPUC’s media office to write and distribute press releases regarding these types of public hearings to various media outlets. This is done in the hopes that a media outlet will be interested and pass along the information to its audience voluntarily, at no cost to the CPUC or ratepayers.

They don’t want to pass the costs of noticing on to the ratepayers? What kind of bullshit is that? Can you believe she eats with that mouth?

Well, nevermind all that – did you get the notice for the next rate increase proposal from PG&E? This isn’t about “real time pricing,” this is just another rate increase, period.  I got the notice in my most recent bill – “operate, maintain and upgrade” systems, bs bs bs.  They mean, pay off their pension debt.

When I asked Ms. Portillo and Mr. Naylor about their pensions, Portillo sent me some interesting links.

https://www.calpers.ca.gov/

There I found this pdf – “Facts at a Glance”

Click to access facts-at-a-glance.pdf

The first fact that caught my glance was there at the bottom – taxpayers (“employers”)  pay about three times what the employees pay for their own benefits. 

I  know I’ve been bitching alot about the homeless and the crimes they commit. Here we have a whole class of people who are ripping us off, and we’re just sitting here allowing it. 

When will the enablers see the link between transients and crime?

30 Apr

I think the biggest problem we have with the homeless here in Chico are the agencies and individuals who provide for them. That would include our local media. Read these excerpts from the Enterprise Record Hits and Misses column for today:

HIT >> There were two very impressive aspects to an extensive effort Wednesday to help homeless and low- income people in Butte County. One is that 675 people received help. The other is the dozens of people, organizations and agencies that chipped in to make it happen.

Project Homeless Connect managed to get the word out to hundreds of people who took advantage of the opportunity to get things most people take for granted — a shower, food, a haircut, a bicycle repair, a health screening, pet care and much more.

It took a lot of goodhearted people to organize the event and volunteer at it. We applaud them for doing what they can to help.

Well, isn’t that nice?  “Hundreds of people who took advantage…” Great choice of words.  This kind of enabling is what’s bringing the homeless flocking to Chico. Of course, Dave Little doesn’t live anywhere near the areas most heavily affected by this problem, Downtown, Bidwell Park, and the neighborhoods directly surrounding the creeks – that would include the campus neighborhoods.

MISS >> The statistics on crime in neighborhoods near Chico State University are alarming, even if they’re not surprising.

Most residents know that’s where most crime happens in Chico. But it was quantified at a public meeting last week. Chico Police Department statistics show that in a three- year period ending last Dec. 31, 636 homes and 482 cars were broken into in neighborhoods near the university, and 437 cars were stolen.

There’s hope, however. Increased attention and a new cooperative agreement between Chico police and university police will help. Students and non- students who live in the area can do their part by locking up items, not being so trusting and watching out for criminal activity.

Crime will never disappear in student neighborhoods, but the number is unacceptably high and can be reduced with attention to the issue.

First of all, I see the same old pattern here – blame the victim. That’s good, I hope plenty of parents read this and send their kids somewhere else for college. I know, a lot of people blame the students for everything, but imagine getting a call from your kid, describing the kind of stuff that’s been going on in Chico the last couple of years. 

They sure as hell wouldn’t be reporting any events where college students get free showers, food, a haircut, a bicycle repair, a health screening, or pet care.

How many blogs have I written about repeat offenders? You check, I’m busy. The pattern is hard to miss, but apparently the Editor does not read the police reports or follow them up on the county superior court index. I don’t know how many stories I’ve read in his paper about somebody waking up in the middle of the night to find a stranger in their bedroom, hands/arms full of stolen stuff. Less than a week ago a man over at Amanda Place came home to find a guy in his apartment in the middle of the day, and was stabbed by the creep.

 I’ve looked up the names on the court index, including the man involved in that break-in and stabbing, and found these people have been arrested and released – “OR”, “own recognizance” – again and again, for increasingly violent crimes. 

The pattern also shows most of them are listed without any permanent address – “homeless,” “transient,” whatever you want to call it. That last man was  “ward” of the county, “ a person or thing under guard, protection, or surveillance…” .   Oh really? Where exactly was Batman when his ward was breaking into another man’s apartment?  

Most of these people are able to disappear as soon as they are out of custody, and neither the county nor the city are doing anything to keep track of them. That is, until they are caught in another crime. 

County District Attorney Mike Ramsey excuses himself from prosecuting these people, blaming various legislative bills. I think the real problem is, he doesn’t see any money in it. He only seems to go after high-profile cases. 

