Melissa Lopez-Mora hopes to revitalize downtown | Chico City Council District 3

Lifelong Chico resident Melissa Lopez-Mora seeks to represent District 5 as a product of her hometown.

In her senior year studying business at Chico State, Lopez-Mora seeks to represent the student voice for Chico. She acknowledges her youth and respects that others may know more, but she said she is a person who wants to understand, “who’s willing to speak to everybody and anybody” to make better informed decisions.

Lopez-Mora

Lopez-Mora and her husband Preston plan to raise a family in Chico. With a vacant council spot up for grab, Lopez-Mora said she saw an opportunity to give back to her community as a representative.

The big issue

Lopez-Mora is campaigning for increased public safety, citing her top concerns as crime and homelessness.

Having grown up in Chico, she seeks to revitalize downtown into the vibrant place she remembers as a child, and thinks about businesses and their customers that have been impacted by homeless people.

“Chico’s identity for me was public spaces that everyone can enjoy together … going out on hikes in upper park … going downtown at the farmers market,” Lopez-Mora said. “I think right now, it’s just kind of lost some of that sparkle for me, and so I want to keep pushing to get that … upbeat, happy place; best place to live, to raise your family.”

She holds the position that shelter offerings as result of Warren v. Chico have been good for people down on their luck, but that direction should should be made to “better utilize shelters, rather than continuing to build encampments.” She also is in the position that Chico should exit the agreement to more consistently enforce anti-camping laws.

Lopez-Mora said she wants to take care of the local homeless population, rather than other cities homeless people, seeking to keep resources within the local area.

She is a proponent of Proposition 36, and supports law enforcement to follow through with convictions to deter crime.

On infrastructure, Lopez-Mora said she sees taxes as small price to pay, especially for improved roads. She notes the poor road conditions surround her university, but thinks Chico is on now on the right track to improvements and needs to keep pushing.

Ballots for the 2024 November election are scheduled to be mailed out on Oct. 7.