A few years ago, I wrote about my favorite Chico streets in my former E-R column "But This is Chico."  It's time to do an update in my blog, using photos.

Some streets -- The Esplanade, Woodland and Vallombrosa avenues and Bidwell Avenue -- are such obvious candidates there's no sense in mentioning them.

Not surprisingly, all of my favorite streets are in my favorite neighborhoods. They are in the only places I call neighborhoods.

Chico has, at most, eight neighborhoods: South Campus, Barber, the avenues, the streets (not really their name), Mansion Park, Chapmantown, Mulberry and the place east of Mangrove Avenue and north of Bidwell Park that I call NoPa.

The rest of Chico consists of subdivisions, the mass-produced projects of developers. California Park has a name, but it's several developments rolled into one. The Doe Mill Neighborhood is called a neighborhood, but it's a subdivision. It tries to look like a traditional neighborhood, but it's a facsimile. I'm still trying to decide whether I like 21st century reproductions of older neighborhoods. I like them better than the typical mid-20th century suburban housing development, although I have a soft spot for Eichler homes.

In my book, a neighborhood is assembled lot by lot. Truly great streets have to be unpredictable. Subdivision streets may be pretty and charming, but they offer no surprises. Because cities are no longer built lot by lot, neighorhoods are no longer being created, at least not in a physical sense. That's why it's so important to preserve them.

It's hard to single out my favorite street in the Barber neighborhood. The most improved street is 21st Street between Park Avenue and Salem Street. New construction and renovations of existing properties have rescued this two-block stretch that was once on the brink of turning into a slum.

The best streets in Barber are Salem and Broadway. The photo that leads off this post is on Salem between 17th and 18th streets. Another favorite street is Chestnut between 9th and 10th. When you drive over the bridge that crosses Little Chico Creek, you feel like you're entering another world.

Without a doubt, my favorite street in the avenues is West Sacramento between The Esplanade and Palm Avenue. As you head east, you first pass through two blocks of modest craftsman bungalows. I've written about them several times. Beyond that are two blocks of houses built in the post-bungalow style but pre-date the mid-20th century ticky-tacky suburban ranch-style home. It's a quiet street, and extremely pleasant to walk. East First Avenue, which lies a block to the north, is also nice, but there's too much traffic for a pedestrian to feel comfortable. The two or three blocks that lie north of East First are also great walking streets.

Another favorite street, on the west side of the avenues, is Hobart Avenue, four blocks of semi-rural solitude just east of Warner Avenue. Ugly apartment buildings that serve as rentals for Chico State University students have made inroads into this part of the avenues, but Hobart has unbroken rows of older houses.

The day I walked this street to recall what it's like my serenity was shattered by a woman walking down the street yelling obscenities into a cell phone. This wasn't some college student who had the mistaken idea that swearing is a sign of maturity. This woman was easily in her 40s.

I'd venture you'd never hear this kind of talk on the streets of California Park. On the other hand, you don't see a lot of people walking the streets of any of Chico's subdivisions. There's no life to them. The thing about neighborhoods is that all kinds of people live in them, which is part of their unpredictability -- good or bad.

Mansion Park is such a distinctive part of the avenues that it more than deserves its own name. It gets its name not because it has mansions in it but because it's next to Bidwell Mansion. It was subdivided in the early 1920s, and was built up lot by lot over the next 20 years. It has few bungalows, but several storybook-style houses. It's impossible for me to pick a favorite street. I chose this one because so many of the yards were in bloom the day I was taking photos of the neighborhood. Despite being in the heart of town and right next to Chico State University, it retains a quiet, early 20th century atmosphere.

The streets, the unnamed section east of downtown, is Chico's version heaven on earth. It's the perfect early 20th century small-town neighborhood, replete with charming houses, well-tended gardens and tree-lined streets. It's impossible to pick out a favorite street.

I arbitrarily picked out a corner house about two blocks south of Bidwell Park. Heaven runs south for another two blocks past this location.

It's hard to find even one decent block in the South Campus neighborhood despite the historical and architectural significance of its numerous 19th and early 20th century buildings. it has too many bad remodeling jobs and ugly apartments. Fortunately, there are a few property owners in the neighborhood who value the old houses. I took me a while to notice that a few blocks of Eighth Street between about Salem and Ivy, still look like old Chico. I wasn't inclined to walk it because of the traffic. But when I gave it a chance on foot, I discovered this is a good stretch. I was especially intrigued by this house with the witch's cap.

NoPa is a much newer neighborhood than the others, but most of it was developed lot by lot. The queen street is Arbutus Avenue, the one stretch that was built up before the mid 20th century. The homes in this neighborhood are on large lots that bask beneath the blue suburban skies.

