Letters for October 4, 2007

Reader adds a category for us
Re: Best of Chico (CN&R, Sept. 27): Best Cover Art: Chico News & Review, Sept. 27, 2007

Fabulous!

M. Bernal
Chico

Editor’s note: Thank you! Giving credit where credit is due: Jason Raish created the illustration, under the aegis of Design Director Tina Flynn, from a concept by editors Meredith J. Cooper and Melissa Daugherty.

Look, there’s downtown Paradise!
Re: Best on the Ridge (CN&R, Sept. 27):

First I’d like to thank you for the mention of my stores, Fir Street Gallery & Gifts and Creative Glass Carvings. We were thrilled to be recognized.

Since my motivation for moving into our current location, purchasing the building and participating in the revitalization project for creating a downtown in Paradise, I’d just like to correct you on one thing, In the Best Idea portion, you state that Paradise does not have a downtown, when in fact we do! The downtown area was designated in 2000. Its borders are Skyway from Pearson Road to Elliott Road, Pearson Road between Skyway and Black Olive, and Almond Road between Pearson and Elliott.

Any business residing in these boundaries is a downtown business. In fact, this summer, a Paradise Downtown Business Association was formed to promote events and business in the downtown area. Our Downtown Street Fair and Certified Farmers Market will be among many events offered by the PDBA again next year and years to come.

When we moved Creative Glass Carvings into the downtown, there were only a handful of businesses, and you certainly didn’t have the luxury of walking from store to store. In the past seven years, our downtown has grown to resemble a walking downtown.

To learn more, you can visit our Web site, www.paradisedowntown.com. We invite you to spend some time shopping our downtown, picnicking in our beautiful community park and just enjoying the beauty of our town.

Pamela Funk
Paradise

Editor’s note: We apologize for overlooking the Town of Paradise’s designated area of downtown. Once the revitalization is complete, we’re sure we won’t need the map to find it.

Reader’s two-for-one special
Re: “Mosquito fog has residents squirming” (Newslines, by Meredith J. Cooper, CN&R, Sept. 27):

Spraying a pyrethrum cocktail to kill mosquitoes can cause disease in humans. We save lives from West Nile now, but how many cancers result down the road? It’s hard to trace exactly. So, should we just ignore it?

No. People have a right to choose to reduce their risk by keeping themselves, their children and their pets indoors. How about overtly informing people when spraying is to occur? How about considering natural repellants? Some products include citronella (which may come from lemon grass), eucalyptus, lavender, catnip and pennyroyal. How about planting these in some places to see if less spraying is needed?

Let’s make Chico an even more intelligently designed nature city. This increases its artistic appeal.

Re: “Lengthy swipe” (Letters, by Michael M. Peters, CN&R, Sept. 27):

No—not all women are spoiled-rotten gold-diggers. Clever opportunists lurk on both sides of the gender equation. Fair-minded people abound, too. They try to carefully prevent unbalanced situations from developing.

As for fashion modeling, men do it too. Models get paid to stay fit and feeling masterful 24/7, not just for the time of the shoot.

When people are attracted to goodness and kindness, their animal nature comes under the service of higher purposes. If people take care to not get used, gold-diggers can’t operate, which is actually good for them. Let’s protect ourselves and each other.

Irene Cardenas
Chico

Unfit for fire; brimstone?
Re: “Breaking up” (From The Edge, by Anthony Peyton Porter, CN&R, Sept. 20):

I have, up to now, regarded this newspaper as a respectable source of information and entertainment pertaining to our lively Chico culture. My opinion is now changed due to the writing you publish by Anthony Peyton Porter. Reading CN&R’s mission, I do not know how his writing reflects “respecting personal welfare.”

I have rarely been this turned off by an author. Most publications would never accept an opinion written by someone so terribly immature and stuck in the worst of adolescent ages. They would have sicced their worst nightmare of an editor on him and sent him back to his hovel.

I have only read his column three times, and each time I am embarrassed for him and each different set of people that he says he relates to in any disrespectable form. In these few columns, he has defiled teachers, children and dogs. This last article talks about his inability to have intimate relationships; blaming the other persons, unfortunate enough to become involved with him, despicably discounting them one at a time.

I am embarrassed to think that newcomers and nonresidents would see this writing as a representation of the intelligence of this locale. I am embarrassed to think that the women in Chico would not speak out against this aberrancy of an author in our community.

In the past, the Chico News & Review has been discerning regarding writing it publishes. Your paper is no longer fit for my family household, even for fire kindling.

Ava Calbert
Chico

County question mark
Is your Butte County supervisor trustworthy? I am not so sure. I attended the last Butte County Board of Supervisors meeting and came away from it deeply concerned for all of us.

It seems District 1 Supervisor Bill Connelly and District 4 Supervisor Curt Josiassen request that Gov. Schwarzenegger blue-line a request for an extension of monies awarded to the city of Oroville, $3 million in Prop. 40 funds. By their own admission in this meeting, they had told the city if it used a portion of this money for another project not specified by the terms of Prop. 40, they would help them keep the money.

In the world we live in, that would be considered blackmail.

When the city didn’t comply, they used a lobbyist and wrote letters requesting that the money be rescinded from the city and reallocated to the county. All this rogue behavior was done without board approval—until the last meeting, when the entire Board of Supervisors voted to ratify all the actions.

Supervisor Connelly’s contention was that the monies were never awarded to the city for a specific project. When presented with a copy of the original press release that stated “$3 million to connect several historic and cultural points,” he replied that must be for something else.

If this behavior is acceptable to the entire board, all Butte County residents should be on alert!

Kristine Armstrong
Oroville

Thanks for clean-up
Thanks to the energetic crowd of dedicated volunteers at Butte Environmental Council’s Bidwell Park and Creeks of Chico Cleanup 2007. We removed nearly 10,000 pounds of trash and recyclables from Bidwell Park and Comanche, Little Chico, Big Chico, Lindo Channel and Sycamore creeks.

We found refrigerators, mattresses, TVs, computers, car batteries, tires and lots of glass beer bottles in our beautiful park and waterways. BEC deeply appreciates the numerous sponsors, businesses and community groups that made the event possible.

We encourage you to strive to keep Bidwell Park and all our waterways clean throughout the year and, since it continues to be necessary, to join your neighbors next fall when we return to host the Bidwell Park and Creeks of Chico Cleanup 2008.

Barbara Vlamis
BEC executive director

Irony incarnate
There it was: a bill before Congress expanding health insurance for children. The AARP, United Way, YMCA, America’s health insurance plans, and thousands of other organizations supported the bill. So did the majority of House members.

But not our congressman—he found a rationale to justify voting against it. And then, on Sunday, he goes to church to worship someone who said, “I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.”

Don’t you love it?

Lynn Elliott
Chico

Editor’s note: President Bush vetoed this bill, and the House lacked the votes for an override.

For shame
Michael Vick’s entire life has been devastated by his breaking the law. Football may never see another quarterback with his versatility and talent, but he is guilty of being responsible for so many dogs dying—so the penalty is his to pay.

Abortion is legal. Can we ever live down the shame?

The Rev. Louie Ricci
Chico

Corrections
Re: Editors’ picks (Best of Chico, CN&R, Sept. 27): In the item on KPAY, the first name of a newscaster was incorrect. Terry Jones co-anchors the morning show. This has been corrected online.

Re: “Trouble on Tradewinds Court” (Newslines, by Tang Lor, CN&R, Sept. 27): Two time periods regarding the homeowner central to the story got transposed. The day-care business began nine years ago, and the owner has lived in her house for seven years. Also, neighbor Randy Jamison has lived in his house less than three years. These have been corrected online.