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Davisite Banner. Left side the bicycle obelisk at 3rd and University. Right side the trellis at the entrance to the Arboretum.

Author: davisite2

  • DAVIS FREE SPEECH THREATENED

    Photos show how community & political group tabling is dying in Farmer Market’s in its new park location.

    By Alan “Lorax” Hirsch  ahirsch@dcn.org

    Community and political groups have been removed from tabling in the Farmers Market along the C street sidewalk to an isolated unshaded part of Central Park. This happened by edict on 4/22/25, a decision made with no community groups’ input. Groups are concerned there would be no foot traffic in new location…and make it a waste of their time to table. The city manager said 30+ people that do the volunteer tabling should just give market manager’s idea “a try.” (LINK  to background piece)

    The results are in from the first week of this experiment. Failure.

    This is a photo at 11am (peak shopping) shows just 3 people visiting at the 7 tables of groups that took the time to set up in the unshaded and unpaved grassy part of the park near B Street. We heard from wheelchair bound shoppers that these tables were no longer accessible, like families with children in strollers.

    2025-04-26 no visitors at community tables

    It’s of note that only 7 groups set up tables compared to an average of 14/week for the previous month. No reason to waste volunteer time if no one comes by.

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  • Free Speech Curtailed in Davis

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    The market shed is largely empty of vendor on Wednesday— this photo is 4/22. But the city has allow market manager the power to force community group to be table as far as possible from other farm even outside the shed in the Sun or rain. There are 2 community groups tabling behind the photographer in this photo.

     Farmers Market Discourages Community Engagement

    By Alan “Lorax” Hirsch

    (Alan passes out “love your neighbor” signs in the farmer’s market.)

    Just when you thought our political rights could not be more threatened, this Trumpian zeitgeist seems to have come to Davis.

    They are dramatically reducing visibility of community/free speech area at the Saturday farmer market by expelling these groups from their traditional tabling area along C street north of the restrooms. They will be displaced 1 block south and 2/3 of a block west to an unpaved part of Central Park.  They will be isolated from commercial vendors currently set on sidewalk next to C Street- community & political groups will be in an unpaved grass area close to B street.  An area that is unshaded and hot, so visitors won’t want to linger. This area is invisible to shoppers on C street as it will be hidden behind vendor’s trucks, banners and awnings. The Net: these Group’s tables won’t get any casual foot traffic.

    The now lively Saturday market community area may go the way of the Wednesday free speech/community tablers. DFMA Market management decided to displace Wednesday tablers from under the awning to a similarly isolated, sunny & hot area far away from the half-empty market shed.  These tablers got no foot traffic in that location – and the sun stressed the volunteers – so now there is little or no community tabling on Wednesdays.

    IMG_5637 1

    One of the alleged reason for moving community group/ free speech areas 1 1/2 block to the shadeless B street side of the park is there is not enough room in current area. Here is one of the three bike racks recently installed by city that takes up shaded space that could be available for community group tabling.

    Dropping the Bomb

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  • Good News: Solid Council Majority Lining Up to Fix Roads and Bike Paths Now

    By Elaine Roberts Musser and Dan Carson

    At the April 15, 2025 City Council meeting, four of the five Davis City Council members declared their support for immediately committing significant additional amounts of upfront funding to fix city roads and bike paths. The funding would come from the recently approved Measure Q sales tax increase and be incorporated into the two-year 2025-27 city budget that will be adopted this June.

    A spending plan labeled as “Scenario 2” was presented at the meeting to Council and recommended for approval by city staff. It would have held pavement spending flat for at least five years and then, in theory, begun accelerating city spending for that purpose in 2030-31 through 2034-35.

    Vice Mayor Donna Neville and Councilmembers Chapman, Partida and Deos made it very clear they found the idea of backloading pavement funding, and putting off any significant increases until five years from now, unacceptable.  Mayor Bapu Vaitla  proposed a much different approach to adding money for roads that we discuss below, that would involve asking Davis voters to approve another new tax measure.

    We are grateful four Councilmembers took to heart our warning against approving Scenario 2. The report staff provided to Council documenting this scenario would escalate the roughly $100 million backlog of city road pavement projects that now exists to almost $150 million, an increase of approximately $50 million over the next decade (see  the chart below, on page 07-50 of city staff report).                             

