Category: Uncategorized

Toxics in the Environment and Other Environmental Issues

Introduction – As has been our custom for over 20 years, the Sierra Club Yolano Group prepares a wide-ranging questionnaire and presents it to candidates in races of interest to our local membership. The questionnaire for the 2022 Davis City Council race received answers from all 5 candidates in the 2 of the 5 City Council Districts for which an election is held in November, 2022.

The candidates, listed in alphabetical order by their first name, are:

District 1 (West Davis): – Bapu Vaitla, Dan Carson, and Kelsey Fortune

District 4 (East Davis ) – Adam Morrill, Gloria Partida

Questions were asked in the following general categories :

Part 1 – Land Use and Housing Development – Peripheral Development

Part 2— Land Use and Housing Development – Downtown Core and Student Housing

Part 3 – Energy Use and Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Part 4 – Transportation Management

Part 5 – Toxics in the Environment and Other Environmental Issues

Part 6 – Waste Management and Financial Contibutors

Parts 1 through 4 in this series can be viewed by clicking on that article's title above which is linked to the earlier publication.

This is the 5th in the series of articles and focuses on Toxics in the Environment and Other Environmental Issues and provides candidate responses to the following questions:

Question #1 – Wood Smoke

Small particulate pollution is the leading cause of respiratory disease in the Central Valley. Approximately 50% of winter ambient air particulate pollution is related to residential wood burning and a number of Davis residents have complained of nearest-neighbor wood smoke pollution causing respiratory distress. Davis has implemented a wood smoke ordinance that allows complaints to be filed against wood burning residents if they are producing visible smoke from a non-EPA approved wood burning device. However, the police department and code enforcement) will not respond to complaints during nighttime hours when almost all wood-burning occurs because they do not have enforcement tools or available personnel.

 

Why or why not do you support this ordinance, and what changes, if any, would you support to it including any enforcement mechanisms?

Question #2 – Pesticide Use Reduction

Several years ago Davis banned the use of pollinator-killing neonicotinoid class of pesticides and phased out the use of the herbicide glyphosate (the active ingredient in Monsanto’s Round-up product). However, the City Council declined to require that only certified organic pesticides be used in the City’s Parks and Open Spaces as recommended by the Natural Resources Commission.

 

Do you support restricting pesticide use on City properties to only those certified as “organic” and why or why not? If not, do you favor restrictions on where non-organic pesticides or herbicides may be used?

Question #3 – Resiliency

Davis will face threats to infrastructure, operations, and quality of life as climate change impacts become more apparent including extreme heat events and drought, or excessive precipitation.

 

What would be your strategy for making Davis more resilient in the face of coming issues related to climate change?

 

Question #4 – Other Environmental Related Issues

 

What are other environmental or climate change-related issues facing Davis and how would you propose the City address these issues?

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By David L. Johnson

The following article is a satire on the August 30, 2022, meeting of the Davis City Council. At the meeting, the council voted 5-0 to relocate the existing zipline in Arroyo Park in west Davis to another location in the park. The zipline is used by children but its use causes a sharp metallic noise which has disturbed neighbors. The statements in the article may or may not be true.

Highlights

• City of Davis Consigliere Inder Khalsa argued that using a child recreation facility – the Arroyo Park zipline – is analogous to free speech cases decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. Attorneys at CNN were perplexed by the Davis attorney’s comments. One legal analyst questioned whether Khalsa had walked into the wrong meeting.

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By Colin Walsh

The Sky Track Saga really saddens me. It seems like every step of the process has been fraught with actions that discredit our community.

From the beginning, this equipment was a problem. Any history of an original proposal to update the playground equipment in Arroyo Park seems murky, and there doesn’t seem to have been a  specific proposal for a zipline like the Sky Track. Worse, no public notice was given to the neighbors. There was no proper approval of seating the equipment on a new playground pad and there was no study of noise impacts on the neighborhood for this equipment which was very different from what had been in the park previously.

The sound impact was terrible on neighboring houses and so, understandably, neighbors complained.

