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

Category: Ethics

  • Response from Celebration of Abraham

    Dear Friends,

    We are overwhelmed with grief over the violence in Israel and Gaza. We know that the feelings of many of the members of our community regardless of their religious tradition are raw. Folks are exhausted and confused as we all try to understand the atrocities visited on our brothers and sisters that are resulting from the conflict. As the Celebration of Abraham tried to discern how to respond, we received the International House email that expressed that group’s distress and then affirmed the statement developed by the University of California Davis Cross-Cultural Center. The carefully crafted statement of the Cross-Cultural Center reflected the Celebration of Abraham’s thinking and, so we like International House are choosing to uphold the following statement:

    “While no statement or message can encompass the historical breadth and political depth of this complex conflict, we want to acknowledge that the language and narratives used by media and in various statements can compound and increase feelings of vulnerability and distress.

    We recognize that words matter and are concerned about dangerous rhetoric that can lead to increased anti-Arab sentiment, anti-Semitism, and Islamophobia. This impact can include but is not limited to, people feeling unsafe emotionally and physically due to doxxing, surveillance, threats, and fear of voicing their opinion or perspective.

    As a community, we encourage folks to be mindful of where they receive information, apply critical thinking skills when evaluating sources, and be open to deepening their knowledge around multiple perspectives.”

    We, like International House, thank the UC Davis Cross Cultural Center for naming concerns and encouraging thoughtful consideration. We also thank the International House for reminding us that if we work to deepen our knowledge of others and practice deep compassion, we can realize what connects us as humans is stronger than the difference that divides us.

    With a prayer for peace for all,

    Helen Roland Cramer, Chair

    Celebration of Abraham

  • YoloSol: Acorn traditions workshop on Nov. 4, subscribe to the YoloSol newsletter

    Dear Friends,
    We are thrilled to announce the launch of a new website for the YoloSol Collective. Special thanks to David Abramson for working on this while also caring for an infant!
     
    Please sign up for our newsletter here to keep in touch with our ongoing programming around issues of land and water in the Yolo bioregion: http://eepurl.com/iBVCAg
    More details below.
     
    In community,
    Juliette Beck
     
    Dear Friends,
     
    YoloSol extends a fall season's greeting to all of you!
    We are an intergenerational "artivist" collective dedicated to sharing stories of the pasts, presents, and futures embedded in the landscapes and waterways of the Yolo bioregion.
     
    We center the voices and stories of marginalized communities, especially Patwin-Wintun culture bearers, youth, and the diverse immigrant communities that make up the Yolo cultural tapestry.
     
    We look forward to working with you to cultivate ecological justice, well-being and restorative stewardship of our shared home.  
     
    In community,
    Diana, Marlen, Anuj, Juliette, Adnan and David
    – founding members of YoloSol Collective
    Please join us on Saturday November 4, 2023, 4-6:30pm for
    Presented as the inaugural event of the International House World Tour Series, this is a two-part Welcoming to Wintun Homeland.

    4:00pm – 5:00 pm: A hands-on family-friendly workshop on Wintun acorn preparationwith Diana Almendariz (Patwin/Wintun cultural practitioner/artist)

    5:15 -6:30 pm: A community conversation on the intersection of Indigeneity and Diaspora with Diana Almendariz, Stan Padilla (Yaqui artist), Danny Manning (Maidu/Diné, Fire Chief, Greenville Rancheria)

    Please RSVP here.
    This event is made possible by funding from the City of Davis. Arts and Cultural Affairs Fund.
     
    View original artwork by Diana Almendariz and collective member Adnan Beteha.
     
    Read the inaugural blogpost by Adnan on Putah Creek Futures: 
     
    "I am meant to flood. I am meant to meander. I am meant to be free, and one day I will be all of that again."
    YoloSol is pleased to partner with Davis Rep on HEAR FIRST, a one-of-a-klnd audio piece for outdoor listening featuring songs, stories, and urgent messages about the land beneath our feet.
    Copyright for artwork remains with the artists.
    October 2023 YoloSol Collective

  • Caltrans’ data shows 100mph rail upgrade 15x more cost-effective than road widening

    Study: Average speed difference trivial if toll lanes added; HOV lanes don’t work.

    1 SEGMENT WIDENING

    By Alan Hirsch, Yolo Mobility 

    If you read deeply and critically into Caltrans documents, you will often find a number of things  acknowledged- inconvenient truth not always shared with elected officials.

