Ken Smith, Author at Chico News & Review • Page 6 of 8

Closed to the public

A select group of Chico City Council members, Butte County supervisors and city and county staff have been meeting behind closed doors to discuss homeless issues for the past three months. While such collaboration could […]

More protests at chambers

Two distinctly different protests took place outside of the Chico City Council chambers Tuesday (March 16), where about 100 people gathered to support the city’s unhoused population, and a much smaller group demanded the council […]

Arresting developments

As Chico police officers and city staff readied to evict homeless campers from The Triangle on Feb. 4, City Councilman Scott Huber said he couldn’t just stand by and watch as people’s belongings were bulldozed. […]

Homeless advocate arrested

A protester was arrested outside the Chico City Council Chambers last night (March 2), just minutes before the council’s meeting was scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. Robert Van Fleet, 74, was taken into custody […]

‘In memory of’

A half-dozen artists and activists gathered at The Triangle Saturday (Feb. 20) morning to install a temporary tribute to members of the homeless community who’ve died in recent years. The signs were up by 9 […]

Death by homelessness

In recent weeks, a wedge-shaped traffic median between Pine and Cypress Streets—known as The Triangle—became the latest battleground in the community-dividing conflict over how Chico should address homelessness issues. On Feb. 4, city workers and […]

Shelters and the city

During its Feb. 2 meeting, the Chico City Council boosted the continued efforts of the Chico Housing Action Team (CHAT) to provide shelter for unhoused individuals. The council approved $282,933 of Community Development Block Grant […]

High Noon at The Triangle

Despite the fact that no new local shelter options have manifested, Chico Police and city staff mobilized en masse yesterday (Feb. 4) to once again break up one of the city’s homeless encampments, this time […]

Police shooting ‘justified’

Nearly three months to the day after Stephen Vest was shot dead outside of the Chico Petco store, Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey announced his decision that two Chico Police Department (CPD) officers were […]

Shooting declared justified

Chico Police officers were justified in the Oct. 14 shooting of Steven Vest in the parking lot of Chico’s Petco store, according to Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey. Ramsey released that declaration—and the findings […]

Sweeps begin

After weeks of uncertainty and months of heated public debate, the city of Chico made good on pledges to step up enforcement against homeless campers Tuesday morning (Jan. 12), as dozens of city workers and […]

Shelter on horizon?

The Chico City Council made a surprise move toward establishing temporary shelter for the homeless and an unsurprising move to ban sterile syringe programs at its Tuesday (Jan. 5) meeting. Near the beginning of the […]

Looming uncertainty

Richie Graves has been worrying a lot lately. He’s worried that, at any moment, Chico police officers or park rangers might appear and evict him and others from the encampment near One-Mile Recreation Area where […]

Council fast-tracks new direction

The new conservative-heavy Chico City Council marched forward with its public safety-centric agenda at its second meeting Tuesday (Dec. 15), unfreezing a citywide hiring hold exclusively for the Chico Police Department and advancing a plan […]

‘A force of love’

Casey Doran, a dedicated volunteer and advocate for the local homeless community, died Dec. 4 after a long battle with cancer, Safe Space Winter Shelter announced via social media. Doran, 67, was a shelter operations […]

Chico News & Review

Articles by Ken Smith