At its February 20 meeting, the City Council was supposed to review a proposal to bring a large, corporate gym to the Cannery, a change to the original proposal that the developer is asking for. The Council decided at the request of the developer to delay the item until March 13, but a number of people gave public comment anyway.
I found many of these comments to be heartfelt, insightful, and persuasive, but one resonated with me in particular because it was so similar to my own experience, and also because I think it has very far-reaching implications:
I wouldn't consider myself to be a Davisite. I was not born and raised here. I grew up in Riverside, California, so when it comes to the big city, to being around… big corporate chains, I'm not a stranger to that. When I was 18, I moved out of my parents' house and I attended UC Davis. And I remember when I first came to Davis, that it was very different from what I was used to back home. You could actually talk to people on the street. They didn't look at you weird, they didn't get angry with you, and one of the things that I found that I really loved about Davis is that people really do care about their community. People really do want to put back into it, they really want to help each other out… One of the reasons why I chose to stay in Davis was because of that community environment, was because everyone wanted to be local, everyone wants to help each other out. That's something that I didn't get back home in Riverside. Everyone's hustling and bustling, people don't even know their own neighbors, I mean it really is night and day when you look at the culture of the City… I really love it here, that's why I stayed, I didn't go back to Riverside, and I really do like that it has that small-town feel.
I think this is a powerful argument (among other important considerations) for why the City Council should not approve the developer's new proposal, and I hope they heed the public outcry against this change to the Cannery at their next meeting.
But here is why it resonated with me. I moved to Davis 11 years ago with my partner Gilbert after living in Silicon Valley for 13 years. Year after year we had made valiant attempts to meet our neighbors, but Silicon Valley just wasn't that type of place. And it certainly wasn't the type of place that felt like any sort of "community." One city slid right into another, with only a small sign to mark the change. The vast majority of people were not involved in city politics or even knew much about what was going on locally. There were some small businesses, to be sure, but there was also the omnipresent El Camino Real and its brethren, crisscrossing Silicon Valley with big box after big box of unwalkable, unbikeable roadways and large, soulless tech "parks."
Now to be completely honest, I did not fall in love with Davis immediately upon moving here. I had never lived in a place like this, surrounded by farmland, a bit isolated from where everyone is "hustling and bustling." I walked down the street, and not only did people say hello, they started conversations! That really threw me for a loop (in a good way). But I came to love this place where everywhere you go, you run into someone you know, where (as the commenter said) people really care about their community and want what's best for it, where I can call on my neighbors for anything I need (and have, and they can call on me in return), where I can buy food that is grown not far from where I live and feel connected to my agricultural surroundings. My 70 mile round-trip freeway commute became a 3 mile round-trip bike ride.
Evidently, it is not just me and my fellow citizen commenter who values these things. The front page of the Chamber of Commerce touts Davis's "small-town style," its "unique, progressive, vibrant and family-oriented city," its "close-knit and friendly community," its "active lifestyle."
So, the question I want to raise here is whether there are other things besides a big box gym at the Cannery that are threatening the things that make Davis special. I think that there are. There is a lot of talk these days about Davis's housing crisis, and there is a serious housing problem, to be sure. But some people think that the solution is to approve every single housing proposal that comes down the pike. What I don't see is any analysis of the consequences for Davis of approving all of these proposals. We examine them one at a time, but who is looking at the big picture, the consequences of increased traffic and increased people? And given that we cannot grow out of our problems (as I argued in another blog post), will we end up sacrificing what we love most about our City and still not have solved the housing crisis?
There is a place for the Silicon Valleys of the world, the Sacramentos of the world, the Vacavilles of the world. But Davis does not have to be one of those places.
Davisite 
Leave a comment