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Author: davisite2

  • Getting the Nishi Discussion Out of the Rabbit Hole: Part 2 of 2 (Red herrings? No, bad planning)

    MeasureJ-forum

    By Colin Walsh and Matt Williams

    In Part 1, we detailed the three main reasons to vote against Nishi 2.0/Measure J that we gave at the CivEnergy forum on May 6: 1) bad air quality, 2) costs, and 3) lack of integrity in the process. If the City and the developer could rectify these three concerns by demonstrating that the air quality was acceptable for housing with an onsite study, by fixing the budget shortfall, and by returning integrity to the process, then housing could be built at Nishi – but then the project should be far larger than it is.  The current proposal is too small and does not make proper use of the site.

    Instead of addressing these three serious concerns, the Vanguard spends the entirety of its May 9, 2018 article addressing the so-called “Red Herrings,” all of which were points of discussion stemming from audience questions. Here in Part 2, we show how each of the points the Vanguard raised are examples of bad planning on the part of the city, possibly due to the rush to put this matter on the June ballot at the request of the developer. Each of these concerns are real problems with the ordinance the City Council voted to put on the ballot. Clearly this ordinance should have been better vetted before going to Council. 

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  • Please support – and push even further – City staff’s recommendations on housing in UCD’s Long Range Development Plan

    Watertower-ucdavisBy Greg Rowe

    Item 4.L. on next Tuesday’s City Council consent agenda is a report on the draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) for the UC Davis Long Range Development Plan.  The report recommends that the City Council authorize the City Manager or his designee to finalize and submit a comment letter on the DEIR to UCD by the May 29 deadline.   The draft comment letter is attached to the staff report.  

    The link to next Tuesday’s City Council report and draft comment letter is below. Although the report is on the Council’s consent agenda, readers are encouraged to support the draft comment letter during the Council meeting’s public comment period.  Due to ceremonial presentations, the regular agenda is not scheduled to start until 7:10 PM.

    http://documents.cityofdavis.org/Media/Default/Documents/PDF/CityCouncil/CouncilMeetings/Agendas/20180515/04L-UCD-LRDP-Draft-EIR-Comments.pdf

    The proposed draft comment letter prepared by City staff is right on target, hitting all of the shortcomings of the draft LRDP and DEIR. In January of last year the City transmitted a detailed 9-page comment letter to UCD on the letterhead of the City Attorney’s law firm, Best Best & Krieger.  That letter, which responded to the DEIR Notice of Preparation (NOP) issued early last year by UCD, provided excellent critical analysis, comments and suggestions.  It was, in fact, one of the best NOP comment letters I’ve seen in more than 30 years working with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). It is now unfortunate that UCD decided once again to completely ignore the City’s concerns. I developed a similarly detailed comment letter, which it now appears was likewise ignored by UCD in developing both the draft LRDP and the recently released DEIR.

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  • Brody for Beeman for Davis City Council

    EzraGreetings fellow residents of Davis, I hope this message resonates with all of you. The City Council race in Davis will be such an important choice for this City going forward. I myself have lived in Davis for only 2 years as a current student. However, contrary to popular belief, I do not wish to leave abruptly after my academic tenure here at UC Davis. This is such a great place to live, and that’s why it’s imperative that the City elect a leader that will speak for all Davis residents, young and old, student and non-student alike. That’s why I’m backing Beeman.

    Shortly after I left the race several months ago, Ezra was the first candidate to reach out in solidarity, in an effort to hear what my concerns and platform issues were in this highly contested race. After our conversation, and several to follow, I concluded that Ezra Beeman would suit the city's needs and speak for all of its residents. In a field full of diverse and qualified candidates, I think Ezra has the perfect amount of salt and pepper in his hair to get the job done. Although Ezra was not the only candidate to reach out to me, he was the only one I felt that could truly resonate a tangible connection with my cohort of young students and professionals.

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  • Getting the Nishi Discussion Out of the Rabbit Hole: Part 1 of 2 (air quality, finances, lack of integrity)

    MeasureJ-forum
    By Colin Walsh and Matt Williams

    The Davis Vanguard’s article of May 9, 2018 (“Commentary: Enough with the Weird Red Herrings”) is a disservice to the Davis Community. Instead of addressing the main body of the CivEnergy Measure J Forum (held on May 6), the article goes down a rabbit hole of answers given in response to audience questions.

    Let’s start with the basics. As we stated at the CivEnergy forum, there are three main reasons to vote against this project: 1) bad air quality, 2) costs, and 3) lack of integrity in the process.

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  • Davis Police Making Latinas Feel Unwelcome in Davis

    DPD-patch

    Photo credit: Davis Wiki

    As a Latina mother of two. my incident with a Davis police officer is hard for me to retell due to how degrading it feels to remember. Yet such stories are crucial to share with community, so we all are aware of Davis Police improper behavior

    One sunny afternoon at the end of January, 2018, I with my daughter and her friend decided to take Ragsy, our pet rabbit, out for a walk in Willowcreek Park. We were excited to try out his new leash on a walk outside after much indoor time during the rainy season.

