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Category: Current Affairs

  • Supporting Sensible Security at the Davis Food Co-op (Counter Petition – sign it!)

    COOP CopRoberta Millstein is correct that the COOP should have timely sent an email, perhaps with the text from the sign out in front of the store (see below). 

    However, the text with the petition calling to remove the guards drifts into anti-cop and demilitarization rhetoric that is far-far-left even for the average COOP shopper.  The statement "Security personnel in military-style equipment . . . creates the perception of shopping as a criminal act and makes the store feel like a space under occupation." is extreme. 

    Below is link to a counter-petition, thanking COOP management for their leadership on this matter.  Importantly, this petition refers to the guard as a guard (not a militarized occupation), this petition makes no list of demands, and this petition makes no threat of a boycott.  Choose the petition that fits your thoughts/opinion and sign one of them.  The link to the text and to sign the petition are here:

    https://chng.it/jMmWXHDtdh

    ENHANCED SECURITY MEASURES
    AT THE DAVIS FOOD CO-OP

    As many of you have noticed, the retail environment has changed significantly in the past year. Several staff members have expressed concern about safety and the increase in theft incidents in the store. Management has stepped up to become mitigators and although we are grateful for their leadership, it is not sustainable and our priority is safety. Many Members have also expressed their concerns about the changing environment. The overall sentiment is that the Co-op is losing its welcoming and safe atmosphere.

    We have done our best to mitigate the increased activity, however, it is becoming a bigger task than we have capacity and at times, training for.
    Therefore, after careful consideration, a third-party security company will be engaged to enhance the safety and security of staff, customers, and assets.

    This change may feel different to some members who may not be aware of the situations that have been discreetly addressed. However, this partnership will help create a more secure environment for everyone.

    The selected company is highly recommended by Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op. Additionally, the owner is a member of SNFC and is committed to incorporating the Davis Food Co-op's policies and values into how their team will engage with the community and handle situations involving theft or disturbances.

    This measure is essential to ensure that the Co-op remains a safe and welcoming space for all members, staff, and shoppers. We appreciate your understanding and support as this important change is implemented.

    Cooperatively,
    Laura Sanchez, General Manager

  • 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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  • The General Plan won’t be a Genial Plan

     

    Screenshot 2025-07-30 8.22.55 PM"The goal is to manipulate

    Heavy hands to intimidate

    Snuff out the very idea of clarity

    Strangle your longing for truth and trust

    Choke wisdom sapience and prudence

    The war economy is inviolable violently

    Suppresses all intelligence that conflicts

    With the stakes of those who drive it."  - 

    From "Melodie is a Wound" by: Laetitia Sadier, Tim John Gane. Performed by Stereolab. Album: Instant Holograms On Metal Film. Released: 2025.  https://youtu.be/Nndpg90P2O8?

  • Fireworks Disaster in Yolo County? Cancel All 4th of July Fireworks in Yolo County!

    1000013809
    Late Tuesday evening (yesterday, July 1st) the following – minus the images – was sent to the Yolo County Board of Supervisors, the Davis City Council, Davis Fire, UCD Fir, Davis PD, Yolo County Sherriff, local and regional media, relevant Commissions and advisors, and individuals active in climate and climate equity… – TE

    "Hi, I don't want to take more of your time than necessary due to the ongoing situation.
     
    People and property have been harmed. People have evacuated. First responders are taking risks – YSAQMD said that firework smoke is worse than wildfire smoke. First responders are and will be exhausted. 
     
    Do you think people who evacuated through toxic fireworks smoke will enjoy a show of toxic fireworks smoke?
     
    We already know the problems with fireworks shows: Danger to wild animals and pets, danger to people with PTSD. Pollution for everyone: The special colors in fireworks are not made of vegetable dye. 
     
    Screenshot 2025-07-02 8.51.34 AM
     
    We have an alternative going forward: Drone shows – such as at Celebrate Davis this year – or how about the money is used for true patriotism: I notice that Esparto has a single public Purple Air Monitor. (Compare this to Davis). What's the state of air equity in households there? Perhaps the money used to pollute can instead be used to clean the air of wildfire fallout and prescribed burns in households there.

    For now I call on all elected officials in Yolo County to immediately establish a complete ban of 4th of July fireworks shows in the County… and to not postpone them either! 

     
    Thank you,
    Todd Edelman,
    Davis

  • Davis, Improving Muslim, Arab and Palestinian Human Relations

    By Scott Steward

    When prompted by public comment or by the City Council, the Davis Human Relations Commission (HRC) assigns subcommittees to collect Davis residents feedback on what residents are experiencing, to get direct feedback about Davis residents' experiences, with conflict, discrimination or other relations.  

    Not surprisingly the Commission has heard much in the way of incidences of Islamic/Palestinian/Arab discrimination and Antisemitism (discrimination against Jews) in the last year and a half.  Two subcommittees were formed in late 2024 and remain in place today, the Muslims, Arabs, Palestinians and their Allies (MAPA) subcommittee and the Antisemitism subcommittee.  The MAPA report was completed and presented on April 2nd and recommendations from the report were refined and voted on by the commission on April 24th.