It and Mansion Park are the most consistently middle class of the neighborhoods, so they aren't as likely to provide the same element of surprise that walking in more economically diverse realms of Chico does.

Chapmantown and the Mullberry neighborhood offer the most surprises. I like how churches, stores and other non-residential buildings can pop anywhere. I like the neighborhoods' mixture of shabby charm and drab ugliness. I like how when you leave the precise grid of Mullberry and cross over into Chapmantown, you risk losing your sense of direction. Chapmantown streets are a labyrinth. Here's a fence in Chapmantown. I challenge you to find anything like this in a Chico subdivision.

Eaton Road marked the approximate northern boundary of Rancho Arroyo del Chico. If that was good enough for John Bidwell, it's good enough for me.

Modern-day Chico, alas, has a mind of its own. Or maybe it would even be more accurate to call it mindless. Its northern boundaries are especially sloppy.

In the northwest corner, housing developments have jumped Eaton and are creeping toward Mud Creek. Along Highway 99, businesses of every size and description crowd out the countryside for a good mile or two north of Eaton.

The biggest breach of the boundary is the Chico Municipal Airport and the ring of businesses that surrounds it. This isn't even an extension of the sprawl that spills past Eaton. It's a separate entity. Drive north on Cohasset Road and you go through a patch of open space before you get there. But when you arrive, if you look at it closely, you see that it's a world unto itself.

It's a world where lots of people work and nobody lives, although there are other things besides businesses there. I was surprised to come across a Little League field. Not far from it is a place called Sky Creek Dharma Center, where beliefs and practices, rather than goods and services, are the focus. There is an aviation museum out near the airport, which I still haven't visited.

It's a land of immense buildings, some of them vacant, and tiny sheds and Quonset huts, most of them containing thriving enterprises.

It's a place that has no sense of place in the traditional or new urbanism sense. Its scale makes Chico's big-boxland look like a village. It has long blocks and wide streets, but you do see people out on the sidewalks, power-walking and jogging. It's geared to cars, but the roads are pretty much empty. Except during commute time, all the cars are in parking lots.

It's a realm full of businesses I've heard of, but didn't realize they were at the airport until I went out there. Six Degrees is one example. Another is Fifth Sun.

There are probably more car repair and parts places out at the airport than in the rest of Chico combined. But it's also the home of some cutting-edge businesses. Chico Technology Center is the home of Travidia, Inc., an online marketing company, (the final photo in this post) and PathoLase, a medical laser technology company.

Mooney Farms, which makes sun-dried tomato products, is also out there. It has just completed a handsome addition to its facility, as the photo the leads off this post shows.

When you drive through this other world and really look around, you realize Chico's economy is more diverse than you've imagined it to be. The city is based on other things besides agriculture, Chico State University and health care, government and retail services.

The vacant buildings are evidence that this is a land of great expectations, but the number and variety of businesses that fill most of the buildings show that it's possible for employers to find success in an area outsiders may dismiss as a backwoods part of Northern California.

I suspect that most Chicoans are unaware of what's out at the airport. We don't go there much. When we decide to fly, we usually drive to the Sacramento International Airport. Chico isn't yet part of the friendly skies network.

The part of me that is a student of urban design principles looks upon this area as a perfect example of leapfrog development. But the economic realist sees it as a ray of hope for Chico's most important quality of life issue -- good-paying jobs.

The city's proposal to create a bike path alongside Highway 99 from Mud Creek to Southgate Avenue poses a twofold challenge.

The first is: Where do you build it? The second is, if you build it, will the bicyclists come?

The city should have thought about this project 50 years ago when the freeway was still in the planning stages and before suburban sprawl began to hit Chico bigtime.

Back then, of course, people made plans for freeways and major thoroughfares, but they weren't thinking about bicyclists. Bicycle City USA? What's that?

And, indeed, Chico is as car-friendly as any city in California, except for the "obstacle" of Bidwell Park. In most parts of Chico, it's way too late to find enough open space to create separate bike paths. And a lot of the existing streets near the freeway are either too congested or too fragmented (cul-de-sacs galore) to function as bike lanes.

But here (slightly above and to your right) is a spot where a bike path could be built. This is where an existing path peters out behind Kohl's department store and turns into a rough trail that passes through Teichert Ponds. This trail could be paved and somehow be linked up with an existing bike path that runs between Humboldt Road and Little Chico Creek. The west end of it passes underneath the freeway.

