Colin Walsh, a candidate for Davis City Council 2020 District 2, is hosting a Zoom Town Hall on Saturday, August 29 at noon. Members of the community are invited to this opportunity to get to know Colin and share your thoughts on Davis. Details at Walsh4Davis.com.
Author: davisite2
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Event: Virtual meeting with City Council candidate Colin Walsh
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Valley Clean Energy Issues Warning About Utility Bill Scam
(From press release) Yolo County residents are advised to be on the alert for scam phone calls purporting to be from their energy provider.According to one Davis resident who received such a call recently, the caller apologized for overcharging her on her utility bill, explaining that the overcharge was from a third-party supplier.
She was told to press 1 to apply for a rebate check, but the woman hung up, believing that the caller was attempting to gain access to her bank routing and account numbers.
Valley Clean Energy, Yolo County’s public not-for-profit local electricity provider, would like to reassure its customers that it never asks for a customer’s banking information over the telephone.
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Support our local Religious Leaders Recommendation for Reconsideration of the University Commons project
Community input to the Council majority of Partida, Lee and Carson is needed now
By Eileen M. SamitzMany thanks to the Davis religious leaders for the excellent article published August 22 in the Davisite.
This incredible and sincere outreach by so many local religious leaders to the City Council majority is impressive and their recommended action is so needed to be taken by Council majority now. So everyone’s input to the Council is needed now, to support the recommendation to reconsider approval of the University Commons project, before this Tuesday’s August 25th meeting when the Council is scheduled to finalize approval of the project.
The Davis religious leaders group recommendation for the Council majority is to “take a pause and reconsider their approval votes” and to reject it. This terrible project does not offer any housing that is affordable. So, urging the Council to reconsider its approval is clearly the right thing to do for the sake of the UCD students, as well as the rest of the community needing housing that is affordable. The University Commons “affordable units” are affordable in name only, and it is an insult to even classify them as “affordable” with the rental prices they are projecting.
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District Elections?
How Did We Get District Elections?
By Larry Guenther
In 2019, the City of Davis was threatened with a lawsuit under the California Voting Rights Act (CVRA) by attorney and former Yolo County Supervisor Matt Rexroad. The letter stated that if the City of Davis did not institute district elections, Mr. Rexroad would file suit on behalf of anonymous clients. The legal timeline for forming districts (90 days) did not allow the City to complete the process for the primary election in March of 2020. The City proposed to Mr. Rexroad that they would complete the process by the 2022 election. "Not good enough," said Mr. Rexroad. He pointed out that if the City moved its Council election to the November General election, there was plenty of time to complete the process. The City Council decided to change the City Council election to the November general election and change to District Elections.
The City Council also chose to stay with a 5-member council and created the map below. This November's election will be for representatives from districts 2, 3, and 5.
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Insufficient affordable housing at University Commons
Faith leaders speak out
At the Davis City Council Meeting on Tuesday, August 18, a 3-2 vote approved the University Commons Proposal. We, the undersigned faith leaders, express our disappointment at this decision. While we are encouraged by Brixmor's increase from 0% to 5% affordable housing at the 80% median income for Yolo County, we also contend that this is not enough.While the specific decision regarding the University Commons is the spark to this conversation, the housing crisis in Davis and across our state does not begin and end with this decision.
As faith leaders in the Davis community, we have the opportunity to engage with individuals from many walks of life, ministering with people of diverse economic, racial, generational, and educational backgrounds.
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Proposed Voter Assistance Centers (VAC) and Ballot Drop-off Box (BDB) Locations for November 3rd General Election
Public Notice for Community Review and Input
(From press release) The Yolo County Elections Office, in accordance with guidance provided by the California Secretary of State Office and the recently signed Senate Bill SB 423, is directed to identify and make public the proposed Voter Assistance Centers (VACs) and Ballot Drop-off Box (BDB) locations to be used in the upcoming November 3, 2020 General Election.
Yolo County will have 12 Voter Assistance Centers (VACs) and 12 Ballot Drop-off Boxes (BDB) located throughout the county (listed on the following page). The Yolo County Elections Office has worked in partnership with local jurisdictions and school districts to ensure voting locations that allow for secure, socially distant in-person voting in Yolo County. The VACs are spread out throughout each community for ease of accessibility.
