Letters: Screeds on Chico signage, Valley’s Edge veering and a long-due punishment for PG&E

A protest in Downtown Chico. Photo by Tina Flynn

Re: “Robot dogs and ‘F Newsom’ signage: The ever-stranger conversation about public safety in Chico” by Ken Magri (News) 

“The sign at Down Range shows a giant white letter ‘F’ on a black background next to an unflattering photograph of Governor Gavin Newsom. To the right of Newsom’s image is the Down Range logo, which includes a gun sight’s cross-hairs.”

This is an open invitation to kill him no matter how Down Range spins it. And Chico’s City Council members are all on board with this. Would another business be able to put up a sign with a gun logo pointed at a council member’s head? I am not advocating for this, as I do not believe in violence, but I would like an answer. But the council seems to indicate that a business does have that option.

-Suki Haseman

Re: “Analysis: Over a century later, California may need another revolt against its utility companies” by Loretta Lynch (Opinion)

No matter how we press for transparency, we never get it. What we get is greed – unmitigated greed. Additionally, we have no options. Why is this allowed? I thought monopolies of public utilities were not allowed. I guess if it’s PG&E, it’s Ok.

Rip us off all you want. Stop your silly commercials on TV and lower your damn rates.

-M. Markel

Re: “Analysis: Over a century later, California may need another revolt against its utility companies” by Loretta Lynch (Opinion)

I’m so fed up with PG&E taking advantage of California residents. If California Public Utility Commission won’t hold them accountable, then who holds the CPUC accountable? Why don’t we have public utilities?

Record-breaking profits makes my blood boil.

– Kathe Gardenias

Re: “If I Kneaded You” by Henri Bourride (Food, History and Arts & Culture ) 

I buy and eat a lot of locally made bread. My wife and I consider ourselves bread snobs. For several years we have enjoyed Camina’s sourdough offerings. But we have found a rustic whole wheat sourdough, produced artfully, by a local home baker. Each loaf is big, beautifully scored and has a lovely texture and flavor. The only way to find him is on Facebook Marketplace. He is Butte County Bread, and his listing says Rustic Wheat Sourdough. It’s a little tricky to find, but so worth it. $12-a-loaf; so, a bit more expensive than Camina but so, so good!

– Tim Dobbs

Re: “As rent spikes keep hammering Chico tenants and students, Ash Kalra looks to take on the corporate landlord complex” by Ken Magri (News)

This problem is one where all involved have to make adjustments – learn new methods— and more. We need education directed towards: Landlords, tenants, student tenants, elder tenants and families. We need to all hear, and we all need to be taught the same thing. If you do yearly basic repairs, and then the other repairs when you’re supposed to, you should not have a bit bite out of the ‘budget’. How about the landlords work with the engineering and contractors’ school to have ‘hands on’ help at less cost for repairs? We don’t need a 10% rise in rent, yearly. There is no cost-of-living raise, yearly. We have had a huge over-build for people who make $125,000-plus a year. There have not been homes built for those who can afford them. It’s been shown that most Chico homeowners’ highest home purchase is $250,000. That’s the high. So, let’s sit down and tackle this from all perspectives. Let’s bring in a better understanding of the positions.

– Liz Daniels-Currey

Re: “As rent spikes keep hammering Chico tenants and students, Ash Kalra looks to take on the corporate landlord complex” by Ken Magri (News)

Pigs and greedy landlords and slumlords are – pigs. Period. They know it, too.

Tents and housing are essential.

One-way ticket for these slum-bag [landlords] – to hell.

– Shawn D Wright

Re: “Chico is ordered to continue helping the unhoused” by Ken Magri (News)

Reading how the pallet shelter has never posted a ‘no vacancy sign’ is not surprising. I couldn’t find the original news story, but the rules to live there were strict. I remember there was no alcohol, drugs or being human allowed.

Drugs, I can understand (sort of maybe), but if I’m homeless and I like a beer or a glass of wine with my meal, it doesn’t make me an alcoholic. And even if I were, what business would it be of the pallet shelter manager or anyone who makes the rules? Give people a break. I’ve been homeless. It’s awful. Or, at the very least, no fun. The community built the pallet shelter to help people escape the rain, cold, and blast-furnace heat of summer. If the manager can’t find tenets, throw the bum out. And while the community is at it, put out an “Under New Management” sign.

– C DeForest Switzer

Re: “Truth in Sentencing” from the CN&R Weekly newsletter by Scott Thomas Anderson (Opinion)

I find it ironic the Editor questions the lack of transparency regarding the credits for releasing and sentencing of suspected criminals. The public is unaware of the potential caprice given to district attorneys. The media should be the watchdog for the public, exposing abuses and educating the reader. The media, especially in rural counties, is failing. The power accorded to the 58 elected district attorneys to have – over forty million residents of California – is absolute, unquestioned and unilateral, with no checks and balances. The California District Attorneys Association represents this small but powerful cabal of politicians who can choose, at their discretion, whether a person can be charged with a misdemeanor, felony, or nothing – with no accountability. It is time for term limits for district attorneys. The public needs to know of the insular, non-transparency, and resistance to change that infects district attorneys.