Here's an example of how hard it is for the city to be attempting to create bike paths at this late date. A beautiful path runs through a stand of oak trees between the Mission Ranch subdivision and Lindo Channel. Because this is a fairly new development and had been open land until the 1990s, the city was able to establish a bike path here.

When you cross Holly Avenue, the path continues to the west. It looks enticing. You look ahead, see a bend and wonder what lies beyond it, only to discover that it comes to a dead end at a fence. From this point to the railroad tracks, the Lindo Channel frontage property is full of house. The path has nowhere to go.

Despite having to backpedal -- so to speak -- and create projects well after most of the suitable land was already occupied, the city has been ingenious about making do with what was still available.

This bike path, which starts at 20th Street and follows Park Avenue and the Midway halfway to Durham, was part of a street improvement project. East Eighth Street between Highway 99 and the deer pen at Bidwell Park, was recently given a similar treatment. Paths like this follow streets, but they are entirely separate from the roadway.

The great northern escape for bicyclists follows an old railroad bed from Lindo Channel to Chico Municipal Airport. This part of Chico isn't a bit bike-friendly, so this route is a godsend. What I don't like about this path is that it doesn't connect to a lot of streets. As you walk along it, you feel fenced in.

One of Chico's best bike paths follows Little Chico Creek from Highway 99 to Bruce Road. It has a spur that crosses a bridge and runs by Marsh Junior High School. It passes right next to the front doors of a new apartment complex.

The farther away from the freeway you are, the better the bike paths. That's not surprising. Not only is open land scarce next to the freeway, but paths and freeway interchanges don't mix well.

A bicyclist approaching the freeway on 20th, Ninth and Eighth streets, First and East avenues and Cohasset Road, may find it a frightening experience. It may not be a good idea to put more bicyclists in that area.

The city argues that this is where most of the city's most popular destinations are, so building a path would cut down on the number of drivers, but these are primarily shopping destinations. I can't foresee a time when any but the most intrepid bicyclists would abandon their vehicles to do major shopping. We can't overlook the clear advantage of cars for hauling stuff.

As the city grows and crime increases, bicycle paths may no longer seem like friendly stretches of open space. They may one day become perceived as dangerous and full of unsavory characters. Growth is inevitable, but it can sure have its downsides. A diminishing sense of safety is one of them. The fact that people have recently been beaten up and robbed on bike paths is bound to prey on our imaginations.

This house, at 14th and Mulberry streets, is much further along in its rejuvenation than this photo shows. I think I took it about a month ago.

It's owned by David Kim, who's with the firm Anderson/Kim Architecture + Urban Design, along with John Anderson (the developer, not the architect). Both of them worked for New Urban Builders, but then left to start their own practice.

Kim said he had been planning to tear down this house and replace it with a two-story live-work structure with a detached garage and an accessory unit above it, but soon realized the project would be too costly. He said he was unable to secure a construction loan.

So he's decided to refurbish the existing house "without breaking the bank"  He isn't planning to increase its square footage. So far,  a new front porch has been framed up and the exterior siding is being readied for painting.

He said he plans to eventually build a home on the part of the property that lies to the west of the house.

In the 11 years since I moved to Chico, I've seen a lot of houses on Mulberry undergo renovations. The street is looking great. I'm glad this house is joining the ranks of the rejuvenated.

Since spring started, I've taken several strolls through a 200-acre plot of woods, fields and orchards at the edge of Chico. It may turn out to be one of Chico's permanent edges. Along with foothills and plains dotted with vernal pools, this may become one of the Chico urban area's hard-and-fast boundaries.

I've taken to calling this place the tree farm. Its official name, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Mendocino National Forest Genetic Resource and Conservation Center, doesn't exactly roll off the tongue.

Butte County's almond orchards are a familiar part of the landscape, but the tree orchards provide an interesting twist. Native seedlings, mainly conifers, are grown here and then planted on National Forest property throughout the state. The trees are developed to have characteristics that promote growth, vigor and disease-resistance.

This is a de facto park. The trails running through and around the edge of the orchards are open to the public. To the people who walk here, it's just a pretty spot. To the dogs that walk here, it's heaven. If they stay on the trails, dogs can roam without a leash in many of the areas.

To me, the trees are more welcome than the dogs. Dogs are so dog-like. They don't approach people directly. They head around to our backsides to give us a sniff. Some of them do this while yapping or growling. I find this annoying. What's worse is that owners don't understand that not everyone is enamored of dogs. They seem disappointed when I don't go up to their pets and try to make friends. Sometimes, when a dog seems especially aggressive in its approach, the owner will say "He's not usually like this." That's because the dog probably senses my indifference.