The elections office, with the help of county leadership and through partnerships with local jurisdictions and the education community have secured optimal in-person voting locations throughout the community. “Thanks to these partnerships, education facilities throughout the region are being used to help promote our democracy at a level we have never seen before,” says Jesse Salinas, Yolo County Assessor/Clerk-Recorder/Registrar of Voters. “We are also providing ballot drop-off box locations to make returning Vote by Mail ballots as effortless as possible. In addition, your return postage will be paid to help encourage voters to utilize mail in voting,” says Salinas.
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The disastrous University Commons mega-dorm proposal goes to City Council August 18 for final vote
New Staff report reveals even more issues
By Eileen M. Samitz
The Planning Commission’s 7:0 denial vote
The monolithic University Commons redevelopment proposal is heading for a final City Council vote on August 18. This project is completely out of scale for the surrounding neighborhoods and would create enormous impacts in the already heavily trafficked Russell Blvd. corridor and beyond. In addition to creating a 7-story, block-wide “wall,” the impacts from this project would negatively affect the entire community in many ways.
The project’s many problems include the “rent-by-the bed” group housing format consisting of 894 beds which includes many 4-bedrooms apartments unsuitable for families. The City has approved four mega-dorms in the last few years; there’s no need for a fifth. The Planning Commission voted unanimously to reject the project and its Environmental Impact Report (EIR) due to many reasons covered in a recent op-ed including the “significant and unavoidable” traffic impacts. Such a resounding denial rarely happens unless the project is as exceptionally bad as the University Commons proposal. The weblink to that op-ed with the many reasons for the Planning Commission’s rejection for the project and its EIR can be viewed here.
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University Commons: Will Council grandfather in another Tree Blighted Parking Lot?
This is a picture of one of the large "successful" trees the landlord planted years ago when the University Commons development first opened. Note the massive scar as a result of neglect of pruning (lower limbs need to be removed so they are not broken off by trucks driving by), And again rocks placed around the base of the tree that get hot and both stifle growth. Most trees in this lot have rocks any arborist will tell you hurt trees, but maybe the landlord is based in Tucson. Why does this happen? What is the solution? The City Arborist is stretch thin and has no time to inspect commercial parking lots to assure landlords are caring for trees, so we get to city's 50% shade requirement. This is why we need to require landlords to reimburse the city the cost of hiring an outside arborist to provide tree maintenance oversight. Council required this for the DISC development, why not University Commons too?By Alan Hirsch, City Lorax
This Tuesday, the city council will address details to permit a 7 story dorm proposed for University Commons/Trader Joe's shopping center.
There is debate about it size, height, affordability, type of units in the build.
But there is one fact everyone agrees on:
IF it follows the current city policy it will end up in the middle of an unshaded parking lot full of stunted trees.
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Using capitalism to fight racism
By Belinda Martineau
One thing Enterprise columnist Tanya Perez (and other Davis residents) could do to help get over “paralysis by analysis” (or paralysis by anything else) regarding the current unacceptable state of racism in our country is to … boycott Nugget Markets.
After reading “Lawsuit against Nugget can go to trial” in The Enterprise several weeks ago—which described a racial/national origin discrimination case filed against Nugget Markets Inc. in 2017 on behalf of two men, one from El Salvador and one from Mexico, by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund — that’s one action against racism I’ve decided to take.
As described in Caleb Hampton’s article, a federal judge found that a “reasonable man in Plaintiffs’ circumstance would have found the hostile conduct sufficiently severe and pervasive,” and in response to complaints they made to company higher-ups about harassment by several supervisors one man was fired the very next day and the other started receiving his first negative performance reviews.
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Valley Clean Energy donates face masks to RISE Inc.
Angel Barajas, a member of the Valley Clean Energy board of directors, left; and Tessa Tobar, center, program and community engagement specialist for VCE; present some of the 500 washable face masks to Tico Zendejas, executive director of RISE Inc.(From press release) Valley Clean Energy (VCE), the local electricity provider for Yolo County and the cities of Woodland and Davis, is doing its part to keep local residents safe and healthy during the COVID-19 pandemic.
VCE purchased 500 high-quality, washable and U.S.-made face masks and donated them to RISE Inc., a nonprofit organization that serves the Latinx community and has organized the delivery of social services to western Yolo County for more than 30 years.
Woodland City Councilman Angel Barajas, a member of the VCE board of directors, said RISE was chosen to receive the gift because it “does an incredible job servicing residents in the rural Yolo County region.”
Davisite 