Chico, CA (Paradise, Magalia: landscaping, trip , rent)

[goatherder]

Ah, Tacos de Acapulco, run by a former miss Acapulco herself.
Definitely worth stopping there just to see how pretty she is.

[triplec]

Over the next month and a half I will be taking the names of people interested in boarding their horses across from Bidwell Park at the old Triple C stables in Chico. Space will be extremely limited. Operation of the barn is under cooperative agreement where all boarders are partially responsible for a portion of the feeding and cleaning.

I want to keep the board cost down as much as possible, so everyone will be responsible for one am feeding/cleaning and one pm feeding a week. Board will be around $185 a month. We do have people who are willing to feed and clean for you at an additional cost. I already have half the stable rented, there will only be 10 boarders. This is not a show barn, there will be no stress, no competitive anything, just plain fun with your horse and friends… We do have an arena and a 4 acre turn out that will double as a jump/cross country course.

I will also have two “day” stalls for short term rental for those of you with friends that would like to come play at the park for a long weekend, week or two.

For more information please contact me; Kristin Cooper Carter at 530-893-5751 Kcooper-carter@csuchico.edu

[chico12]

Lived in Chico over 12 years, it's grown towards better. The rundown dumpy areas are limited blocks or a side of one street only. Mostly in an areas around CSUC campus, even there most old homes are immaculate. the unincorporated edges of the city have some very dumpy blocks off the Esplanade, student areas, hwy 99. same as any city. Chico is smaller there's a lot less of it.

[moved]

I lived in Chico for three years and I hated it! There's no work unless you're a college student, and also no nightlife unless you're a college student. I moved there from Sacramento, not by choice. After three years, I left the person that brought me there and moved to San Diego. I was working one week after I arrived, and it's a wonderful place to live!

[goofy4mc]

Hello there
I've read most of the threads and noticed that some of them are dated from 06. I was wondering if anyone out there has new information regarding areas around chico that would be a safe place to raise 2 kids. I have been offered jobs in Stockton, Modesto , Chico and Redding. I would not move my kids to modesto or stockton but would consider Chico. Could anyone suggest areas that I should check into?

[chico12]

North of East Ave! 95973 by far the best w/children. Lots of children and teens, close to schools, childrens parks, bike paths seldom used by anyone other than neighborhood residents. Shasta is a better elementary than most.
Floral Ave towards East Lassen is very family oriented. Moderate to expensive new to older immaculately kept homes, all have yards most of them fenced. Close to the best grocery stores, movie theatre.
Also west of East Ave is very nice, costly, and has a bit of elitest snobbery.

Check out satellite pics to help you visualize how crowed or close homes are to one another and street widths. All north of East Ave tend to be in good conditon and wider than those near town. Stay away from downtown & student areas, high foot traffic, noisy, smells bad, sticky streets, sidewalks soaked in urine. Lots of stray animals wandering around. High pest infested area. Think well fed fleas, roaches, raccoons, squirrels.

[muffpotter]

Hi Folks,
I am from Hamburg / Germany. Due to business reasons, I´m searching for somebody who remembers a company named " CONTI-PLASTIC " from CHICO / CA from the early 70´s. They produced / sold an articel called " GRIP - HOLDER ", which was actually a suction cup with a pump. In case somebody knows anything about the company or the product, please contact me via City-Data.com or directly at g.poetters@tecmagic.de.

Thanks and Greetings from Northern Germany !

Muffpotter

[twinflame2]

Hi I have lived in Chico most of my life, in fact I was born here. I have lived in various other areas both large and small that were in different states. I always seem to find my way back home to be closer to family I guess.

Anyway the advice you have been given so far is pretty much right on target. The increase in traffic over the past few years has gotten fairly annoying as it seems that the city is just not equipped to handle the increase of population. Many people have relocated here from the bay area and Los Angeles to escape the air quality and very high cost of buying anything in those areas.

Yes there is a strong art community here in Chico and Chico State University has quite an impressive art gallery right on campus that supports our local art loving populace. Also there is two stores locally that supply organic produce and health food oriented products. One is S & S Produce and the other is a locally owned co op called Chico Natural Foods. So yes there is quite good support for people who prefer to follow a vegetarian diet. There is also excellent supplemental products available at the locations I mentioned and everyday staples that do not contain the preservatives that traditional grocery store food would have. There are qualified people that work in these places that are very helpful and can provide a wealth of nutritional help and information. I just wanted to add the items here as they seem to be among the things you most wanted to know about and had not been mentioned. There is more gang activity here than most of the Chico population is aware of, and the homeless are also here in numbers. The city has programs that help the homeless and there seems to be a very effective police program that deals with any gang activity there is.

