The City has been halted from evicting nearly 40 people living unhoused at the encampment it opened in north Chico until it can create two new additional campsites.
The City announced plans to open the sites quickly following a Feb. 22 meeting with Magistrate Judge Kendall Newman regarding terms of the settlement agreement in the lawsuit filed by Legal Services of Northern California (LSNC).read more
Sign-carrying demonstrators who braved Wednesday evening’s freezing winds near City Hall to protest Chico police violence came in a wide range of ages.
They included Jeremiah Lozada, age 5, whose sign demanded justice for his uncle, Eddie “Gabe” Sanchez, who was killed before Jeremiah was born. Chico police Detective Mark Bass , now a sergeant, shot the fleeing Sanchez in 2015.read more
Kathryn Robinson never expected that when she contracted COVID-19 in 2021, she would face life-altering symptoms for more than 15 months.
The Chico resident was fully vaccinated when she experienced a mild case of the Delta variant in August 2021. Three days into her symptoms, Robinson lost all sense of taste and smell. Like many COVID patients, she did not get those senses back for several months.read more
by Peter Schurmann, Ethnic Media Services posted Feb. 7
The Eaton-Cohasset homeless encampment sits on Chico’s northern edge, a motley assortment of weathered tents, a couple of dumpsters and a port-o-potty that juts up from the muddy gravel.
With hate crimes targeting racial, religious, and sexual minorities on the rise nationwide, residents here say they’re being targeted for another reason: because they’re homeless.read more
by Leslie Layton posted Feb. 4 Part II in a two-part series
Thirty-five years ago, a small, progressive coalition stopped development in the lower foothills adjacent to Upper Bidwell Park with the rallying cry, “No way San Jose.”
That area has been protected under the name of Bidwell Ranch since the 1988 referendum that stopped the project. Voters in favor of stopping the Rancho Arroyo project wanted to protect northwest Chico -– not so much from inevitable population growth -– but from the kind of suburban sprawl that had come to be associated with California cities like San Jose and Fresno.read more
by Natalie Hanson posted Feb. 2 Part I in a two-part series on a project that may take more than 20 years to build out
Chico is known to be severely lacking housing most residents can reasonably afford -– and yet an ambitious project the city has approved to develop housing near the foothills has garnered significant pushback.
On Jan. 3, Chico’s City Council greenlit the Valley’s Edge project. Today, national and regional environmental organizations filed a lawsuit to stop Valley’s Edge, alleging that the environmental impact report is out of compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act. The coalition that filed suit, including AquAlliance, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Sierra Club, issued a statement saying they were suing the City of Chico and Chico Land Investments LLC “for approving a development … without properly assessing or mitigating wildfire and other environmental risks.”read more