I received my primary ballot Monday, and I put it in the mail Tuesday. Among other important items, I put a solid NO on P and O.
O was easy – it’s an amendment to the General Plan. Here we’ve had letter writers in support of Valley’s Edge, mostly a realtor who plans to make a lot of money selling those houses, telling us that VE fits the General Plan. Why then would they need to amend the General Plan? Wake up and smell the bullshit People.
I don’t know if I need to, but let me lay out other simple reasons not to build in that swamp. There, “swamp” – that is what we call a “sufficient” reason, one good reason not to build housing – it’s a flood zone. I don’t know how much fill they were planning to use, but that area is a rain shed, it’s very moist, houses built there would be prone to intermittent flooding and MOLD every year. Those problems, like the mold problem at Chico Fire Station #5, would not start popping up until people had been living there for years. And then do what? Neither the developers nor the city would be legally responsible, and the owners, like the city, owner of Station #5, would just have to pay to fix it.
Traffic is already a sufficient reason – drive the Bruce Road corridor some weekday morning. My husband and I shop Winco on that end of town and it’s getting to be a regular daytrip. Take water, Frankly, if I have to spend my entire morning gathering food, I’d rather make a sharp left at Hwy 32 and head for Susanville – two big grocery stores in Susanville, prices, lower, no 1 cent sales tax on toilet paper. And compared to dealing with traffic and pot holes all morning, Reno is just a hop-skip-and a jump. Their Raley’s is huge, and I’ve never found a transient shooting up in the bathroom.
But what bugs me the most is that City of Chico does not take care of what we already have. We have square miles of city where there is no sewer service, no sidewalks, no drains, streets haven’t been maintained for years, and now they want to add new stuff? Again, in a swamp? I didn’t even get into fire risk. The proponents of this whole new part of town will never be responsible or liable for the mess they make, they will just walk away with the money. And the city will add PERMANENT NEW TAX BASE. Meanwhile, other parts of town will sink into the same condition as what we all affectionately refer to as The College Ghetto and Chapman Town.
Do you realize it costs over a quarter million a year to clean up bum shit and slop paint on graffitti Downtown? All assessed from Downtown business and property owners. According to the Downtown Business Improvement District Annual Report
Downtown merchants and property owners spent $394,462.64 on “cleaning and safety programs, economic vitality programs, communication and marketing programs, special projects, and administration/advocacy.”
Here’s an itemized list of what they actually spent the money on –
Abandoned Property Plcked Up
Bags ofTrash & Leaves
Garbage cans cleaned
Glass clean Up
Graff iti/Stickers Removed
Hazardous Waste Clean-up (human)
Hazardous Waste CIean-up (pet)
Seruice Call
Sharps Clean Up
shopping Carts
spill – clean Up
Street Furniture cleaned
In other words, the money goes to remediate problems caused by “street people”, including a $12,225 “administrative fee” to the city to run the program. This is a condition that has been created by Chico City Council. They have made Downtown and other parts of Chico a total shithole over the span of about five years – ever since they signed on to a scam known as a Shelter Crisis Designation. The first time they signed it they got over $4 million. Where that money went is your guess as good as mine. There has been no money since then, just a lawsuit that makes Chico PD look like the Keystone Cops. They even call it “whack-a-mole” in city reports. Now they plan to fizzle away another $24 million in Camp Fire disaster money – I know people in Paradise who are still waiting for their checks. I’d bet my last five dollars the city of Chico will fritter that disaster money away before my friends have rebuilt their destroyed lives.
They say they will do a total makeover of Downtown Chico, starting with sewers more than 100 years old. A new street design – gee, I can still remember the last one!
Frankly, I don’t think anybody on our current council is qualified to run a birthday party, much less a town. They’re for sale, every one of them. And to let them amend the General Plan every time a developer waves a hunsky at them, well, get ready for No Name City folks.
Again, solid NO on P and O.
Chico Taxpayers Association 