April Bernabe

Professor Dizard

As part of the South Campus Neighborhood Project I was assigned to look at

problems or concerns within Chico’s south campus area, extending from 2nd St. to
9th St., and from Orange St. to Salem St., with emphasis on signage and wayfinding.
I interviewed south neighborhood residents, the majority being CSUC students and a
two business owners that are part of the area as well. While some of the concerns
that were raised are in regards to signage and wayfinding, the majority of concerns
involve other aspects of the neighborhood that I will outline further. In this
paper I will address five main problems residents and business owners feel are
prevalent within the community, and how they are not being fixed despite the cities
efforts to make changes. At the close of my work, I realized that while these
concerns seem like they have easy “fixes”, they are actually the result of deeper
institutional or structural violences that have ties with social problems the city
of Chico has as a whole and one cannot fix a symptom of a deeper problem without
resolving the problem in entirety. To protect the identity of my informants, none
have been named and the survey is completely anonymous.
In regards with signage and wayfinding, the concern that south campus
resident and business owners both brought up was the slow response time city of
Chico has in replacing stolen or vandalized signs. It is common among college
students to steal popular signs like Ivy St. or Cherry St. and keep as trophies or
memoirs of a loved neighborhood, and as a result there are lots of missing signs
and the ones that are replaced run a risk of being stolen again. Informant 1, that
lives on 4th St. and Ivy St., expressed the frustration of paying high rent and
living in a beautiful house only to have Ivy St. sign constantly missing and
feeling like her neighborhood looks “ugly and ratchet” (a term associated with
cheap low class living) and feeling slightly embarrassed to have their family come
visit. Informant 2 owns a business on 3rd St. and Hazel St, and strongly believes
the lack of street signs not only depreciates her property value, but also makes it
harder for new clients to get to her. Informant 2 owns a beauty salon and is hoping
to have more business now that Chico is receiving more residents from Paradise or
Magalia, and has called the city multiple times to make repairs on her street
because she has had several instances where new clients cancel because they could
not find her location. Both informants expressed their annoyance at having to call
the city and still not receive new signs in a timely fashion, and all users in my
survey acknowledged that they feel lack of street signs is a constant problem in
the area. In regards to vandalized signs, Informant 1 has noted that not all signs
in the south campus neighborhood are stolen, someone graffitied so that their names
are not legible, and some are on poles that are bent a good 90° to where the names
are not visible unless you drive slow.
A second, and the most popular concern in my interterviews and my survey,
was inadequate street lighting. All my informants, and most of my survey takers
expressed deep concern with Chico’s refusal to install more street lights, or trim
the trees that prevent light from shining on the sidewalk. Informant 3 owns a
popular business on Ivy St. and 5th St., one that is frequented by college students
and is open until the wee hours in the morning on weekends. He has concerns that
while his business is great, staying open late requires him to leave even later as
closing procedures taken about an hour to finish, he then expressed how much fear
he has of walking down unlit streets and how he is well aware of the crime that's
prevalent all over Chico. It is no secret that the city as a whole has a crime rate
that stays steady, all crimes from petty burglary to stabbings to sex trafficking,
and while there is a stigma of the crime being in the “low income” areas such as
the Aves, the reality is that crime happens equally in all areas of the city.
Multiple survey takers live in the greek houses in the south campus neighborhood,
and those users also wrote about how uncomfortable it is to walk to class in the
morning, or back home at night because they fear they'll become the next filler in
school wide emails reporting crime incidents on campus. Out of the 25 participants
in my survey, only 7 have experienced crime first hand; meaning it wasn't a story
about a friend of a friend, it was an event that happened to them personally. Two
of those survey takers wrote about a stabbing that happened recently in a popular
fraternity house dubbed “deck”, where two men attacked a Chico State student while
he was standing outside the gate. The men had become aggressive because the victim
was not allowing them access to a party happening, after the stabbing the men fled
and when police asked for a description they were forced to admit they had none
because it was too dark for them to have noticed initially. Another user wrote
about an incident that happened during Chico State’s last three day weekend, a
known drinking holiday, where a person was attacked on Warner and 2nd St., and upon
inspection of the neighboring buildings’ security cameras, it was discovered that
the street was too dim to accurately get a description of the attackers.
Besides fear of crime influenced by the lack of lighting in the streets,
Informant 2, the business owner on 3rd and Hazel St., has expressed concern for her
particular area being in a zone that overlaps where transients move about and live.
And has, on more than one occasion, came to work to find transients doing drugs in
a corner where the barbershop has a bench, and poor lighting, and she is concerned
for the safety of the neighborhood having people do drugs so openly because of the
dimness. Informant 2 and 3 have actually made calls to the city to try to get more
lighting in their areas, explaining to me that those streets are their livelihood
and they should be allowed to work while feeling safe. Unfortunately all calls and
emails go unheard as none have ever received a reply, both informants have reduced
to accepting the city as is and walk around “protected” with either mace, or a
taser.
In connection with poor lighting, the third problem I faced was the amount
of transients that live in the south campus neighborhood. Well aware that the city
has tried to make changes or adjustments for those concerned civilians who feel the
