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

Author: davisite

  • DDBA busy address growing crime and safety concerns

    By Dan Urazandi
    I wrote this letter for other downtown businesses. When asked to reproduce it publicly I refused, as it involves an internal  DavisDowntownBusinessAssociation issue and as only DDBA members can vote on it for matters both practical and tasteful I held it back. But since the DDBA establishment went on the Davis Enterprise to claim that there is no crime problem and they have taken care of it even as they claim it's not their business to deal with it, I think the side that is actually against crime should also be publicly aired, dirty laundry though it may be:
     
         All of us know crime is increasing downtown and most of us have been hurt by it. Over the last 5 years my son and I have been victims of assault with a deadly weapon, aggravated assault, and three burglaries let alone the felony vandalism and many other lesser but costly crimes, all because we operate a downtown business in a town that has given up on law enforcement. By comparison in 27 previous years of business, we suffered 2 felonies, both minor.
         The problem is obvious and yet our city council and police force want to pretend it does not exist. So too, apparently, does the DavisDowntownBusinessAssociation. These so called representatives who are all paid by us must be made to do their job. Pressure must be brought.
         When I witnessed my neighbor being pummeled into the ground by a 250 pound homeless man through the window that was broken just days before in a burglary, I went on TV to call out how the city and police were ignoring all complaints about crime in the alley beside my store. The day after that aired the deputy chief of DPD was in my shop. But this method of publicly shaming the city into action can only be used sparingly. If we bang the drum constantly about how dangerous downtown has become, we will scare away our customers.
         So Heather Caswell of The Wardrobe has been working within the system and behind the scenes to address the crime emergency. She wants DDBA to take action, which could be a way of influencing the city to withdraw its pro-crime agenda. DDBA is notoriously close to city hall, so much so that the current DDBA head is the former mayor and until the position rotated a week ago the mayor was the former head of DDBA.
        Also like city hall, DDBA is a closed system even as it claims to represent us all and lives off our taxes. Both feign democracy but control the system so incumbents run unopposed and status quo is maintained. In order to vote all us involuntary DDBA members have to physically show up or send a representative to the meeting Thursday Jan 23 at 5:30 at Natsoulas Gallery. Making votes secret and difficult is how a dozen people run a 500+ member organization. Most of us have no time for DDBA and their games but if we turn out this Thursday we can elect Heather Caswell and Ezra Beeman to the DDBA board. They have promised and proven themselves to be committed to downtown safety and will be replacing members of a board that has refused to take any position on crime. This will be a move in the right direction to fight back against the political mismanagement that is endangering us all.

     

  • Businesses & People Before Criminals — Time for a Clean Sweep of the Downtown Davis Business Association Board

    by Alan C. Miller

    Note:  Read Jonathan Greenberg’s article, below this article, before reading this!   Both my and JG’s articlse are in response to the Davis Enterprise article by Kevin Wan at:  https://www.davisenterprise.com/forum/commentary-ddba-addressing-downtown-safety/article_b2cc9648-d81e-11ef-9fb7-17ed56e5d85f.html

    If you know a downtown business owner, encourage them to go to the DDBA meeting at Natsulous Gallery this evening at 5pm to vote Heather Caswell, Ezra Beeman, Shelly Ramos and Kellie Palmerto the Board.  It’s time to clear the board and start with a fresh slate that isn’t blinded by embracing an outdated belief in a failed ideology.  

    Gloriously, Tuesday’s piece in the Davis Enterprise by Kevin Wan (KW) says that accusations have been leveled against the DDBA that it doesn’t address public safety, then goes on at length to claim that DDBA does address public safety (in the ways that are OK to KW).  KW continues that the purvue of DDBA is “marketing, promotion, and economic development” and adds, “Law enforcement and security is not within our purview.”

    So according to KW, the DDBA deals with “public safety” all the time, but “public safety” isn’t within DDBA’s purvue. In other words, KW doesn’t agree with the proposed safety plan, so he makes claims that DDBA doesn’t have the prevue of public safety then explains how they deal with public safety every month.  Why not just say you don’t agree with the proposed program instead of opening the article with a glaring contradiction?

    KW claims DDBA has, “devoted time every month to tackling the challenges of crime and homelessness facing our downtown community”.  If that’s true, why have the tactics you have used so far rendered the current state of things downtown and in adjacent neighborhoods with the effects from the so-called “homeless” the worst they has even been in many years?

