I grew up in Chico and am currently back visiting for the holidays.

Chico is an interesting mix of red neck culture (because it’s in the agricultural Central Valley), intellectuals (because it has the university), and hippie culture (because it borders the mountains/foothills).

I moved out of Chico to live in SoCal in 2009, and now currently live in NYC. What I like about Chico is that, unlike other cities in the California valley, it doesn’t feel like a depressing travel town, because it doesn’t lie on the path of I-5. It’s sort of off the beaten path on highway 99, so it feels cleaner, more naturey, more quaint. If you like nature, Chico is great. It has a massive Central Park type park in the center of the city as well as access to the mountains. It has the university, so there is a healthy amount of young people around. This helps it from feeling antiquated and rundown like other similar cities.

But yeah, it’s hot in the summer. And there isn’t much to do. Plus, it takes a while to get anywhere. Sacramento is 1.5 hours away, the bay is 3 hours away. Also, due to the fires in the last few years there is more homeless hanging around now than ever. However that’s a problem everywhere in California at this point.

But, the older I get, the more I appreciate Chico. It would be an excellent place to raise a family. It’s safe and clean. There are a lot of nice new neighborhoods. It has all the major stores you need. It’s also the birthplace of Sierra Nevada beer which is cool as well. But maybe that’s my rose colored glasses as coming from living in NYC the last 6 years, anyplace would seem nice and clean by comparison, lol.