Tag Archives: Nextdoor Chico

Nextdoor: Interesting conversation with a woman who claims to be “homeless”

19 Dec

I’ve been stuck in the house the last few days with a cold. Been doing a lot of reading.  Yesterday I read an interesting conversation on the social network site for neighbors, Nextdoor.

A woman has been trying for a couple of months now to start a productive conversation on “Solutions to Homelessness.” I welcome a good conversation on this topic, and wonder why we haven’t had one. I see it goes rude pretty fast.

In October, the woman started the conversation with, “I am starting a new thread because the last thread on homelessness was getting ridiculous! If you care to comment on this thread please give us REASONABLE solutions that would help the homelessness in our community.”

I wondered, how did the previous conversation go off track?

The October thread seemed to be moving along well. Various neighbors chimed in with their feelings about the umbrella that is “homelessness”, their compassion for these people and their frustration. Councilwoman Reneatte Fillmer talked about various agencies that work with “homeless” and “mentally ill” and encourages neighbors to donate to those agencies that need the most help. Other neighbors retorted politely but firmly that these agencies are bringing more “homeless” and “mentally ill” to our area from outside, and we need to make Chico “less hospitable” to these folks.

Then the thread quieted down, and no more remarks were made until yesterday, when a woman named “Teena” wandered into the conversation and began attacking neighbors who expressed any kind of negativity toward “homeless.”  I don’t know if she’s genuine or an actor having a riot of a time, but she seems familiar.

Here’s the most recent message she posted – other messages were directed at other posters, by name, rude, hostile and ugly.

 
Oh if yr. referring 2 me, I will reply on what I read. And speak my feelings Just like ya people speak yrs. So ya have no room 2 tell me what 2 do. I am very much “CIVIL”. And guess what I finally got heard I got 10 comments back (WOW) & I will ” REPLY”. I am not mean but I & my HOMELESS FRIENDS are very tired of the Community Shit. They know nothing about all of us. Just what they see & assume it’s all the homeless. Yes we are not perfect. But ya people are not down town or anywhere else seeing what I see all hours of the NITE, cause yr. All tucked in yr. Nice warm beds. Do ya people forget what town ya live in? College, ya people have no idea what they do? I watch!!! So back off some

 

I feel I recognize Teena – she’s snarled at me as I’ve entered the grocery store or rode my bike through the park, she’s gibbered at me in the post office annex when I’ve tried to retrieve my mail, she’s accosted me in the parking lot of various retail centers, telling me I should give her some money because I enjoy the luxury of owning a car.

One day I sat in our car at Safeway, waiting for my husband to come out of the store, watching a disheveled woman meandering the parking lot, seemingly a drunken, random path, sometimes she’d stumble, her legs did not seem so sure.  Except, she was walking very close to and examining various cars, looking inside, eyeballing the doors. I sat watching, waiting to see if she would enter any of the cars, but she disappeared. Was that “Teena”?

In the above post she reminds us, the college students get wild Downtown at night. Some people, myself included, believe the rash of tire slashings has been done by young people, who either live in Chico or come into town to party. Those of us old folks know it’s not just college students, but college age people in general, most of them living in a traditional home and many of them gainfully employed. Yeah, they come Downtown to get drunk, and drunks are not very nice. That’s a separate problem, and I don’t think the city or county is getting a handle on that either.

The problem with these self-described “homeless” is they want to act like that 24-7. They don’t pay bills, they expect to be treated like back-door cousins. They are overwhelming public services meant for local people. They are sending whole parts of town into blight.  They are a black hole on our economy. The use the word “homeless” like a shield. 

As of this morning posters are starting to get angry that this woman is allowed on their private message board. If I could be sure she was genuine, I’d say, “let her blow her mouth.” If she’s for real, she’s her own worse enemy.

I’m happy to see a conversation where people are being honest about their feelings toward this army of the night. I’m glad to see more people express how I feel – things the county and city are doing are actually attracting bad people here, people who think we not only must tolerate their bad behavior but put them up with lodging. We’re supposed to be cheerful and jolly when they growl at our young children, or make obscene threats because we didn’t treat them to their liking.  More and more I see ranters – people who just wander and yell at nobody in particular  – if I acted like that at a city council meeting, I’m afraid Chris Constantin would taser me.

