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Davisite Banner. Left side the bicycle obelisk at 3rd and University. Right side the trellis at the entrance to the Arboretum.

Month: October 2018

  • Letter from Orange County Fair Housing Council expresses concern about WDAAC

    The Davisite was forwarded the following letter from the Orange County Fair Housing Council (OCFHC), a private 501(c)(3) non-profit located in Santa Ana, California. The OCFHC raises concerns about the project's use of the term  ‘active adult.'  With respect to the term 'adult,' the letter states that "fair housing and related civil rights laws…do not recognize or sanction adult-only or otherwise age restricted housing within California that falls outside of the specific definition of what constitutes senior housing" and "may give the impression that families with children are not welcome to live in that community."  They also raise the concern that the use of the term 'active' "may tend imply that, even for the properly age restricted portion of the project, people with disabilities may not be welcome."  The letter appears in its entirety below.

     

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  • Fewer Parking Spaces? Paid Parking?

    Paid

    Paid parking will change the character of the downtown experience

    By Daniel Urazandi

    downtowndavis.org is an association of small businesses that oppose paid parking downtown. Here's why: (the city has been unable or unwilling to provide certain numbers upon request. Those are marked by the #? symbol)

    People do not want to pay to park, everyone admits that. Forcing them to will make them visit downtown less and for shorter periods of time. The city calls this increasing parking availability, we call it driving traffic away from downtown. Less drivers means less customers, less sales, eventually less shops.

    The city's plan not only doesn't add a single parking space, it takes away an undisclosed #? amount as the meters will come with ADA legislated handicapped only spaces in the streets. Since the existing handicapped spaces are not all used these will be mostly vacant spaces.

    No new spaces means the only way promised space will be created will be by driving other drivers away. Who gets run off in the city's plan?

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  • Keeping Davis White? Land Use Policy Is A Civil Rights Issue

    PartIII-1

    The March on Washington, Aug. 28, 1963

    By Rik Keller

    “What has kept Davis so white?”

    —City of Davis Mayor Pro Tempore Gloria Partida 10/3/2018

    This is Part III in a series of articles about the history and ongoing patterns of housing discrimination in Davis.

    Introduction

    In Part 1: “Why Is Davis So White? A Brief History of Housing Discrimination” and Part 2 “How White Is Davis Anyway? A Comparative Demographic Analysis” of this series, other types of housing discrimination practices were mentioned that have continued even after explicit racial discrimination practices ended; for example, subprime lending that and “exclusionary zoning” that result in development patterns that focus on low-density single family houses and exclude more affordable housing types.

     The point is, to borrow a quotation, “The past isn’t dead. It isn’t even past”.

    An article about the 50th anniversary of the passage of the Fair Housing Act this year stated: “As Richard Rothstein explains in his groundbreaking book The Color of Law, our past segregationist policies have deep roots. Explicit discrimination may be outlawed, but indirect segregation via disinvestment and exclusionary land use policies remain common themes in our country today.” [https://www.housingvirginia.org/news/microblog-50-celebrating-the-fair-housing-act/]The history and dynamics of these issues in Sacramento have been studied by Dr. Jesus Hernandez from the Sociology Department at UC Davis. His “research focuses on understanding the connection between economic market activity in the region and the patterns of racial segregation that we have.” [https://www.capradio.org/news/the-view-from-here/2017/08/15/s10-e2-transcript-segregated-sacramento/]

     

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  • Housing Shortage: Yes on L Offers Housing Choices

    Measure LGuest Commentary

    By Dave Taormino, a Davis Housing Provider, WDAAC Developer 

    Housing Shortage: Yes on L Offers Housing Choices

     

    Davis is one of only a few cities in California that has a self-inflicted shortage of homes and apartments. A massive housing shortage exists in the Bay Area because of the lack of land and tremendous job growth.  The same problem occurs in Southern California.

    Davis needs more housing of several types: for seniors, locally based employees and more student complexes on campus. At least student apartments have made progress, but none for seniors and others.

