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Author: davisite2

  • Op Ed on City Street Tree Relinquishment

    Savedavistrees

    Arbor Day tree planting event in 2022. Davis became a Tree City USA in 1977 and was one of the first in the state to receive this distinction.

    Don’t prune the tree care budget, let the voters decide!

    By Greg McPherson

    Davis’ urban forest is a “living umbrella.” The benefits of a healthy and growing tree canopy include providing clean air, shading streets, pedestrians, and buildings, reducing stormwater runoff, increasing property values, calming traffic, reducing noise, and contributing to reduced crime rates.

    Davis has a robust urban forest thanks to an enthusiastic community, dedicated non-profits like Tree Davis and Cool Davis, expertise from UC Davis, and the amount of attention and value the city has put towards their urban forestry program. However, the city has faced challenges associated with inadequate funding for the program. For example, the lack of scheduled park tree maintenance was associated with a jury finding the city fully liable for $24.2 million in damages due to a 2021 death from a falling limb in Slide Hill Park. To address tree liability issues the city has added about 50% of the funding requested ($500,000) to inspect and prune trees on a 3-year cycle in high occupancy zones like downtown and parks.

    Many of our larger trees are failing due to old age, drought stress from loss of turf irrigation, and new pests and diseases. The city removes about 200 trees per year. Many trees are removed illegally or “hat-racked” because the city is short on funds to enforce our own ordinance to protect trees. See the ironically named Oak Tree Plaza on Covell for a recent example.

    The City’s 2023 Urban Forest Management Plan recommends a baseline of no net tree canopy loss, but resources to track this information are lacking. Also, the Plan notes that about 6,000 of the 30,000 inventoried trees are within the street tree easement but not maintained by the city. This lack of clarity is costly to the city because frequent “ownership checks” require staff to review index cards dating back to the 1970s or developer agreements to determine who owns a tree, and sometimes the results are inconclusive. This situation is unfair and confusing for the city and residents.

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  • Clarifying the Realities of Downpayment Assistance in Davis

    By Barbara Clutter

    In their August 11 piece in The Davisite, Dan Carson and Elaine Roberts Musser rely on a preliminary report from the City’s Fiscal Commission subcommittee on Downpayment Assistance to argue that Davis should align with existing state programs, such as CalHFA (CA Housing Finance Agency), which assisted 30,000 California homebuyers in 2025. Carson/Musser point out that only two of those recipients were from Davis, implying a missed opportunity for our city. However, what they do not acknowledge is the underlying reason so few Davis residents qualify for CalHFA is the high cost of housing. Families working under CalHFA's income limits generally find that qualifying housing is virtually nonexistent in Davis, making the program largely inaccessible in Davis.

    Musser and Carson also highlight SB 417, a proposed $10 billion statewide housing bond measure which would primarily fund rehabilitation of infrastructure and existing housing. While it earmarks $1 billion for downpayment assistance, no community is guaranteed any of these prospective funds, even if the bond measure is passed in 2026.

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  • Fiscal Commissioners Propose the State Pay for New Housing Program Instead of Davis Taxpayers

    By Dan Carson and Elaine Roberts Musser

    We were disappointed when the Davis City Council adopted an ordinance last January authorizing a new city-funded downpayment assistance program for lower-income Davis homebuyers. It put on the books a potentially expensive new program city taxpayers can ill afford. It did so with a blank-check ordinance lacking normal programmatic limits, like how much money would be given to a potential homebuyer. 

    At the time, advocates of the new downpayment assistance program lobbied for an annual allocation of new General Fund monies of $1 million or more from Measure Q.  Measure Q was an increase in the city sales tax approved by city voters last November. 

    That didn’t happen once the full impacts of out-of-control spending by the City Council became clear. Excessive pay hikes and bonuses for city staff, including another round of new contracts rushed through in May, have gotten the City of Davis into very serious financial trouble. A new fiscal forecast shows that within the next couple of years the city will have zero financial reserves, with spending exceeding General Fund revenues by millions annually. 

    Essentially, all that new money from Measure Q has gone up in a puff of smoke. This, despite campaign promises by the Council of new housing programs and fixes to our city infrastructure. Promises that were made in public statements and official ballot arguments the Council signed and that were sent to every registered city voter.

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  • Mass Starvation Used to Ethnically Cleanse Gaza, Our Federal Representatives Are Responsible

    Gaza15

    Photo modified from multiple sponsored USCPRACT.ORG

    By Scott Steward

    This has to stop.  I could not continue my regular day after listening to the 15-minute interview on Breaking Points 8/1 time mark, minute 33 to minute 48 with Dr. Ambereen Sleemi, Urogynecologist and Executive Director of the International Medical Response Foundation. Dr. Sleemi returned this week from volunteering for several weeks at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza. (Note: Breaking Points newscast produces lengthy reporting, and therefore, readers should skip to the time stamp to hear her interview.  The excerpts that follow my editorial are from Democracy Now and have much of the same content as the Breaking Points interview).

