Time to annex Southside

Kudos to Butte County Board of Supervisors Chairman Bill Connelly for doing what Oroville city officials have avoided doing for decades: pushing for annexation of Southside.

If you look on a map of Oroville, you’ll see that city land surrounds Southside on three sides. Southside is the densest neighborhood in Oroville. Its residents work, shop and play in the city, but because their neighborhood is part of the unincorporated county, they lack the urban services the city provides its residents.

For years candidates for the Oroville City Council have voiced support for annexing Southside, but once in office they do nothing to bring it about. It’s understandable why that’s so: Southside is mostly poor, has little in the way of revenue-generating businesses, and has many potentially costly needs. But, as Connelly says, annexation is the right thing to do.

Connelly, who represents the Oroville area on the Board of Supervisors, said he will serve on an ad hoc committee to examine the issue and bring it back to the board in July. We encourage city officials to join the effort and make a sincere effort to bring Southside into the fold.

If Oroville wants to be seen as a modern, progressive, forward-thinking city—and we believe it does—it must do something about Southside. As long as continues to ignore this pocket of poverty in its midst, it will be seen as a community that has failed in its fundamental role as provider of services to the people who live there.