I have a feeling this won't become a favorite walking place. I'm just not hitting it off with the dogs.The best non-dog times seem to be the middle of the day, but in the summer that will be when the heat is at its worst.

I like to walk the perimeter of the property, which takes about 30 minutes. The paths pass through not only orchards, but open fields. They are now turning brown and the golden poppies that give them a dash of vibrant color are starting to fade.

At the south end of the property, you can see the golden glow of the roof of the Neighborhood Church through the barbed wire fence. This is where you can hear the cars whizzing by along Highway 99, but it's such a peaceful place you hardly mind.

One of the paths I seldom walk is of interest to the casual stroller. It follows Comanche Creek and is dotted with non-native plants, such as Chinese myrtle, Japanese pines, Australian and Algerian eucalyptus and Palestinian cypresses.

There's a formidable stand of bamboo along the path. This photo shows the bamboo growing next to native oak and sycamore trees.

The tree farm lies just beyond the belt of businesses south of the Skyway. Heading east, turn right on Dominic Avenue, left on Morrow Lane, then right on Cramer Lane. The gate to the property is closed to vehicles after business hours, but you can park outside the gate and walk in.

The inner city is built on two axes: Big Chico Creek and the pre-freeway version of Highway 99.

Chico State University and Bidwell Park help define the east-west axis. The Esplanade, downtown and Park Avenue give focus to the north-south axis.

The axes are more or less the midpoint of a street grid that extends in all directions and comprises Chico's oldest neighborhoods.

The grid runs as far north as Lindo Channel. To the south it extends past 20th street. Its western boundary next to down is the orchards. In the avenues, the western boundary goes as far as about Warner Avenue.

To the east it extends along Vallombrosa Avenue, where older houses across the street from Bidwell Park go as far as Bryant Avenue. They were built well before the suburban boom that hit this area in the 1950s.

The only part of vintage Chico's urban fabric that feels a little off is the location of the train station. Instead of being in the heart of town, it's almost at the western edge of the core area.

The reason this happened is pretty straightforward. The city was laid out in 1860, but the railroad didn't reach Chico until 1870. In the early years, it must have felt like you were still in the country when you arrived at the train station. The 1871 bird’s eye view drawing of Chico shows the street grid has already reached railroad tracks, but there are manyf empty lots.

Old photos show there was at least one hotel next to the train station, but most of the accommodations for travelers were several blocks to the east.

San Luis Obispo's train station is east of the heart of its downtown, but a wide street full of businesses connects the two locations. The same is true of Santa Rosa, although in modern times a freeway and suburban-style shopping center created barriers between the station and the center of town.

It’s possible that in early 20th century Chico, Fifth Street, with its rows of grand houses, might have served as a kind of concourse between the train station and downtown. Fifth no longer provides a strong visual link.

Chico is fortunate to not only have preserved its train station, but found current uses for it (Amtrak-bus depot, art center and coffeehouse in a train car on the site). But it seems removed from the center of things.

It's also removed from the charming park that lies right across the railroad tracks. It's a great little plot of open space, but it goes mostly unused.

This is a big contrast to City Plaza and Bidwell Park, which always have people in them.

The tracks impose a physical and psychological barrier between the station and this park. It reminds me of so many spots in Chico that are nice little open spaces, but are always empty.

The attractive fountain at the Almond Orchard Shopping Center, next to North Valley Plaza, is another example. It’s in a park-like setting and has benches, but it’s right next to a parking lot. Almond Orchard is a place you drive to, get out of your car, go to a store and then drive away. It’s not a place for strolling. You don’t see people sitting on the benches next to the fountain.

A few months ago I did a post about four Chico buildings I identified as being in limbo (See “Shuttered,” Sept. 23, 2008). I used that word because I saw them as being poised between life and death.

I've kept my eye on them, and I'm happy to report that all of them are returning to the land of the living.

The 97-year-old craftsman bungalow house at the southeast corner of Cypress Street and Woodland Avenue, across from the Bidwell Park entrance gates, is the most visible of the four.

Since my last post, much of the exterior of the house has been painted a brick red color and the front yard has been dug up and partly landscaped. A big guy with beefy arms covered with tattoos has been outside doing the work.

I'm sure more than a few of the thousands of motorists who pass by the house every day are thinking "who is that man and what is he doing with the house?”

I had a chance to find out. Last week, I stopped by to take photos of the house for my blog. The man saw me, came outside and called to me from his front porch. In a nice way, he asked me what I was doing. When I told him about my blog and my interest in old Chico buildings, he invited me inside to have a look around.