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>>>from press release<<<

Throughout my 20 years as a public servant, I have responsibly administered taxpayer funds and delivered well thought out programs that improve service. I am not a career politician but stepping up because I know that together we can build a better Davis. 

Davis has challenges:  we need roads, bike/walk paths and sidewalks repaired, trees cared for, our downtown revitalized with a residential and commercial growth plan aligned to our needs.

With your support, I pledge to:

• Update and follow a citizen driven general plan
• Adopt budgets that align with our general plan and lower our carbon footprint
• Work with local businesses to revitalize our downtown as a destination for residents and visitors, and as a resilient source for city revenues
• Apply sound infill policies that make better use of existing space
• Prioritize housing projects that diversify our housing stock which will expand the range of available housing types/prices/rents
• Preserve surrounding prime farmland and encourage local farm to fork efforts
• Assist local non-profits, faith-based organizations, and the county with homelessness and mental health programs
• Support our police and fire personnel in keeping our city safe

I am the person to do the job, and that’s why I seek your support and your vote for Davis City Council, District 4. 

 

FRIDAY JULY 29 at 6:45pm
at Lutheran Church of the Incarnation:
1701 Russell Blvd. Davis, 95616

Join us for a Concert on the West Lawn of Lutheran Church of the Incarnation on Friday, July 29 at 6:45pm! The concert will feature Greg Erba, a native of Woodland, and alum of the Davis High Jazz Band, who is now a professional country rock musician in L.A. Greg will play some of his own music, and be joined by a cadre of musicians from LCI and Davis Lutheran, who will play some old favorites and bring a bit of summer joy into our community. Blankets, lawn chairs and/or picnic food is welcome – as are friends and neighbors. See you Friday!

If you’ve been paying attention, you might be wondering just exactly what to believe these days – are we dealing with fact or fiction? Disinformation? Marketing or just good-old-fashioned propaganda?

There is no better season to witness this phenomena than an election season. By the time you have read this letter (submitted, but not printed in the Enterprise), you will have already casted your vote but the feeling is likely still present.

Case in point: Measure H

Will it be a traffic-easer or clustermess of epic proportions? Planet-savior or climate nightmare? The future of Green Development(™) or the latest corporate ‘Greenwash’? Will I get a free pony?

The Yes campaign says that it will ‘advance environmental sustainability’, ‘combat climate change’, and be a ‘carbon-free development’. The only concrete information on their website about this is a 100% renewable energy commitment (for the shell buildings).

The No campaign cites an estimated 12,000 extra cars on the road, a net 5% INCREASE in carbon emissions in Davis, and that ‘carbon neutrality’ can only happen via purchasing of offsets, instead of…you know, actually figuring out how to do sustainable development.

Dan Carson, a member of the City Council in Davis, took it upon himself (with legal fees from Measure H campaign funders) to sue members of the No on H team and lost badly in court. To me, this is a totally inappropriate, unethical, and undemocratic behavior by an official elected to serve the people.

Yolo County and the City of Davis have both passed Climate Emergency Resolutions, boldly setting goals to be fossil-free and climate-positive by 2030 and 2040, respectively. In reality, we’ve seen close to 2 years go by without significant progress towards climate drawdown or ecological restoration. Even with everything going on in the present moment, it still makes me wonder me how an emergency response can be put on the back-burner like that.

The recent 4-1 approval by the Yolo County Board of Supervisors of a new 30 year extractive gravel-mining project in the Cache Creek Watershed, the lifeblood of Yolo County, makes me wonder if we are being handed more false promises and rose colored sunglasses.

Thank G-d for Juliette Beck running for Yolo County Supervisor, who does not just put in lip service, but is present in addressing the urgency of this moment and helping to steer us into meaningful ACTION. She was the only candidate in her race to vocally oppose the mining project. I have the upmost confidence in her leadership ability, experience, and drive as a mother to include us in a viable way forward.

The time for action is now and it requires our participation and critical thinking.

Thank you -David Abramson

(From press release) DiSC developers, led by Frank Ramos of Ramco Enterprises, poured $317,503 into the Yes on H campaign in a single day last week, bringing total developer contributions to the campaign committee to more than $600,000 in less than five months. The only other major donor to the campaign is Buzz Oates, Ramco’s partner in the development.