    Roads-chart

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  • Check The Box, Yolo Capay’s Hungry Hollow Farms are in a Water Crises

    Check the box

    By Scott Steward

    We have a Groundwater Sustainability Agency called the Yolo Subbasin Groundwater Agency (YSGA).  Evidently, the word "Sustainability" is optional when considering well permits in Yolo County, as Annie Main found out after a 2-year struggle to point out the obvious to the Yolo County Supervisors who voted 3 to 2 on April 8th last week to add another high capacity 350 gallons per minute corporate well to further drain Hungry Hollow's already well documented declining water table.  The Boundary Bend well could mean the end of her Good Humus third-generation farm.  What's worse, there are four more deep well applications on the way to Hungry Hollow.

    You can't see our groundwater, but according to our Groundwater Sustainability Agency there are 346,000 acre feet that can be drawn from our 540,000 acres of ag land. That's 2.6 billion bathtubs worth of water.  That's our budget; use more and our invisible mega bathtub might not re-fill as high – ever.  Consider Annie Main, the most recent canary in a long line of canaries in the water coal mine, Yolo County the aquifer of choice for corporate tree crops (olives and nuts) and our County Supervisors, for now, the court of last resort.  

    Hungry Hollow family farmers like Annie Main of Good Humus are under threat of disappearing. Her area of land is in a designated "Focus Area." Focus Areas are so named because of the historical steady Hungry Hollow drop in the water table and because it's taking forever to get decent monitoring wells into place to "understand" what locals have been saying for the last two decades (no more additional well capacity!).  

    State and local water policy that was not enforced on April 8th.

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  • Five women earn Soroptimist cash awards

    LYD2025

    From left, Jennifer Penrose, Jessica Garcia, Molly Malm and Madeline Duncan were four of the five Live Your Dream Award winners for Soroptimist International of Davis. They were recognized at a club meeting on April 16 in Davis. (Wendy Weitzel/Courtesy photo)

    Soroptimist International of Davis awarded $12,000 in grants this spring through its signature Live Your Dream program, providing cash and mentorship to women seeking education and training.

    Women are encouraged to apply for the annual awards if they are the primary wage earners for their families, and need financial assistance to further their education or training. Recipients often persevere through hardships or challenging circumstances.

    This year, SI Davis gave a boost to five women, with cash awards ranging from $1,000 to $5,000. These unrestricted grants may be used to offset costs that a scholarship would not cover, such as child care, transportation or other financial obligations that hinder a woman’s ability to reach her goals. Soroptimist International of Davis members remain in contact with the recipients, offering them mentorship and support.

    The club’s top 2025 awardee is Molly Malm, 36, of Yolo County. Soroptimist International of Davis members offer her support and an award of $5,000. Her application was selected for another $3,000 award at the Sierra Nevada Region, which covers all clubs in Northern California and Nevada. Malm has four children between the ages of 11 and 5. She attended Santa Rosa Junior College, Woodland Community College and Sacramento City College, earning an associate’s degree. In December, she expects to complete her bachelor’s of science in nursing from Sacramento State.

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  • Save the date for 2025 Davis Pride events

    Performer2024

    Amelia Need entertains the crowd at the 2024 Davis Pride Festival. This year’s event is June 7. (Wendy Weitzel/Courtesy photo)

    (From press release) The Davis Phoenix Coalition plans a month full of events to celebrate LGBTQ+ pride, beginning with its 11th annual festival on June 7. Activities also include a fun run, skate and comedy nights, and plenty of drag queens.

    The activities share the theme “Forever Loud and Proud!”

    The 11th annual Davis PrideFest is at Civic Center Park, at Sixth and B streets. The community-focused, family-friendly event includes a music festival, resources, vendors, food, drinks and more – from 3 to 8 p.m. on Saturday, June 7. Organizers have a great lineup of performers scheduled. Watch for an announcement of the headliner in early May. Returning entertainment includes the Sacramento Gay Men’s Chorus, the marching band Noise Violation, and the always popular Drag Revue. There will be activity zones for children, teens and seniors. The event is free but donations are welcome. The event’s title sponsors are Dignity Health and Woodland Clinic Medical Group.