    If you question my statement, let me tell you I can see downtown out my living-room window.  I live adjacent to the railroad tracks by the Amtrak station.  I have so-called “homeless” encampments both 200’ to the east of me and 200’ to the west of me, and the associated piles of garbage that are always associated with these encampments. Myneighbor and I have repeatedly cleaned up this garbage ourselvesmore times than I care to imagine.  We’ve also spent countless hours and thousands of dollars in deterrence measures.  

    Since DDBA has been working so hard, as you claim, and clearly utterly failing, why attack people who are willing to try something new, taking the matter into their own hands to do it themselves when the City and the current DDBA board cannot, or will not?   

    KW goes on to claim that the proposed program could pose liability to DDBA regarding privacy, trust, discrimination, etc.  Yet the program has been presented to Yolo Countt DA Jeff Reisig, and he has given support to the idea as beneficial in deterring crime.  Ask yourself, who might know more about the legal consequences of a crime-deterrence program:  the Yolo County district attorney, or the owner of a restaurant?

    KW seems very concerned about what harm may come to DDBA from this crime-deterrence program.   But do you know what reallyhurts the DDBA and downtown businesses?  Crime!  

    All we are SAY-ing, is give S.E.N. a chance!  #sing-it!#  

    All we are SAY-ing, is give S.E.N. a chance!

    S.E.N. is the Safety Empowerment Network.  The idea is to use security cameras to identify repeat offenders, and a database so downtown businesses can identify these repeat criminals efficiently and report their findings to law enforcement.  It’s similar to talking to each other, but must faster and far more efficient.

    KW continues, “we can address safety concerns without compromising our values” and sites the need for “balancing accountability with compassion”.  Who’s values?  Compassion for who?  No one is questioning the societal compassion of sheltering a mom who lost her job and couldn’t pay the rent.  But I hold nocompassion for those who trash our downtown and its adjoining neighborhoods and commit crimes even to the point of threatening and even punching people.  

    The implication at the end of the article seems to be that Heather and Ezra and others who support S.E.N. will be implementing something illegal, destructive to DDBA, and somehow lack compassion.  These implied accusations are ridiculous and borderline offensive.  Heather and Ezra are good people – they are very good people.  I’ve known Heather for decades.  She owns and runs one of the longest-running independent businesses in downtown Davis.  I’ve known Ezra as a good neighbor for near a decade.  He owns a consulting business based in downtown and lives in the adjacent neighborhood.  He is concerned not only for the safety of downtown, but for the safety of his daughters, and the safety of others in nearby neighborhoods.  

    What is KW expressing concern about? . . . “our” (his) “values” for “compassion” towards . . . who exactly? . . . criminals who threaten people downtown ?

    This so-called “compassion” that KW brings up needs to be examined more closely.  This is what the professor and author Gad Saad has termed "suicidal empathy": the excessive, self-destructive form of compassion where individuals or societies prioritize the well-being of others to their own detriment. “Suicidal empathy” occurs when empathy is taken to an extreme, leading to decisions or behaviors that harm oneself or one's group in the name of helping others.  Saad argues that while empathy is an essential human trait, it becomes dangerous when it blinds people to the negative consequences of their actions. Overly empathetic policies or attitudes may enable harmful behavior, sacrificing rational self-preservation or fairness in favor of misguided moral virtue.

    The advocates of the Safety Empowerment Network will of course address issues of liability, privacy, trust and discrimination in order to make the program successful and fair, within the framework of the program.  It is highly disingenuous to use fear mongering tactics to imply that the program will itself cause any of these things.  The purpose of the program is the safety of Davis businesses and Davis residents.  And as Jonathan Greenberg rightly points out, the biggest threat to those who are living outdoors who are NOT criminals is those living outdoors that ARE criminals.

    I am personally interested in the S.E.N. Program to help deter issueswith the effects of the so-called “homeless” in the downtown-adjacent neighborhoods and other neighborhoods near parks, drainage ditches, bicycle paths and railroad tracks.    It is my hope that if the database and camera system is successful for use by downtown businesses, this could be used as a tool in protecting our neighborhoods as well – from these same and other criminals found amidst the so-called “homeless” population.

