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Category: Politics

  • First Countywide High School Youth Voter Registration Drive

    (From press release) The Yolo County Elections Office in partnership with the League of Women Voters, Davis Area and Woodland chapters, invite all local high schools to host and participate in the first Countywide High School Youth Voter Registration Drive (VRD) in Yolo County.

    This countywide voter registration drive was established as a result of the recently adopted Yolo County Board of Education Resolution #22-23/44, in Support of High School Voter Weeks (last two weeks in April). The two-week drive is scheduled from April 17 to April 28, 2023. This drive is open to all local high schools and students.

    “This effort is a direct result of the strong partnership between the Yolo County Elections Office, League of Women Voters local chapters, the Yolo County Office of Education and its Board, and local youth service providers,” said Jesse Salinas, Yolo County Assessor/Clerk- Recorder/Registrar of Voters.

    Schools interested in participating should complete the Yolo County Voter Registration Drive Participation Survey: https://forms.office.com/g/DrUiFFmwwf by Wednesday, April 5, 2023. During a Youth Voter Registration Drive students will be able to register or pre-register to vote, learn about the upcoming 2023 Youth Empowerment Summit and be entered for a chance to win prizes.

    For more information contact María D. Coronel, Outreach Specialist with Yolo County ACE at Maria.Coronel@yolocounty.org.

    We encourage residents to connect with Yolo County ACE – Assessor/Clerk-Recorder/Elections on Facebook: @YoloACE, Instagram: @YoloCoACE, YouTube: @Yolo County ACE, TikTok: @yolocoace, and Twitter: @YoloCoACE to receive the most up to date information and updates.

  • Letter: Wright for City Council

    Francesca Wright is an inclusive and innovative leader who is not going to follow insular ways of doing things that have led to stalled Davis business opportunity and housing logjams.

    With her experience, Francesca successfully brought about constructive change to how we keep each other safe and how we plan and implement policy. As a leader within Yolo People Power, Francesca worked to create the Davis Department of Social Services and Housing. Francesca Wright was also instrumental in the implementation of community law-enforcement oversight, a positive model for the nation; a framework where we are all part of the solution to keep each other safe.

    Francesca has consistently sided with democracy and access to decision makers. I got to know Francesca these past five years on foot, visiting people in their apartments and single family homes all over Yolo County — to encourage them to vote. She won't wait for city meetings to get voter input.

    Her success at solving problems comes from the people. Francesca brings strength to the council, strength to remove barriers and build trust in decisions for business, housing, climate action, and equity.

    Please join me in voting for Francesca Wright for Davis City Council.

    Scott Steward
    Davis

  • Letter: Vote for Donna Neville

    I urge you to vote for Donna Neville on May 2 to fill the vacancy on the Davis City Council.  I am an advocate for the unhoused who has worked on homeless and low-income housing issues in Davis for many years, and I am impressed by her understanding of the causes of both chronic homelessness and temporary homelessness that results from an unforeseen crisis, such as a medical emergency, and. Her understanding has led her to propose specific, practical solutions. She understands that Davis can only deal with the issue by working to provide more housing for low-income workers and families.

    Her emphasis on updating the General Plan reflects an understanding of the need for our city to plan and to develop a shared vision of what we want our community to look like over the next decades. She also understands that the General Plan is an important part of dealing with our multifaceted housing crisis. 

    Donna also advocates for an Economic Development Plan where the city takes a proactive approach to determining how it will diversify our revenue and bring in the much-needed funding to take care of city infrastructure and continue to support city services. Her background in public finance will be invaluable in assisting in this economic development effort.

    As someone who taught Environmental Studies for many years, I know that Donna has a real grasp of the need for action to address climate change. She will depend on the best science and will consider how the costs of various actions needed to address climate change will be borne by different members of the community. Her willingness to listen to everyone in the room will be important in ensuring that the city's policy is accepted by people living in Davis.

    Finally, Donna's considerable professional experience as a government lawyer means that she has the knowledge and the experience to critically evaluating the information put before her.  As a city council member, she will clearly, fairly, and compassionately weigh the costs and benefits of varying actions before the council.

    Please vote for Donna Neville for city council.

    Helen Roland Cramer

  • Indivisible Yolo To Host Pints & Progress Event

    March 28 @ 5-7pm, Woodstock's Pizza in Davis

    Screenshot 2023-03-18 at 1(From press release) In the spirit of getting out of the house and off campus, Indivisible Yolo will host its bi-monthly Pints and Progress event March 28, 5-7pm, at Woodstock's Pizza’s new location on the corner of 3rd and G in Davis. 

