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

  • Sierra Club Hosts Summer Potluck and Wetlands Talk

    Image 573(From press release) Join the Sierra Club and YoloSol Collective on Wednesday, June 26 for a summer potluck and panel presentation on “Restoring Cache Creek Wetlands.”

    For this free, public event, we are pleased to welcome Native Californian cultural practitioner Diana Almendariz, Cache Creek conservationist Jim Barrett, and UC Davis entomologist Geoffrey Attardo in a discussion of how the lower Cache Creek’s watershed ecosystem functioned in the past before agriculture and mining changed its current condition. Panelists will share their ideas for a restorative, climate-resilient future for the creek and its plant and animal wildlife.

    Almendariz is a naturalist, educator and practitioner of Maidu/Wintun, Hupa/Yurok culture, heritage and experiences. Following the teachings of renowned Wintun basket weaver and culture bearer Bertha Mitchell (1936-2018), Almendariz has been working for more than twenty years to bring to life a Tending and Gathering Garden in a reclaimed mining pit at the Cache Creek Nature Preserve.  She is a frequent lecturer at UC Davis, Sacramento State, museums and nature centers. She leads workshops on cultural burning on place-based traditional ecological knowledge.

    Jim Barrett, a retired physician, conservationist and proud grandfather, has lived alongside lower Cache Creek near the home of Yolo County settler pioneer William Gordon for 24 years. As a board member of Cache Creek Conservancy and the Sierra Club Yolano Group, he envisions a role for reclaimed gravel mines in the restoration of lower Cache Creek.

    Geoff Attardo, Associate Professor of Entomology at UC Davis, is passionate about mosquitos, marshes, and teaching science.  He specializes in the study of arthropod disease vector biology and the role of bio-diverse ecosystems in public and environmental health. Geoff is currently partnering with Almendariz on a project to demonstrate the benefits of traditional tule and cattail wetlands management.

    (more…)

  • Oh Do *@#$%& Off, Greenwald (regarding building on a conservation-forever easment specifically, but also in general)

    City-promised-to-protect-a-strip-of-land-along-a-creeCome on Greenwald.  Seriously?

    When people fought decades ago to save land from development, forever, do you believe what they were really fighting for was to save the land from development 'forever, or until there was pressure to build housing, whichever comes first' ?

    (more…)

  • Al’s Corner June: Committee Rise, Committee Set

    CRCSIt's June, and the City of Davis is in mourning.  People are visiting the Davis Cemetery to visit our fallen committees.  To celebrate this misery, Alan C. Miller sang "Committee Rise, Committee Set" at the City Council meeting last night, sung to the tune of "Sunrise, Sunset" from Fiddler on the Roof.  Mr. Miller was brought to tears by his own performance.

         This can be viewed at this link:  https://davis.granicus.com/player/clip/1703?view_id=6&redirect=true

         At this time signature:  38:10

    Here's the lyrics from Tuesday night's (June 4th) council meeting:

    (more…)

  • Police Surveillance and Military Equipment Acquisition Policies t

    MRAP 2014-08-29 at 9.42.39

    MRAP 2014-08-29 at 9.42.39 AM

    To be Discussed and Possibly Decided at Tuesday, June 4th Davis Council Meeting

    By Scott Steward

    Right when Davis is in full graduation mode – the City is to consider items that have everything to do with how free you are to express your views without being recorded and traced, with or without your knowledge.  Is this servail increasing our safety or providing more tools that have to be maintained and that have to find an excuse to exist?

    Military equipment in a civil city?  Where Davis has been resistant, other communities are less so, and the armaments that our police department does not have, it can leave them wondering if they have to borrow the highest gauge shielding and firearms.  Or is that true?  Is keeping the peace more about relationships and not over-arming to defend against community breakdowns that erupt in bizarre and tragic ways?  Ways that no shielding can defend.  A teenager hidden in a house, a gun owner deciding he does not like a police officer, a gun owner whose roommate does not suspect he has lost it. Or a knife held by a young man whose mind and body go feral?

    Disarming those whose weapons are for organized crime and premeditated harm, this is part of peacekeeping, and how that can happen safely for the police officers is to be heard and understood.  What are the tradeoffs? What is necessary, and what is contributing to escalation?