transients should be put somewhere else or have a shelter built for them, Chico has
made no real progress in dealing with the large number of transients. The lack of
housing for those who are without poses a problem for residents of this
neighborhood when their trash is being dug through, or thrown on the ground, and
when my participants are harassed while walking down the street. In the above
paragraph, one of my informants mentioned how she saw what appeared to be a
transient smoking up on that dark bench. While her wording is unclear, what was
very clear was her discomfort of having her place of business and therefore her
life so closely situated near an area that “smells like pee and has trash all over
it from them”. Informant 4 is a Chico State student that lives in the south campus
neighborhood but frequents the ave area as well, and has mentioned seeing some of
the rehabilitation members that live on 4th Ave., in the south campus area.
Primarily around the bus stop the the streets directly around it. This informant
explained to me one particular transient that harassed her almost every time they
saw each other, whether it be in the Aves or in the downtown area, and how she's
called Chico PD about it but they told her nothing could really be done.
The majority of my project participants are Chico State students, and they
provided me a different point of view from my business owner points of view, who
were considerably older and are locals. Three of my survey participants expressed
the same concerns about transients making them feel uncomfortable, but they also
realized the greater problem that was homelessness, and how there is no real quick
fix for it or any of the social/welfare problems that plague the city. While they
are aware of the rehabilitation area in the Aves, they are also aware of the city’s
efforts to marginalize the homeless community and the debate that has come from not
all city residents agreeing on whether or not to build more shelters or halfway
homes for those in need. This debate prolongs the problem and does nothing
immediately, leaving the transients right where they are. One survey user wrote, “I
get theyre a problem for people who think theyre annoying or gross or wtever, but
they have nowhere else to go so i cant really complain. thats their home too.”.
Another survey user lives in a fraternity house on 5th and Hazel St. and sees the
connection between the city not picking trash up, and the migrating transients. He
mentioned that while it’s “annoying to have to clean up the trash they dump out
[the can]”, it might be the only resource they have and if the homeless community
isn't taken care of they’ll find their own ways elsewhere. My older informants feel
like its not their responsibility to house or help the transients, and feel like
they need to having areas specifically for those who don't have anywhere else to
go. Informant 3 feels like it’s not his responsibility to care after whose who
“...dont want to work for a living” and would rather dig out of trash or panhandle,
and feels like his business should not suffer from having the homeless linher
around looking for handouts. Both business owners know that transients depreciate
their business and property value and do not want to have any part in interacting
with them, they “...just want them gone!”. Finding common ground within these two
different views is going to be hard for the South Campus Neighborhood Project, and
is the current problem city renovators have.
The last problem I noticed within this community, was the improperly
managed streets all through this neighborhood. There are many streets where
potholes are a regular resident, or large cracks and fissures in the pavement that
post threats to pedestrians. Informant 5 had a long conversation with me about how
her parents were forced to pay a $3,000 medical bill after she sprained and
hairline fractured an ankle tripping in a pothole. My informant was walking home at
night, and did not see the inconsistency on the road and unfortunately snagged the
heel of her boot on the edge of a pothole, “I folded like a chair dude, it hurt so
much…”. Her parents decided to investigate as to whether or not they could get the
bill paid by the city, “...the city will pay for your car damage if the f*cked up
streets mess your car up so why not this? It’s not my fault man it wasn’t fair.”.
After a long back and forth with some city official (no specification as to who),
her parents had no chance but to pay for the hospital fee, my informant and her
family felt that her injury was completely preventable had the city fixed its
streets in a timely fashion, and if the city illuminated the streets better. My
business owner informant on 3rd St. and Hazel also has a very large patch of
cracked and crumbled pavement in front of her business which she feels contributes
to even further depreciation. Her main concern was that rent for her salon was
high, and for that price she should have a nice looking neighborhood free of the
nuisances she regularly deals with.
While South Campus Neighborhood Project focused mainly on signage and
wayfinding, the residents and business owners in this area feel there are a lot
more pressing problems than signage and wayfinding. There are safety, social, and
welfare concerns that should be dealt with first and foremost, as the neighborhood
is a reflection of its residents and there are clearly some residents who don't
feel happy with the neighborhood or the city’s problem solving skills. There are
far too many “improvement” projects that change the face value of the neighborhood
and don't change the structural problems that residents actually have. Upon
explaining to one of my informants about the project and examples of what some
goals and improvements have been made, bike paths and historical denominations
within the community, her response was “how is changing the way greek row and
downtown looks doing any real improvement?”. I didn't know how to respond, I only
know the neighborhood by face value, only in passing or in my brief interactions
with people who live there, but I don't know what problems exist there or what
concerns residents have. In conducting my interviews and reading survey responses,
I think these five solid problems are ones that can be focused on while renovating
the appearance as well. With this same energy I think other areas of Chico should
also be paid attention to, as these problems don't have a concrete solution and
marginalizing unwanted aspects only push the problem to a different area.