What would improve Redding? (Berkeley, Chico: buying, elementary school, university)

[HappyinCali]

I would say it needs an airport. Right now, it only seems to have two flights to SF. You can't have major business without an airport, I think. Both because the middle class likes to travel and for employees to travel for work.

[audiofile]

My uncle has lived in Redding where I visit a couple times a year for the past two decades. The area near the mission and Jack in the Box has a LOT of people living on the street homeless and drunk. In fact, that stretch all the way to Safeway and Safeway itself is trash. The government center is freaking awesome. Expensive. Very attractive architecturally. They spent BANK on that place. That is where all the money is in that city! There are nice places like by the river. My uncle lives in nice middle class neighborhood.

What would improve Redding is jobs! Jobs, jobs, jobs and more jobs.

[DaleK]

More jobs would be great. Even better kick out all the riff raff that don't want to work that move to Redding for all the free benefits and send them back to where they came from. Even better than that, hire more law enforcement officers! Redding used to be a really great place but not so much since the freeloaders and druggies took over...
https://crumblingtownreddingca.wordpress.com/

[audiofile]

Originally Posted by DaleK

More jobs would be great. Even better kick out all the riff raff that don't want to work that move to Redding for all the free benefits and send them back to where they came from. Even better than that, hire more law enforcement officers! Redding used to be a really great place but not so much since the freeloaders and druggies took over...
https://crumblingtownreddingca.wordpress.com/

More cops, but not to issue more speeding tickets. The city could also use a stadium for a sport. Concerts and other venues would help Redding be a better place. People getting together and enjoying themselves with entertainment is always good. Festivals for art, chit for kids like skate parks, competitions. All kinds of stuff Redding could do to revitalize itself.

[DaleK]

Originally Posted by audiofile

More cops, but not to issue more speeding tickets. The city could also use a stadium for a sport. Concerts and other venues would help Redding be a better place. People getting together and enjoying themselves with entertainment is always good. Festivals for art, chit for kids like skate parks, competitions. All kinds of stuff Redding could do to revitalize itself.

We do have many opportunities in Redding for entertainment, but the fact is that many people just don't have the money, due to lack of good paying jobs, to afford them. When it costs a family $50 to go to a movie most people will go to Red Box and rent a movie for a buck.

The Civic Auditorium since being taken over by Bethel church has promised more concerts, but so far not many. The Cascade Theatre does a much better job at bringing in folks like Jason Mraz, Wynonna, Vince Gill, Gordon Lightfoot, Little River Band, Lyle Lovett, Dwight Yokam, etc, etc...

We also have Big League Dreams sports area, not frequented by a lot of folks during some of the year because it's just too damn hot during the summer as well as The Caldwell Park Art Festival, Ducky Derby, and other events in the park and Marketfest which is held downtown. Most of these festivals occur during periods of hot weather which is often in the 100's to 110's in Summer, and most of the skate parks have now been taken over by drug dealers and the homeless.

Honestly along with more better paying jobs, we NEED more LE officers but the City Council cut their budget We also need a volunteer group working with the Sheriff like the one in Cottonwood who fill in where LE is lacking. We also need a change of Council members and stop taking parolees for pay and send the ones sent here back to the cities they came from.

[505HPC6Z06]

Originally Posted by DaleK

We do have many opportunities in Redding for entertainment, but the fact is that many people just don't have the money, due to lack of good paying jobs, to afford them. When it costs a family $50 to go to a movie most people will go to Red Box and rent a movie for a buck.

The Civic Auditorium since being taken over by Bethel church has promised more concerts, but so far not many. The Cascade Theatre does a much better job at bringing in folks like Jason Mraz, Wynonna, Vince Gill, Gordon Lightfoot, Little River Band, Lyle Lovett, Dwight Yokam, etc, etc...

We also have Big League Dreams sports area, not frequented by a lot of folks during some of the year because it's just too damn hot during the summer as well as The Caldwell Park Art Festival, Ducky Derby, and other events in the park and Marketfest which is held downtown. Most of these festivals occur during periods of hot weather which is often in the 100's to 110's in Summer, and most of the skate parks have now been taken over by drug dealers and the homeless.

Honestly along with more better paying jobs, we NEED more LE officers but the City Council cut their budget We also need a volunteer group working with the Sheriff like the one in Cottonwood who fill in where LE is lacking. We also need a change of Council members and stop taking parolees for pay and send the ones sent here back to the cities they came from.

Hmm, sounds like I spend most of my time in Redding at the bar or my uncles castle

Hearing a church took over a Civic Auditorium makes me wonder if money is going to the churches instead of businesses.

[Aquaboy]

Our Congressman, Doug LaMalfa, voted his family farm a 1 million dollar "benefit". Crooks like LaMalfa need to go if Redding wants to prosper.

[Fargobound]

Originally Posted by HappyinCali

I would say it needs an airport. Right now, it only seems to have two flights to SF. You can't have major business without an airport, I think. Both because the middle class likes to travel and for employees to travel for work.

Those flights to SF are not making money, so why would any airline want to fly more planes in to Redding?

[Ruth4Truth]

I think if they put a giant bubble over it, and pumped in air conditioning, people would flock there. But that's not going to happen. Also, Redding may suffer simply from being in CA, where people have alternatives--namely, coastal cities with great weather. You make an interesting point, comparing it to cities in AZ (and potentially NM), but people don't think about it that way. They compare it to those nice coastal areas, where the temps don't go much above the 70's, and not often. We have a regular poster here who tried living there and gave up, due to the 5 months of stifling heat. It's too bad. If it hadn't become such a rundown little backwater, it could be a decent city.

[PNW-type-gal]

If you look along the I-5 corridor from San Diego to the Canadian border, a lot of the smaller towns (not associated with a larger city/suburban area) have similar problems.

Look at, say, Bakersfield north, leaving out Sacramento, Salem, Portland-Vancouver, Olympia, the Tacoma-Seattle-Everett areas, and what do you have? A lot of towns with the same problems. High property crime, drug issues, unemployment issues, homelessness. Some of those issues seem exacerbated by I-5 and the relatively easy transport of drugs and crime.

A lot of towns from Northern California on were mill towns and lack diversity of employment - once the mills shut down, the biggest employers were gone. Most of these towns now make their money off medical employment, tourism and retirees tired of big city life. A scant few, like Eugene, Oregon, have large universities to add to the mix.

How to fix those issues? That is a fine question, and no city in the group has been doing a particularly stellar job. Name a city on I5 (excluding the ones I listed above) with a population over 20,000 and under 100,000 that has really "turned things around."