    As a taxpayer to the US federal government and a constituent of three US federal representatives, Mike Thompson (Congressman District 4) and two Senators, Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff, it is the least I can do to publish an excerpt of this firsthand account of the conditions of mass deliberate starvation of Palestinian civilians in Gaza. 

    Mr. Thompson, Padilla and Schiff are guilty of aiding in the mass extermination of a national ethnicity and in the case of Padilla and Schiff, guilty of having recently voted against two Senate Resolutions to block more than $675 million in weapons sales to Israel — only weapons that were offensive in nature, the resolution did not seek to block defensive weapons.

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  • Davis Rabbi shares Reform Judaism Movement’s Statement on Starvation in Gaza

    [Note: There are three parts to this post: an "unauthorized" preface by Alan Hirsch (his word), a message from Rabbi Jeremy Simons to Davis Congregation Bet Haverim (shared with permission), and then "Reform Judaism Movement’s (URJ+) Statement on Starvation in Gaza," which Rabbi Simons shared with his congregation].

     

    Unauthorized preface by Alan Hirsch

    Please read carefully both statements beyond headline and first paragraphs. These are likely “Straussian texts” after Maimonides – i.e. contain nuances and facts that may challenge the topic sentence.  This I conjecture reflects the divergence in opinion on Israel within the liberal (‘reform’) part of Religious Jewish community that its leadership has to straddle.  I believe the fact it only once references Netanyahu between two of them – and does not note his conduct of the war– is interesting. Don’t jump to conclusions- read closely and decide for yourself.

     

    Message from Rabbi Simons:

    Dear CBH members & friends,

    I write to you having returned from vacation this morning. Like many of you, I have spent the last few weeks reading about the increasingly dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza. The situation is complex; however, one thing is not: allowing people to starve to death, especially children, is wrong. There are those, including cabinet members of the current Israeli government, who say the lives of any of the 20 remaining hostages are worth more than those of all Gazans combined. While I believe Hamas bears responsibility for this disaster, there is a difference: Hamas is evil, and Israel is not. We ought to hold Israel to a higher standard. Israel, and Israel alone, has the power to allow or prohibit aid. To keep hundreds of tons of food in storage while people die of hunger miles away is indefensible. I say that not because I hate Israel–God forbid–but because I love it. I will not allow Zionism to be redefined by bigots and zealots who say, proudly, that Jewish lives are the only one’s worth saving. Condemning a country’s actions and policies is not the same as condemning a country. Tochecha (rebuke) is necessary, as is demanding immediate humanitarian aid and an end to this war that will see the return of the remaining hostages. Below is a statement from the URJ that I urge you to read.

    Rabbi Jeremy Simons
    Davis Congregation Bet Haverim

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  • City of Davis Fails to Meet Model County Standards for Budget Management

    By Elaine Roberts Musser

    The County Board of Supervisors has set for itself a series of excellent budgeting principles they are following in a very responsible way.  Below in italics are the ones most applicable to the City of Davis budget.  What follows are comments under each sensible standard briefly explaining how our City Council is faring.

    “The budget should be structurally balanced…” With the adoption of the new two year budget cycle, the City’s General Fund expenditures will have exceeded revenues for 5 years in a row, which is just not fiscally sustainable.

    “Ongoing expenditures should not be funded by one-time or non-recurring revenue sources.” American Rescue Plan funds were used to create new programs, with no discernible plan on how to continue funding them once the money dried up, other than new taxes.  Citizens don’t have money trees growing in their collective backyards to fund continual demands for new taxes every time the City runs out of money.

    “Reserves… shall be funded at levels consistent with best practices…” The General Fund reserve is about 11%, $4 million dollars short of the city’s target of 15%. So what happens if there is another fiscal emergency?

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  • Let’s celebrate the 4th of July another way

    The following open letter is posted here with consent of the author.

    Honorable Council Members and staff,

    It is that time of year again for me to respectfully ask that we permanently eliminate the use of fireworks in Davis.

    Now is the time to NOT enter into another contract to convert our tax money into terrifying explosions and toxic smoke in 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026* and beyond. (*please don’t make me cross out another and send this again next year)

    It is a disservice to our community to purposefully add air and noise pollution, litter and fire danger. Better, cleaner, safer ways to spend public funds include: Dancing, drone shows, musical performances or just free drinks and ice cream. How can we declare a climate emergency and then pay money to purposefully pollute the air merely for the entertainment of a few? We should not be celebrating a prettied-up depiction of war when there are genuine bombs currently “bursting in air” and killing people in real conflicts, using American-made bombs. The noise and pollution from a fireworks show is terrifying and deadly for the animals that live with us, and for wildlife. Your choice of patriotic entertainment is not appropriate in this era and this climate and with the knowledge we have.