    A neighbor of mine, myself and a nearby business have used CPTED (Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design) concepts to make the area around our homes less conducive to crime and criminals.  This is needed because of the over-abundance of so-called “homeless” that congregate nearby.  We have spent countless hours and thousands of dollars doing this, with, I believe, a degree of success.  No, we shouldn’t have to spend our time and our money doing this.  However, we have learned through experience that the City isn’t going to do this for us.

    Similarly, downtown businesses and the DDBA must fend for themselves, because the City isn’t going to do it for them.  Downtown businesses must take matters into their own hands, as we did, and the Safety Empowerment Network is an important tool to help empower downtown businesses against crime.  Apparently, Kevin Wan and other members of the current board aren’t interested in even trying this program to see if it works.  Therefore, it is time to vote Heather Caswell, Ezra Beeman, Shelly Ramos and Kellie Palmer to the DDBA Board.

    Alan C. Miller is nearly 40-year resident of Old East Davis, a friend to a few good people, and a source of great annoyance to many others.

  • DDBA Board Prioritizes Rights of Repeat Offending Criminals Over Safety for Businesses, Women and Children

    By Jonathan Greenberg

     

    It is unfortunate that Kevin Wan, as Chair of the DDBA, resorted to lies and distortions in defense of a board majority that shamefully refuses to take an active part in responding to the worst public safety crisis in Davis history.

     

    In his column in yesterday's Davis Enterprise, Kevin is lying about the Davis Safety Empowerment Network system that my wife, Heather Caswell, owner of the Wardrobe, have spent three meetings discussing with the DDBA board. We propose to empower Davis businesses with an innovative system that would help them more effectively prosecute the small number of mentally unstable, dangerous men who repeatedly terrorize downtown businesses and their customers (especially women and seniors), without consequences, by a “catch and release” process that allows them to stay out of drug treatment, mental institutions or prison. 

    Kevin wrote in the Enterprise that we propose “a PUBLIC database of POTENTIAL criminals.” 

     

    Yet we have told Kevin that the system would be accessible only to participating DDBA businesses, not the public. And that it would ONLY include people whose images were taken from security cameras of DDBA businesses AFTER they ACTUALLY COMMITTED CRIMES in Davis stores and restaurants, such as threatening peoples’ lives, as one did twice, without consequences, to Heather. 

     

    The database would provide the names of these dozen or so repeat criminal offenders, and add PUBLICLY AVAILABLE but difficult to access Davis Police Department incident reports, as well as past arrest records and local restraining orders against these individuals. 

     

    The Davis Police have told us that 10 to 20 people are responsible for almost all criminal incidents downtown, and that the police themselves have a dossier with the record of each one. But that the government is unable to share this information with businesses, because it might taint prosecutions. These same mentally disturbed or drug addicted men also terrorize the 240 other unhoused people in Davis. Removing them from our streets would make life safer-and more compassionate-for everyone. 

     

    Yet Kevin, and the DDBA Board members are more concerned with prioritizing what he misleadingly cites, in his column, as the “civil rights” and “privacy” of these repeat violent offenders over the rights of our community’s most vulnerable citizens, women, seniors and children, to be protected against violence by a small number of dangerous, mentally-disturbed unhoused men.

     

    DDBA is clearly part of the problem when they cite the illusory rights of criminals as more important to their organization than the rights of those who are victims of violence, week after week. Many women, especially seniors, have told us that they no longer feel safe in downtown Davis. Some downtown businesses have even shortened their hours because their female employees do not feel safe in the evening.

     

    Yolo County District Attorney Jeff Reisig reviewed and supports our program and does not question its legality. He wrote, “I think any business association that is able to improve information sharing with each other AND police as described would be very helpful. Our success in policing and prosecution would absolutely be enhanced by better information sharing among businesses/retailers on prolific offenders." 

     

    Indeed, most successful criminal prosecutions by businesses rely on store video footage. Every store has a right to video its premises for security, and use those videos to protect themselves. The incident and past offense and restraining order data that this system would aggregate are all public information, but very difficult to access. This system would empower a network of DDMA members with the information about the past records of the criminals who repeatedly terrorize their customers and employees, allowing them to prosecute them more effectively.

    Multiple companies sell records of past arrest records for businesses to run background checks when hiring.  And for generations, businesses have provided employees with photos of repeat offender shoplifters. This solution brings this strategy into the 21st century.  

