Author: Roberta Millstein

Don’t forget to vote!
Today (Tues, June 7) is the last day to vote! Polls close at 8 PM.

Easiest way to vote is with a drop box. Just vote, put your ballot in your envelope, seal your envelope, SIGN your envelope, and drop it in the box.
- Outdoor boxes:
  - Davis City Hall, 23 Russell Boulevard, Davis
  - UC Davis Campus, 282 Tennis Court Lane, Davis
- Indoor boxes:
  - Nugget Markets, 409 Mace Boulevard, Davis
  - Nugget Markets, 1414 E Covell Boulevard, Davis
If you need in-person assistance, our election-day voting centers are:
- Veterans Memorial Center – Multipurpose Room, 203 E 14th Street, Davis.
- UC Davis ARC – Ballroom A & B, 760 Orchard Road, Davis
- Montgomery Elementary School – Multipurpose Room, 1441 Danbury Street, Davis
- Emerson Junior High School – Multipurpose Room, 2121 Calaveras Avenue, Davis
My votes:
- Measure H (the DiSC industrial project): NO
- Yolo County Supervisor, District 2: Juliette Beck
- Yolo County District Attorney: Cynthia Rodriguez
- Yolo County Sheriff: Tom Lopez
- U.S. Congress: Andrew Engdahl
But even if you don't vote like me, please vote!
June 7, 2022
Reminder that next Tues June 7 is the last day to vote!

There are many ways to vote in addition to mailing in your ballot, including drop off boxes and in-person vote centers. This page has the details: https://www.yoloelections.org/voting/polling_place

We are lucky to live in a place where they make voting easy, so be sure to vote! Locally we have Measure H, the DA race, the Yolo County supervisor race, and more. Plus the state stuff.

May 31, 2022
Councilmember Carson sued me for signing a ballot statement

By Roberta Millstein

Two weeks ago, I was stunned to learn from a Davis Enterprise article that I and other signers of the Argument Against Measure H (Argument Against DiSC) were being sued by none other than Councilmember Dan Carson, who is serving as the “Honorary” Chair of the developer-funded Yes on DiSC campaign. Measure H is on the June 7 ballot; DiSC is a proposed development project on 100 acres of mostly prime farmland outside the City limits, adjacent to I-80 and Mace Blvd.

Apparently, the suit had been filed on the last possible day. I waited to be served papers, but none ever arrived. I did receive a phone call, later learning that Councilmember Carson had obtained my phone number from a Commission Chair. I was extremely surprised to learn that he would do something like that, especially since he apparently did not let on what he wanted my phone number for. It is still unclear whether Councilmember Carson funded this lawsuit himself or if someone else funded it; he has refused to answer several people who have asked him.

With a tight deadline for the ballot to be printed by the County, citizens opposed to DiSC suddenly found themselves having to find a lawyer within a matter of days (like, two days) and the prospect of spending tens of thousands of dollars to retain one — well in excess of the budget for the entire grassroots campaign.

And what was the suit about? Well, perhaps Councilmember Carson thought that he could pull the wool over a judge's eyes, but the judge found no problems with our contention that DiSC is in violation of the City's General Plan or our contention that there would be unmitigated greenhouse gases from the project or that there were almost no commitments.

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April 4, 2022
What should Davis’s “Resilience Hub” be?

The City Council approved spending of American Rescue Plan (ARP) funds at its most recent meeting, including $400,000 for "climate resilience hub/climate action needs." This being the only money they allocated related to climate change, it seems especially important to think about what such a hub might look like. Below are relevant documents from the City's Utility Commission.

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From: Resilience Subcommi1ee
To: Utilities Commission
Re: More definitive vision of Resilience Hub Date: October 20, 2021

The Resilience Subcommittee offers the following ideas and questions to the Utilities Commission to help formulate a vision of how a Resilience Hub could be beneficial to Davis and the specific qualities we would like to have in a Davis Resilience Hub.

——————————————————————————————————————————————

Resilience is the ability of people and communities to anticipate, accommodate and positively adapt to and thrive amidst changing climate conditions and emergency events.

