Welcome to 2024. This installment of The Mean Streets of Chico summarizes the 10 best (or worst — depending on your angle) streets we’ve highlighted since the column began in June. You’ll also get a fun bonus after reading about these 10 thoroughfares. Don’t peek — save the anticipation for the end.
As we’ve said, this column’s purpose has not been to embarrass or ridicule city employees. Those folks do a good job maintaining public infrastructure given the tools and funding they have, but there just hasn’t been enough money in the city bank account to do all the things residents want. One of those things has been to adequately pave roadways.
What happens when citizens don’t provide the municipal government with enough funds to keep streets smooth? You can see the examples all over town — potholes, ruts, cracks, fragments, rough texture … the results are unpleasant, and sometimes dangerous, for anyone using the streets, whether in motor vehicles, on bicycles or on foot. This is a critical distinction because the American way of life usually causes people to think of cars and trucks when thinking of streets.
We’ve shown you streets that have potholes so wide and deep they can easily accommodate a human foot. That makes crossing the street treacherous, and bicycling can also be exceptionally dangerous, especially at night. It also shortens the life of car tires and suspension systems.
Fortunately, city residents voted in favor of Measure H, allowing a one-cent sales tax that began in April 2023. It has already brought in enough money for the city to repave East Avenue, a major artery connecting many of the northern Chico areas to Highway 99, The Esplanade, Cohasset Road, Eaton Road and Manzanita Avenue. Smooth and quiet — that’s what motorists now feel when driving on East Avenue.
More projects are on the way, assuming the economy stays intact and revenue predictions are accurate. Chico is a growing city, with many of the same aches and pains other cities are experiencing, and needs the cash to keep up with improvements. Too many of our streets have been neglected for too long, and the results haven’t been pleasant.
So, here’s the countdown on streets we’ve discussed over the life of this column.
10. El Paso Way
This is the street that inspired this column. It’s a 1950s-era roadway that was a part of unincorporated Butte County until about 15 years ago, and it has the unfortunate distinction of being the only convenient route connecting Highway 99 (by way of the East Avenue exits) and the significant number of high-density apartment complexes and mobile home parks along East Lassen Avenue. There are plenty of traditional single-family homes in this area as well.
Lassen Avenue does not have a freeway entrance or exit. El Paso Way is not the only route connecting the freeway to this area, as people could also get off 99 at Eaton Road, though it would be a significantly longer trip. Therefore, the large majority of residents around Lassen Avenue take El Paso. That roadway — especially between Lassen and El Verano Way — was heavily worn as a result.
As you know, however, city crews repaved part of El Paso and reconditioned other parts of it, wrapping up the project in October.
Label this one a success story – proof of your tax dollars at work.
9. Airpark Boulevard
Battered and abused, this street — which has no purpose other than to provide a way for motorists to get from Cohasset Road to the Chico Regional Airport, or to businesses in the airport business park — is hard to fathom.
Why? Because the city is trying to attract passenger airline service, creating a million-dollar fund that any candidate service will use as proof there’s sufficient interest in Chico for hosting air service to Los Angeles. That is admirable, but what will out-of-towners (and not to mention locals) think when they travel over this abominable motorway? By the time they’ve bounced along the road on the way to the airport to depart, they may never want to come here again.
The eastbound side of the divided road, which takes arrivals to Cohasset Road and into town, is slightly better — but “better” than the westbound stretch isn’t saying much. City officials need to couple acquiring commercial service with a better entryway to the airport.
8. ‘Hidden streets’ of southwest Chico
Anyone traveling on Dayton Road in southwest Chico may have only a faint awareness of a small neighborhood that includes Pomona Avenue, Archer Street, Deveney Street, Elmer Street and Poppy Street. Unless a person lives in that area, or makes deliveries — which, excluding moderately traveled Pomona Avenue, makes up a quiet residential district — there isn’t much reason to go there. As low-traffic neighborhoods go, this may be one of Chico’s best-kept secrets.
Its streets are apparently a secret as well, as they haven’t enjoyed any care from the city in a long time. Aside from the installation of sewer lines — evident by the telltale trenching in the middle of each street — these roadways have suffered from years of neglect. There is such poor drainage that storm water pools next to the roadways and sometimes encroaches on them. The streets aren’t typically wide enough to accommodate two passing vehicles — certainly not large ones like trucks or fire engines.
People appear to enjoy living in this area, judging by the pride of ownership you can see in their homes, but they probably don’t like driving on the streets.
7. Floral Avenue
This roadway, between East and Manzanita avenues, brought us a lot of suggestions from area residents for coverage. And boy, when they complained about it, they weren’t kidding.
We compared the “shake, rattle and roll” texture of Floral Avenue to the “Magic Fingers” vibration systems in motels in the 1960s and 1970s — the kind into which a user inserted a quarter and got 15 minutes of gentle shaking in a bed. Driving on Floral Avenue replicated that sensation, but a driver probably didn’t find it very relaxing. In fact, it was likely a frazzling experience when a person considered the long-term damage that roadway would cause a vehicle.
It’s not a “major” roadway, by any means, so whether it gets repairs in the near future is debatable. It will likely be on the list, though, due to its poor condition.
6. Petersen Memorial Way
This is the north roadway in Bidwell Park and was once called North Park Drive. Regardless of the name, however, it’s a mean street. It’s also surprising the city has let it get this bad because the roadway — just like the park in general — is so popular with walkers, joggers and cyclists.
People who use that low-speed limit drive regularly are surely familiar with every crack, crease and crevice in the asphalt, making them aware of the danger that awaits them should they step into the deficiencies. But, why should they need to worry? Bidwell Park is Chico’s jewel, and while it should share city resources with other areas, we believe the city shouldn’t treat this public treasure’s infrastructure with such disdain.
