No, I haven’t driven by Miller Mansion lately. In fact, I don’t drive or bike a lot of places around Chico anymore because the roads are bad and the visuals are… depressing. It’s hard when the sweet little town you knew as a child turns into a cesspool in front of your eyes and there’s nothing you can do to stop it.
I’ll never forget having kids here – like my husband says, we got Chico in her heyday. We rode our bikes everywhere, enjoyed three well-run public swimming pools and rode our kids up the park to Salmon Hole. We were a working class family but we could still afford to own a home, as well as support various businesses, even charities like the Jesus Center, Esplanade House and Butte Humane Society. We were members of the Nature Center and the Butte County library, spent many happy hours with Joe the Crow. She used to greet us when we came in the door. We enjoyed downtown eateries and attended shows at the plaza. Oh my gosh – we could afford to water a couple of fruit trees and a row a’ maters!
Some day archaeologists will call that “The Chico Lifestyle”. It’s become extinct.
Well, maybe not extinct. Chico was going into a slump when I was a kid, I remember the chatter. Buildings had burned and were not being cleaned up. The building now known as the Diamond Hotel was empty and a disgrace – by the time I got to Chico State it was known at “The Pidgeon Palace”. The old administration building on Main was in similar condition, trees growing over broken windows, the inside gutted, full of pidgeons and rats.
I was still pretty young when they tore the facade off the Morehouse building because they were afraid it would crash down on the sidewalk. My grandmother shopped at Osers – later Sports Ltd, now I don’t know what – and the manager told us she was worried about the building falling down around her head. Tres Hombres was an empty lot with a lot of trash blowing around inside a chainlink fence.
When I came to Chico State in the 80’s, there was a Downtown Renaissance. Lots of good, affordable eateries, even a grocery store. But of course, at that time, the college students were the nuisance. A lot of people called Downtown “The U District” and avoided the area. Binge drinking, puking, and sexual assaults seemed to be the college culture. The college and the town were at odds. Downtown business owners complained of broken windows, urine puddles in front of doors, and vandalism. Binge drinking deaths started to become common headlines – what you still don’t see in the paper, is the conga line into Enloe ER every Friday and Saturday night.
It seems to me, Downtown is Chico’s spoiled child, and the more attention she gets, the worse she gets. But you see City Council still treats Downtown like a “special district”, pouring more and more tax money into a tiny grid that only serves a tiny portion of the public.
A recent story in the News and Review reports sales tax revenues for Downtown Chico are on the downswing the past few years, and not just because of COVID. Recovery has been slow, even though Downtown businesses have received millions in COVID relief from the feds and the city. Vacancies are up Downtown, the N&R reporter counted 20 empty store fronts just in the Mainstreet/Broadway grid.
While they fuss over their “Downtown Revitalization ” plan and spend more taxpayer money on a “shop local (Downtown) ” campaign (another local government fad, like skating rinks), the rest of Chico goes to hell. Furthermore, I believe that in her angst to rid Downtown of the troublesome bums, District 2 councilwoman Kasey Reynolds made arrangements with a man who didn’t even own the sub-code building he was occupying to “get them off the street”. Especially the street right in front of her Downtown ice creamery.
Kasey Reynolds is not fit for office. She’s obviously out to protect her own interests, and her own agenda. I also believe she entertains visions of higher office, hoping to follow her benefactor James Gallagher on to the assembly. Call me catty, I couldn’t help but notice – the day she took office, she started “dressing for success” and spraying on the make-up. She’s a girl with ambitions.
So I’m not surprised that she would do something so desperate and ruthless as hide people and their real problems in a decaying building and then ignore pleas for help. Atta Girl Kasey!
Chico Taxpayers Association 