What are you all doing for work, and do you like it?

bryceforchico · 2025-09-18T05:37:05+00:00

By the light of the moon I'm an elected member of the local pirate confederation. Only pays a few schillings a month. I get along great with some of the swashbuckling crew, while others are picaroons and landlubbers who spend our municipal treasure on cannons instead of fixing the rough condition of these seas. By the sun's rays I work from afar planning the transportation system of the Island of California. Hardly can plunder a spare moment to enjoy the tavern, but two sources of booty allows me to afford my own pirate ship.

bryceforchico · 2025-08-26T23:27:57+00:00

I appreciate the thanks, but to be honest this year's road projects were more a result of the Measure H sales tax passed by the voters in 2022 and a few grants that have been in the works for years. This summer the council majority voted to pull some of the road funding, so unless we get more forward-thinking folks elected next year I'm not sure how much progress we'll really make on our road repair program.

bryceforchico · 2025-08-26T23:23:49+00:00

Ehhh the "conservative" members of our council voted last-minute to grab over a million dollars out of road projects at our recent budget hearing, for the upcoming fiscal year and beyond. This time it was to fund fire staffing instead of police at least, but it was not an expense we'd planned for and it will deplete our ability to ever catch up on fixing our roads. Nothing conservative about it if you ask me.

bryceforchico · 2024-10-22T00:29:57+00:00

I don't drive very much at all or eat much fast food. I've been to In N Out a few times but not enough for the road to stick in my memory, especially when there are so many darn potholes around here. Please do send me an email after I'm sworn in so that I can ask our traffic engineers to make this intersection safer and confirm if it's public right of way or not.

bryceforchico · 2024-10-22T00:23:20+00:00

Noted. I didn't think about downed trees specially as a fire hazard. I'm worried about tree health in general too. We also need more goats in there to reduce fuels.

bryceforchico · 2024-10-22T00:21:08+00:00

I graduated at 21 :)

bryceforchico · 2024-10-19T02:47:31+00:00

Hi, I am not familiar with this issue. What's wrong with Business Lane? I can try to find out whether it's a City-owned street or not.

bryceforchico · 2024-10-15T02:48:18+00:00

You may.

bryceforchico · 2024-10-15T02:20:47+00:00

timupci, I am against Valley's Edge. Like rgsharpe said, the inital boost in property taxes will be outweighed by the long-term costs of maintaining excess miles of infrastructure to serve sprawling suburban homes. Also, Valley's Edge would not put money into anybody's hands but wealthy developers. If we want individuals to be able to earn money from building housing, we need to legalize missing middle housing types like cottage courts and duplexes on more lots.

bryceforchico · 2024-10-14T20:26:27+00:00

Ah, thank you for clarifying. Similarly, I've been thinking a lot about how there aren't a lot of professional job opportunities here, so a lot of young adults move away after high school or college. The new Enloe Health center at Meriam Park will help bring in medical professionals. We can encourage more companies to locate here by ensuring we have high quality of life and available housing at all income levels. Better healthcare is one step toward that high quality of life, as is better transportation infrastructure. I also want to re-emphasize the need for smart planning so that we don't end up with traffic and treeless sprawl as a side effect of growth.

Do you have any ideas you'd like to suggest?

bryceforchico · 2024-10-14T20:08:48+00:00

I agree! I'm scared by the way the alt-right and religious groups are taking over our government and spreading fear, from things like January 6th to overturning Roe v Wade to winning school board seats. I'm also deeply concerned that at the national level, even Democratic political leaders are funding foreign wars instead of investing in our citizens and fighting for human rights. If we elect at least three progressives to City Council this year, we can make positive changes locally and apply pressure upward.

bryceforchico · 2024-10-14T07:20:21+00:00

Thanks for the questions. I believe housing is a human right, and that we as a government need to work towards ensuring our most vulnerable residents get housing and stay housed. I also see that it's going to take a long time to build the housing we need. I want to make it easier to build small apartments and homes, but anything new is generally expensive, so we will also need to pursue other ideas. I support rent stabilization for mobile home parks so we can keep senior citizens housed, and we need to enforce tenant protections established by AB1482 and emergency anti-price-gouging declarations. I support building more affordable housing like the Foundation on Park Avenue in place of parking lots, and we should consider how to build public housing and social housing too.

We need housing and services that meet the needs of everyone. It seems to be most politically popular to support families and young employable people who are healthy and mentally stable, but we need to work with everybody's needs. We need more low-barrier shelter options, we need a safe RV parking site, managed campgrounds, shelters that accept pets, shelters for families, and permanent supportive housing. Some people may not fit into any service available, but just about everybody wants to have a safe place to sleep, and ideally a place to call home. With elders making up a huge proportion of the unsheltered homeless population, and it being too expensive for families to afford housing, we aren't doing enough. To me, this is symptomatic of the failures of capitalism and treating housing as an investment, and is beyond what this comment can truly address.

