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!
Al's Corner is a place to comment on local issues and articles/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".
Last night, less than an hour after the Rec & Park Commission meeting considered Sky Track #large echo & trumpets#, a bizarre posting appeared on a Facebook Page with the City Logo that reads like an oil company trying to claim environmental brownie points after running an oil tanker into a reef full of penguins:
The capstone of the posting: "The City of Davis and its staff work diligently to ensure a vibrant community that enhances the quality of life for residents, families, children and students."
Oh please. Gag me with a spoon. Make me vomit. I'm heading to the vomitorium to hurl chunks.
Who wrote that, and why? What is really going on here that the City has that written in an hour, and up on the web? It's too perfect. Why would a City website post something so vomitously self-serving? That's not what cities do . . . they are government, not private. Cities shouldn't make proclamations about how great the city and its staff are. I've met several great City staff btw. This isn't about how great or not great any particular staff is. It's about the fact that it is not government's place to toot it's own horn — and we should all be asking: why is it doing so in this case? Something is rotten in West Davis.
And why is the City providing a forum so City residents can get into a Facebook war? So assholes can berate and belittle the neighbors for what, having an issue with the constant sound of metal grating on metal? I had no idea the degree of vitriol from users and abusers of the zip-line. What part of 'metal grating against metal' don't you people understand? This isn't rocket science, it's not even sound science. We all fucking know that metal on metal and a constant grating noise next to where we live can destroy daily life. That isn't a sound you just get used to. We don't need paid sound scientists to use meters and numbers to justify my love when we all know whatever the damn meter says that 'metal grating on metal' is an awful sound. I have not been so disgusted by some Davis people since the Trackside defenders.
More on the Facebook forum There are those playing the 'envy card' — 'you own a house!' – imagine the gall of someone owning a house in Davis :-|. There are those playing the 'you hate children' card, even though they say they never minded any of the sounds or children playing or shrieking in joy — only the grating of metal on metal. There are those playing the 'you get special treatment' card, even though the Krovozas and others are getting shat on by asshole zip-line users/abusers and City government. There's the 'you knew there was a park there when you bought your house' card, even though the Krovoza's pointed out repeatedly that they moved in next to a park and had no problem with that, the zip-line came much later and that is the only and specific noise issue. Metal on Metal!
And why is the City now a propaganda machine? Not that many years ago if I wrote to the City Council, two or three Councilmemebers would write me back with their personal response. Now an 'information officer' sends me a pre-packaged response about how my email was sent to all the Councilmembers. This is a new position paid for with your taxpayer money, and what we get is pre-packaged pablum. Now the propaganda machine is expanded to bizarre City-serving Facebook posts with forums for citizens to berate citizens. The City isn't a corporation that needs a slogan that it "enhances the quality of life for residents, families, children and students." Why are we putting up with this shit?
That meeting last night was bizarre. Truth is lies. Words are reality. Coneheads roam City parks. All that virtual meeting proved to me is a lot of people got dropped on their heads as infants.
Anyway, have fun playing 'Spot the Flaming Davis Assholes' as you read the comments in the Facebook page 😐
P.S. Why do we call it Sky Track with capital letters like it's some special thing with a proper name — instead of "that fucking zip line" ? 😐
Recreation & Parks Commission,
I am highly concerned about the proposal to change the sound standards for the City of Davis. My understanding from articles written by former mayor Joe Krovoza is that standards are in consideration to be changed in terms of duration, levels, and measurement of peaks.
Al's Corner is a place to comment on local issues and articles/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".
Today the D. Vanguard recycled some old content from January 2021 in a 'new' article "Commentary: Long Troubled by Some of the Comments on Pacifico" and sprinkled in some recent content from an Anti-NIMBY Council-meeting public comment.
I, too, am disgusted by some of the comments on Pacifico, but the comments I find twisted are the opposite comments Greenwald is troubled by — those by David Greenwald, Georgina Valencia and some much-DV-recycled comments by Gloria Partida . . . and the rest of the Usual Suspects of the "Anti-NIMBY" crowd.
My position remains immortalized in the following letter:
An Open Letter to South Davis (January 2021)
Hello South Davis,
I don’t live in South Davis, but I’m looking at District 3 100’ away out my window.
I share your problems and your concerns. There is a spot 200’ from my house where drug addicts / drug dealers / thieves camp outdoors. This is not a homeless encampment, it is a revolving crime den. In Spring 2020 I had three scary men on meth (I believe) approach me late at night and one threw rocks at me. There were numerous incidents of mental health outbursts. I slept little for two months as these people were up all night.
Our neighborhood mostly solved the problem *this time* eventually by having meetings with both the Police Chief and his Lieutenant, and relentlessly pestering the City Council. That took two months.
Your problems I have heard regarding Pacifico are similar, and thankfully also seem better but not solved. I am here with you in unity. We cannot participate in these issues only when the problem is next to us. We must support other Davis residents who have similar problems, as the problem is bigger than Pacifico, and bigger than the location next to me.
God Bless the people who are helping the truly homeless population that are in need. Those who spoke today on that are I believe sincere. However, the problem is not the needy, but the criminals. We cannot conflate these.
