Growing pains

One of the perks of the editor’s job is meeting a variety of people. In my quest to learn about Chico, I’ve talked to councilmembers and supervisors, campus presidents and business owners, tribal leaders and tour guides, civil servants and conspiracy theorists, the passionate and the apathetic.

Do I have all the answers now? Hardly. But I am finding some interesting questions.

Of all the issues concerning Chicoans I speak to, growth seems the common denominator. How are we growing? How should we grow? Should we grow?

Coming from the Inland Empire, I know about growing pains. From the ’80s to the ’90s, Moreno Valley went from a town of 25,000 to a city of 250,000. Connect it to neighboring communities, and you have a suburban metroplex of 2 million. Industry and commerce abound, but so do traffic and smog.

Is that what’s in store for Chico? Do we have a choice?

As I said, I am still learning and mulling. I find myself grappling with questions such as these:

• Unless we turn the Greenline into an impassible moat, new people will come. Is it better to build new subdivisions on the edge of town or increase traffic even more with commutes to Paradise, Orland and Oroville?

• Speaking of the Greenline: Is it written in permanent ink, or can we adjust it (even ever so slightly) without risking total erasure?

• Local businesses make Chico special—but are we really betraying our community if we also patronize Kmart and our spending habits attract a Kohl’s?

• Should we invest our economic-development dollars to woo new businesses or invest in homegrown startups already here?

One thought seems immutable: We wax nostalgic for “glory days,” but we can’t freeze time. The Chico once loved by old-timers has changed into the Chico I love, and my Chico will change, too. How we change is a real question—and whether we’ll do so passively or proactively.