Most Nextdoor posters have expressed a desire to help these people, but “enough is enough,” and “there’s only so much room at the inn...”

I  think it’s interesting that Reanette Fillmer tells us we need to give money to various agencies that deal with these people. Butte County CAO Paul Hahn reported, with Fillmer sitting right across the table from him, that Butte County already spends over half the budget on homeless, mentally ill, and families with dependent children.

Fillmer is a Cal PERS employee. Her interest is funding Cal PERS. Cal PERS is in a deep amount of trouble, having lost another round on the stock market, they are demanding more money from public entities. Council member Randall Stone explains what this will mean to Chico on his Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/ElectStone/posts/794348484026885

I know, Stone is pandering for 2016, just read the article.

Remember, Cal PERS not only owes all those pensions to all those retirees, they  also get salaries, benefits and pensions for themselves. Their salaries are comparable to those in Bell, California, and they pay NOTHING toward their benefits and pensions. Are you getting the picture?

Perpetuating the influx of homeless into this area perpetuates half the county budget Folks. Behavioral Health Director Adrian Kittrell has the highest salary in Butte County – about $269,000/year, out of which he pays NOTHING for his $82,000 benefits/pension package.  And he has the nerve to say he  can’t afford to do outreach. He’s just a stuffed suit who moves between the seat of his car and meeting room chairs. 

I am wary to chime in on the Nextdoor conversation –  whenever I start talking about public compensation around here, somebodies get their nose out and that’s the end of the conversation.  But, I’ll try to keep an eye on it. 

 

 

 

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Chico PD hires 5 new officers, promotes 4 – is this going to solve our crime problem?

16 Dec

 I don’t know if you’ve been “Nextdoor” – a social website for neighbors that was introduced into Chico a few months ago. I signed up, despite a pain-in-the-ass process for which I was first asked to give my social security number or my credit card number but finally opted for a post card sent to my house to “prove” my residency.

I went along with it because I was hoping for a sort of bulletin board about crime in our neighborhoods. I expected the classified ads, the greetings, and now I find there are exclusive neighbor groups who are allowed to pick and choose who they let in regardless of address. But, I have also found some people use it to inform each other of criminal activity. I’ve noticed this type of post is increasing. 

Lately people have reported stuff like home deliveries being stolen or opened and rifled through, cars are being broken into and items stolen, and one man’s back yard shed was jimmied. These crimes have all been reported within a mile of my house. 

The pivotal weakness is that not very many of my neighbors, or anybody for that matter,  have signed onto Nextdoor, so I know there’s stuff going on that’s not appearing on the site. My husband and I used to keep up a chatter with our nearby neighbors, but our hood has changed alot over 15 years.  Lately a lot of my neighbors have moved, new people have appeared who I don’t know. One neighbor who signed onto Nextdoor has since moved, a new woman lives in her house, but the previous neighbor is still registered at the old house. This kind of website needs a good monitor. The monitor I contacted never responded to me. 

But, I see enough to know, crime is steadily increasing in Chico, and the new cops they’ve hired over the last year and the raises and promotions they’ve given have not changed anything. 

In today’s Enterprise Record, I read, “Five new Chico police officers were sworn in and four officers received promotions during a ceremony Tuesday at the Chico Fire Training Center.”

I guess there’s some good news – “The new officers — Jeremy Gagnebin, Jamie McElhinney, Trey Reid, Francisco Salinas and Miranda Wallace — graduated from the Butte College Law Enforcement Academy and will now undergo roughly six months of field training, Chico Police Chief Mike O’Brien said”  – this means, they will pay 50 percent of their own benefits and pension. I don’t think that’s enough but it’s better than the 12 percent most cops pay. 

“O’Brien also announced the promotions of Sgt. Jeramie Struthers, Lt. Matt Madden, Lt. Rob Merrifield and Deputy Chief Dave Britt.”  I’ll lay down a five spot right now – Merrifield is spiking – he’s getting a raise now so he can retire soon at a higher pension. 

And this is very telling – “O’Brien’s promotions of Madden, Merrifield and Britt were the first of his tenure as the city’s chief of police, he said, adding that when he stepped into the role six months ago he had to replace half of his command staff.  ‘I had to tap some very specific individuals on the shoulder to come serve at a very difficult time,’  he said, noting strained relations between the Police Department and community, as well as historically low staffing. ‘And each of them answered that call. In that six-month period they have all performed extraordinarily well.’  The Chico Police Department, O’Brien said, is still hiring. The department is authorized to fill 92 sworn positions. About 88 of those are currently filled.