The man’s name is Gavin Strang, and he's the owner of the house. He told me he's a Canadian and had been out of the U.S. for several years. But now he's back and trying to fix the place up so that he can rent it out. He said while he was away squatters broke into the house, vandalized it and took things, including a washer and dryer.

Strang said he dug up the yard to put in ponds. He said wants it to have a tropical look.

He took me through every room in the house from basement to dormer rooms. He seemed to be aware of the house's history and its distinctive architecture. The inside of the house is still recognizably craftsman, but it needs a lot of work.

Strang told me he doesn't want to be seen as "the neighborhood villain" because of what happened to the house while he was away. I'd be the last person to portray him that way. I want all of the buildings in Chico that are in limbo to get a new lease on life, so that they can be strong and prosper for at least another century.

It's great that Strang is back in Chico. I wish him well in his plans to fix up the house and hope he'll be an asset to this fine old Chico neighborhood.

I'm paraphrasing the way legendary gossip columnist Walter Winchell introduced his radio broadcast. Before he spoke, he pressed a telegraph key to give it a sense of urgency.

In the "old" media, there's no moment more dramatic than when it's time to go to press. This is especially true for newspapers.

One of my jobs on the copy desk at the E-R is to take turns with my colleagues grabbing a copy of the paper as it rolls off the press to do a final read to look for mistakes.

The E-R’s press is huge. We have to climb a flight of 20 ink-smeared steps just to get to the spot where the newspapers come out. The press rises two full floors and takes up the full width our back building. Not only is it huge, it's loud when it runs. When we're right next to it, we have to scream to hear ourselves talk. If the copy editors find a mistake, we either point it out to the press foreman or yell "Stop!" We don't actually waste our breath saying "Stop the presses."

We think of newpapers as providing something intangible — mainly information and entertainment. But it's also a physical product. When the press is running, I never fail to feel a little awestruck in the presence of one of the great work horses of the industrial age.

When the "new" media finally drives out the old, I'm going to miss the climactic moments of the press run. It's one of the high points in the cycle of daily journalism.

In the new media, press time is any time there's breaking news.The newspaper of the future isn't a daily publication. It’s a minute-by-minute operation. This is all to the good.

The start of the press is a nervous-making time for the copy editor on duty. What if we don't catch a major mistake? Readers know that mistakes sometimes get into print, followed the next day by a correction.

In the new media, corrections can be made on the spot. When I published my blog about my trip to Colusa, I noticed I had spelled "Red Bluff" "Red Blugg." I often make that typing mistake. I went back and corrected it. A couple of days after I published my blog about Chico's proposed historic preservation ordinance, it was brought to my attention that I had referred to Grand Central Terminal as Grand Central Station. I went back and corrected it.

As you can see, there are advantages to the new media, but I will miss the magical moments of the press run. I will always feel an emotional attachment to one of the signature pieces of machinery of the old media era.

Life as a flaneur — a sentient ambler through urban space — can provide some interesting moments. Last Wednesday, while strolling through downtown Chico, my attention was drawn to a boisterous crowd at City Plaza.

I walked over and found out this was one of many “tea party” rallies being held throughout the country. This was the largest group of committed conservatives I've ever seen in Chico. This is a city where protests by liberal groups seem to happen just about every week, so this was a refreshing change of pace.

Several hundred people had gathered, singing songs and carrying signs, mostly saying "stop socialism," or words to that effect.

Socialism seems to have always been one of America's bogeyman ideas. Now that a Democrat has been elected president, the word has regained some of its scariness. Obama strikes me as a moderate Democrat, but I suppose that just shows my liberal bias.

Our country is about half socialist/government interventionist/communitarian and half free-market/"leave-us-alone-government"/individualist. That's what makes it so interesting. That's why the country works as well as it does.

This is a land of socialized education, libraries, police and fire protection, road projects, park and recreation management, etc., etc. You know what I'm getting at. So many things we take for granted are government-run. We also have a socialized military. After some of our experiences with private contractors in the war in Iraq, I think we will probably keep it that way. Of course, if we continue to choose to fight wars on several fronts at one time, I think we'll need to bring back the draft — a feature of socialism liberals would find distasteful.

Right now, we even offer a limited amount of socialized medicine. Poor people, the children of poor people and people 65 and over are covered. When you think of all the other things our government requires — incomes for retired people, unemployment compensation, disability payments, a minimum wage — you can see how far down the path of socialism we’ve come.

How much further should we go? Conservatives think we’re already too far down the road. The Bush administration’s proposal to privatize a portion of the Social Security system is one example of their concerns. The deregulation mania that swept the country in the last 20 to 30 years is another example.

Garden-variety liberals like me would like to see Obama increase taxes on wealthy people and establish a health care system that covers everybody. Most of us don't want government to run the health care system, just control the method of funding it.

Most of us are uncomfortable with the idea of government running the banking system and interfering too much with struggling corporations.

I'm a liberal, but I've never been won over by the gung-ho spirit that characterizes most people's approaches to their ideology of choice. Rallies in Chico interest me as a flaneur. I like to observe spirited public discourse. But the political animal in me ends up getting bored quickly. WhiIe I don't think of rallies as circuses, I see them as events that are intended to stir up emotions.

When it comes to things like figuring out the right balance between socialism and capitalism, I'm all for us using our heads. Think, think, think. That’s my advice. Rallies are about feel, feel, feel. They are also about fostering groupthink, and that isn’t thinking;it's just another way of feeling.

Here's the new building. It’s fine. The only thing you can say about it is that it’s tall. it's a surprise to see it in this traditionally suburban part of town, but it doesn't stick out like a sore thumb.

Consider this my introduction to part 2 of my critique of attractive newer Chico projects. I hope my focus on nice buildings will inspire designers and builders to emulate them.

Here's a new building (I think it's an apartment) being put up on Salem Street, next door to Afton Place, another attractive new project. The biggest problem with the South Campus neighborhood is not so much that it has been invaded by apartments for Chico State University students, but that almost all of these buildings are seriously ugly. They show no sensitivity for the surrounding 19th and early 20th century houses. But here's a building that will fit in well with the neighborhood. We have to accept that South Campus
will never return to being the domain of affluent homeowners. But the neighborhood doesn't need more ugly buildings just because its demographics have changed.

Chico has a couple of newer areas that are so well-designed they are almost as pleasant as its older neighborhoods. One of them includes the Mission Ranch development and areas to the north and west, including parts of East Avenue. The Hyde Park development is about 10 years old. I like the style of its houses, which are neither ticky-tacky mid-20th century suburban nor self-consciously retro. The trees in the parkway next to the street have grown so fast that the development looks like it has been around for 50 years. Hyde Park lies to the west of Pebblewood Pines, one of Chico's most attractive condominium projects.

I'm hoping that the closing of Taco Bell on Broadway in downtown Chico will lead to the tearing down of this building and the construction of a structure that is more architecturally appropriate to the setting. The building is right across from City Plaza. Its neighbors include the old City Hall, the old Post Office, the Sliberstein-Park building and the Senator Theatre.

For 40 years, an uninspiring fast-food place has occupied this space. It's time for something better to take its place.

Behind the camera is my friend and fellow blogger (“Planes, Trains and Automobiles”) Greg Fischer. We’re in Colusa on our latest day trip to look at old buildings.

I’m glad Greg likes to do this. My wife, Gail, and many of my friends don’t. when I told her where we were going and why, she just shook her head.

I love the grandeur of the buildings in these old towns and the hubris that sparked their construction. It’s as if the residents were saying “Isn’t this the greatest place?" and then inevitably adding: "You just wait. In another 10 years, we’ll be the Sacramento of the north.”

Colusa is the biggest settlement on the Sacramento River between Sacramento and Red Bluff, so it has done all right for itself. Having said that, I must also declare the obvious: This part of the valley still hasn’t attracted many settlers.

But who knows? Maybe 100 years from now, Colusa will be bigger than Chico. I find myself wanting to be hubristic on Colusa’s behalf.

Greg and I don’t just look at old buildings when we take these day trips. We try to figure out the town’s history based on what we observe. Like Chico, Colusa is old (for California). We found a building that has been around since 1868.

Next to the levee that separates the town from the river, we found two Chinese names: one for a building, another for a business. Because Chinese communities are among the oldest settlements in valley towns, we knew that at one time Colusa had an important connection to the river. This makes sense. Before the railroads were built, the river was the principal highway of commerce.

Those days are long gone. Modern Colusa has a river running next to it, but it’s nothing more than a scenic attraction.

My earlier hubris aside, I wonder what Colusa’s future will be. It’s been bypassed by the Interstate 5 and the railroad. High-tech industry hasn’t discovered it yet. This isn’t a tourist destination. There’s plenty of farmland, but farming grows less labor-intensive every year.

The only major sign that the 21st century has arrived is the Indian casino just north of town. The only minor sign is that many of the old buildings are being gussied up. This is a good indication that the town isn’t dying. It means enough people like it for reasons that have nothing to do with the strength of the local economy. I suppose Colusans can work in the Bay Area or Sacramento. The commute isn’t so bad when you consider that you are getting authentic small-town charm in return.