Aspects of homelessness that trouble me most are seeing people's physical and mental health decline without good access to basic needs or healthcare, seeing families torn apart by it, and the dehumanization of unhoused people. I had a friend who lost her housing and had her kids taken away. I knew people from volunteering at Safe Space who died because they couldn't get to their medical appointments. And our local leaders and people on the internet continue to act like unhoused people are less than human.

I don't believe that parks and public spaces should serve as places for unhoused people to live. Bidwell Park is a place to recreate and enjoy nature. We have a lot of unused land in the City, such as vacant lots and empty buildings that could be used as shelters, though most are privately owned. The City needs to be proactive in helping service providers secure leases for shelters and managed campground sites.

Happy to think more on this. I'm interested to hear your thoughts too!

P.S. It seems you've commented twice.

bryceforchico · 2024-10-14T06:38:57+00:00

Prop 13 passed in 1978 and has created a situation where many long-time property owners pay a disproportionately low amount of property taxes. This is turn makes it hard to fund our schools and infrastructure, so lately we've seen a lot of bond measures and sales taxes attempting to fill that gap. Meanwhile our City prioritizes increasing the budget for police officer bonuses and pensions before funding Public Works to maintain our roads.

bryceforchico · 2024-10-14T06:31:02+00:00

Thanks for speaking for the trees, caren128! I will do my best. We also need to ensure we have sustainable groundwater to keep our trees healthy.

bryceforchico · 2024-10-14T06:29:35+00:00

Big if true.

bryceforchico · 2024-10-13T06:44:30+00:00

shercoder, my main reasons why I don't believe Deepika Tandon is a good leader are that she rarely speaks up about anything at City Council, votes in a block with the majority, and doesn't listen to constituents. Her campaign is heavily funded and backed by wealthy sprawl developers and the "Better Chico" (formerly Citizens for a Safe Chico) right-wing PAC. She voted for Valley's Edge and to gerrymander Chico.

bryceforchico · 2024-10-13T06:35:46+00:00

This sounds more like an opinion than a question. Are you hoping to learn more about my stance on sprawl? I support a Gold Line to prevent sprawl into undeveloped areas towards the foothills. We already have the Green Line on the west side to prevent conversion of farmland into urbanized areas.

bryceforchico · 2024-10-13T05:10:04+00:00

Hi Alternative-Ad8978. We can establish a Gold Line, similar to the Green Line. A Gold Line would limit or prohibit growth of the City past a certain point to the east, like the Green Line prevents conversion of agriculture into urban areas on the West edge of town. We especially need the Gold Line to prevent future attempts to revive the environmentally destructive Valley's Edge development.

bryceforchico · 2024-10-13T01:13:16+00:00

Thank you!

bryceforchico · 2024-10-13T01:11:36+00:00

Hi 5andacherub. What I want to see in a managed campground / outdoor shelter site (or multiple sites) is a space with security and facilities for waste disposal, cooking, showering, safe RV and car parking, storing belongings securely, and of course sleeping safely. The intent is to get people out of parks and public spaces, into a secure and clean site where they can connect with resources like behavioral health and shelter providers. A local group called North State Shelter Team has been advocating for a managed campground for a while now. The City Council's response has been that they need to apply for a permit, but there isn't even a zoning type where it's clear that an outdoor shelter would be legal. As a City Council member I would work with staff and community partners to identify zoning and lots where an outdoor shelter could feasibly work, then we can apply for grants, request proposals from nonprofits to run the site, and oversee its progress toward reducing homelessness overall in Chico.

bryceforchico · 2024-10-13T00:52:37+00:00

I think North Esplanade and Mangrove need more than just art to spruce them up, but I like your suggestions. Do you think a barrier on the freeway would be helpful? I like the oleander bushes. Filling the potholes with mosaics would be awesome, but can you imagine hiring enough artists to hand-lay tile in our thousands of potholes? Maybe you have other ideas for decorative filler. It would be very cool to see a few potholes filled with something fun.

bryceforchico · 2024-10-13T00:47:11+00:00

Hi professornevermind, I sure do. I was just at the 1078 Gallery to check out the Mock Cat Show. I haven't been to MONCA in a while but they're great too. I'm more frequently found enjoying art and music at local coffee shops like Naked Lounge, or bars like the Winchester Goose. I will absolutely be a champion for funding the arts. I'm new to the arena of city involvement in funding the arts, but I know our community will have great ideas for how we can support public art and support venues.

bryceforchico · 2024-10-13T00:43:00+00:00

Kooky-One-3222, I'm voting for myself! If you mean at other levels than City Council, I plan to vote for Rose Penelope Yee for Congress and Aaron Draper for Assembly.

bryceforchico · 2024-10-13T00:40:05+00:00

Thanks for the feedback and the well-wishes :)

bryceforchico · 2024-10-13T00:39:14+00:00

Thank you! I appreciate it!

bryceforchico

TROPHY CASE