     

    Kevin also distorts reality when he writes, in his Enterprise column, that “for the past year, we have been working tirelessly with the Davis City Council and Davis Police Department to restore the presence of a dedicated, downtown-based police officer.”

    Heather Caswell, and I participated in the last three DDBA meetings to urge the DDBA to take an active role in helping member businesses address crime. Not a word was mentioned of supporting a beat cop at any of these meetings. Nor can any mention of it be found in the DDBA minutes for the past 12 months.

     

    Instead, it was Heather who, on December 16, after a special meeting with Council Member Donna Neville and Chief Todd Henry in which a new position assigned to the downtown was discussed, wrote to Kevin Wan and the Board to urge them to quickly pass a resolution supporting the new funding allocation at the next day’s city council meeting. Even though the December 17 full council meeting was the first to discuss how $11 million in new sales tax revenue would be spent, the DDBA Board and its Executive Director Brett Lee had no plan to mention the beat cop position to the city council. Heather convinced the DDBA board to pass a resolution overnight, and for Brett Lee, DDBA’s executive director, to join her in making a statement supporting the position. 

    Davis businesses deserve better from the Chair of the DDBA. That is why Heather, along with Ezra Beeman, Shelly Ramos and Kellie Palmer, are running to replace the existing DDBA Board leadership with a women majority board that is willing to take an active part in resolving the most important problem facing every Davis retail business, restaurant and resident of Davis today: public safety. 

     

    Jonathan Greenberg is a widely published investigative legal and financial journalist, and the founder of Progressive Source Communications.

  • URGENT: Attend Suisun City Council Meeting Discussion on Expanding City Limits

     

    Map

    Suisun City, Suisun City’s sphere of influence and Flannery Associates land parcels. Map by Solano Together using QGIS. Datasources: OSM Standard, MTC/ABAG Data Library, Solano County parcel data

     

     

    Nate Huntington 
    Solano Together Coalition

    This Tuesday, January 21, at 6:30 p.m., we urge you to attend the City of Suisun Council Meeting, where there will be a discussion on potentially expanding Suisun City limits.

    What? Suisun City Council Meeting
    When? TODAY – Tuesday, January 21, at 6:30 p.m.
    Where? Suisun City Council Chambers, 701 Civic Center Boulevard, Suisun City, CA – or
    Zoom Meeting Information:
    Link: https://zoom.us/join
    MEETING ID: 829 2890 4906
    CALL IN PHONE NUMBER: (707) 438-1720

    WHY IT'S IMPORTANT

    Late Friday evening, the City of Suisun City released the agenda for today’s City Council meeting. Agenda item number 17 is inconspicuously titled, “Vision for Suisun City: Building Resilience and Expanding Opportunities.” This appears to be a plan by the City of Suisun to annex land owned by California Forever and work with them to develop outside of existing city limits. California Forever is continuing their secretive, behind closed doors approach even after committing to a public process.

    In the agenda packet, starting on page 179, the item discusses the city’s economic “Resiliency Plan” and suggests “the Resiliency Plan’s ultimate success depends on increasing the city’s population and strategically expanding its boundaries.”

    (more…)

  • Death Under Davis Tree Limb Goes to Court

    The trial date is approaching for PITTS vs. CITY OF DAVIS.

    Theodore Pitts the widower of Jennifer Comey who was killed by the limb of a City of Davis Tree in Slide Hill Park will get his day in court in attempt to seek compensation for the death of his wife. A jury trial date has been set for February 3rd, 2025 with a trial readiness conference to be held on January 27th.

    Ms. Comey died when a large tree limb fell on her in Slide Hill Park while she watched her toddler play in a sandbox during a windstorm in 2021. She was survived by her child and husband Theodore Pitts.

    The trial will take place in Yolo County Superior Court in Woodland with Judge Fell presiding. Mr. Pits is represented by Sacramento attorney Roger A. Dreyer and Anthony J. Garilli of Dreyer, Babich, Buccola, Wood and Campora. Both are accomplished attorneys having successfully won millions for their clients at trial.

    The City of Davis is represented by Kevin J. Dehoff of Angelo, Kilday and Kilduff of Sacramento. His website lists “Public Entity Defense” as his first Practice Area.

