The author Malcolm Muggeridge once said, “All news is old news happening to new people.” I’m new to Franklin, Tennessee. I’m one of those refugees from California. Chico, California, to be precise. Chico is an 80,000+ person college town in Northern California.
Today, Chico serves as a warning to my new neighbors in Franklin.
Twenty years ago, Chico was considered idyllic, much like Franklin is today. It was experiencing rapid growth as a desirable city that was a safe place to raise a family, a great place to do business, and a premier place to live. Over the last two decades progressive ideology has caused Chico to experience substantial decline.
Last week, the Chico City Council proposed another tax increase to address the crumbling infrastructure due to gross misspending on progressive priorities.
The once vibrant downtown and beautiful parks are now tent cities that are too dangerous for the citizens of Chico to enjoy. These tent cities are filled with transients interested in drugs and living off the graciousness of the community. The progressive solution to the transient’s drug problems; free housing and free needles. Who pays for this…you guessed it, the taxpayers.
The economy of Chico is struggling, but they can’t attract industry due to the poor condition of the community. Businesses are suffering as transient loitering and defecation scares away customers.
Housing is insanely unaffordable. There are just no homes on the market. Why? Instead of building capacity through effective planning, the city leaders stifled growth with massive permit costs and focused the city in the direction of Section 8 housing.
Chico used to be a safe place, not anymore. Progressives underfunded and devalued the police department. New laws handcuff their ability to police the community properly. Chico crime statistics report an overall upward trend in crime based on data from 21 years, with violent crime increasing and property crime increasing. The city violent crime rate for Chico in 2019 was higher than the national violent crime rate average by 53.2%, and the city property crime rate in Chico was higher than the national property crime rate average by 19%. It’s expected to be worse in 2021.
The school board may be worse than the city leadership. They are more interested in appeasing the unions than educating students. Recently, a group from local Rotary raised over $10,000 and offered their labor to install sprinkler systems and grass of the playground’s dirt fields. The school acquiesced to the union and declined the generous offer. The union couldn’t allow anyone but a union worker to install sprinklers.
Conservative values acquiescing to progressive ideals is old news, and if you want to know where it leads, I invite you to visit Chico, California. It is not a safe place to raise a family, it is not a great place to do business, and sadly it is not even a decent place to live.