    Other communities are managing to move away from this polluting spectacle. I’m running out of patience with the “other forms of entertainment are more expensive” mantra. Because supplying a full contingent of security and emergency personnel, plus the money for fireworks is also “more expensive” than not doing the fireworks show. But somehow, doing this destructive thing is deemed an appropriate use of sparse (we’re constantly told) tax money.

    Offer free (locally-made) ice cream. Offer free (local) live musical performances. Offer daylight fun that doesn’t terrify, injure and kill other things. Please spend my tax money more responsibly in a way that terrifies nobody.

    A final ask: Refrain from sending out patronizing official notices that seek to instruct me on how to protect my dog from this city-sponsored terrorism. There is no way to prevent her reaction: trembling, drooling and fearing for her life. I know how to take care of my dog. And there is no place in my home where she feels safe when the fireworks go off. She is terrified of the feel of them, as well as the sound.

    Please, let’s find an appropriate way for Davis to Celebrate our country’s independence next year. Burning up money and resources to celebrate war and endangering everybody is not the way.

    Darell Dickey

  • Things are Ducky in Davis

    By Alan "Lorax" Hirsch

    Congrats are in order as Dillan Horton ends his long tenure as Chair of the Police Accountability Commission and helping navigate the complete rethinking of policing in Davis. This change is best exemplified by this picture off social media from F Street between North Davis Pond & Cannery hi rises.

    Police cartoon make way for ducklings

    Capitalizing on Dillan's success, have heard a rumor Council is now thinking of combining Police Accountability Commission with Open Spaces and Habitation Commission …and also possibly the Street Safety/Transportation Commission. Similar to an earlier proposal in January 2024 to combine the city's Human Relations Commission (after its great successes!) with the Public Arts Commission.

    Thinks are so Ducky in Davis.

     

    From book: "Make Way for Ducklings"

  • #DisappearedinAmerica Protests TODAY in Davis, Woodland & West Sacramento

    Residents of Davis, Woodland & West Sacramento to participate in nationwide demonstrations on June 26 confronting the Trump administration’s illegal abductions, detentions, and deportations. #DisappearedinAmerica

    Screen Shot 2025-06-26 at 10.58.43 AM(From press release) Residents will gather 4:30 – 5:30 PM in:

    • Davis at City Hall, 23 Russell Blvd
    • Woodland at the Courthouse, 1000 Main St.
    • West Sacramento at City Hall, 1110 W. Capitol Ave.

    to speak out for people who have been disappeared by the Trump Administration and demand an end to vigilante terrorism.  No Vigilantes! No Masks! 

    On Thursday, June 26th, Yolo County residents will show up at three locations in Davis, Woodland and West Sacramento to join activists across the country for #DisappearedInAmerica, a national day of action led by a coalition of immigrant rights, faith, rule of law, and pro-democracy organizations. Together, Yolo County residents are mobilizing to shine a light on a disturbing reality: under Trump’s immigration agenda, people like Kilmar Abrego Garcia, Mahmoud Khalil, and Andry Hernandez Romero are being forcibly detained, deported, and disappeared. Yolo County residents are united in demanding transparency, accountability, and due process for all.

    With the Trump administration doubling down on its abuse of power and government overreach, everyday residents are sending a clear message: In America, we don’t let the government secretly detain or deport people without trial — it violates our Constitution and our way of life. This kind of lawless behavior isn’t just immoral, it’s un-American, and we must draw a clear line against it. 

     

    Indivisible Yolo is a chapter of the grassroots movement Indivisible (indivisible.org), which is based on the vision of a real democracy—of, by, and for the people. Indivisible Yolo’s mission is to promote progressive policies by activating people to engage in their democracy at all levels of government. We organize and advocate for our policy goals, and to get out the vote to elect candidates who pursue those policies. These complementary efforts ensure our democracy works for everyone and that those in power do, too.

  • Celebration of Abraham hosts a contemplative interfaith prayer vigil

    (From press release) People of faith must support all those who are suffering.

    As a first step, our community must come together, so the Celebration of Abraham is hosting a contemplative interfaith prayer vigil at the Davis United Methodist Church at 1620 Anderson Road on Tuesday, June 24th at 7pm. Abraham is inviting the entire community. We are hoping the people will bring snacks to share that they will stay and talk with others after the service. Many in our community are food insecure, so we are asking folks to bring a nonperishable food item that Abraham will collect and give to the local food bank.