I attended the luncheon yesterday for the State of the City address. I love Redding. Evidently, I’m not the only one.
One real highlight was the “appearance” of Redding’s first mayor, C.C. Bush, from the past. It was a well done and thoughtful apparition. Interesting to think about the Redding of the past and compare it to the present. 
Another highlight was this young lady singing the National Anthem. Heartstrings pulled, right off the charts. Good work.
The theme was Redding as a “Can-Do” community.
It can be.
There was also a lot of emphasis on the giving nature of our community and our citizens.
We are indeed.
Also seen, a rare public protest of REU, Redding’s electric utility. Good to see citizen activists expressing their opinion.
There may well be some room for improvement in the structure of our local electric utility. That said, we enjoy reliable and relatively cheap power. Also, as I have opined here before, the protestations rejecting the city policy of “Red Tagging” homes with no electricity service as uninhabitable may be well intended, but are misguided.
Although it sounds nice in theory to let people live in their homes without power, I have seen the reality. As a real estate agent sometimes working with foreclosed homes that quite often have no utilities, I have personally witnessed the awful results. No food refrigeration in Redding heat. Fire hazard candles. Ocean waves of fleas living in wall to wall carpet that has not seen a vacuum cleaner in months. Rats in the dark. If adults choose to live this way, yeah, maybe we should let them. But I see there are very often small children in those homes. That’s what makes it intolerable. That’s the Red Tag reality in our Can-Do city.