    This is a come-as-you-are informal gathering with fellow Yolo County citizens concerned about the future of democracy. We can discuss the issues over a slice of pizza, your choice of beverage, and just plain socialize.  In person! (Look for us on the 2nd level)

    RSVP here:  https://www.facebook.com/events/183594607739804/ or indivisbleyolo@gmail.com

  • Don’t lose the opportunity for housing at University Mall site

    By David J Thompson

    Without a doubt, the University Mall site will be the greatest lost opportunity for housing in Davis in this ten year RHNA cycle. At 14+ acres, no other site presents the capacity for affordable housing as does University Mall. In terms of a real (not imagined) site that the developer wishes to re-develop, the closest proximity to the UCD campus of any site, the opportunity to reduce student traffic, an option to swap parking spaces for housing, with thoughtful site planning an ability to accommodate additional stories of housing, a valuable site for affordable housing, the possibilities are endless and the benefits accrue to many of us that envision the future projects that Davis must foster. 

    There will be no bigger loss to Davis’s needed future if a retail only plan is the regretful permanent outcome. There is no other site within Davis that provides such immediate and real value for the changes we need in land use.

    However, it seems like Brixmor is intent on replacing a mall with a mall. In this era which requires a radical rethinking of city planning can we really be so bankrupt of options that a redone mall is the only outcome? We need big changes where we have big opportunities. So the City must turn down the Brixmor plan.

    What could change the outcome?

    1. The City should pause the application process and enter into negotiations with Brixmor as to the best way for the City and the neighborhood to achieve a mixed use project. Every reasonable effort and inducement by the City should be looked at to encourage Brixmor to withdraw this present application and return with a mixed use application.
    2. Could the City use eminent domain to obtain the site for a housing only proposal that would eliminate the parking structures needed for the commercial site and replace it with housing? Repurposed as just housing at 40 units per acre the site can accommodate 560 apartments of which at 20% around 112 units would be affordable. The most ever affordable units in the history of Davis.

    What an achievement that could be for the Davis future many of us want to build.

    To the Planning Commission and City Council I ask you to pursue anything except a re-done mall.

  • Council Election Forum Coming March 29

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    (From press release) Join the League of Women Voters Davis Area and Davis Media Access for a candidates’ forum for the upcoming Davis City Council election for a new representative from District 3.

    The free Zoom event will be held from 7 to 8:15 p.m. March 29. District 3 represents residents in Central Davis. The elected councilmember will replace Lucas Frerichs, who was elected to the Yolo County Board of Supervisors in November. The all-mail ballot special election will be held May 2.

    The forum will feature candidates Donna Neville and Francesca Wright. Local LWV board member Michele Van Eyken will moderate the event.

    Audience members will be able to submit questions before and during the forum. To submit a question before the forum email your question to info@lwvdavisarea.org.

    The LWV is a non-partisan organization committed to voter registration and education. To learn more about the League and to sign up to this event, go to: www.lwvdavisarea.org.

  • Davis must grow up, not out

    By Judy Corbett, Robert Thayer, Stephen Wheeler and James Zanetto

    The Feb. 5 Davis Enterprise article stating that the City Council will examine ways of pre-approving housing developments on sites at the periphery of Davis in order to meet the city’s long-term “regional housing needs” allocation runs counter to the entire momentum of urban development economics and city finance.

    It is well known that by building dense, vital downtowns, with multi-story housing and walkable amenities, cities may not only reduce greenhouse gas emissions but actually build more positive property tax flows. Building at the periphery does the exact opposite by reducing income per acre from property taxes while increasing infrastructure maintenance including roads, water, sewers, flood control, street trees, police, fire and garbage collection.

    Jeff Speck, author of “Walkable City Rules,” (Island Press, 2018) states that “communities that fund infrastructure with an eye to long-term return will invest in compact, mixed-use development — especially in historic districts — and not in sprawl.”

    Beginning with the 1974 “Costs of Sprawl,” considerable research studies have shown that dense urban areas return far more revenue per acre than peripheral, auto-oriented development; the former actually subsidize the latter. (See the case studies website of Urban3: https://www.urbanthree.com/case-study/ )

    Since the new Davis Downtown Plan addresses this, at least in the short term we need to avoid peripheral development that does not pay for its own ultimate financial impact on a wide range of city services. Portland, Ore., and the smaller California cities of Pasadena, Petaluma, Hercules and Lodi are examples of communities where the advantages of building strong downtowns can be observed today.

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  • Will City Council stop broadcasting and recording commission meetings?

    Dear City Council Members,

    I am writing in regard to agenda item 3F “Terminate COVID Local Emergency.” Please pull this item from the consent calendar so you can discuss how this will change commission meetings and consider directing staff to propose methods for continuing to broadcast and record commission meetings.