     City and County elected officials rely on agency staff to give honest and complete presentation of objective findings.  However, the reality is elected official are very vulnerable if an agency’s staff is committed to pursue a pre-ordained solution. Staff can bending their analysis or make strategic omissions of information in their presentation. These are rarely caught by elected official who don’t have time to read, much less understand the reports.

    Then it’s up a rare whistleblower and or nerdy gadflies to protect the public interest by catching this, and making public comments to elected who otherwise don’t have time to read everything.

    But in the end, it up courageous electeds, who are willing to both listen to the outsiders, and are then open to changing their minds, if the agency solution is be questioned if its pre-ordained solution is in the public good.

    This manipulation of data  does come from all Government agencies, or even most, but this Machiavellian approach to public policy can hard backed  into  the culture of some.

    (more…)

  • Council to Remove Downtown Tree Protections

    Wrap banding

    Trees damaged by light strings

    City Staff Ask City Council to Remove Protections for Downtown Trees Tonight

    by Colin Walsh

    Please let City Council know Davis wants its downtown trees protected. Email  CityCouncilMembers@cityofdavis.org, or call and leave a comment between noon and 4pm today (530) 757-5693. You can also attend the City council meeting tonight – it is expected to be heard at 8pm.

    For 20 years Davis staff have put lights in Downtown Davis Trees, often damaging the trees, even though it is a violation of Davis City Code.  Over the summer the City went to do regular trimming and maintenance for downtown trees and had to remove all of the lights because the situation had gotten so bad, damaging trees and causing unsafe conditions with exposed electrical outlets and wires. Now the City wants to put the lights back up and are proposing to change the law to do so – but are including no protections for the trees to assure no more trees are damaged by the lights.

    It is possible to have a tree lights program for downtown trees, but there needs to be best practices for how to install them and funding to maintain them or take them down before they harm trees. The proposed Davis plan does not include any of that. They are just changing city law to eliminate tree protections.

    Many other cities ban tree lights completely. Some cities limit lights to 1 or 2 month a year because wires wrapped around trees inevitably interfere with three growth and can even kill trees. Still other cities have permit processes that assure inspection and a revenue stream for maintenance. Davis is opting for none of those, and just eliminating the law that protects trees.

    Please let council know hurting Davis trees is not OK!

    For more information the City staff report is available here:

    https://documents.cityofdavis.org/Media/Default/Documents/PDF/CityCouncil/CouncilMeetings/Agendas/2023/2023-10-03/06-Modification-of-Municipal-Code-Chapter-37.pdf

  • Al’s Whatever Thing (Formerly Al’s Corner) – October 2023

    image from www.sparkysonestop.com

    Not much going on in Davis these days . . . coming up short on starter topics . . . #sigh# . . . anyone?

    (more…)

  • Yolo Holds Its Breath on Water Policy

    By Scott Steward

    Yolo County Supervisors placed a temporary pause on new Yolo ag well water permits until the local regional water agency can put the data and analysis together to, more certainly, tell the story about the water under our feet.

    WaterThis is the story about the water that we depend on for thriving local ag and the precious remainder of our beleaguered biome in Yolo, and the greater Sacramento valley.   On July 11th farmers and residents testified to the Yolo Board of Supervisors about their experience (Davisite 7/2023) with receding well water and wells going dry.  The principal cause identified as newer/bigger wells drafting water for previously unirrigated land for perennial trees (nuts) and vines.

    On September 12th, the Board consider options that included a moratorium on new well applications. Between the July BOS meeting and the 9/12 meeting, staff and the Director of the Yolo Subbasin Groundwater Agency were to help the Board with more Data.  At this last meeting we found out that the data is just not ready and so, in absence of any evidence not to act more conservatively, the Board unanimously chose a 45 day moratorium option. 

    Supervisor Frerichs brought the final motion "I have heard from farmers and many many residents who are supportive of this (the moratorium option)." The moratorium is not blanket, specifying Clarksburg and other areas as exempt, but generally placing the restriction on the areas experiencing water table drops.

    (more…)

  • Upstander Carnival teaches anti-bullying tools

    UpstanderPost(From press release) Upstander Carnival, a free event for elementary-age children, will return to Davis’ Central Park on Saturday, Oct. 21. As part of National Bullying Prevention Month, the annual fair teaches youngsters to identify and stand up to bullying.

