Letter: Annie Bidwell meant for park to be free

About a week ago we had a letter asking for Upper Park fees to get the road open. Nope. The park has stayed free for maybe 90 years because the road is a fire road and the City of Chico is responsible for keeping it up. After forgetting that for eight years the city found itself a $1 million state grant to do it, to a standard that should hold with minor fixes for several decades.

The “parking fee” came about from city council discovering that a city park we have to drive to, and that has only one road in, could be a cash cow if it played its cards right. Right meaning not face up. What the city gave us is a kind of special tax for upper park: special because it isn’t to fix the road, that money’s already in, and it’s not our high cost park, and we don’t need it gussied up, so pretty much the whole haul will go straight into the general fund. That’s on top of the 1% sales tax increase city council also wants. Count on our debt to keep going up even with both. It’s how city council works these days.

Look, Annie Bidwell intended the park to be free and it has been for generations. You might feel happy that you’re thanking her by putting 2 bucks into the general fund on your way in, but me I just feel slickered. So would she.

— David P. Smith, Chico