Yes on H expenditures have included:

• $123,00 to Spafford and Lincoln, a public relations and campaign management firm based in Davis CA. Spafford has been hired by developers of several major Davis projects in the past. Their role includes providing paid influencers, door-to-door solicitors, and phone bankers misrepresenting themselves as volunteers.
• $28,000 in direct payments to individuals actively campaigning publicly for DiSC. These are people who have tabled at the Farmers Market, and written letters and solicited support from local political parties, civic organizations, Parent-Teacher Association groups, and news and social media outlets.
• $45,000 to KMP Strategies. Their website describes their work as reaching “stakeholders where they are.” “Where they are” includes “on their phones, in their mailboxes, in their homes, in between songs on their playlist, or through those they trust.”

• $89,503.34 for lawyers from 2 separate law firms to prosecute Councilmember Dan Carson's lawsuit against the No on Measure H ballot statement signers and to represent the Developers before the City Council, City Advisory Commissions, and during other public events.

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This is Al’s Corner – A Place to comment on Local Stuff, free from the censorship of biased people. 

Free speech rocks!  Recent happenings at Netflix & Twitter give hope that Cancel Culture in the U.S. is dying.  Recent happenings in Davis local media . . .  not so much.  Al’s Corner is a place to speak your mind on all things Davis, even as other local forums become more exclusive, more moderated, and more noisier echo chambers that don’t welcome dissent, recognize humor, or allow ‘incorrect’ opinions.  That’s why I created Al’s corner — comment here on local media content and comments, without having to deal with the Thought Police.

The simple rules at Al’s Corner are:

• Doxx no one;

• No personal attacks on individuals who aren’t public figures [wider but not unlimited berth for public figures; i.e. you can insult their leadership skills or judgement, but not their weight];

• No critical comments on stuff known to be written by children; i.e. those 17 and under – everyone else is an adult.

WHEN YOU COMMENT: 

• Post the Subject clearly;

• Reference the source, article title, and date if commenting on an article from another source;

• If you are quoting a comment from another source, further note the comment author and time of posting. On the rare occasions I mod a comment, I’ll email the commenter, explain why, and the commenter can repost.  I will NOT disappear your comment, tell you to figure it out yourself, and then give you advice on when to plant your azaleas.

NOTE 1:  Comments are published when I get around to it!   You are not being censored; rather, I have other priorities besides your comment.  This also means it won’t be a real-time conversation, so post accordingly.   

NOTE 2:  If someone posts something insensitive/offensive and not directed at an individual, they are their own worst enemy and can hang themselves with the noose of their own words in full view of God and their fellow human beings.

I’ll refresh with a new Al’s Corner space once-a-week-ish, or as needed when things get cluttered.  Enjoy expressing yourself at Al’s corner.  It’ll be a gas.

— Al, of Al’s Corner  (gasoline tanker not included)

By Larry Guenther

The Old East Davis Neighborhood Association (OEDNA) requested that the Trackside Appellate court decision be reviewed by the California State Supreme Court. Some were critical of our decision due to the long odds. We were quite aware of the odds, and thus the decision not to review the decision comes as no surprise. We believed, however, that enforceability of City planning documents was a battle worth fighting.

This was a fight for public awareness and enforceability of city planning documents – Statewide. For people to believe in the law, it must be enforceable. With the publication of the Trackside decision, the current City Council can interpret planning documents, approved by previous City Councils, to mean whatever they want them to mean – with no repercussions.

We make plans to create certainty. OEDNA participated robustly in creating the Davis Downtown and Traditional Neighborhood Guidelines to gain certainty for developers and for residents. This decision negates that certainty. So what, then, is the purpose of moving forward with any city planning documents? The Downtown Plan, the General Plan, the Climate Action and Adaptation Plan, or any other plan? The details of those plans – those things we fight for and that we believe have teeth – have no teeth.

Who loses out? The residents of our City, and of every City in California. Because with this decision, all California city planning documents have become uncertain.

Larry Guenther is President of the Board of the Old East Davis Neighborhood Association.