    The Muslim Arab Palestinians and their allies (MAPA) Human Relations Commission Report is a compilation of “100s of conversations, and review of 100s of videos, photos, and screenshots from social media stories and posts, surveyed residents, DJUSD parents and staff, UCD faculty, staff and students of a relatively even mix of Muslims, Arabs, Palestinians and Ally respondents." 

    The report is a 91 page representative sample of all the Davis sources and some data from external sources.

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  • No Measure J/R/D amendments

    Suburban sprawl
    It was disappointing to read the recent Davis Enterprise article regarding the City Council meeting item on  Measure J/R/D on May 13th. To be clear, there was no “confusion” by the public of what was being discussed or what could have resulted from that meeting. The Council was deciding if and when the City would add “exemptions” to Measure J/R/D on a ballot.  Any project including any of these exemption conditions would avoid a Measure J/R/D vote and disenfranchise Davis citizens from voting on it. 

    Also, there was no mention about the huge number of citizens who expressed their opposition to any Measure J/R/D “amendments” (exemptions) in person, by voicemail and by email at the meeting.

    How coincidental, that this subject of “amending“ Measure J /R/D was raised just when the egregious Village Farms project is supposed to be the next project on the ballot? Unless of course, it was somehow “exempted” by an “amended” Measure J/R/D.  Village Farms is a 1,800-unit project at Covell and Pole Line with a 200-acre floodplain, toxics from the adjacent unlined Old City Landfill, massive infrastructure costs, and enormous traffic and unsafe access issues.

    To be clear, any amendment(s) to Measure  J/R/D to exempt large projects which would annex in large parcels of ag land or open space for development, is for the benefit of the developers, not our community. Measure J/R/D already has exemptions built into it including for affordable housing.

    While the Housing Element Update citizen committee evaluated addressing new housing needs,  they did NOT make any recommendation to amend or add  Measure J/R/D exemptions. That concept came up between the City Staff and the State. Was this Staff’s idea, or was Staff given that direction, and by whom, to offer the concept of amending Measure J/R/D?

    With democracy on the line on a daily basis, we don’t need that happening here in Davis. The intention of Measure J/R/D is to give the public the ability to support good projects, and reject bad projects. Measure J/R/D is “The Citizens Right to Vote on Future Use of Open Space and Agricultural Lands”.  It passed 83%:17% when last renewed in 2020.  Measure J/R/D is democracy in action, and it does not need any “amendments” to weaken or invalidate it.

    Eileen M. Samitz

  • 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

    IMG_5699

    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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  • 5th & J Streets – Emergency Situation

    5th&J Image

    Open Letter to Davis City Council

    Davis City Council,

    Another collision at 5th & J Street today.  Car vs. Bike.

    Right after I called for Jersey barriers again at Council last night after the last collision. 

    This is an emergency situation.  Two collisions just this week, four in one week several weeks back.  Put up the goddamned Jersey barriers already, like today, like tomorrow.  Recognize that people are getting hurt at an alarming rate here.  I made a mistake being OK that the changes are coming after calling for Jersey barriers immediately after the four accidents a few weeks back. We can't wait.

    Here's how to do it:  put Jersey barriers on the left of each directional lane leading up to the intersection, and along the left-turn lane.  The left-turn lanes will face each other, so block the west to south lane, and allow east to north.  Put a 4' gap on each side for peds & bikes at crosswalks.  Do this also at I Street and K Street.  Similar site problems, and drivers will just cut over to I or K if J is blocked.  At I and K Street reverse which left turn lane is blocked, so cars can only go west to south.  This allows people to get into the neighborhood from 5th either direction, but prevents a 'face-off' between cars in the two left-turn lanes.  Then slap a vertical yellow reflector on the east and west ends of the Jersey barriers to prevent cars from hitting them.

    This has been going on for years, but the rate of collisions has increased greatly recently.  I live near the corner of 3rd & J Streets.  3rd is a bit less busy but still an arterial.  I can't recall ever seeing a collision there.  In over 35 years.  I'm sure it's happened, but it's rare.  So it isn't just bad drivers, it's the intersection.

    People keep asking why.  5th & J has inherent site problems.  These can't be fixed with shrub trimming – there are poles and trees in just the wrong places.  Going south to cross, you have to stop back of the stop line, then pull forward up to the bike lane, stop, and then pull across.  It's the only safe way to do it, but most people who don't use it regularly don't know this, nor is stopping twice a normal way to cross a street.  You get someone who pulls forward from the stop line with their site line blocked in just the wrong places, combined with a speeding car on 5th, and BOOM.  And it happens often.

    Do it!  Fix it!  Today!  Now!  No later than tomorrow!

    Alan C. Miller

    Old East Davis