Category: Uncategorized

Who can capture a Supervisor seat by placing the most lawn signs?

photo by Rik Keller

By Colin Walsh

Some Davis politicos swear that local campaigns are won and lost in the front yards of Davis with the placement of lawn signs like pins in a map, marking a campaign’s territorial conquests. Others see the perennial lawn sign war as a bit silly and overwrought.

Last week, two of our Yolo County Supervisorial candidates for the 4^th district were off to the races to see who could place the most lawn signs. Jim Provenza and challenger Linda Deos quickly filled the East and North Davis’s lawns with plastic pop up propaganda. Not a sign for the other challenger David Abramson was to be seen.

Linda signs sprouted up on many lawns in her North Davis area, while Jim absolutely dominated Poleline Road. Driving the road I noticed only one Linda sign and it was inexplicably sharing space with a Provenza sign.

It didn’t take long for controversy to erupt on Nextdoor.com.

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More than one person has asked me…

By David Abramson

Image from capitalinstitute.org.

No, it’s not a fancy economists’ term like “Asset Turnover Ratio”, “Speculative Motive”, or “Marginal Standing Facility”. It’s not the latest econ diet fad, scheme, or tomorrow’s scandal. No I didn’t invent it . It’s not even defined by a single person or a single idea, but it is a collection of ideas under shared guiding principles. You may already have a sense of what it might entail by hearing the words Regenerative and Economics joined together. To me:

Regenerative Economics represents an economic system, or many interlinked economies that are in line with the needs of our planet and the needs of people who live and work in our communities. It represents a measure of wealth defined by a healthy planet and thriving people.

Simple, right? Well perhaps not, if you consider the role of the current economic system in our ongoing ecological and social crisis.

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Jim Provenza shared the below letter he received this week from John Garamendi, Congressional Representative for the California 3rd District.

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To the Editor,

     Mental illness is complex.  It takes special leadership to recognize the need for providing support programs for people in crisis.  When Jim Provenza learned about Yolo County Mental Health Court, he listened and learned about the positive impact the program was making on participants.  He went to the Community Corrections Partnership and DA to advocate for the creation of a second court, doubling the capacity to serve.

     Based on his interest to provide mental health programs in our county, Jim went to Washington DC to learn about the Step Up program.  Our local Step Up Initiative identified 52 intervention points to divert people from the criminal system to mental health services.  Jim joined a task force in an effort to work with mental health professionals, human services and police to provide this type of intervention in our county.

     I worked with Jim professionally for 16 years.  He has always impressed me as a humble man who genuinely wants to hear from citizens, advocate as needed and establish programs that positively affect the lives of families.  I value Jim’s leadership style and support his re-election for County Supervisor. 

Courtenay Tessler

Retired High School Counselor

The Davisite has been provided the below letter dated December 24, 2019 demanding the City of Davis "cease and desist from processing applications and issuing encroachment permits pertaining to 4G and 5G "small wireless telecommunications facilities and from any installation and operations thereof." 

The letter was sent to the City of Davis by the law firm of Pollock & James,LLP on behalf of "the Davis Anti-5G Microwave Network."

The letter states that it is the 3rd notification since November 2019 and claims the City of Davis, "has been receiving a steady stream of applications from telecommunications industries to install and operate."

The letter included a copy of D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in case No.18-1129 that is linked here.

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The Davisite received this letter from the author on 1/8. It responds to a letter sent to the enterprise by Eric Gudz.  The author submitted the reply to Gudz to the Enterprise on 12/26 but the Davis Enterprise is refusing to print it. The idea that the "community conversation has moved on," as the Enterprise editor states is an obvious after the fact excuse since the author's letter was submitted after the Gudz letter appeared on line, but BEFORE the Gudz letter appeared in the print edition of the Enterprise on 12/27. The author has never previously submitted a letter to the Davis Enterprise.

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Business Park Developer makes late offsite affordable housing disclosure.