Chico PD makes a lot of fuss – all these meetings they’ve been having lately – maybe  they need to form a circle and levitate the police station, shake out the dead beats, make them pay their own pensions, shower and shave at home before they come to work, etc.

Meanwhile, our mayor is busy revamping The Esplanade. 

And the media is congratulating the enablers. Good Job!

Do we really want to build more low-income housing?

26 Apr

I’m certainly glad Chico will not play host to a “sexually violent predator,” but I wonder how many other violent criminals we have in Chico. How about the story in this morning’s paper – a resident caught a burglar in his Amanda Way apartment, and while he was calling the cops the guy attacked and stabbed him with a knife. 

The attacker was identified as Darin J. Petty. According to Butte Superior Court index, this man is supposed to be under conservatorship, granted by the county of Butte. What is he doing robbing somebody’s apartment? 

According to our county administrator Paul Hahn, the county of Butte spend “over half the budget” on services for the mentally ill, indigent, and drug addicted. A new 15 unit low-income apartment facility to be located near the Torres Shelter will cost about $6 million, over a million of it coming out of the Behavioral Health budget, and more from the city of Chico and other public agencies. More of our taxes spent to bring in more of these people. How many will end up standing over a homeowner with a knife in the middle of the night? 

 

What ever happened to “our drinking problem” ?

17 Apr

After my last post, complaining about serial criminals in our town, Police Chief Mike O’Brien released his crime report – nothing surprising. What was weird was how it was viewed by the media.

http://www.chicoer.com/general-news/20160414/chico-crime-rate-up-4-percent-in-2015-positive-signs-ahead-police-say

http://www.krcrtv.com/news/local/chico-crime-rate-drops-9-percent-in-first-quarter-of-2016/39028878

I  think it’s just funny how these two different media sources look at the story, one “glass half empty” and the other “glass half full.” I think the local editor paints a scarier picture because he’s stumping for a public safety tax, while the story out of Redding seems too optimistic. Somewhere between lies the truth.

The chief seems to be saying two things at once. While he says crime is down in the first quarter of 2016, he admits, “ I think if you were to ask anyone in the community whether crime was increasing or decreasing — or increased or decreased in 2015 — everyone would have said yes, it has increased…”

I have to wonder about these reports  – for example, according to Jerry Olenyn, “The report does not include an uptick in other types of crimes. For example, honey butane oil lab activity is on the rise.   ‘Not only is it a problem, it’s a public safety concern, because houses and apartment are being blown up,’ said O’Brien.”

Why aren’t all crimes included?

According to this week’s News and Review

https://www.newsreview.com/chico/losing-our-buzz/content?oid=20614263

Chico PD reports arrests are down on the infamous party days, like Halloween and Cesar Chavez Day, but Enloe reports alcohol related ER visits for the 18 – 23 age group are increasing every year. Just since January, there have already been 94 visits in that category. The 18 to 20 year olds, and whoever furnished them with the alcohol, are committing a crime, a very dangerous crime, and I have to wonder why this isn’t included in O’Brien’s report.

There have been a couple of high profile, very tragic alcohol related deaths every semester for the last couple of years. Endless staff time has been poured into symposiums about “our drinking problem” since Ann Schwab was mayor. What track did that little choo-choo train run off on? 

The party article mentions that many Downtown restaurants are changing their atmosphere – no more drink or pitcher specials. A more adult atmosphere, pricey drinks, pricey foods. They have priced out the party crowd Downtown. But at the same time, the city has permitted Bev Mo! and other discount liquor merchants around town. So what’s happened, I’m guessing, is the parties are moving underground, and I’m guessing there will be a lot more underage drinking, and more tragedy to come. 

And the 21 – 23 crowd will continue to patronize the bars, which sit right off campus like some kind  of Pleasure Island. Not just college students, but young people from all over the area are attracted to the alcohol scene Downtown every  weekend. These people are not only the perpetrators but the victims of crime – they drive drunk, they injure or kill themselves or others, they lose their wallets, get mugged, get sexually assaulted.  They go back to their apartments, leave their cars unlocked, their doors unlocked, their valuables laying around untended. 

Alcohol is  a crime problem in Chico.

Meanwhile, they had a symposium about it. This what these people do. 

http://www.orovillemr.com/general-news/20160415/butte-county-officials-community-groups-gather-for-summit-on-homelessness

 

 

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →