When I hit the road in March of 1972, heading up north on highway 99 from Southern California, I was looking for a Mayberry in the west. Chico was Mayberry. I still feel like Chico is a large version of Mayberry, but maybe I'm looking at it through rose colored glasses, maybe I'm in denial.

As Chico changes and adapts to an ever growing population it struggles to hold onto it's small town charm and character. But I have to wonder, has any town, once it swells into a six figure population, been able to keep it's small town charm? When I moved here in 1972, people used to brag that Chico averaged only about one murder a year. Now there seems to be about two a week. And if you count the shootings where there are no fatalities, they seem to be in the paper everyday. Can a city be charming on the outside with so much violence happening on the inside? You can dress a pig up in a cheerleaders uniform, but you don't have a pretty cheerleader, you have a pig.

My daughter and her boyfriend were woken to gun shots a couple of weeks ago at 3:30 in the morning. After hearing cars screeching off and police cars arrive, they went outside to find a young man lying dead on the front yard next door. It sounds like a typical seen from East Los Angeles, not Chico/Mayberry. Between shootings, people getting hit by trains, and automobile accidents, it seems like somebody is getting killed just about everyday here.

So I guess the question is, are we a large version of Mayberry or a small version of Los Angeles?