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Policy critics: Chico’s Climate Action Plan neglected

photo by Leslie Layton

The City’s updated Climate Action Plan.

Butte County, facing the Camp Fire, the Dixie Fire, the Park Fire and extreme heat, has been on the frontlines of climate change in recent years. But the City of Chico has not made policies reflecting the urgency of these crises, some say.

Chico’s Climate Action Commission’s role has over time been cut dramatically, and the plans staff put together over years to help plan for a future of climate change have not been properly implemented, say some Chico residents. In their view, a lack of planning for climate change is symptomatic of the City’s unwillingness to make climate change the focus of policy or even fund the work to do so. read more

Chico’s ordinances criminalize homelessness, critics say

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

Irked Zingg backed off $300,000 art donation

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

Hate crimes targeting LGBTQ people increase in California

Community organizations are relying heavily on partnerships with the Golden State’s government to aid LGBTQ people who face an increase in hate crimes across California.

There were 405 reported hate crimes motivated by sexual orientation bias (an increase of 3.6% from the previous year) in 2023, and 76 hate crime events motivated by anti-transgender bias (an increase of 7.04%). California’s attorney general Rob Bonta called those increased reports “alarming,” according to a report from Ethnic Media Services (EMS).

The state’s Department of Justice reports that despite the category increases cited above, there was a 7.1% decrease overall in hate crimes in 2023 from the previous year. read more

Chico moves to dissolve lawsuit settlement

The City of Chico announced today that it plans to dissolve the lawsuit settlement that for the past 18 months has restricted its ability to conduct eviction sweeps at homeless encampments. It says it will return to court.

The January 2022 Settlement Agreement produced by the Warren v. Chico lawsuit requires the City show it has shelter beds available before evicting unhoused people from public property. If the City prevails in a new round of litigation, it will once again be able to enforce anti-camping ordinances and conduct eviction sweeps freely.

In today’s press release from the City, it said the agreement should be replaced following the 6-3 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Grants Pass v. Johnson. The City said it’s proposing “a new agreement that would supersede the Warren Settlement Agreement …” read more

ChicoSol wins ‘Community Focus’ award

photo by Leslie Layton

A mom at a 2023 meeting of CUSD’s Board of Education.

posted July 15

ChicoSol has been awarded a first place in the prestigious Community Focus category in the statewide newspaper contest run by California News Publishers Association (CNPA).

The award, announced July 14, recognizes the stories last year by Natalie Hanson and Leslie Layton on the gender identity lawsuit that was filed against Chico Unified School District by a local mom.

ChicoSol competed for the first place with the Bay Area Reporter, the San Diego Union-Tribune, the Santa Barbara Independent and the San Francisco Chronicle, all of whom were named as finalists in May. A judge wrote that our coverage of the lawsuit produced a “strong series that shows how a community paper can be fair – and still expose bigotry and transphobia and offer the true facts.” read more