Councilors offer no alternatives to camping

I am disappointed that council members Coolidge, Tandon, Denlay, Morgan, and Reynolds voted to make camping in Bidwell Park a misdemeanor offense in Chico without first working to offer any sort of alternative solution. Their actions are cold-hearted and cruel.

In a pandemic, and during a global economic recession, to treat the poor and the unsheltered as criminals is unconscionable. Arresting poor people isn’t the right choice. You can’t arrest your way out of this situation, or simply brush these people off as some sort of nuisance.

Camping in the park is problematic and no one’s idea of a good solution. But, in the current crisis, and with so few other options, and in the middle of a cold winter, it should be allowed to continue until a better solution is presented.

Step up and find a solution — a real solution. Expand our emergency shelters. Approve a low-barrier shelter. Approve a camping site that isn’t somewhere out past the airport. Allow CHAT to build tiny homes. There are lots of good, solid ideas out there.

Instead, Coolidge, Tandon, Denlay, Morgan, and Reynolds criminalize the poor.

Kudos to Council Members Brown and Huber for voting against this heartless measure and insisting that alternative measures be pursued. That is the only correct and moral answer to this situation.

I urge all council members to find real, compassionate answers and solutions, not to cruelly shame and abuse the weakest, poorest members of our society.

— Rob Davidson, Chico