    As we arrived in the park it was immediately clear that the two unleashed dogs would pose a risk to our rabbit. I asked the owners of the dogs to please leash their dogs because I had two young kids and a leashed rabbit with me. The middle-aged white man seemed to agree and said he understood. He would tell his friend, a white woman, who had a teenager and elementary-school-aged kid with her. And they would both leash their dogs. I thanked him and walked away smiling.

    Sadly, they refused to comply. He casually walked over to the woman; they both laughed; they did not leash their poodle or lab.

     

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  • You Can’t Compare Davis with San Francisco

    Bridge-bike
    By Jon Li

    Roberta Millstein recently wrote in the Davisite that if six to ten story buildings were allowed in the Davis Downtown area, then there would be all kinds of urban problems, citing an article in the San Francisco Chronicle.

    Wait a minute.  You can’t compare suburban Davis with world famous celebrity magnet City By The Bay with over ten times the population of 750,000.  There are villages, nooks, streets that have more economy, more society, more culture than all of Davis put together.   I get that some people came to Davis to escape that rat race, but many people who work in Davis commute from SF.

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  • Fact Checking Claims by Opponents of Measure H – Parks Tax

    Park
    Photo credit: Davis Wiki


    By Alan Pryor

    Measure H is a 20-year parcel tax for Parks Maintenance at $49 per year per residential parcel (or per apartment for multifamily dwellings) increasing at 2% per annum.

    The signers of the Argument Against the Measure and the Rebuttal to the Argument For the Measure are all the same, as follow;

    Michael Nolan, Acting President of Yolo County Taxpayers Association,

    John Munn, Former Member of the Board of Education of the Davis Joint Unified School District,

    Don Price, Emeritus Professor of History, University of California Davis,

    Pam Nieberg, Former Co-Chair, Yes on Measure O (City of Davis Open Space Ordinance)

    These signers are a disparate group of individuals representing fiscal conservatives and social progressives in Davis.

    In their Arguments Against Measure H and their Rebuttal to the Argument in Favor of Measure H, these signers made some serious claims and allegations against the City as a fiscally responsible agent and the trustworthiness of the statements made by the Measure’s proponents in fairly assessing the Measures’ impacts and honestly reporting them to the electorate.

    This article investigates these claims and attempts to quantitatively verify their accuracy. In doing so, some independent investigations and fact-checking were done and some of the information was obtained in response to direct inquiries to the campaign.

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  • Davis Police Officers PAC Pours Money into Reisig’s DA Campaign

    Pileofmoney-croppedBy Gilbert Coville and Roberta Millstein

    The Davis Enterprise has reported that the "Davis Police Officers PAC” donated $500 to Jeff Reisig’s campaign for Yolo County District Attorney.  Jeff Reisig, the incumbent, is being challenged by Deputy Public Defender Dean Johannson. However, the article only covers contributions up through April 21, 2018. 

    Since then, the PAC (officially called “Davis Police Officers’ Association Political Activities Committee”) donated $2000 on April 27 and another $14,000 on May 3, according to two Form 497 24-hour contribution reports filed with the Davis City Clerk.  Such forms must be filed when a PAC donates more than $1000 to a candidate’s campaign.

    In total, then, the Davis Police Officers PAC has donated $16,500 to Reisig’s re-election campaign so far.

    Readers may draw whatever conclusions from this information that they wish.

  • Former Mayor Joe Krovoza Endorses Larry Guenther and Ezra Beeman

    Larry-Ezra

    Joe Krovoza (Davis City Council 2010-2014, Mayor of Davis 2011-2014) has given the Davisite permission to publish the following letter, distributed to his friends via email.

    Hello, Friends.  I hope and trust this note finds you well.  I am being asked who I support for City Council in 2018 — for the two open seats and it's Larry Guenther and Ezra Beeman.  Larry and Ezra will work tirelessly for Davis.  They understand and will advance what makes Davis unique: school-city connections; supporting seniors; parks; partnerships with UC Davis; a vibrant downtown; and so much more.

    Feel free to forward this on.

    My view is Larry and Ezra will be the best match for the leadership our new mayor Brett Lee will provide.  Brett will be outstanding; he has all the right values for Davis and the conviction to do what's best for Davis long-term; I want Brett to have a strong council that will contribute to his visionary and his pragmatic approaches. 

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  • Why the Davis Downtown Economy is Falling Apart

    Bw-bicyclestatueBy Jon Li

    Do you wonder about the empty stores in Downtown Davis? Don't you wish there was somebody on the City of Davis Staff who is responsible for improving our local economy?

    Last week, the City of Davis held its "Downtown Davis Plan Team Participatory Design Workshop" for four days. It was lectures by highly paid outside consultants mouthing what the Davis Staff has decided is going to be in the Downtown element of the new Davis General Plan.  State law says ours is out of date now and must be updated. Davis Staff set up a process with as little public input as possible. They only want to legally check off the box "public input."

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