    While COVID had many negative impacts on our community an unexpected benefit was forcing us to rethink how we held our public meetings. Though the first City Council meeting was some what rocky with the “Zoom Bombers” in the end Zoom meetings created a great benefit for commissions and the public. Thanks to holding Zoom meetings it was easier for the public to attend commission meetings in real time and once the City began making the recordings available on the City website, it meant the public was able to watch meetings after the fact too. This created a excellent example of open government.

    Further, Staff reported that having the recordings from the meetings aided greatly in writing accurate minutes for Commission meetings. Considering at times in the past the city website has lacked minutes for past meetings even over several years times, having the video of meetings raised the bar for public access to public meetings in Davis.

    Now with the local emergency order ending I have learned from staff that there is no plan to continue broadcasting or recording many commission meetings. Letting this opportunity for public access fall to the wayside would be a mistake.      

    I believe the City of Davis can continue to broadcast commission meetings and archive recordings at relatively moderate costs. For several commissions the meetings can take place in conference rooms and standard conference room teleconferencing systems are sufficient to allow staff to continue to broadcast commission meetings over zoom. This would also allow staff to continue to use zoom to record these meetings.

    One question you may ask is does this mean remote commenters must be supported in the future? Using zoom to broadcast and record meetings does not necessitate making remote public comments available, but the council could decide to continue to allow this. There certainly is merit to allowing remote public comment for commission meetings in order to increase public opportunities to comment for people who cannot come to a meeting in person. Whether the council chooses to allow for public comment or not is certainly worthy of council discussion and a good reason to pull this item from the consent calendar for Council consideration.

    In closing let me again ask the council to pull item 3F and direct staff to provide options for continuing to broadcast and record City of Davis Commission meetings. Continuing the enhanced public access discovered under the emergency order is certainly worth council and staff consideration.

    Best Regards,

    Colin Walsh

    Vice-chair of the Tree Commission speaking for myself.

  • Davis Responds to Climate Change

    Public Forum on CAAP Feb. 26

    Floods, droughts, wildfires, hurricanes….we all know that climate change is an existential threat, so what can we do?  The City of Davis declared a climate emergency and has drafted an updated Climate Action and Adaptation Plan (CAAP) that has aroused public concerns.  Are these concerns valid?  What does CAAP include and how might it impact you personally?  And what actions and regulations is the state proposing that will impact CAAP as well as you personally?  Come hear Kerry Daane Loux explain it all and answer your questions Sunday February 26 at 11:15 at Davis United Methodist Church, 1620 Anderson Road.  Kerry is Sustainability Coordinator for the City of Davis and project manager for CAAP.

    The Final Draft CAAP document and other information is available at:

    https://www.cityofdavis.org/sustainability/2020-climate-action-and-adaptation-plan-caap

    Of special note, the Overview and Context for the CAAP on pages 11-12 are useful information in advance of our discussion.

    FINAL DRAFT 2020-2040 Climate Action and Adaptation Plan (CAAP)  PDF

    Shared by Helen Roland Cramer

  • Those ‘pesky’ City Commissions

    Scooby-gang-1969By Roberta Millstein

    As a Gen-Xer, I grew up watching a lot of fairly silly cartoons, Scooby-Doo among them.  The plot of Scooby-Doo was pretty much always the same.  The main characters would ask a lot of hard questions, and always end up unmasking the “bad guy,” who would utter a phrase along the lines of “if it weren’t for those pesky kids!”

    Reading Item 5 of tonight’s City Council agenda makes me feel like I am in an episode of Scooby-Doo.  Commission meetings are too long, the staff report suggests.  They duplicate efforts, staff implies.

    Yet it was the commissions who asked hard questions about DISC.  They asked, for example, about the carbon emissions from the project and better ways to mitigate them.  They asked about the percentage of affordable housing.  They asked about the number of trees and protection for burrowing owls.  They asked about the effect of the project on our downtown.

    These were hard questions that were not asked by staff and not asked by the City Council.   They all ended up being issues in the campaign that resulted in voters rejecting the DISC project.

    Now, it seems, staff would like to reduce the power of those “pesky” commissions with all of their questions.

    Are the commission meetings really too long?  One easy way to make them shorter would be to put a time limit on presentations by developers and others; we can expect that commissioners have read the provided written materials.

    Are the commissions really duplicating effort?  As evidence, staff provides a table where different commissions weigh in on the same topic.  What staff fails to mention is that they are looking at different aspects of the same topic.  For example, when Open Space & Habitat looks at a park, it considers habitat values. Rec & Park considers recreational values. Tree Commission looks at the number and species of trees.  Yes, these can overlap, but they are distinctive issues that require distinctive expertise. There is no duplication.

    Commissions are treated as pesky by those who have to answer their hard questions, but commissions keep the democratic process in Davis strong.  If we want to revisit the commissions, let’s at least involve them – something that was not done for this meeting.  Our past and present commissioners can provide needed insight into this process.