Resilience Hub is a local facility to enhance community resilience by providing reliable essential services when emergency events occur and other community benefits under normal conditions. A resilience hub typically:

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March 6, 2022
Why is DiSC back?

Note: The following comments made at the City Council's Feb 1, 2022 meeting. The City Council, as expected, decided to proceed with putting the project on the ballot for voters to decide.

By Roberta Millstein

DiSC is back. But why is it back? Is it any better than the project that voters rejected just a little over a year ago?

It has no new features. Indeed, the developer initially deleted a bunch of features from the proposal and, after pushback from the Planning Commission and others, has now added some of them back in. But at best that only restores the status quo to the previously rejected project.

It is a reduced project, but half of huge is still huge. It’s the size of one Cannery instead of the size of two Canneries.

It’s still a freeway-oriented and car-oriented project that will massively impact traffic on Mace Blvd, I-80, and adjacent Mace Ranch surface streets. As a consequence, the greenhouse gases from the project will shred the City’s already weak carbon neutrality commitment. Nothing the developers can do on site can change that, since most of the climate change impact would be from commuters to and from the site. Vague promises of possible transportation improvements don’t change this climate killer either.

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February 2, 2022
Dramatic reduction in Baseline Features in DiSC 2022
The following email was sent to the Planning Commission in the evening of Jan 11, 2022. (The agenda for the meeting can be found here):

Dear members of the Planning Commission,

I am writing concerning item 6A of your meeting tomorrow (Jan 12), the public hearing on the DiSC 2022 project.

As you may recall, for a project that will be facing a Measure J/R/D vote, the Baseline Features (BFs) are key. The BFs are the only features that are guaranteed parts of the project. In contrast, any features that are part of the Development Agreement can be changed by the City Council. So, in terms of what the project is, and what the voters will be voting on, it is extremely important to know what the BFs are.

As it turns out, a number of BFs have changed or been eliminated in the change from the old DISC (rejected by voters in Nov 2020) and the current DiSC 2022 proposal. Here is my count:
- 19 BFs essentially unchanged
- 2 features enhanced
- 5 BFs changes due to reduction in the size of project (e.g, less housing)
- 7 BFs that offer a weaker version of feature unrelated to changes in project size
- 13 features eliminated altogether (appeared in old DISC but not in DiSC 2022).
Of course, whether these changes are important or not is for you and others to determine, but some of them are arguably important. Indeed, there are changed or eliminated features in each of the main categories, reducing the sustainability, housing, transit, etc., features of the project.

I urge you as Planning Commissioners to query the developer about all of these changes in order to determine if they are justified.

Attached please find a spreadsheet that shows these changes.

The BFs for old DISC can be found online in the following document: http://documents.cityofdavis.org/Media/CommunityDevelopment/Documents/PDF/CDD/Aggie%20Research%20Campus/20-111%20-%20DISC%20Project%20Ballot%20Measure.pdf

Sincerely,

Roberta Millstein
Davis citizen
Former chair, Open Space & Habitat Commission

**** Download Baseline feature comparison *****
January 12, 2022
Should Davis spend millions of dollars on a ladder fire truck?

This article was originally posted on 5/16/21. It is being reposted today because the City Council will be considering this item at its meeting tomorrow, 1/11/22. The anticipated one-time capital purchase expense for the fire apparatus and associated equipment is approximately $2.15 million.

UC Davis's Ladder Fire Truck – Truck 34

By Roberta Millstein

Is now the time for the City of Davis to be spending millions of dollars on a ladder fire truck when it currently only needs this type of truck approximately once per month at most, when it can currently borrow UC Davis’s ladder truck for free?

What information do we need to answer this question? What do we know and what do we need to know?

According to the Davis Enterprise, on March 16 the Davis City Council “expressed unanimous support for acquiring a ladder truck for the Davis Fire Department and directed staff to move forward both on securing a detailed cost estimate for a truck as well as developing plans to modify the downtown fire station to accommodate it.”

The estimated costs discussed thus far are as follows (with the City possibly being able to obtain some grants to offset some of these costs):

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January 10, 2022
Thinking like a Little Tomato

What should Davis's Climate Action and Adaptation Plan focus on?

