Clear choices ahead in November election

There’s a stark choice: Either Chico continues toward more government by litigation (lawsuits against a rogue city), a blown-out Greenline (sprawl serving affluent transplants, rather than affordable urban design serving workers), a future of ever steeper infrastructure decline (failing roads, etc.), or Chico can step up and right its course.

In the four council contests there’s a clear choice between continued far-right, reactive governance and something approaching reasoned moderation. For the moderate course to prevail, all four seats will have to go to moderates — one loss and the council remains stuck with a far-right majority.

Save these four names: Morgan Kennedy, Monica McDaniel, Addison Winslow and Jesica Giannola; vote for one of them if you live in District 2, 3, 4 or 6. As always, the far-right will be well funded by developers. People are gonna have to pay attention.

Also on the ballot are two measures that will define Chico’s future — especially the sales tax measure, Measure H. There are multiple nonsensical arguments against raising a sales tax (i.e., Chico has pension obligations; fiscal starvation is the cure!). The bottom line is that Chico has long failed to address infrastructure decline — an UNAVOIDABLE consequence when too limited city revenue cannot be stretched far enough to cover police, fire, etc., AND address public works imperatives. Vote YES ON H.

The other measure, Measure L, panders to hardcore alarmists, perhaps honestly believing that individual citizens haranguing Chico Public Works (now grossly underfunded) will somehow erase visible poverty. Vote NO ON L.

— Patrick Newman, Chico