Back to court: City wants relief from Settlement Agreement

Chico leaders reject plaintiffs' proposed revisions
by Leslie Layton | Posted August 8, 2024

photo by Dave Waddell

The City of Chico plans to file a court motion next week asking for “relief” from the Warren v. Chico Settlement Agreement, an effort to give City leaders the latitude they seek to enforce anti-camping ordinances, conduct evictions and generally address homelessness.

As negotiations between the City and Legal Services of Northern California (LSNC) came to a crashing halt, the City today issued a press release that says “… with regard to the Warren Settlement Agreement itself, the City expects to file a motion to seek judicial relief” next week.

LSNC represents the homeless plaintiffs in the Warren lawsuit that was filed against this City in 2020. read more

Chico’s ordinances criminalize homelessness, critics say

Winslow: "This is a formula for fire and trash"
by Natalie Hanson | Posted August 8, 2024

photo by Karen Laslo
Chico’s ordinances have long been used to carry out eviction sweeps, like this one at Bidwell Park.

Civil rights advocates have often accused the City of Chico of creating a “web of ordinances” that target unhoused people.

These advocates say the enforcement of anti-camping ordinances restrict the actions of homeless people by threatening fines, misdemeanor charges or jail time. Unhoused people in Chico have few options for where they may sit or sleep during the day or night or where they may place their property. They may face citations for violations, including for having a vehicle in which they sleep or for pushing a cart of belongings.

Chico was one of several cities that created a web of ordinances in the early 2010s that effectively criminalize homelessness, the ACLU said. In 2021, the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California said the number of ordinances and how Chico officials were wielding them against unhoused people helped fuel “dehumanizing” attitudes. read more

Plaintiffs respond to City as it tries to extricate itself from Warren

Councilmember Winslow calls for more transparency
by Leslie Layton | Posted August 7, 2024

photo by Manuel Ortiz, EMS
A resident of the Alternate Site, which the City was required to set up under the Settlement Agreement.

The legal aid agency representing plaintiffs in the Warren v. Chico lawsuit has indicated it will re-negotiate the Settlement Agreement that dictates how the City must approach homelessness.

But Legal Services of Northern California (LSNC) does not seem ready to give up one requirement: That the City show there are shelter beds available prior to evicting the unhoused from public spaces.

The City Council has discussed re-negotiations in closed sessions that were held July 9 and 16 and Aug. 6, releasing information when and as it chooses. The LSNC response letter was released today by dissenting Councilmember Addison Winslow, who noted that it’s a public document that may soon be released by the City. read more

Irked Zingg backed off $300,000 art donation

Former Chico State president wanted name removed from campus Recital Hall
by Dave Waddell | Posted July 31, 2024

photo courtesy of Natasha Doron/The Orion
Inside Chico State’s recital hall when, in 2017, feminist activist Gloria Steinem spoke.

After Chico State’s spanking new recital hall was christened in 2016, it came as a shock to some faculty that it was named for retiring university President Paul Zingg and his wife.

But today, what was once the Paul and Yasuko Zingg Recital Hall goes by the stripped-down name of Recital Hall.

Why did the university quietly remove the name of its former president?

The short of it is that Paul Zingg, in 2021, feeling ignored by the university he long led and disrespected by his successor, came to want it that way. He also wanted back the art collection, appraised at more than $300,000, that he had gifted to Chico State’s Janet Turner Print Museum as part of the naming deal. read more

How the Park Fire became the largest active wildfire

Changing climate produces night-stalking wildfires
by Leslie Layton | Posted July 29, 2024

photo by Leslie Layton
Sergio Arellano and Jahaira Zaragoza, representing Cal Fire’s public information office, explain the fire map at the agency’s Chico command center.

By 11:30 p.m. on July 24 – the day that some Chicoans heard that a fire had started near Upper Park’s Alligator Hole, an area that hadn’t burned in a very long time – the blaze had devoured 6,465 acres.

The next morning, Cal Fire reported that by 6:46 a.m. the scorching-hot fire, driven by south winds, covered 45,550 acres. The fire had moved at a speed so stunning that while most Chico-area residents slept, it had covered on average almost 6,000 acres an hour.

The Park Fire is one of the fastest-moving — perhaps the fastest — of the so-called catastrophic fires that have occurred in Northern California in recent years. But speed isn’t the only characteristic it shares with megafires. Like other explosive wildfires, it doesn’t sleep. read more

Park Fire rages; thousands evacuate

Vice mayor: Evacuation planning for homeless encampment underway
by Leslie Layton | Posted July 25, 2024

photo by Karen Laslo
The Park Fire

12:30 p.m. update July 26: Cal Fire says the Park Fire has burned 178,000 acres and 134 structures. Evacuation orders have been expanded and can be checked here.

by Leslie Layton
posted July 25

The Park Fire in Upper Bidwell Park east of Chico city limits reached almost 71,500 acres by midday today with only 3% containment.

It continues to be hot and windy, thousands of people are under evacuation order or warning and air quality for most city residents has slid from good to moderate.

Vice Mayor Kasey Reynolds said today that she confirmed, at 1 a.m. this morning, that the Butte County Association of Governments (BCAG) has buses on standby if the residents of the Alternate Site homeless encampment at Eaton and Cohasset roads have to be evacuated. read more