By Roberta Millstein

In March 2019, Council adopted the Resolution Declaring a Climate Emergency and Proposing Mobilization Efforts to Restore a Safe Climate which states that “the City of Davis commits to taking significant action to move toward net municipal and community carbon neutrality in the short term with maximum efforts to implement carbon reduction actions by 2030; and accelerate the existing 2050 Davis carbon neutrality goal to a 2040 target. The City of Davis and City Council will…accelerate a robust update to the Davis CAAP and integration with the City’s updated General Plan.” (emphasis added). https://www.cityofdavis.org/sustainability/2020-climate-action-and-adaptation-plan-caap

The City has asked for our input into a set of 29 draft action items for the Climate Action and Adaptation Plan (CAAP) that City could take to achieve its Climate Emergency Resolution. Which should our top priorities be? Should any of the draft actions be modified, eliminated, or combined? Should any of the proposed actions that didn't make it into the "top 29" be promoted?

I suggest that in order to answer this question, we must "Think Like a Little Tomato."[1] In A Sand County Almanac, conservationist (ecologist, forester, hunter, professor) Aldo Leopold famously urged us to "Think Like a Mountain." In that essay, Leopold was concerned with the consequences of focusing solely on preserving deer population numbers, something that turns out to be at the expense of everything else on the mountain (the wolves, the plants and trees, the mountain itself). Instead, he implies, we need to think about the entire land community.

Now in Davis and surrounding areas, deer and wolves are not so much in play, but tomatoes (and other agricultural crops) are, as well as the other plants and animals who live in and around our urban and agricultural areas, some with dwindling numbers, like burrowing owls and Swainson's hawks. This land community – our land community, since humans are very much a part – is increasingly threatened by severe climate change impacts: hotter summers, hotter and bigger and longer-lasting fires, smoky air, drought, flood. Arguably, ignoring our land communities and their habitats is exactly the attitude that has brought on our climate emergency, and as we address climate change, it is the attitude that needs to change.

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November 12, 2021
Letter in praise of Anne Ternus-Bellamy

As we "two steps forward, one step back" our way out of the pandemic, a number of people have been rightly praised for their contributions to the community. Today I write to thank Anne Ternus-Bellamy for her outstanding coverage of the pandemic.

She has kept us up to date on all of the latest statistics; explained complicated facts about testing, vaccines, and best pandemic practices; and put that information into local, state, and national contexts. She has explained a massive amount of information to us in a clear and accessible way.

Having such a wealth of information available has meant that we could make informed decisions, decisions that may have even saved lives. It hasn't always been good news, but there is nonetheless a comfort to knowing what is going on.

I should add that she has found the time to fit in local political coverage as well, coverage that presents different perspectives on controversial issues in a fair and accurate way.

The Davis Enterprise is lucky to have her and so are we.

Roberta Millstein

November 3, 2021
Comments to the Tree Commission concerning DiSC 2022

The following was emailed to members of the Tree Commission this morning. The Tree Commission is scheduled to discuss the revised MRIC/ARC/DISC project, now dubbed DiSC 2022, at its meeting this Thursday, Oct 21. If you wish to comment on the project yourself, see instructions on the agenda for the meeting, located here.

Dear members of the Tree Commission,

I am writing to you as a former commissioner (10+ years) and Chair of the Open Space and Habitat Commission (OSHC), having completed my term last December. I was involved in analyzing what is now being called the DiSC 2022 project in all of its iterations, so I hope you find my comments helpful in your discussions.

I think it's great that you appointed a subcommittee to review all the materials, given that the changes are more extensive than the City has stated – this is not just a project that has been cut in half, as your subcommittee's analysis shows. I endorse your subcommittee's recommendations and encourage you to adopt them as a body in the strongest possible language, remembering that the only way to guarantee that a promised feature will be in the actual project is for it to be designated as a "baseline feature." A cautious route would have you even recommend that the relevant ordinances be satisfied (this was something that the OSHC did last time), since there is a history of the City Council bending its ordinances, including ordinances concerning trees (it is my belief that they did this in the recent Sutter parking lot decision).

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October 19, 2021