    Item 5 (7:15) – agenda is here: https://documents.cityofdavis.org/Media/Default/Documents/PDF/CityCouncil/CouncilMeetings/Agendas/2024/2024-06-04/City-Council-Agenda-06-04-24.pdf

  • Sierra Club and Environmental Council of Sacramento Sue Caltrans over Environmental Deficiencies of Yolo I-80 Freeway Widening Project

    I-80 Widening Logo
    (From press release) On May 29, the Sierra Club and the Environmental Council of Sacramento (ECOS) filed a lawsuit against Caltrans alleging legally inadequate environmental analysis of the I-80 freeway widening project through Yolo County.

    The lawsuit’s goal is to stop Caltrans from widening 17 miles of the I-80 freeway from six to eight lanes between Davis and Sacramento through the Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area until Caltrans conducts a valid analysis of adverse environmental impacts threatened by the project and implements appropriate mitigation for these harmful effects.

    Caltrans’ Environmental Impact Report (EIR) grossly underestimates increased vehicular travel, which would emit far larger quantities of greenhouse gases (GHG) and air pollutants than claimed. The EIR fails to consider viable alternatives, such as increased public transit or alternate tolling strategies. Therefore, the project neither adequately manages demand nor produces adequate revenue to fund needed transit alternatives. Also, Caltrans’ proposed mitigation is woefully inadequate to offset the resulting increased GHG and air pollutant emissions.

    Caltrans violated the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) by failing to acknowledge that freeway widenings do not produce less congestion but, in fact, result in increased traffic — leading to worse congestion and pollution – due to “Induced Demand”.

    (more…)

  • Get a Front Row Seat to the Green Revolution Taking Place in Yolo County

    Tuesday 5/28 – This Yolo County Climate Action Commission Meeting is a must-see – 4:00 to 6:30 pm

    BigShift

    By Scott Steward

    Big plans. The Commission (and UCD) turn plans into implementation. Big dollars are going to be spent (UCD plans on spending $58M a year for the next 17 years), and if you are an EV enthusiast, a water protector, a Green House Gas Reduction professional, activist or a professional activist – at least get the meeting agenda notes to read if you can’t attend – 4:00-6:30 on Tuesday, May 28th.

    As many of our regular Council meeting attendees know, these are necessarily procedural meetings. This is just a courtesy to new attendees: the meeting has Zoom access, and brief constructive comments are encouraged.

    Item 5a: Request for Proposal for the County’s conversion to a ZEV fleet – Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) Action Plan RFP Release

    Item 6. Kristin Sicke,  Executive Officer of Yolo Subbasin Groundwater Agency, will deliver a report on the Agency’s status and progress toward rational regulation of water in the area.   You might recall the Davisite.org OPED about our county’s water situation.  We are now at a point where well permits are allowed, and for the interim, the Groundwater Agency has not finished its methodology for sustaining water levels in the area.  

    The big worry is that in the “study area” (Capay Valley and North and other areas), farmers and residents are experiencing sustained drops in water levels and have given much of their time to tell the County about it.  Drops associated with existing wells, even after these last 3 average/wet years.

    (more…)

  • Open Discussion: Library vs. Mom’s for Liberty: Library Loses — Free Speech Wins (of course)

    LibraryTransferring a few comments from Al's Corner, to open the discussion:

    Beth Bourne and M4L have been vindicated.

    The library has to change its policies and pay $70,000 in damages and fees.

    (more…)

  • Transparency is Part of Inclusivity & Diversity

    YoloTD cac false equity 1

    What message will the CTC send Thursday?

    By Alan Hirsch

    Letter to California Transportation Commission CTC@catc.ca.gov

    Chair Carl Guardino and Members,

    CC  CTC Equity Committee  Chair William Walker

    Re: Disagreeing Better on Transportation Projects

     

    Mr. Guardino:

     

    Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan used to say:

        “You are entitled to your own opinions. But you are not entitled to your own facts.”

    The California Public Records Act (and the Brown Act) were designed so we work from the same facts—that there is sharing of information – so in dialog agencies don’t strategically withhold information to put electeds official as well as the public at an unfair disadvantage in reviewing projects.

    Transparency is Inclusivity.