I only mention the two items because they are a part of my home town as much as the positive aspects are. I have only had exposure to the gang problem one time in my 51 years living here and it was taken care of in a timely manor. We have a powerful narcotic team that comes out in force to deal with any problems. The homeless stem mostly from the drug problem that exits here but you will find that everywhere anymore.

I can say this much though the University is not the main reason that the drug community exists here in Chico, it is mostly due to the populations of the asian and spanish residents living in the poor areas like Chapman Town.

Note: some of the smaller surrounding towns like Orland and Durham have a much more dramatic drug probem amoung the youth that live there than Chico does. So be careful of thinking that choosing one of the smaller communities would be a better and safer choice.

Best of luck and welcome to Chico if you do decide to live here. I love it myself.

[Miss Roux]

I am in agreement with Twinflame on the benefits and woes of living in Chico.
After living in the San Francisco Bay Area my whole life, I moved to Butte County in 1995 to raise my daughter ( when i was 31). I find the schools are much better in Paradise, which is 13 miles up into the Sierra foothills from Chico and an ok place to live too in the pine trees. For Elementary Schools in Chico? I would recommend Hooker Oak which is an Open Structure Classroom school and the parents are very involved in all aspects of the students learning experience. It also has the added benefit of being a public school... so it doesn't cost ya.
I would stay away from the public Jr High and Middle Schools in Chico as it is very cliquish for the kids in the 6th 7th and 8th grades. Hooker Oak also caters to those grades now and is doing an A++ job at it too.
When it comes to bad parts of town? Someone earlier said stay North and i would add to that stay North East of central Chico, NorthEast of Nord Ave, don't live near the college (what are known as the "streets" numbers 1st thru 29th i think it is.) Unless you want 16000 new residents annually when school is in session, living near the college is a big mistake. Near upper Bidwell Park is still pretty affordable by California standards too.

Vegetarians will love it here.. we have TONS of fresh grown produce. A fantastic arts community and quite frankly, the most laid back non snobby people I have ever encountered in my life. There are indeed places to work in this town and we do have a high tech community out by the airport ( I work for one of the largest) Nursing, teaching ans community services like Fire, police etc have openings here as well as a strong academic base at Butte College ( which is a fabulous alternative to a S Univ anyhow)
Outdoors activities are over abundant, we have an observatory and a park that is the largest Muni park this side of the Missisippi. Horse trails, bike trails and a HUGE creek fed swim hole at One Mile recreation area.
In all honesty.. I would only live in Chico if moving to Butte County. It can get mighty RedNeck if you go past here and mighty druggy if you go south towards Oroville, Yuba City etc. ( which has nothing to do with asians and hispanics BTW.. it is white people that started it here due to its rural outskirts and ya know? drugs are EVERYWHERE in this state. Drugs are colorblind i would wish someone luck finding a place without them)

Anyway.. like anywhere in the world.. this place has its ups and downs.. we have crime but it is usually drunken students being stupid and people that leak out from the hills and it is still pretty rare....no helicopter chases and all that. Fire is our enemy here in the foothills and we are virtually earthquake free. Our weather is HOTTER than haides sometimes for weeks and weeks and it is indeed a very dry dry heat. So it isnt like East Coast humidity although monsoonal moisture can wreak havoc in the summer & spring with thunderstorms here in the Valley and the snowfall can be quite measurable, we do get four seasons here in Chico sans the snow ( thats only 30 minutes up the hill if you need to make a snoman)

But if you want convenient shopping, fresh veggies, dancing in the park, community parades and events,Churches of every sort ( if you even go to it, i dont) no waiting at the airport (United express will fly you out to SFO) baseball, arts, good pricing on living, fishing fishing fishing, abundant water sports and clean highways ( i mean CLEAN) , this is the place to be.

[bbabyruth]

Hi, my daughter is considering Chico State for the next step of her education. We went and checked it out during a world wind college search trip this summer, liked what we saw, but should have checked it out more thoroughly. Tell me, is there a shopping mall there and are there any of the big name restaurants other than Olive Garden (we went there for dinner, while in Chico).
We also have worries regarding the partying and the potential for people to look at a degree from Chico as less than if it were from another University. Our worries come from hearing rumors and talking to someone who is actually from Chico is of great interest to us.