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  • Davis City Council Agenda Item 7- 2025 Pavement Management Update Recommendation

    By Dan Carson and Elaine Roberts Musser

    • Direct City staff to provide funding in the forthcoming two-year budget of $14 million per year (from all sources), including an increase in General Fund resources of $5.5 million per year from Measure Q sales tax increase funding approved by Davis voters, for support of the Pavement Maintenance Program. The $14 million amount represents the funding identified by city staff in a December 2024 presentation to Council that would be needed over four years to make up for previous shortfalls in funding for road and bike path maintenance that have occurred in recent years.
    • Direct city staff to return to Council with a recommendation in regard to the additional staff and contract resources, if necessary, that should be incorporated into the 2025-27 budget plan to implement the program at the funding level provided above.
    • Restore the process the Council established in 2019 for commission review and oversight of the Pavement Maintenance Program. The Fiscal Commission should:
      1. Examine why the reported condition of street and bike path pavement improved significantly in recent years, nearly reaching the original goals set by Council, despite significant funding shortfalls, and evaluate whether future technical adjustments are warranted to reassess the model used to project the level of funding required for the program.
      2. Evaluate the potential impact of the planned Cool Pavement federal grant program to determine whether any further increases or decreases are warranted for city funding levels for pavement management, due to improvements to roads expected to be achieved under the federal grant program.
      3. Review the specific proposed funding components of the 2019 Council-approved plan for pavement maintenance to:
        • Determine whether, and to what degree, they have been implemented by city staff, and why;
        • Determine which, if any of them, are still feasible and available to assist in future funding of the Pavement Management Program;
        • Estimate the fiscal impact of frontloading rather than backloading funding to maintain roads and bike paths over the next ten years. The Council should direct city staff to assist the Fiscal Commission in all four areas of this review.

    Background

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  • Open House at Bike Garage Davis, Apr 26

    SavetheDateThe Bike Campaign is a 501(c)3 non-profit providing free bike repair at our Bike Garage location, free Davis Bike Maps, and lots of support and encouragement for anyone wanting to be a part of the biking lifestyle in our community. We have an open house on Saturday, April 26th, from 1-4pm at our 606 Pena Dr. #300 location in Davis and everyone is invited who would like to experience how we support our community members in how to BIKE MORE. Drive Less.

    Questions?  Contact Maria Tebbutt at funmaria@sbcglobal.net and check us out at www.TheBikeCampaign.org

  • Errant Water Permit Puts Good Humus Farm at Risk

    Good humus at risk

    By Scott Steward

    Boundary Bend was cited by the County in August 2023 for its non-permitted well drilling in the Hungary Hollow region of Capay Valley. So how, after two years of evidence showing that the well is out of compliance, is County staff recommending upholding Boundary Bends agricultural well permit # 23-022W?  The County and Boundary Bend know that the new well is too big and too close to Good Humus farm. 

    Good Humus and other family farms have already had to modify their wells to sustain their table crop farms. Nearly three generations of care have gone into the land craft of organic farming in Hungary Hollow. Without much help, these farms have entered our region's food markets and succeeded in producing some of the healthiest food on earth. Capay has inspired farm-to-fork land care nationally.  

    Boundary Bend (application #23-022W) took advantage of one-time replacement well criteria that the county was obliged to put in place for farms and residents short on water following the seven-year drought. Replacement well designation was allowed for existing agricultural operations and drinking water. Boundary Bend did not meet the criteria for a replacement well. Instead of reapplying as a new well, Boundary hired lawyers at Kronick to lean on the county.

    Here are some of the facts that show that Boundary Bend application #23-022W did not and does not qualify for the approved "replacement well" status. The application:

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  • HandsOff Rally at Capitol, Saturday April 5

    Joint Announcement by Sacramento Region Grassroots Organizations

    Copy of Sacramento 50501 Movement_20250317_085853_0000_20250318045316158496

    (From press release)

    WHAT: Mass Mobilization to Stop the Trump/Musk Corruption and Power Grab
    WHEN:  April 5, 2025 11 a.m.
    WHERE: State Capitol West Steps, Sacramento [and in multiple outlying areas*]

    On April 5, local grassroots organizations from around the Sacramento region are calling on all people concerned about the direction of our country to join the 50501 Picnic Protest in tandem with the national Hands Off! mass rally to protest the Trump-Musk billionaire takeover and the Republican assault on our freedoms and our communities.

    Events across the country, in major cities and small towns in every state, will show that the people—the majority—are taking action to stop the corruption and power grab.

    Why we’re mobilizing on April 5th

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