chico area?

[Steve97415]

Originally Posted by apensity

Housing is very expensive here, but where is it not in NorCal?

Housing is expensive in Chico? I'm wondering what your scale of relative expense in CA is based on. We were looking in Davis and found nothing for under 650K. Chico had homes on 1 acre for under 400K. Nothing fancy, but there are very few places in CA where you could have a home on a lot size of more than 20,000 sq. ft. without laying down a million bucks.

[LisaG]

People always say Chico is a great town, but here are a few things they don't tell you.

- It is VERY difficult to find a job in this town. If you are a college student you may be lucky to find part time work, but that's about it. There is not full time work or many opportunities. Many businesses use the free student "intern" labor so they won't have to hire people.

- When I first came here I was told that Butte County and Chico were both "good old boy" and "good old girl" networks. Now I know why. It's not what you know, it's who you know that gets you a job in this town.

- Health care is a problem here. Not with doctors, but with Enloe hospital. Enloe hospital has been having major problems for several years now.

- If your political views are not conservative then good luck.

Be careful of Highway 99 as the accident rate on it is higher than the national average.

All this can be verified through some on-line research.

[ChicoGal]

I've lived in Chico for 25 years (San Diego before this, Eureka before that and the Bay Area--Castro Valley--before that, so all over the state). Chico can't be beat for a wonderful, still-small-town place to live and raise a family. Bidwell Park, at 3600+ acres, is one of the largest municipal parks in the country. If you're interested in viewing photos, feel free to go to my web site: www.ChicoLaura.com

Good luck!

[mateo45]

Originally Posted by LisaG

People always say Chico is a great town, but here are a few things they don't tell you.

- It is VERY difficult to find a job in this town. If you are a college student you may be lucky to find part time work, but that's about it. There is not full time work or many opportunities. Many businesses use the free student "intern" labor so they won't have to hire people.

- When I first came here I was told that Butte County and Chico were both "good old boy" and "good old girl" networks. Now I know why. It's not what you know, it's who you know that gets you a job in this town.

- Health care is a problem here. Not with doctors, but with Enloe hospital. Enloe hospital has been having major problems for several years now.

- If your political views are not conservative then good luck.

Be careful of Highway 99 as the accident rate on it is higher than the national average.

All this can be verified through some on-line research.

Amen to all that, Lisa G, and speaking of the political issue, I'd add that in comparison to the surrounding areas, Chico is a veritable island of liberalism, 'cuz of the U. But visit the other communities around it (Oroville, Paradise/Magalia, Durham, Gridley, Orland, etc.) and culturally it's pretty much redneck heaven.

Note that Butte County was recently one of the 3 counties (along with Kern and Calaveras) that responded to the Cali Supreme Court overthrow of the Gay Marriage ban, by refusing to perform any civil marriage ceremonies. It's also a place where elections are mainly about the Republican candidates just competing against each other and bragging how much more conservative they are than the other guy.

Plus, mucho religious types here, mostly of the "evangelical" persuasion.

All that said, the weather's nice and the area's beautiful, uncrowded, affordable, and by California standards, there's virtually no traffic!

[anthony00]

i used to work in chico and i thought it was nice. but i lived an hr south in yuba city, i used to party almost everyweeked there and it was a blast!!

[misterdammit]

I lived in Chico until July, when I moved to Sacramento. When I first moved there (2001, I think??), Halloween was still a big party. The very next year it was shut down, which was a total bummer. Anyway, at this point it's not much of a party school. Yeah, there are alot of bars and frat houses downtown, but nothing special IMHO.

I agree that there are no decent jobs. However, if you're a student and only need to work part time, you might find something.

Chico is a small, pretty town. The population is around 90,000. The mall pretty much SUCKS. If you're into outdoorsy stuff, though, you'll have alot of fun. The town is pretty good for biking, and Bidwell Park is nice. Unfortunately for me, I was always into shopping and not outdoorsy stuff (not a big partier either), so I was not that happy in Chico.

Politically, Chico is fairly liberal, at least in comparison to the surrounding towns.

[dogmom]

Where are some neighborhoods that would be good for us..we are a couple, grown kids, one in Sacramento, would like a house between 1400-1800 sq feet, fairly established neighborhood, lots of trees and not a ton of crime...houses under 300,000? Anything like that in chico? It's such a beautiful town, our son went to chico state..