RE: Relocation - What community do you recommend within 50 miles of Chico, CA?

[evening sun]

Kaiser does not serve Oroville. I think Kaiser sucks, so it matters not to me. Op you need to look on a map & then you will see that most of the places around Chico are small.

[Radaghast]

Originally Posted by his_little_one

We need to relocate closer to adult children as we age. What recommendations do you have within 50 miles of Chico, Ca ... please post your knowledge of: crime rate (including transient population stats if available), health care available, standard conveniences (shopping, etc.). Thank you.

Check out Chico first, crime isn't terrible - it's mostly relegated to property crimes (i.e. thieves taking college students' bikes) and issues with the homeless. The homeless situation has improved a bit because they've built what they call "palette shelters" which are small homes that homeless people have the option to live in, this was a condition from a federal judge that had to be met before the city could move to kick the homeless out of the public spaces that they were ruining. They had to have an option beyond the regular shelters because those are overcrowded and they're dry shelters which means a lot of homeless aren't admitted because of substance issues.

Healthcare in Chico is good, the scene is mostly dominated by Enloe Medical Center and it's various offices throughout town, but there are also many other private practices and a few other healthcare companies represented in town. Enloe is a great hospital, various family members have been through there the past two years for different reasons and they've been fantastic.

There's plenty of shopping, though it lacks some larger stores that people like like Macy's. But it's fine, it's not like we miss having one. There's a good variety of grocery stores, there's good retail shopping both local boutiques and chains, there are a nice variety of restaurants, big box stores, etc.

Most surrounding towns like Paradise, Orland, Oroville, Willows, Los Molinos, Vina, Gridley, Biggs, Forest Ranch, Magalia, etc all feed into Chico to various degrees. Whether it's daily for work just for the monthly Costco shop but Chico's kind of the economic center of a good sized swath of the North Valley between Sacramento and Redding.

If it's in your budget you might find you prefer it to other places. If you really prefer a smaller town, I'd consider Red Bluff. It's about 15K people and around 42 miles north of Chico.

[2sleepy]

Chico's the only city I would consider in that area. The tiny little towns around there are really pretty awful, they usually have a dollar store and a single gas station with overpriced gas. I wouldn't want to have to drive to Chico to grocery shop or go to the doctor but that's just me.

[evening sun]

Originally Posted by 2sleepy

Chico's the only city I would consider in that area. The tiny little towns around there are really pretty awful, they usually have a dollar store and a single gas station with overpriced gas. I wouldn't want to have to drive to Chico to grocery shop or go to the doctor but that's just me.

That is not entirely true. Places like Oroville & Willows have a grocery store, & Walmart plus a hospital with Drs. In the case of Oroville, there are at least 5 grocery stores as well as a "super" WM. even Durham, which is a small town has a grocery store & some restaurants. But you are right that some places such as Forest Ranch have little in the way of local amenities. The Op has not been back, so not sure what they want. Even Paradise has more than one grocery store.

[mgforshort]

Paradise has SaveMart, Holiday Market, Grocery Outlet and 5 good, clean, modern gas stations. We have ACE Hardware, Tractor Supply, Big Lots. We have the Adventist Health medical center 3 miles from our front door, happy with our doctor, but for major medical we drive the 25 minutes to Chico. Enloe Medical complex is better than when we had Kaiser Permanente in Orange County. My opinion only.

We don't have floods. Watch the TV news re: Sacramento, Santa Barbara. We are not worried, except wildfires. Chico might burn one day with all the homeless though.

I think about the time when I might lose my driving privileges as we get older. With an inexpensive E-bike I could do all our grocery shopping and minor doctor visits here in Paradise. 5 minutes to Grocery Outlet, 7 minutes to Adventist Health. I remember living in the OC where it could take 5 minutes to get out of your own DRIVEWAY.

[laurelzein]

I recently moved to Gridley from Santa Rosa, Ca. I am finding I really like it, with a population of less than 9000 compared to 350,000 in Santa Rosa it is a refreshing change for me. As a senior citizen I don't have to battle heavy traffic, it takes me ten minutes to get anywhere I need to go in town and if I find I just cant live without going to Walmart then I have a twenty minute drive North to Chico which has all the stores a bigger city always has or twenty minutes South will take you to Yuba City which will have any services you may need. We don't have the homeless problem you find in larger cities, not that we don't have any but they don't seem to linger long as there simply aren't any social service offices right in Gridley. The local folk seem much friendlier, and its just a more relaxed atmosphere. State Hwy 99 goes right thru Gridley and is two lanes and I certainly prefer that to multiple lane freeways that are backed up during commuter hours. I don't think it would be fun for a family with teen agers, we have no local bus service, we don't have a mall, there is no movie theater but I think its all boils down to what your needs are, every town has good and bad about it, but I am glad I chose a this smaller town to live.