    Davey Resource Group, Inc and West Coast Arborists, Inc were also named as defendants in the case. But earlier this month Judge David Rosenberg made a tentative ruling granting Summary Judgement for West Coast Arborists excusing them from the case. Davey Resource Group’s similar motion was denied leaving them as a defendant in the Case.

    West Coast Arborist is a contractor for the City of Davis that handles wide ranging tree trimming duties in the City.

    Davey Resource Group is a Ohio based Company that provides wide ranging tree and urban forestry consulting to the City of Davis.

    If the City and/or Davey Resource Group is found responsible or negligent Pitts could be awarded millions in compensation for the tragedy that befell his family.

     

  • Compassion Must Not Enable Crimes Against Women and Downtown Businesses

    By Heather Caswell and Jonathan Greenberg

    Commentary

    January 18, 2025

    Since writing my December 18 Enterprise column about the public safety crisis in downtown Davis, I have heard feedback from dozens of my customers, most of them older women.

    Some, like former Assembly Member Helen Thomson, asked how they could support the effort. Many thanked me for paying attention. Nearly all of them told me that they now feel unsafe in downtown Davis for the first time in their lives.  

    Who are we, as a community, when we cannot protect our most vulnerable members? After decades of progress in curtailing violence against women, how is it that our legal system today tolerates mentally unstable younger men menacing women, children and the elderly with violent threats, week after week, with no consequences?

    (more…)

  • oops… I did it again

    Oops

  • Vote no on Q and yes on T

    Q Sign Final _ outlinesBy Colin Walsh

    Measure T provides funding for the operation of a new library in South Davis. T answers a long felt need in an underserved area. T is a discrete tax that joins already procured funds. T makes sense.

    Measure Q is a bad deal for Davis. Q doubles the local sales tax from 1% to 2% increasing costs for everyone who shops in Davis — another reason for Davis residents to leave town to shop. Worse, Q can be spent on anything the council decides later and they have a bad track record of wasting money without meeting community needs.

    The council just gave all city staff a large retroactive raise that significantly outpaced inflation. They also put much of the $19 million received from the federal government for Covid recovery to nice-to-have items like a pump track and arts grants rather than to more immediate needs.

    All this as Davis has fallen more than two years behind in auditing its finances and there are irregularities and deficiencies found in the last audit, that itself was several years late.

    The council also ended the finance and budget commission that acted as a public watch dog on the city budget.

    Q is nothing like T. Voting for T will do something good for Davis. Voting for Q will encourage our council to continue with frivolous spending. The council needs a clear message that Davis wants accountability. Please vote no on Q. Yes, on T.

     

  • Fighting Antisemitism: Lessons from history

    Hagen Cover

    William W. Hagen is an emeritus professor of History at UC Davis, specializing in German and east European history. His archival research has often taken him to Berlin and Warsaw, as well as to Vienna, Jerusalem, and New York. He recently recorded a podcast on HIS book, Anti-Jewish Violence in Poland, 1914-1920 (Cambridge University Press, 2018); https://newbooksnetwork.com/anti-jewish-violence-in-poland-1914-1920

    https://hagen.faculty.ucdavis.edu/

    By William W. Hagen

    Antisemitism has sung many tunes in willingly open or gullible ears. But its keynotes are fear and resentment. Historically, it often arose from the mysterious thought that the children of Israel were, collectively, a negative and even dangerous presence. Such fear had primordial roots, but took long-lasting anti-Jewish shape in early Christian attitudes, transmuting later into modern prejudices.

    It now slumbers in Western culture, waking now and then to foment small or big trouble. The resentment arises in hostile minds from bafflement that a numerically weak and historically persecuted people should, as a group, flourish materially and culturally – and, seemingly, possess power inimical to the aggrieved antisemite.

    (more…)

  • Recruitment for Advisory Commissions Continues

    City of Davis Extends Recruitment for Advisory Commissions

    From Press Release

    Post Date: July 03, 2024 4:00 pm

    The City of Davis announced that applications to serve on one of the following City Commissions have been extended to July 19, 2024:

    • Fiscal Commission 
    • Senior Citizen
    • Social Services
    • Transportation

    Due to a rescheduled City Council meeting in late July and an added commission recruitment, interested residents now have more time and options to submit an application for a City commission. Commissions have a critical role in the community and serve at the direction of the City Council. Commissions study issues within their scope of authority, analyze and recommend policies and programs and serve as public forums to hear resident interests and perspectives.

    (more…)