Retiring - Paradise , Chico or Magalia

[CosmoPoppy]

Just read in my Neighborhood Site, In USA News, Chico CA. made it as one of the fastest growing crime cities in America. They listed the top 25 cities, and Chico is 19th! I live in a nice area across the street from Bidwell Park and the burglaries are on the increase. And it isn't all from the homeless. Neighbors have Camera's showing people coming to the house and many are not homeless. (dressed clean and driving cars or expensive bikes) I have had packages stolen from my front door 3 times during the day time. On my street Cars have been broke into as many as 4 times this last year. The crime has been done from back yards and garages. There are some house burglaries also. One incident male neighbor came outside with his friend, (male) at 4 am and found two guys in their Cars and only verbally confronted them and the criminals pulled knives!. They rode off on their BMX bikes and were angry because they were verbally confronted and came back that early morning and broke out the back windows of the neighbors cars/truck! These robbers are all dressed in clean Ninja like outfits, with faces covered. Chico is Not the nice looking Mulberry USA town anymore. This USA article listed Chico as having 19.9% Poverty rate-

[evening sun]

Originally Posted by mgforshort

Golden Sunset joins City Data to tell us how miserable Paradise became. Supposedly lived here for 30 years. Well, we only moved here in 2015, after three separate visits, and I find that post completely, 100%, I mean one hudred percent wrong.

I agree, Golden Sunset makes it seem like one large opium den, which it is not. I have lived here for just under 2 years, & I have not noticed all the problems, that poster mentions. Of course some people smoke pot, but I challenge anyone to tell me a town in the USA where there is no pot smokers. I also do not see crazed druggies walking around, like I did when we went to San Francisco, & lived there. I am not afriad to walk at night, except I don't due to lack of sidewalks & inadequate street lighting.
Apparently, there are no jobs, that is why it is good for retirees.

[mgforshort]

Cosmo, thanks for the update.
We don't live in Chico and all I know comes from reading Nextdoor and watching TV news twice a day.
Compared to Redding Chico is still Mayberry revisited, and Paradise is much safer, and Magalia is even better.

What I see is a major lack of Police presence or their lack of aggressive policing. We can go weeks and weeks driving around in Paradise and Chico without encountering a single police car.
I spent some time talking to a home owner right next to the Sycamore Pool in Chico. He is the one with all the signs and flags on his fence. Nice, interesting older gentleman. He told me the park around Sycamore Pool isn't safe after dark. Calling the police doesn't help much, they are afraid to getting sued for civil-rights violation and rather spend their shift on writing speeding tickets; less hassle, more money for the city. It would be great if a member of the Chico or Paradise PD could add to this post.

[JVinci]

Originally Posted by mgforshort

Cosmo, thanks for the update.
We don't live in Chico and all I know comes from reading Nextdoor and watching TV news twice a day.
Compared to Redding Chico is still Mayberry revisited, and Paradise is much safer, and Magalia is even better.

What I see is a major lack of Police presence or their lack of aggressive policing. We can go weeks and weeks driving around in Paradise and Chico without encountering a single police car.
I spent some time talking to a home owner right next to the Sycamore Pool in Chico. He is the one with all the signs and flags on his fence. Nice, interesting older gentleman. He told me the park around Sycamore Pool isn't safe after dark. Calling the police doesn't help much, they are afraid to getting sued for civil-rights violation and rather spend their shift on writing speeding tickets; less hassle, more money for the city. It would be great if a member of the Chico or Paradise PD could add to this post.

If anyone actually believes this is the reason police don’t show up to calls is watching way too much fake news. 9 times out of 10 the reason police are late at showing up to calls is that they are probably understaffed/underfunded and don’t have enough officers working to respond. That old guy probably has never voted yes once to increase taxes for public services like this.

[mgforshort]

Our property tax is about equal for a month's gross income for us and it goes up automatically every year - we don't need to lift a finger or vote for it.
There aren't enough police because the money goes for the pension fund and social services, for taking care of the homeless and the bullet train.
Road repair, crime prevention isn't a priority in California.

[NorthernFog]

Originally Posted by evening sun

I agree, Paradise took some getting used too, I still detest all the long beards

But I am kinda quirky myself, so I am ok with a quirky town.

Do you mean beards as in hippies or beards as in lumberjacks and mountain folk?