    The Davis Phoenix Coalition launched the carnival in 2015. This year, it’s from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the sycamore grove of Davis’ Central Park, Fourth and C streets. The popular event draws hundreds every year.

    Participants go through six stations of brief, interactive lessons, where they practice inclusion, deal with cyberbullying and learn helpful skills. After getting a stamp at each station, students get to enter the fun zone, where they may play in a bounce house, get snacks like popcorn or cotton candy, play games, and get their face painted.

    (more…)

  • A Better Week for Climate Action

    By Scott Steward

    It was more than a coincidence that California's Attorney General announced that the State is suing the big 5 oil companies this past Saturday.  Oil companies are being sued for "impairment and destruction" and for a remedy of preventing further misleading statements about the contribution of fossil fuel combustion to climate change." 

    Newsom timed the announcement for his appearance at the International Summit on Climate Change in New York going on this week ahead of protests.  The pressure from the climate labor coalition is definitely on.

    Picture1

    Sacramento "End the Fossil Fuel Era" banner drop on the Tower Bridge – Photo by Peg Hunter

    It is our own and our regions own climate justice advocates, made of youth, educators, racial justice and indigenous, immigrant, blue and white collar labor – the works – that have joined together to make a fearsome coalition locally and nationally. 

    Picture2

    Davis Fridays for Future, and allies, take to the streets this past Friday.  Picture by Johan Vernick

    The climate strikes and labor strikes coincide and are complementary as the UAW is fighting for fair wages as capital sees ICE (internal combustion engines) demise written on the wall (EV's hit price parity with ICE vehicles).  Labor is finding harmony with climate action as we watch the necessary acceleration away from the fossil fuel economy (and fossil fuel electoral power).

    Picture3

     Sacramento "End the Fossil Fuel Era" Labor Network for Sustainability – Photo by Peg Hunter

    Locally, September has been a better month for climate justice and the world is going to need our resilience because climate tragedies, like the one in Libya, and other parts of the world are unrelenting.  It is very clear…. hay hay ho ho Fossil Fuel has got go!  The path forward is locally made, fair wages, locally distributed, locally clothed, soil to skin, locally fed, farm to fork and locally entertained.

  • Anatomy of an Article: That Wake Up Call was a Wrong Number (Al’s Curiousity Corner #4)

    SUBJECT: "Commentary: A Wake Up Call"  (Wednesday's Blavis Blansplard)

    Only DG could get a robo-call about solar panels from a call center in India and think it was a a wake-up call.  I was rummaging through the trash behind Vanguard Headquarters on Thursday evening at 8:17 p.m. and found the recipe for the article.  As a public service I am posting it here:

    (more…)

  • Be a Climate Upstander: Join Friday’s Climate March

    By Alan Hirsch

    We are now in a (not so slow moving) crisis of civilization brought on by climate change.  It trumps all other issues as the earth is the stage all other human endeavors play out on.  Marches, protests gatherings for other issue will fall by the wayside due to heat waves, brown outs, hurricanes, wildfire & smoke. Even the infrastructures that support the food security, housing construction and access to health care is threatened.

    It also clear many good people- even  in Davis — are in denial of the crisis: not in theirs word but their actions that signal climate change is a secondary consideration in their decisions. 

    Planet Upstander gently question all these nice people– friends and local politicians — who mouth words and even pass crisis resolutions, but continue to doing the same old things that are killing our planet: Elected bodies in Yolo county and California are filled with business democrats- the Herbert Hoovers of our era when we need FDR’s and a Green New Deal.

    Consider the case of a Davis Democratic Party leader who proudly posted to her hundreds of Facebook she flew to Antarctica and from there took a cruise.   Upstander might post the gentle question: “Did you buy carbon offsets?”  Or a friend or family member who admires a low MPG car?  You could raise a concerning for them question about cost of gasoline  (and BTW GHG) due to  low mileage?  Or at least roll your eyes.   Or how do to you respond to friend who drives to school to when it is  only 1 mile from their home? You might ask what type of bike they own?

    The Davis Climate March-part of the international climate strike movement –   a chance to show you are one of the growing number of Upstanders for the Planet, It includes march this weekend  In Sacramento and SF this weekend of you can’t make the Davis event.

    (more…)