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  • Planning First

    006by Bob Schneider

    Properly planned, the northwest corner of Davis offers an important opportunity for meeting development needs in Davis in a manner that reflects Davis values. Neighborhoods, a natural habitat swale for the Covell drainage, flood water pond storage, edible vegetation, affordable co-housing, senior housing, community gardens, appropriate commercial, and live-work buildings, bordered by protected farmland and open space reflects my values and I believe our Davis values.

    Working towards this vision necessitates a General Plan update or a Northwest Specific Plan.

    Piecemeal development, focusing on one development at a time, may preclude this important opportunity.

    I suggest  we delay  any immediate  decisions  until the new council is seated.    They can make a thorough, inclusive, and comprehensive decision without a rush to judgement on how we should best proceed.

    For full disclosure- Yes, I was a builder and developer and for a time I v.,ras involved in the northwest area. My interest then, as now, was in first ensuring comprehensive planning. I no longer have any involvement or financial ties to this area.

    (Originally published June 2018)

  • Why such deceitful attacks on affordable senior housing at the expense of the real needs of very low income Davis seniors?

    By William Powell and David Thompson

    We have never seen such an exaggerated litany of attacks against needed affordable housing for low income seniors in Davis. This is from the perspective of our combined 60 years of serving the needs of low income seniors in Davis.  The future needs of low income seniors in Davis should not become cannon fodder by the representative of the No campaign in their false war on affordable senior housing. We believe Davis seniors deserve better and that Davis voters deserve an honest debate.

    So, as long time Davis senior housing providers, we are taking on two issues of the No on Measure L representative – keeping in mind that Winston Churchill once said: 

    “A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its trousers on.”

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  • Sacramento Region Foundation Sends David Murphy Scholarship Award Monies to Two Colleges for 2018-19 Academic Year

    The David Murphy Annual Scholarship for Immigrants/their Children

    (From Press Release) When David Murphy announced his retirement in 2007 as the Davis superintendent, friends and community members asked him what he would like as a retirement gift. 

    His request was for contributions towards raising $20,000 to perpetually endow an annual $1,000 scholarship for a graduate of a Davis high school, who was either an immigrant – or son/daughter of an immigrant – and who had demonstrated their academic achievement to be successful in college. He did not expect to reach that goal for several years.

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  • Experiencing intimidation from your landlord concerning Prop 10?

    Rampart-letter(From Sacramento Tenants Union Facebook page) Are you or anyone you know experiencing intimidation from your landlord directly due to Prop 10 (Repeal Costa-Hawkins to allow cities/counties to adopt rent control) and voting for the Nov. 2018 election?

    It's happening elsewhere in California; let us know if this despicable behavior is happening in the Sacramento metro area, too!

    Email: SacTenantsUnion@gmail.com

    [Image description: A letter from Rampart Property Management in Los Angeles, which manages more than 12+ apartment complexes. The letter informs tenants of a pending rent increase in response to the ballot measure.]

  • City Recruits for Advisory Commissions

    The following is a press release from the City of Davis. I encourage Davisites to apply for Commissions they are interested in serving on.  I have served on the Open Space and Habitat Commission for a number of years now and find it to be a rewarding experience.  I’d be happy to chat with anyone who is interested about serving on the OSHC in particular (since we need members, as you can see from below) or on City Commissions in general.  –Roberta Millstein

    The City of Davis is accepting applications from citizens, 18 years of age and older, interested in serving on one of the following commissions:

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  • Uncivil Discourse at the CivEnergy Forum

    Yes-On-LThe Yes on L side did not behave well at Sunday’s CivEnergy forum. 

    This inappropriate behavior certainly wasn’t CivEnergy’s fault.  They had picked an excellent moderator in the form of attorney and former City Council candidate Linda Deos, who asked fair and neutral fact-finding-oriented questions about the West Davis Active Adult Community (WDAAC) project.  And along the same lines, CivEnergy’s Bob Fung crafted from audience comment cards two more neutrally worded questions.  Actually, all were framed in terms of discussions rather than questions, a touch that I rather liked.  Deos further warned forum participants to keep their answers focused on the project and not make them personal.  Alas, that was not to be.

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