This is a letter sent to the City of Davis on January 6, 2020 regarding the the developers disclosure at the Social Services Commission that affordable housing will likely be built at another location separate from the ARC project. This disclosure could mean the project could actually build 1,000 to 1,308 new housing units, not the 850 units in the ARC project description. The difficulty is where the several hundred affordable housing units will be built is yet to be disclosed, and their likely off-site construction has not been accounted for in the Environmental Impact Report.

January 6, 2020

Dear Ms. Metzker, City of Davis Principal Planner,

I am writing regarding new information about the developer’s plans for the ARC business park that came to light during the City of Davis Social Services Commission meeting the evening of December 16th. This new information was not provided to the public until after the 5PM December 16th deadline for ARC EIR scoping comments, but the information is directly relevant to the supplemental EIR process and needs to be considered in the new environmental evaluation of the site. Since the developer was late in providing this new information, it is incumbent upon the City to include this new information in the SEIR process.

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In the era of so much uncertainty there is plenty of reason for despair. But there is also plenty of reason for hope.

Energy has been buzzing to address the greatest challenges of our time in this time of urgent need.

Groups like the Sunrise Movement and the Youth Climate Strike are pushing forward national and local climate action at a pace never seen before. Labor groups are organizing for fair pay, secure employment, and dignity. Right here in Davis, there are groups and individuals developing local and national Green New Deal initiatives and support, and our City Council has passed strong climate goals for the next 20 years.

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By Eileen M. Samitz

The deadline for comments on the Draft EIR for the monolithic University Mall mega-dorm proposal (University Commons) is this Friday Dec. 20^th at 5pm. The email addresses to send comments in are to City Staff at smetzker@cityofdavis.org  and elee@cityofdavis.org.

The proposal is to demolish all of U-Mall leaving only Trader Joe’s (the Arco station is not part of the project) and to replace it with a “mixed-use” project of a wall of 7-story buildings towering over the retail with 264 apartments with almost 900 “beds” (see attached illustration). 25% of the units would be 4-bedroom which makes clear, as the project name “University Commons” suggests, that it is targeting students. Since the City has approved almost 4,000 beds designed specifically for UCD students in four mega-dorms in the City already, the last thing we need is yet another mega-dorm.

The Russell and Anderson vicinity is already hugely impacted with traffic and this project would make it gridlock. U Mall now is difficult enough to find parking, yet the proposal wanted to add over 46,000 square feet of retail (the size of a Safeway grocery store) adding only 2 more parking spaces to support it!

This project proposal is too large and out of scale for that site, and would be luxury apartments with no affordable housing. None of this helps the City’s need for housing for our community’s workers and families and does nothing to provide affordable housing needed. In addition, it encourages UCD to continue neglecting to build the needed student housing on its enormous 5,300-acre campus with a 900- acre core campus. UCD is the only UC which has not agreed to provide 50% on-campus housing, yet it is the largest UC having so much land.

The U-Mall needs to redeveloped into an expanded and updated retail center which is the environmentally superior alternative in the EIR, not another mega-dorm, or possibly a dramatically scaled down mixed-use project if the parking and circulation can work. The City needs the sales tax and this site was intended for retail serving the entire community, not serving UCD’s student housing needs. The City needs the sales tax and this site was intended for retail serving the entire community, not serving UCD’s student housing needs. We have few sites left in the City to offer retail and this is one of the most important.

For information including the details of the project and the Draft EIR documents to review and comment on by the deadline this Friday Dec. 20^th at 5pm please see the Davisite article posted today at:

https://newdavisite.wordpress.com/2019/12/15/the-new-u-mall-proposal-a-monolithic-mega-dorm-fraught-with-problems/

By Bapu Vaitla

It’s hard to talk about homelessness. Many of us in Davis consider ourselves to be compassionate progressives sincerely wishing to support our community’s unhoused, but we’ve clearly failed to find answers. Tensions are rising, with local businesses reporting aggressive interactions downtown and Police Chief Pytel stating at the last City Council meeting that “one of the greatest tragedies we have in the city right now” is the degree to which homeless people victimize each other, with serious violence and theft occurring continuously. The most recent debate concerns the proposed location of a homeless day respite center near L & 5^th streets. Some residents have cited safety concerns, while others, including Chief Pytel, feel that the center is a necessary first step to meaningful change.

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