Three women spoke to Shasta Scout about being hit by pellets during a recent Redding human rights protest, including one woman who was live-streaming the protest when she was hit. We share their stories, what you should know about safety at protests, and how and when to report incidents to the police.
Celebrating American freedom seems “ironic and condescending” in light of recent Supreme Court decisions, one activist said. The protest in support of human rights was organized by a local seventeen-year-old, Kamryn Mabee, and popularized by the newly formed Shasta Abortion Coalition. Attendees included a wide variety of ages and ethnicities and a mix of genders. This is the sixth local protest for reproductive rights in the ten days since Roe v. Wade was overturned.
Community feedback through workshops, a survey, and public comment at city meetings will help the city evaluate how to use Redding-specific recommendations provided by grant-funded national wildfire prevention specialists. New development, building, zoning, and fire codes would emphasize the individual responsibility of community landowners to care for their properties in ways that reduce wildfire risk for the broader community.
A civil lawsuit filed against the City of Redding by the Redding Rancheria was decided in the Tribe’s favor last week. That case relates to a small parcel of land that provides important road access for the site of the Rancheria’s proposed casino development. Back in 2020, Michael Dacquisto was the only city council member who voted against vacating, declaring surplus and selling the land. He spoke to Shasta Scout over the weekend about what drove his decision then, and how he sees things now.
A small parcel of land that provided important access to the Redding Rancheria’s proposed new casino site off I-5 was declared surplus and sold within eleven days by the City of Redding in mid-2020. New court documents indicate city staff engaged in behind the scenes conversations with a local land holder before negotiating a property sale in closed session in a process that violated both state laws and city policy. The case bears important similarities to recent riverfront land dealings which created community concerns about city transparency.
The only Shasta County clinic that provides women with access to surgical abortions was used as a training ground to equip anti-abortion activists for more aggressive interventions to dissuade women from accessing abortions. Local women organizing under the newly-formed Shasta Abortion Coalition say they are prepared to defend women’s right to abortion as clinic defenders, advocates, and escorts.
Redding’s riverfront development was last planned decades ago before the Sundial Bridge, Turtle Bay Museum or the Redding Arboretum existed. Funding an update to the 30 year-old plan would be the city’s first step in deciding how to utilize riverfront land after the council voted against declaring the land surplus last month. The city could take advantage of $1 million or more in federal COVID relief money to fund the planning process.
Redding's City Council voted to utilize funds to begin a city-led planning process instead of declaring prime riverfront properties “surplus." The vote followed months of discussion, public workshops, and community surveys about public land close to the Sundial Bridge. The land issue has provoked significant community conversations about who represents a city stakeholder and how local government engages the community in planning and decisions.
The land we now know as Redding has been a part of Wintu people’s vast homelands for thousands of years. Today, after surviving state-sponsored massacres, violent removals, and discriminatory legal doctrines, Wintu tribes remain almost entirely landless. For some Wintu people, the proposed sale of riverfront land is inseparable from the need to reckon with this often-suppressed history.
The Council is scheduled to vote Tuesday on whether to "surplus" approximately 45 acres of land including the Redding Rodeo grounds and Redding Civic Auditorium grounds in preparation for a potential sale. Legal Counsel for three local environmental groups say doing so would violate the California Environmental Quality Act and be inconsistent with the city’s own General Plan.
Shasta Scout is proud to have been providing in-depth coverage of local elections since 2022.
