by Jack
In 2013 (and with a good deal fan fair) Chico launched the “Roving Ambassador” program for a Clean and Safe Chico!
It 2was intended that teams of well trained volunteers would roam the downtown and reach out to our ever growing homeless population to curb their bad behavior. They would offer
advice and counseling when they could, but other times the best they could offer might be directions to the nearest shelter for hot meals and a bed. It all depended on the attitude of the people they engaged.
The Ambassadors would try to direct the homeless to many free services, such as mental health counseling for their addiction problems and/or mental illness or free medical. They would also be there to counsel the homeless about various ordinances they should know, and this means things they really shouldn’t do in Chico!
Yes, the Ambassadors would talk about many things, and that included things that might make their (homeless) presence unwelcome or possibly harm business in the downtown area like avoid sleeping on sidewalks or leaving heaps of trash behind in illegal campsites.
I think [not] washing your dirty clothes or your feet in the fountain at City Hall was somewhere on that do-not-do list while visiting Chico. Remember this picture on the left?
As I recall at that time there were quite a few people saying this effort was just a big waste of time. And I admit I was one of the nay-sayers. Now lets fast forward to 2015 and see how we did!
But, first lets remember since that earlier time, we’ve elected a new council-person, Tami Ritter. She ran her campaign in part on dealing with our homeless situation. We had kind of a head start here, because we retained two other progressives on the council, Ann Schwab and Randall Stone. Maybe I should mention we had a change in our Chief of Police? He lasted a couple of years and gave up retired.
How are things going for 2015? Please take a look at some of my covert pictures and my comments, then judge for yourself.
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We start at the Valombrosa Post Office across from Bidwell Park. I found a bum homeless encampment next to the parking lot. Holy cow, this right in public view. Its a narrow strip of dirt that backs 
up to an office complex on one side with the post office parking lot on the other side and to the east.
At night the postal vehicles park at the curb and this forms a long barrier that encloses this area from prying eyes and this is how one can camp right in an open business area and still not be seen. It’s close to shoplifting at Safeway, Rite Aid and McDonalds for free Wi-Fi. Clever, eh?
Let me go back a tad, we actually found this camp for the first time several hours earlier when I went to the post officer to mail a package. I noted what appeared to be two fairly expensive mountain bike frames lying in this dirt area. One was red and the other was silver. A number of bike wheels with other misc. parts were strewn about. But, unfortunately when I came back with my camera all I found was this cardboard sleeping 
area and the litter you see, the bike parts were long gone.
However, while I was at the post office I saw a homeless female dragging around a bunch bike parks on a bike trailer…she was cussing a blue streak because her right wheel kept locking up against the parts. See the thumbnail pic above on right (double click to see enlargements). So, she is making a bee line for another group of bums homeless who just happened to have a collection mountain bikes and parts too.
I’ve noticed this group in this same area before. They like to hangout behind the CARD center near a bench that is adjacent to the creek. They are there most any 
day, all day long, with some coming and going and always carrying bike parts… they must really like bikes and parts.
I have an idea for later, if this is a location next to the postal parking lot is where they part out bikes, maybe I should go back tonight and see who’s there? (Shsssh… don’t tell anyone. I want it to be a surprise.)
Next, the infamous downtown Plaza Park! This was once (2014) a notorious hangout for bums and the center of a lot of petty crime. Lets see how it’s doing now, shall we? Hmmm.. I found a guy sacked out on the lawn, well, make that I think he is sleeping, he could be dead. He never moved the whole time we were there. Neither did the guy sleeping in front of the street car in the Plaza Park… both out like a light and not moving.
I guess these two sleeping beauties didn’t get the memo from the City Council about the Sleep and Lie ordinance and no camping in the downtown either. 
The Plaza Park hanger-outers didn’t look much different than the homeless characters from last year. Oh, a few different faces, but the same general look of the well traveled person freshly arrived in Chico, as evidenced by all the luggage they pack. They are almost always loaded up with camping gear, and they are almost always under 30 and mostly white, but now I’m stereotyping, so lets not go there, just look at the pictures and let them do the stereotyping!
One corner of the downtown park (S/E) was really congested with bums homeless just hanging out as always. This was the corner across from Has Beans coffee shop on Main. By the looks of things, not much has changed. The bums homeless are still hanging out in large numbers, maybe even in greater numbers because across the street, at the Council Chambers where we just renovated the fountain was another bunch.