There have been times when residents, and subtly even our leaders, have shamed “the homed” for being “privileged” and not being sensitive to those in need. These are separate issues. We must recognize the needs of the truly homeless. We must also recognize that there is no shame in having a home and a roof over our heads, nor the need to protect our families and yes, our things.
When people talk of drug dealers and thieves, they are not talking about the needy homeless; we must not conflate the two as a rhetorical trick. We must recognize and acknowledge that shaming the ‘other’ and demonizing those with homes, and those without homes, will not result in constructive resolution. We must recognize the needs of all parties as legitimate. Except for criminals, they ‘need’ to be removed.
Alan C. Miller is a resident of Old East Davis
City Councilmembers,
I note that Healthy Davis Together (HDT) is scheduled to end its public testing services at the end of this month. I am concerned about the timing of this closure during a large surge of Covid-19. The surge is not unexpected with masking reduction, public burnout and a highly-contagious variant. True that far less people are dying, but why shut down testing just as there is a huge upsurge in cases and a small uptick in deaths?
Last time the HDT program was slated for shutdown, I suggested rather than shutting down the program, start charging for testing, and allow for those testing to 'sponsor' more tests by paying for tests for others in need. I believe the community will respond generously. Many I have have spoken to are dismayed at the end of H.D.T testing, and would welcome the continuation of the program as a pay service. I encourage Council to push for this option.
I saw pictures of the previous (first live) City Council meeting in 'a local blog'. Great photos of all of you. But no one on the dais was wearing a mask. Photos of the audience showed a spattering of maskless and masked — using cloth, surgical, N95. What is the mask policy? What is the message the Council wishes to send? Why the choice to have the first live meeting and not wear masks as we headed into a surge?
Society today — supposedly compassionate towards marginalized peoples — is being oddly cruel in dismissing that Covid-19 "only" kills the old and the sick. Are 'old' and 'sick' not marginalized groups that we should care for? Being that I will be 'old' soon (in the category where Covid-19 death is much more likely), I would prefer to live in a society that gives a crap.
I go to one business downtown and they require full N95 masking for all clients who enter. I go to another business wearing a mask and am taken to a closed office with a maskless woman who never even asks if I'd prefer she wore a mask. Many people seem done with Covid-19. Yet, I know more people who have contracted Covid-19 in the last two months than the previous two years. My pre-Covid-19 work building was just declared a 'severe outbreak location' for the first time in the pandemic. But apparently we are tired of Covid-19, so end the testing, end the masking?
Official health guidelines are insanely confusing. The County lists a state website that grades types of masks by their usefulness. N95 is 'very good', surgical is 'good', cloth is 'fair'. This is for a deadly virus.
Can you imagine if health officials used a similar system for prophylactics? Latex is 'very good', lambskin is 'good', a plastic baggie is 'fair' ? Of course for something non-fatal health officials are clear that the only way to protect one's self, and others, is to use a latex condom. But we teach that a cloth mask is a 'fair' option. As the concept of masks has changed from 'everyone helps everyone' to 'everyone for themselves', and all masks are widely available, it is paramount that the vulnerable public is guided to use only the most protective masks.
As well, home Covid-19 tests have proven to frequently give false negatives. This is worse than no tests at all, as people may visit an old and/or vulnerable family member with the false security of having taken an inadequate home test.
I recently learned that although HDT is shutting down, a "test -to-treat" facility is opening in Woodland, offering a same day full round of Paxlovid if one tests positive. I learned about this not from the City, but from the California Aggie. Will a "test-to-treat" facility be opening in Davis soon?
I urge the Council to: A) Wear masks at meetings while the surge continues; B) Continue Healthy Davis Together as a paid program allowing donations for the needy; C) Give a clear message as to where we are in the pandemic that considers a balance between business needs, healthy citizens, and vulnerable citizens; D) Give clear information about testing and treatment available to Davis residents beyond June 30.
Sincerely,
Alan C. Miller
District 3
Al's Corner is a place to comment on local issues and articles/comments in 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".
I haven't read the aftermath article that was no doubt in the Vanguard Wednesday morning. I have grown yawn of the analysis/spin and the predictability. I could write the article. I will go read it for the comments, but without Alan Miller and Keith O., the comments have really become dull. And Ron O., by his descriptions here, half his stuff is censhored. How is censhored content either a discussion or entertaining?
But what has changed is that the key issues/peoples the Vanguard champions died last night. Here's my prediction (or a post-diction since it's already been written): the article will include Measure H, Chesa Boudin and Reisig. Am I close? The Vanguard lost, and all such progressive/woke initiatives are going down, like a sinking submarine. They didn't just go down, they were all massacres. Sinking massacres. Mixed metaphors.
Measure H? 64% vs. 52% last time. So it's getting worse, horribly worse, for the prospects of development. Probably not ever going to be developed unless every taxpayer in Davis is bribed $1000 to vote 'yes'. More voters would have mattered? Doesn't matter, that's how it is. Where were all those student voters voting 'yes' that didn't last time? Not voting, as usual, as students don't. In one of the Valley's most liberal towns, it went down. Must be all the racists on the 'no' SIDE.