-Scott Rushing

Re: “Chico targeted in mail theft spree up and down the valley” by Ken Magri (News)

I thought mail theft was a federal crime. How are local police and the post office coordinating with a federal agency? My neighbor witnessed a bike rider going down the street, checking all the residential boxes; and piles of dumped mail have been reported to police. And what are they doing?

– Lesley Beadle

Re: “In a changing world, BaT Comics keeps the doorways of escapism open and intriguing for Chico” by Odin Rasco (Arts & Culture)

One of the major missing links to being a nerd is comic-con, which has even popped up here – and in Oroville.

When I was growing up, the comic conventions in Chico were a bunch of collectors with all sorts of comic books for sale. Now, there’s speakers and artists and people dressed up in different costumes. It’s a site to behold.

– James Henson

Re: “Chico grapples with an eleven-year sentence for torching History” by Ken Magri (News)

Considering the attitude towards Native Americans in the mid-1800s, the Bidwells were quite progressive for their time. In the 1860s, when there was a movement to expel Rancho Chico Indians to Round Valley, Mr. Bidwell stood in front of a torch-lit mob to protect the Mechoopda on Rancho Chico. When John Bidwell was in Congress, he proposed a bill that would make Round Valley a larger reservation by acquiring all of Round Valley, not just a portion as it is today. In the early 1900s, Annie Bidwell founded a women’s group that convinced President Theodore Roosevelt to provide land for homeless Indians, thus beginning the rancherias that exist throughout California.

California has a lot of soul searching to do regarding the treatment of the state’s aboriginal people, but to destroy the home of the pioneers who exemplify the best treatment afforded Indians, should be a wake-up call to those who advocate historical reckoning.

– Daniel Barth

Re: “Chico grapples with an eleven-year sentence for torching History” by Ken Magri (News)

Yes. Context please. While Chico residents of European ancestry might feel a way, that is not the only way that folks may feel about the dominant white historical narrative. The prison sentence is what it is. Law is applied unequally all the time. I don’t feel the need to punish this person, whose anguish over inequity is a logical response to inequity. His actions are less logical, but understandable.

– J. Murphy

Re: “Valley’s Edge developers claim damages against Chico” by Ken Magir (News)

At a minimum, any new development should be required to improve the existing infrastructure, such as our terrible roads, which have the pot holes of a third-world country. The new development and its populace must pony-up the cash to make these improvements prior to allowing them to do further damage without mitigation. If these requirements are not in a legal requirement, they can be accepted and then ignored.

– William N Lyman

Re: “Valley’s Edge developers claim damages against Chico” by Ken Magri (News)

A project this size should have been brought before the voters before any agreement was made. It’s kind of like putting the cart before the horse. While I can understand the developers’ points of business, the people of Chico spoke very loudly during the elections.

To allow the developer to ‘bully’ Chico, by threatening legal proceedings, would negate the will of the people. Businesses make money and business lose money. It is not a guarantee.

– Doug Thommen

Re: “Can Bidwell Mansion in Chico be rebuilt?” by Ken Magri (News)

I went to school there in the late 1960s. I have a special place in my heart for the building. I think a rebuild, and a return of the mansion, would be a symbol again of times past; and its usage could be used for educational and fund-raising events to raise money, with possibly an auxiliary building for the events.

Having an active web site would extend interest way beyond Chico.

– Robert Astafuroff

2 Comments

  1. Re Robert’s letter advocating rebuild of Bidwell Mansion: Nice that you/he has fond memories of classes there as a child, but to rebuild an old mansion and treat it like the original is ridiculous. It’s gone, burnt to a crisp. The town and state park is fortunate that most of the historic contents of the mansion were in storage due to major renovations happening there when the fire occurred. Certainly a better building than exists at that site should be constructed and serve as a second Chico History Museum focused on the Bidwells and their era.
    But let’s be clear about the importance of that location as a possible transportation hub for Chico, located between downtown, the college, the high school and the junior high school. If buses stopped there, more high school and Jr. high school students could be induced (with discount monthly bus passes) to use public transportation to get to school. We could also have a transportation-themed museum wing on site covering the logistics of transportation in the north state since the mid-1800s, an interesting field. Don’t Rebuild a Faux Mansion!

    • I don’t understand Nelson’s comment! He says that “The town and state park is fortunate that most of the historic contents of the mansion were in storage due to major renovations happening there when the fire occurred”, but that’s not what any news reports have said.

      If most of the contents were in fact “in storage”, then we’ve all been misled about all this.

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