Guest comment: On Covid, local politics and homelessness …

It has been a while since I last shared my thoughts within this space. It is not that I am reluctant to speak out. Rather, back in July, I was struck down by a very nasty and near fatal sepsis attack. Later, I also acquired COVID-19. Not fun days for a 78-year-old man.

I am not really in a mood for my usual social commentary rhetoric. So, I will turn to an old journalistic cop-out: three dot journalism, as the late columnist Herb Caen called it.

Is it just me or are others equally tired of hearing lead news stories about the coronavirus? I just go right for the mute button. How many different times and how many different ways can you say COVID-19 kills? …

Chico local politics have always been hard to understand. We had the conservative era, the liberal flip flop, and now we are back to at least four more conservative years. Only the truly unaware can fail to recognize the mission of this cycle’s leaders. Remove every homeless person from within the city limits. NIMBYism at its finest.

The only way to find a fair and equitable and humane solution is to take the city of Chico out of the equation. The homeless must be relocated elsewhere within Butte County. That process must begin at the supervisors’ level and must represent the best and most welcome leadership that can be found.

For me, tent cities are the answer for a temporary fix and small single living units the next step beyond that. There is vacant property in the area. Use it.

No tent city survives without order and support. The failure of the current homeless population lies in both extensive substance abuse and a total disregard for the law and common decency…

I still live in the Chapman neighborhood. We are now part of the city, an annexation I truly fought. And the Chico Scrap Metal yard is still the neighborhood scourge.

Born six months after Pearl Harbor was attacked, Ronald Angle began writing for newspapers in 1958. He and his family moved to Chico from Southern California in 1980.

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