Chesa? An initiative on 'defund the police'. Doesn't matter what the stats are. The public has had it. In one of the countries most liberal cities.
Reisig? He stooped pretty low with the child molester attempted link. Then the lipstick-on-a-pig flyer came out. OK now they both stopped low, so no moral advantage there. But again, people in a Valley county with a super-liberal town/city, even Yolo leans law & order. And for me, Reisig's dept. put a murderer behind bars who killed a friend's partner in front of them and their young child. And the murderer should NEVER get out of jail, unless the living victim says so. Period. Majority of us don't believe in term limits for murderers.
MOOB!
With a whopping 11,000 votes cast, Measure H was massacred, going down 64% to 36%, or nearly 2-1. I was actually in favor of the project, slightly, and would have voted for it, had Carson not . . . well, no need to rehash here, you all know — some of you fellow citizens know intimately/legally/financially. With this scaled-back version going down like a rock, it is safe to ask . . . did the decision to bring on Carson and then sue Davis residents kill this project?
I believe the project would not have passed anyway, based on a guess I pulled out of my ass while typing this. But a reasonable question is, could 1500-2000 of those 11,000 Davis residents been so offended by what the developer and Carson did that they changed their vote or made a point of voting when they may not have otherwise? I believe, also sourced from my colon, that the answer is yes, they could have. What I do know is I talked to a lot of people who were very angry at Carson and thought he had made himself into a fool clown. Nothing motivates one to vote like anger at a fool clown.
The main conclusion of the video 'How Do You Die in a Sinking Submarine?' is that you die instantly when the hull implodes. Carson, on the other hand, is going down slowly through June, July, August, September and October. Painfully listening as the political hull creaks and groans under the pressure of his own stupidity reflected back on him from Davis residents, until: BOOM! Or, rather, since submarines implode rather than explode: MOOB!
Why am I being such a dick to Carson? I want to send a clear message so that never again will anyone be so brazen as to:
Personally, I found much of the NO on H ballot argument outrageous; I also found much of the YES ballot argument outrageous. I doubt anyone on the NO side ever thought, 'hey I know, let's sue the YES side over their ballot language'! No, they used media and lawn signs, like normal, decent people do. This skull-f*ckery of suing Davis citizens over ballot language will stop. Y'all should have been intelligent enough to see what a bad idea that was. You weren't.
We all tend to have very short memories when politicians do stupid things. I intend to keep the pressure on, keep the memory of the stupidity going, and hope the people of West Davis are more intelligent than Carson and the developer. The sub is sinking; let's all keep the pressure increasing on the hull over the next five months until we see the bubbles on the surface.
MOOB!
Davisite 
I have aural nerve damage in one ear and so have had to, out of necessity, learn how sound affects the human body. Loud sounds can cause me splitting headaches emanating from the inside of the ear, severe ringing in the ears, internal ear pressure, disorientation, burning, aural misinterpretations, etc. Sound frequency, duration, distance, peak-volume and distortion all factor into the severity of an 'event' as I have come to know them.
Though dependent on particular circumstances, in general shorter bursts of loud sounds are more damaging than longer duration of softer sounds. That is why going with some sort of 'averaging' system would be a tragic mistake. This would ignore the very real damage done by peak sounds. My world-renowned ear doctor from Stanford Ear Clinic would back me up on this. He has coached me on how to live with my condition, which is not treatable.
My ear doctor explains that there is a 'threshold' level at which the noise becomes damaging to hearing (in my case, the threshold is much lower than those with a healthy ear). The PEAK noise is almost always the problem. Therefore, changing the city noise ordinance to consider some AVERAGE measurement as the standard is not only unwise, it is INSANE.
To give an example of how unwise this is, an example everyone can understand – consider train horns. A train horn — at 100' in front of the horn — ranges from 96 to 110 db. Even at the low end this is painfully loud, and on the high end can cause ear damage in just a few seconds. But, if you averaged the railroad noise around the tracks over a period of hours, it would show very low AVERAGE noise as over time there are few trains. The PEAK noise is when the damage is done; AVERAGING OVER TIME would FAIL to CATCH the DAMAGING peak sounds.
While I am more bothered by sound than those with healthy hearing, ear disease is rampant and hugely under-diagnosed in this country. There are many people with my condition and many other hearing diseases who are intolerant of various sound conditions. This is not just about an annoyance, it is at times debilitating.
Another thing to consider is that those close to a noise source suffer from the exposure repeatedly and over time. Those adjacent to noise sources are the people who must be considered paramount and above all else. Let's say a nightclub with sub-woofers goes in next door to someone's house. But ON AVERAGE less than 1% of the people in town even hear the noise. The standard must be on how the noise effects those adjacent, not on the fact that 99% of Davis voters never hear it. Another abominable use of 'average' exposure.
I urge the commission, the City, and the Council to retain current noise-ordinance formulas and standards, and reject any attempt to change the noise ordinance to be more allowing of harmful peak noise exposures.
Sincerely,
Alan C. Miller, District 3