    However, I want to bring to your attention a situation where Caltrans seems to be strategically withholding information from the public on a $1/2 billion project.

    In June 2023 the CTC staff report recommended NOT to fund Yolo80 toll lanes out of TCEP funds, rating it medium priority. In that staff report CTC staff rated Yolo80 31st out of 48 projects.   Caltrans rated Yolo80 last in priority (24th) out of 24 of their projects. (extract from June 2023 staff report attached)

    This of course raises question why it is now rated a priority for advance funding. In the CTC discussion on 5/16. Would not you and other commissions like to know? 

    In fact 11 months ago, I tried to find out.

    (more…)

  • Yolo officials like Diversity & Inclusion– except when big money is Involved

    YoloTD cac false equity
    By Alan Hirsch

    DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) is given lot of lip service in progressive circles in Yolo County. But it can turn performative – especial if those in power have already made up their mind on a solution and don’t want to be contradicted- i.e. surface and take in to account diverse opinions.

    That is what has been at play for Yolo County on Yolo80 widening with local electeds having made up their mind 3 years ago to add toll lanes to a 17 mile stretch of I-80.  After that they have worked to turn the legally required public process into a  check the box exercise, excluding diverse view point from being considered– even when the diverse  viewpoints are backed by top transportation experts from UC Davis.

    We are now at the end-stage where Davis Mayor/Yolo Transportation District Chair Josh Chapman is overtly discouraging public participation: he said openly it don’t matter what members of Davis public think — hiding the fact the project is not yet fully funded and public input to the California Transportation Commission (CTC) can still make a difference.

    This DEI hypocrisy in Yolo County will continue unless people call out the hypocrisy. The  public can be heard at the CTC’s Equity Committee meeting Wednesday. It is especially focused on this behavior like this by  in local transportation jurisdictions.

    Emails are needed to the “CTC-EAC” (California Transportation Commission- Equity Advisory Committee) to note the performative nature of Yolo80 Environmental process (Caltrans District 3 and YoloTD) – and also to oppose funding the new toll lanes  until the process is made truly diverse and inclusive in the search for a solution.

    Write to  CTC@catc.ca.gov   Subject: Equity and: Funding widening Yolo80 with Toll Lanes.

    Issues to note to the Equity Committee: (cut and paste into email?)

     

    (more…)

  • Final I-80 EIR released – an embarrassment of errors that sets up Caltrans for Legal challenge

    I-80- causeway narrower lane cross section
    By Alan Hirsch

    On Wednesday May 1, the 1971 page (plus 345-page appendix)- final EIR for yolo80 was released. The 139 comments take up nearly 71% of the pages.   – 108 of the 139 were from individuals, not government agencies, cities or  environment groups with paid staff.  This highlights the  fact this science-defying proposal from Caltrans has become “the most controversial freeway project in the state.” 

    ———————–
     NOTE: The last chance to comment on the funding will be at California Transportation Commission Meeting Thursday May 16, By Tuesday send any comments. (esp inadequately funded mitigation plan, induced demand negates any congestion relief, no environmental justice plan for tolls)
    to CTC@CATC.CA.GOV
    Subject: Widening I-80 with a Expensive Toll lane.
    Pro-Tip: use 14 or 16 pt font for short email.

    ————————–

    The EIR concluded that despite the widening the freeway will generate 158M more miles of driving (VMT) a year…equal to adding over 11,000 more cars to the road and should be built based on “Statement of  Overriding concern” as it has benefit to reducing congestion- Even  though everyone agree this is wrong as congestion will return within less than ten years.  It is also strange given  their VMT Mitigation plan only offsets 55 Mil VMT miles year of the additional driving and ignores the nearly 50Million of additional a truck.

    Adding capacity via toll lanes only guarantee richest member of community- and groups of Tahoe travelers  never faces congestion.

    The EIR also ignores any analysis of increased danger from narrowing lanes and permanently removing shoulders. (see diagram)   

    The ability of the proposed mitigation plan to provide a carbon/VMT offset is taken to higher degrees of absurdity to somehow claim the project tolls will fund adequate mitigations- and have money left for a social equity/environmental Justice  program into perpetuity.

    Public not told about public hearing on toll levels.

    (more…)