The City of Chico is in the process of building a bike path along the old railroad right-of-way on Esplanade between Memorial Way and E. 11th Avenue. The first phase involves removing 28 trees to make room for the path. The City will replace the trees removed with around 100 trees along the new path and maintain them until they take root.
Oleander will also get improvements including road markings to help delineate trace areas for cars and bikes. Also Oleander will get a traffic signal at the intersection with E. First Avenue, a dangerous intersection and frequent accident corner for motorists, bicyclists and pedestrians.
Finally, a roundabout will be built at the junction of Oleander and Memorial Way, next to Chico Junior High to improve circulation. Pedestrian traffic signals, updated traffic detection equipment, an associated traffic signal timing plan to accommodate the added pedestrian phases, and pedestrian refuge islands and ramps are also in the plan.
For more complete information, check out this City of Chico website link.
As we approach the 2024 election season, I thought it might be appropriate to show CANA residents maps of county and local government district boundaries and how CANA has been split between many districts. Districting was supposed to combine “areas of interest” but it sure did not happen in the Avenues. CANA is located in portions of three City Council districts and two County Supervisor districts. This makes it imperative that our residents keep up on candidate information as we approach the upcoming primaries and the 2024 general election.
To make matters even more complicated, many of these districts will not have candidates on the ballot in 2024. For instance, City Council District 4 elected their Council Member in 2022 so this position will not be on the ballot until 2026 but Districts 1 and 5 (also in the CANA area) will be on the ballot in 2024.
While it was once thought that City Council districting would bring the costs of elections down and make elections easier and more in tune to areas of interest, it seems that large amounts of money are still being raised by special interest groups.
The sad part that many of us miss is only being able to vote once every four years for City Council and for an only one Council Member who represents our district. In the olden days before districting, voters could vote for all seven Council Members…four in one election and three two years later so everyone was much more involved in the election process.
I have superimposed the CANA boundary over Butte County Board of Supervisor and Chico City Council boundaries to illustrate my point. Take a look at these district area maps and see how they have divided up the Avenues.
Measure H was approved by 53% of Chico voters in the November, 2022 election. The money from Measure H is supposed to be used to support vital city services including: maintaining/repairing streets, storm drains, sidewalks, and fixing potholes; addressing homelessness; protecting 911 emergency response times; preserving the number of on‐duty police officers and fire fighters; maintaining/improving Bidwell Park, neighborhood parks, and funding other general services and essential activity. It is projected to add $24,000,000 annually to the City’s budget.
The Chico Avenues Neighborhood certainly has its share of infrastructure problems that Measure H could address. Many have been highlighted in the current “Mean Streets of Chico” series in the Chico Enterprise-Record. Let’s hope that the City will continue to address these issues and particularly our many Avenues potholes.
If you have not done so yet, you might want to check out the Museum of Northern California Art (monca), located in the Avenues at 900 Esplanade, the former Veterans Hall at the corner of E. Washington Ave. and The Esplanade.
Besides the exhibitions, monca might be a good choice for your event. For more information about this exhibition and their many programs, the Museum of Northern California Art is located in the Avenues at 900 Esplanade. The web site is at www.monca.org.