Two ice rinks would just look stupid

It almost seems wrong to talk about ice skating when the next day’s temperature was supposed to reach 104 degrees. The cities of Paradise and Chico seem to be on a path to have dueling ice rinks. If local media is correct, Paradise plans to open their rink on November 11, 2021. Chico will open eight days later on November 19, 2021. Paradise knows up front that they will lose money, but on the hope to make it a tradition. I am a long time Chico resident, and have never lived in Paradise, but I feel like our city is a Johnny Come Lately with the ice rink. Hopefully this isn’t being planned just to help move the homeless out of the park, although as they like to say in politics, the vast majority of us want them out.

I’m just guessing that a lot of Chico families would rather use the Paradise facilities. Given the choice of parking downtown and then avoiding the homeless on every block, or driving to Paradise, I’ll be heading up the hill. If you remove all factors of the situation except simple economics, then having two rinks just looks damn stupid.

— Gary Allwardt, Chico