So, O’Brien is aware the public is very pissed off, that’s good. But low staffing? They always say that. They hire more but crime just keeps increasing. They pay themselves too well, according to that front page article run in the ER recently, and I’ve checked – they get paid on a par with San Francisco PD. Been to San Francisco lately? Been shot/mugged/carjacked? Here we have petty crimes committed by a population of scum bags who are allowed to camp illegally in our parks, sit/lie/and beg on our sidewalks, harass our merchants, all despite the creation of endless ordinances designed to give the cops more excuses not to bust any of these people. 

On Nextdoor Chico PD officer Paul Ratto announced they again rousted the permanent illegal camp along the creek and under the bridge at Humboldt and Cypress. 

“Target Officers encounter repeat encampments under the bridge at Cypress Ave. / Humboldt Ave. The Target Team is in an education phase of the new ordinance (9.20.050 CMC) prohibiting subjects from storing personal property in Chico’s waterways. Today, three subjects were contacted and two were arrested on outstanding warrants. Warnings were given regarding the ordinance. Also on scene was Stairways Program Manager Michael Madieros. Sometimes in these situations subjects with mental health or substance abuse issues are identified and can be rapidly housed. Through the Stairways Program these subjects are given a place were their needs and met and treatment can begin.”

Two of them had arrest warrants, the third was illegally camping – why can’t that person be cited or arrested? They hand him over to Michael Madieros – a guy who has made a tidy living for himself because he is willing to deal with these people when the cops don’t want to be bothered. Stairways is part of Butte County Behavioral Health. County Admin Officer Paul Hahn recently reported over half the county’s budget goes to “helping” the homeless and mentally ill. I have no idea what Madieros is paid, but there’s a pack of them down there getting salaries, benefits and pension for continuing to enable and encourage dysfunctional behavior. It just perpetuates their salaries, they don’t care about the consequences this practice is having on the rest of the functional community.

What in the world are we doing, catering to these people, and paying the police more and more money to stand by “meeting their needs”?  O’Brien compliments himself  – “During the past six months, he added, the city has been able to stem the flow of officers leaving the Police Department, which is something O’Brien has attributed to competitive salaries and a “sense of hope” brought on by the leadership of the department’s command staff.”

Yeah, “competitive salaries,” competitive to huge cities with outrageous crime problems.  I don’t see any hope down there – I see a train headed for a picnic blanket. 

UPDATE 12/8/16 – Rob Merrifield retires at his spiked pay rate, Item 1.7:

http://chico-ca.granicus.com/GeneratedAgendaViewer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=649

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Nextdoor: interesting news source, seems to be working for some people

24 Nov

Nextdoor, described as the “private social network for neighborhoods,” is an interesting news source. Since I joined a few weeks ago, I’ve seen a lot of interesting stuff that hasn’t shown up in the newspaper.

First there was the “bnb” conversation – “Airbnb” is a website through which you can rent your home out like a hotel. One woman brought up her concerns for her mid-Chico neighborhood, but was quickly struck down by other “neighbors” who turned out to be renting their own homes through Airbnb.  In the course of that quick but “snarky” conversation, I noticed, people seem to have forgotten past conversations about making it illegal to rent out second units in certain neighborhoods, a “disorderly events” ordinance, and most recently, the “social host” ordinance, which allows Chico PD and Fire Dept to assign “response” charges to the owner of a property at which an out-of-control  party took place. Those conversations got downright nasty at times – all stemming from neighbor complaints about rentals.

It is actually illegal to rent a second unit in the neighborhood directly surrounding the college without owner occupation of the property – the city made that ordinance a few years back. Not long after the “bnb” conversation, a woman complained on Nextdoor that the second unit next to her was being “rented illegally,” but she couldn’t get any response from city code enforcement. 

Here’s what’s creepy – within a couple of days, another neighbor posted a response to that woman, saying three code enforcement officers had been over to check out her rental, and found everything was perfectly legal. She gave her name and contact information, encouraging the plaintiff to contact her with future concerns. 