5. Rio Lindo Avenue
This 1940s-era street, we should mention right away, is up for some major remodeling work in the next year or so. It certainly needs it, as it has several areas with broken and uneven pavement, no shoulders, and jagged edges where the asphalt meets the dirt on the edges.
Readers who have sent their suggestions for streets to highlight talked about this one a lot during this column’s early weeks — thus making its selection an easy one.
Fortunately, the city has come up with some ideas for rehabilitating this street. They look good, offering some convenient — and safe — options for bicyclists as the bike path crosses Rio Lindo approximately halfway along its length. This is a street that has been crying for help for many years. Residents, you’re about to get it.
4. North Cedar Street
Connecting West Sacramento Avenue with a densely populated residential district catering mostly to Chico State students, North Cedar Street is an embarrassingly bad roadway that’s bordering on dangerous. Some of the potholes and depressions are so deep, and so close together, that traversing this road on a bicycle or on foot is a serious proposition. Since many college students can travel the short distance to school on their bikes, it’s a fair guess a lot of them wouldn’t want to do it on North Cedar Street at night.
Drive on this street in your car and you’ll likely decide you wouldn’t want to do it at any time of day or night. Property owners can’t be happy about this condition, as it may cause prospective students to consider living elsewhere — thus lowering property values.
3. Broadway, south of downtown
One of Chico’s oldest streets and part of John Bidwell’s original 1860 street grid, Broadway has been inseparable from downtown Chico. On the north end is Children’s Playground, part of the 19th-century agricultural holdings Bidwell maintained even after the rest of his Rancho del Arroyo Chico morphed into a modern city. On the south end, at West 20th Street, is a purely residential district.
However, the area between West Ninth and West 11th streets is where Broadway appears to be sad and forlorn, for it is here that cracks — deep ones — join uneven and cracked pavement to make for a disappointing bit of roadway. This is especially true with cracks at the bridge over Little Chico Creek, and poor pavement close to Chico Country Day School. Hundreds of students travel in various ways over that street every school day, putting young ankles in serious jeopardy.
2. The Esplanade, north of Eaton Road
Houses are popping up at a brisk pace in north Chico, but The Esplanade’s repaving project of 2021 stopped just a few yards north of the intersection with Eaton Road. Head north beyond that point and whatever smile you might have on your face will rapidly disappear.
Chico has a very nice public space — DeGarmo Park — on the north Esplanade but getting there can be tricky, and unpleasant, for people traveling to use it. Getting there by car is just about the only safe way, because bicycle paths and sidewalks are non-existent for quite a distance. They appear north of Innsbrook Way, continuing to Nord Highway, which encompasses a large residential district, but south of there and to Eaton Road, paved areas for bike travel aren’t available. Cyclists ride through that zone at their peril.
The roadway for cars is rough, choppy and of varying widths, thus causing motorists to swerve to miss potholes and cracks, and (if traveling northbound) to shift slightly to the left because the pavement on the right disappears.
The grand champion
This was a tough decision, but we settled on East 20th Street to the east of the Highway 99 overpass. It’s not a street for which the city is responsible — but rather, it’s a problem for Caltrans, the state transportation agency, to solve.
It is difficult for us to believe the state doesn’t think this is a roadway in need of immediate attention. Well, maybe Caltrans officials realize it is, but don’t have the funds and/or the desire to repave it. However, with an enormous retail district right off the freeway, and some growing residential districts (including Meriam Park, just west of Bruce Road) relying heavily on East 20th Street to carry people to and from those places, it clearly deserves attention.
Worst are the potholes and wide cracks at the base of the overpass and moving east, extending almost to the entrance to Chico Marketplace (formerly Chico Mall). If you recall from the column highlighting this pathetic piece of asphalt, we compared the fissures here to cracks the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake caused to that city’s streets.
This may not be — on its own — the meanest street in Chico, but combined with the heavy traffic and economic importance of this portion of East 20th Street, it is a shameful way for Chico visitors, as well as residents, to experience that area.
Disappearing crosswalks?
Mark Stemen, a professor at Chico State and tireless advocate for ecologically responsible living, contacted us recently and mentioned an oddity we hadn’t noticed. Most people who drive on Park Avenue probably haven’t noticed it, either.
“I have appreciated your ‘Mean Streets of Chico’ series, and the repairs that it has spurred,” he wrote. “I don’t know if you have returned to any of those streets because a few of them have become even meaner to pedestrians after they became nicer for cars.
“The intersection I know best is 18th and Park, adjacent to the South Chico Community Assistance Center. I fear for my safety almost every time I try to cross the busy four lanes of Park Avenue when traveling from my house on Salem to the center. It has become much, much worse after the city repaved the street because they did not repaint the crosswalks, creating a visual drag strip from 20th to 16th that is extremely dangerous for pedestrians to walk/run across.
“Why did we spend all the money for handicap curb-cuts on every corner, but only repaint crosswalks at stop lights? Why did the city abandon pedestrians on Park Avenue??!!”
Take a look at the photos of Park Avenue to see for yourself that the crosswalks have vanished. Even magicians Penn and Teller, or David Copperfield, would have struggled to perform such a disappearing act. The intersections of 12th, 14th, 16th and 20th streets have traffic signals where they intersect with Park Avenue; 18th Street does not. Maybe it needs one, so pedestrians can have some peace of mind. We surely hope it doesn’t take someone getting maimed or killed while crossing Park Avenue in order for city officials to take action here.
