Month: July 2022

City of Davis survey results
How are you feeling about your city?

By Roberta Millstein

Recently, the City released the results of a periodic survey it does to take the pulse of Davis's residents. The results are online here.

The survey was conducted April 12 – 19, 2022 using a a multi-modal methodology: telephone, text- and email-to-web. There were 500 interviews with an estimated margin of error ±4.37 percentage points.

The staff report highlights some "key takeaways":
- more than two-thirds of residents are optimistic about the direction of the City
- more than 75% are satisfied with City services
- affordable housing, homelessness and public safety are the top three areas of concern for residents
- social media platforms and communications from the City are gaining popularity as a source of local news
Those are indeed interesting takeaways, although as always with the term "affordable housing," one wonders if people intend the legal meaning, or if they are unhappy with the affordability of housing more generally, or both.

Below are two panels of the survey that I found interesting. In the first panel, only 23% of citizens are dissatisfied with city services but 39% are dissatisfied with the City Council. So it seems that the dissatisfaction with the City Council is over and above the dissatisfaction with the provision of city services. As for the second panel, as a longtime subscriber to the Davis Enterprise I am glad to see that it remains our top source for news. I hope that people support it with subscriptions because there really is no other comparable source in Davis.

I'm curious to hear people's thoughts and reflections about the survey, so please leave comments if you'd like to weigh in!
July 8, 2022
Welcome to Al’s Corner – “Pouring Gasoline on the Dumpster Fire of Davis Politics” – Volume #8

Al's Corner is a place to comment on local issues and articles and/or comments from other local forums that you may or may not have been banned from. For the few Rule-ez at Al's Corner, see "Pages" –> "Al's Corner – What It Is". Burn Baby Burn!

July 7, 2022
Happy 4th of July?

By Roberta Millstein

When I was growing up on the east coast, 4th of July was always a wonderful day. My father, a WWII vet, loved fireworks and imparted that combination of awe, excitement, and patriotism to my sister and me. We'd head to the next town over and stake out a position on the grass and wait for the amazing display from a barge on the river. It was always over way too fast, the "big finale" being the part you looked forward to the most while knowing that it signaled the end.

Of course, I want everyone to have a good day. I want children to have wonderful experiences like the one I was able to have as a child. No one wants to be a killjoy.

But.

I also want our celebration of the 4th of July to be a genuine one – that is, a celebration of freedom.

It's hard to feel free when 6 people are dead and more than 2 dozen hospitalized for the sin of attending a 4th of July parade, when mass shootings have become a daily event and our elected lawmakers fail to take action that would make a difference.

It's hard to feel free when 50% of the population has just been told that their bodies are not theirs to control, that the state can make one of the most fundamental and life-changing decisions for them.

It's hard to feel free when in the same decision, one of our Supreme Court justices threatens to eliminate the right for heterosexual couples to use contraception, the right for homosexual couples to have sex, and the right for gay people to get married.

It's hard to feel free when racially-motivated voter restriction laws have been passed across the country, preventing full participation in our democracy.

It's hard to feel free when Black Americans are incarcerated at nearly five times the rate of white Americans.

As civil rights leader Fannie Lou Hamer said, nobody’s free until everybody’s free.

Meanwhile, Davis's "celebration" continues as planned even with known harms of fireworks both for those who are attending and not attending, spewing toxic chemicals into the air, triggering PTSD in humans, and scaring animals into bolting.

When is Davis going to have a more appropriate celebration, one that is healthy and recognizes the liberties we have as well as the liberties we still have to fight for?

When are we going to start fighting for our liberties?

July 4, 2022
The City Council should require masks at meetings

An open letter to the new Davis mayor and the city council:

I attended the city council meeting in person this week for the first time in over two years. I wore a N95 mask for the entire meeting. A few of the audience also wore masks. Unfortunately, none of the councilmembers or city staff did likewise (although the city attorney had one on for at least part of the time).

Also this week I had to call city hall on business and was informed on the phone that masks are required in city facilities for both vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals.

The Yolo County COVID website states: "Yolo County strongly recommends you wear a well-fitting, high quality mask in indoor public settings when COVID case rates are moderate to high (above 7 cases per 100,000)." The current weekly average case rate is 45.8 cases per 100K individuals, six times higher than the recommended minimum level for masks, and higher than the average state rate of 36.8.

By holding public meetings and not requiring masks the Council and staff put themselves and members of the public (and by extension their families) at increased risk for COVID infections.

Given how well the city and community have responded to the COVID pandemic in the past two years, I am disappointed the council has not seen fit to require masks for themselves, staff, and attendees at meetings. Please follow the county health officer's recommendations.

The pandemic is not over.

Robert Canning

July 2, 2022