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And here’s where it gets really entertaining. We had this big flap last year about homeless doing their washing in the Council’s fountain and guess what I found? Look closely at the guy next to the fountain on the left. His pants are rolled up and he’s got bare feet…clean too, he just finished washing them in the fountain. Maybe council doesn’t mind the new arrivals washing up in the fountain?
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Next, we proceeded to an area near Annies Glenn and peered through the bushes at our guys on the other side of the creek. This is behind CARD. Here’s a close up telephoto shot of the characters with the bikes and bike parts. I can’t really say they are doing anything wrong. For that, I would need to be a police officer to run the serial numbers on their bikes and parts for that. Yes, I’m actually shooting these pictures through a bush, you can see some twigs and leaves in the picture. (This was fun)
So my conclusion was, not much has changed since last year or the year before. Perhaps its even gotten worse? The crime is worse…that much is easy to prove. And I know the City has been hauling away tons of trash from illegal campsites already this year and that’s never a good sign.
Wonder what our homeless expert, Councilperson Tami Ritter has to say now? What did she do to fix this problem, because it looks to me its as bad as ever. When she was
running for office she said she had the answers… did she make an impossible campaign promise? I sure hope not, because what if that sort of thing caught on? Why the next thing you know we might have all kinds of candidates making promises they never intended to keep or couldn’t if they wanted too!
This is the results of not addressing the BUM problem. Expect to have our city hauling away tons of trash in 2015!
Just imagine what the city would send to a residence if it looked to be in that condition.
As to the tons of trash we annually clean up, maybe we should start smaller ,lets say remove about 150 lbs (on average)at a time and rid the steams and parks and public places of those litterers first.
Anyone thought about citations, wait that would require additional officers on the street, and less funds for say the arts, or pot hole riddled streets for the City of Trees and ‘what bum-leaves behind’.
Maybe required community service, each patron of bums
could be paired up, lets put one patron and bum say cleaning up after their brethren, wonder how long the patron would last, like possibly Tami Ritter, she must have the time, as she doesn’t seem to busy finding ways to keep her promises to resolve this growing problem.
Great pictures, you could add the new sign in the PO annex on Vallembrosia next to the park about “the need to lock the doors at night”, why because it became dangerous to residents stumbling around the sleeping bums inside the building.
I continue to be amazed (not really) that the left has so much compassion for those among the bums, panhandlers, and homeless that have simply chosen poorly at every turn to become satisfied people who feed off the rest of society. They show absolutely zero concern for what it says about the condition of our society…the downward spiraling social values, morals, institutions, and expectations! There is zero concern also for what this will mean for their own children as they take their places in the work force to slave for capable lazy bums and the bureaucratic government that feeds them. Don’t they want better for their kids…for all kids?
I’m an American. To me that means I am free to pursue happiness as I please but it does not mean I have the right to sponge off my fellow Americans. There are responsibilities that come with living in freedom…providing for oneself and ones family is one of them.
Too many of us today enable these people, thinking we’re being compassionate and caring. Isn’t that an act of self-satisfaction more than concern for others?
Of course, this emotional response really isn’t surprising. For instance, the left is in a tizzy over E-cigarettes and evil tobacco companies now. Their indigence couldn’t be cut with a chain saw! But at the same time the left promotes and demands the legalization and free use of MJ.
A lot of studies have been done to “prove” no link between MJ and cancer. What else do young dumb college students have to do these days? They certainly aren’t learning much of value for future employment. I thought a paragraph from the Canadian Cancer Society page should at least give us pause:
Do they have no concern for the undeveloped lungs of babies and children in the homes of those who indulge in heavy MJ use? What about the kids who have asthma and second hand smoke in public places? No concern at all is shown, in fact, the enthusiam is mind blowing to borrow a phrase from the drugged out sixties/seventies.
What about the draconian EPA regs they fight tooth and nail to burden us with even though they won’t lower emissions by even a percentage! The cost for these ridiculous regs is destroying businesses and jobs and creating a drag on society (wages too). One of the emotions they tug on is asthma in children…but wait they have no concern for MJ use and kids with asthma. When it suits them politically it’s always about the children and they can always provide an excuse for their inconsistency. It doesn’t change the fact that they are not relying on science or even common sense…they are simply appealing to the emotions of the people. Our lefty friends like to tell us they rely on science but clearly they do not. They appeal to the emotions and use junk science to gain political advantage. Some of this stuff requires little more than common sense to understand.
People who support these and other “issues” without giving it much real thought have to be some of the most vapid people on Earth. Not surprising since so many in the teaching profession vote Democrat and have “prepared them” to become voting adults.
Their leadership is simply power hungry, greedy, and unscrupulous. The dame in the Scoobie Van is that times three.