Colusa probably has more late 19th and early 20th century buildings in good repair than Red Bluff, which is no slouch in that department. In fact, the longer Greg and I spent walking the town, the more it became clear that most of its buildings date from this time. Colusa’s suburban sprawl is minimal to non-existent. Colusa is what Chico would have been like if the last 60 years of growth had passed it by.

I’m posing in front of the former Carnegie library, which as you can see is now the police department. The names of men of science and letters are engraved on its exterior walls, evidence that the building was intended to inspire generation after generation of budding readers.

When Greg and I walk through old towns, we talk about other things besides old buildings and history, but somehow our conversations are always tinged with references to the past. For example, we both noted that our short-term memories are failing us, but we can easily recall places and events from 50 years ago. We both grew up in the Silicon Valley, so we are always stumbling across shared memories from when we were kids.

During our walk, Greg carried a letter with him that he hoped to post. But we couldn’t find a mailbox. That prompted us to wonder if there are fewer mailboxes now than when we were growing up. Eventually, we found a mail carrier, who after accepting Greg’s letter told us Colusa has only two mailboxes.

On the way back from Colusa, we went to another place of historical interest, but you’ll have to read Greg’s blog to find out about that. We agreed I would write about Colusa and he would write about this other place.

Trees — They get planted, they grow, they wither, they fall down. They have a relatively short lifespan, and the ones that grow in urban forests can be hazardous to people and property when they’re past their prime. Look at this tree near Bidwell Mansion. It fell across The Esplanade a couple of weeks ago. It’s lucky nobody was hurt.

As long as Chico has hot summers, it will never lack for trees. New trees will be planted to replace old ones. The bigger Chico gets, the more extensive its urban forest will be. I don’t think there should be an ordinance banning the cutting of trees on private property. I’ve changed my mind about this. My earlier feelings dated from the time when developer Andrew Meghdadi chopped down a bunch of trees on his property, which enraged just about everybody. I’ve since realized that urbanization, over time, far from stripping the countryside of trees, greatly increases their numbers. I still think trees in common areas developers set aside in their subdivisions should be protected. But if homeowners in those subdivisions have trees in their yards, they should be able to cut them down.

Old buildings — They’re built, they thrive, they age, they fall down. The problem is that in America we think a building that has been around for 50 years is old. In California, any building more than 150 years old is a relic from a bygone age. Unlike trees, buildings of historical and architectural interest on private property are deserving of protection. A proposed city ordinance will attempt to do that. I think (and please note that I’ve just planted my tongue firmly in my cheek) the ordinance should require any apartment or commercial structure on it that was put up in the 1950s or 1960s to be torn down whenever it comes up for sale, unless it is historically or architecturally significant. This will help rid Chico of a lot of ugly buildings.

Disc golf — This has become one of those bizarre, polarizing, only-in-Chico issues. On one side, we have people saying “keep upper Bidwell Park wild.” It’s not wild. It’s a well-used recreation area that serves a former small town that has turned into a small city. On the other side, we have people saying we should recall the socialist, communist city councilmembers who wanted to keep disc golf out of upper park. Yeah, right. This council is a hotbed of radical extremism.

Coffeehouses — Starbuck’s is a decent company, but there’s no reason for it to be in Chico. People here should have sense enough to patronize only the good local places. I was pleased when I read that two of Chico’s Starbuck’s are closing.

Decent companies — Except for Starbuck’s in Chico and Wal-Marts in general (Do they really offer the lowest prices in town?) I’m as willing to patronize chains and franchises as I am moms and pops as long as they have good products and service. Our local economy is able to support a mix of loca, regional and nationwide businesses.

Public art — Let me start with a question. Does anybody like the new artwork in the median strip on Forest Avenue? I’m not talking about people who like it because they support the idea of public art. Does anybody like it because they think it’s attractive? How strange that a program that’s supposed to bring joy into our lives has made so many people unhappy. Here we are, living in a city surrounded by buildings that punish us with their brutality, and yet we focus on how much we dislike the well-intentioned public art. To me the little banners in the median strip do a better job of enhancing the landscape than the giant lackluster Butte College satellite campus — which was built with public funds — just down the street.

Look at the Vaillancourt Fountain in San Francisco, which has been around for 35 years.
This is what I call ugly public art. At one time, it complemented the nearby ugly Embarcadero Freeway. But San Franciscans had the sense to tear it down after the 1989 earthquake damaged it. Now the city needs to get rid of the fountain.

Chico Mall — A huge shopping emporium that appeals only to teenagers (One of the newest tenants is a tattoo parlor) does a dis-service to the community. It’s time for the mall to reinvent itself.