The second unit owner was very nice about it, I think the first woman was way out of line.  This is what Nextdoor has been criticized for – the Big Brother thing. Some neighbor groups have actually been accused of racial profiling and harassment. 

What also caught my attention about that post was – three code enforcement officers? City code enforcement?  Responding to a complaint about a rental? But we have a homeless camp at the median between Park Avenue and Cypress/Pine Streets that goes unattended for weeks. When they finally clear it out, the bums just move farther down the creek bank, you can see the piles of garbage as you motor over the bridge. 

Well, here’s an interesting post from Nextdoor, just posted yesterday, by a man named Ron from the “North  Chapman neighborhood”:

Today, over 300 pounds of trash and metal were removed from a former transient camp right in the middle of our residential neighborhood. The camp was on a vine-covered vacant lot and was first noticed about three months ago. With the help of many neighbors, the Butte County Sheriff’s Office, and the Butte County Code Enforcement Division, the transient residents were encouraged to move on. When the camp was cleared numerous bicycle parts were recovered, confirming our suspicion that the site was being used to ‘recycle’ stolen bicycles.

This is posted to encourage others with unwelcome transients camping/squatting in their neighborhood to use the resources available and fight back. I am not unsympathetic to the homeless issue here in Chico; however, a residential neighborhood with children and families is not a suitable destination for those who steal, exchange stolen property, and use illegal drugs.

Thank you to all the North Chapman Neighbors who supported our effort.

Looking at the map provided by Nextdoor, I see the area is in the county, technically, but right in the middle of urban Chico. It’s a part of town the city of Chico has tried to ignore for years, manufacturing a phony story about neighbors who don’t want to be annexed, but never being able to provide any written proof of that assertion. The police seem to think they can’t cross the creek to enforce the law. And it takes the sheriff three months to do anything but “encourage”.

I’ve been on Nextdoor for almost a month, and this is the first I’ve heard of this situation. I don’t know if Ron’s group is working offline, what he’s been through trying to get law enforcement to pay attention to this matter. But, I know there’s homeless camps in the park right alongside my neighborhood, and despite a short-lived high-profile fling at One-Mile, the cops aren’t doing anything about it.

We do see them roust bums at the CARD center once in a while – CARD board member Tom Lando has made requests of the city to pay special attention to the CARD center. That center is used for community classes, children’s and other programs, and people are finding human land mines and garbage piled up around the buildings.  They complain of passed out drunks on the lawn and portico, even sprawled out on benches. Nobody seems to rent that building for private affairs like weddings anymore – in years past, you’d see it decked out almost every good weather  weekend.  The CARD board now has most meetings at their new headquarters at California Park. This is the reason behind the new rose garden – it will have a fence and locking gate, and only be available for paid events, in an attempt to keep bums, as well as the general public, off the CARD property. Because Chico PD  could not enforce the vagrancy laws, despite salaries averaging $100,000 with 88% of their benefits paid by the taxpayer.

Chico PD monitors Nextdoor, and it seems they are responding to certain complaints, even those made casually in conversation. I also find it a good news source – even if there isn’t much chatter in my neighborhood. A lot of my immediate neighbors have joined, but I haven’t seen crimes mentioned. There’s a gal who will watch your pets for $15/day. There’s a lady looking for a plumber, another woman selling a ceiling light. I wasn’t surprised when I saw the woman bitching about her neighbor’s rental – that is to be expected on a site like this. The Airbnb conversation got kind of rude, and I recognized a guy who has come to this blog in past under an alias and tried to bully me. I  felt he was bullying the woman, and she ended up “closing” the conversation. If it were me, I’d have charged right back at him, but the lady was polite and felt the conversation had run it’s course.

I haven’t seen any of these stories on the tv or print media, but I’m guessing there’s at least one reporter lurking in the shadows. You have to give personal information to sign up – I was asked for my social security number or a credit card to verify my address. I refused and was allowed to request a post card be sent to my house with a secret code number. This supposedly proves I’m really a “neighbor.” Unfortunately they mis-addressed it.  The way they sent it, there are five neighbors who could claim my identity if my mailman hadn’t figured it out. So much for security, but at least I didn’t have to compromise my SSN or my credit card. 

We’ll see when the local media finally picks up on this. I notice the Ch 12/24 news shamelessly cherry-picks the daily newspaper, using the same whole phrases from the newspaper stories. 

 

 

 

 

 

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