Downtown — It works, more or less, so let’s leave it mostly alone. However, another parking structure is needed right away. To effectively compete with shopping centers and strip malls, parking must be effortless.

The future — Think big. Think in terms of projects that span a century. My nominees are the rehabilitation of Park Avenue and the upper reaches of The Esplanade, and the expansion of our network bicycle trails and creekside greenways.

Drunken student rioters — I’ve already given my “throw the bums out” speech several times, so here are a couple of constructive ideas. The university should require all students, as freshmen, to take a course called Chico 101. It would cover the city’s history, culture and traditions. Students should also be required to performm 500 hours of community service during their college career. They need to learn to at least respect a community that so many of us love.

Spring came to Chico on March 19. It promptly went into hiding on March 21 for a few gray days. Since then, it has come and gone, the wind being the biggest impediment to spring-like weather. Today was perfect.

Why am I so attuned to the changing of the seasons? I'm a flaneur — a sentient ambler through urban (and occasionally semi-rural) space. I spend a part of every day outdoors.

At this time of the year, I wait for the day when the air finally leaves me feeling languid rather than invigorated. In some years, this happens earlier in March, but this year it took its time.

However, the change in the air is not the true signal of spring's arrival. The leafing out of the canopy of trees 20 to 50 feet above our heads is the actual herald.

In Chico, fall takes its time. A couple of months can elapse between the first leaf that yellows and the last leaf that falls to the ground. By contrast, the leafing out seens to take place overnight, although it probably takes a couple of weeks. We are now officially leafed out. Good job, trees, on yet another flawless seasonal performance.

Because of our mild climate, even winter has its spring-like delights. In February, we seem to always have a few days of temperatures in the 70s. This is when the flowering quince, tulip trees, early bulbs and almond orchards bloom. This is a treat when you consider that much of the rest of the company is waist-deep in snow.

Once the urban forest has regenerated, the blooming of dogwood and azaleas can then take place. I've encountered azaleas everywhere I've lived, but not dogwoods. There's something about our climate that allows them to thrive here but not close to the coast. The dogwoods were at their peak of flowering the first time I came to Chico for my interview at the E-R. The temperature was in the 70s and all the fields and empty lots were still emerald green as a result of the El Nino storms earlier in the year. On my first day in Chico, this seemed like the most idyllic spot on Earth.

The photo that illustrates this entry was taken last year. It’s a secluded spot on the Chico State University campus. I went by it today and confirmed that it’s now looking just like it did a year ago. Good job, flowers.

The arrival of spring, of course, is more than a set of observations. It's a feeling that has to be described in terms of other senses. The outdoors — the air, the plants, the animals — hums and vibrates. Humans, who seem bent on hurrying to get things done and inclined to be distracted by their own thoughts, often miss it. That's the beauty of being a flaneur. You notice things like this.

This is a time of the year when city strolling isn't quite enough for me. With spring comes a longing to emerge from the urban forest and head for the plains, with their vistas of snow-capped mountains and endless sky. It's as if I'm trying to recapitulate the experience of our early ancestors as they made their way out of the African forest and entered the veldt. This is the time of the year when I love to feel the sun on my back. For a brief interlude, the sun seems like a benign presence.

In another month or two, it will be time to head back into the shade. As early as the end of May, the sun will again begin to feel like a scourge.

The magazine takes to task an ad for Royal Paulownia trees, also known as empress trees, offered at $3.98 each. The ad claims the tree is a super growing, flowering shade tree that “zooms another foot higher every time you water it. Grows more in a month that other shade trees grow in an entire year.”

Consumer Reports says The Plant Conservation Alliance “lists this non-native tree among its ‘least wanted.’" The group notes that mature Paulownias are often “structurally unsound.” It gives advice on how to control their spread. One state, Connecticut, has banned the tree, citing it as potentially invasive.

But here’s the thing. As you can see from the photo, they are beautiful when they burst into bloom at this time of the year. Their luscious purplish blossoms make wisteria flowers look like pipsqueaks.

To be fair to Consumer Reports, the tree on the right fell during the Great Wind Storm of 2008. But so did 10,000 other trees. I’m not sure this proves the fallen empress was structurally unsound. As to the complaint that the empress is a non-native, so what? Most plants, animals and humans in Chico are non-native, and we all think this is a wonderful place, right? It’s not as if the empress is in any danger of spreading like kudzu, and even if it did that just a little, it wouldn’t be a bad thing. Chico would look even prettier in the spring.

The empress that remains towers over a water-tolerant demonstration garden. Its presence helps make this a delightful, overlooked corner of Chico.