Category: Uncategorized

I am voting for Jim Provenza for Supervisor for the Fourth District. 

I have known Jim for over 25 years. He has dedicated his life to helping people in his district.

Some examples: he helped my neighbors who were in their 90’s get connected to city water; he helped stop PG&E from stringing lines over homes in El Macero; he has supported the Yolo County libraries, critical in these times of increasing complexity.

While we are living our daily lives, he is watching over all the people in Yolo County. Check his voting record and you will see his devotion.

This is not a job you learn overnight. This takes a life of working for the public.

Jim has that background.

Vote for Jim Provenza for Supervisor for the Fourth District. 

Holly Bishop

Davis

Comments for the meeting of the Davis Downtown Plan Advisory Committee

By Jon Li

I find it tremendously irresponsible of the City Council that they would find it necessary to have an emergency closed session during the final meeting of the Downtown Advisory Committee, to evaluate the city manager, so none of them can be present.

This Downtown Plan does not reflect the thinking of the Advisory Committee at all, any more than it reflects the thinking of downtown merchants, developers, property owners or the public. 

City staff and the consultant brag that you cannot change their work at all: not the public, not the business community, not Cool Davis, and not the Advisory Committee.  The Advisory Committee’s role is only to rubber stamp approve each report; the meetings only happened when the city staff wanted something they needed approved that they wanted to take to the city council.  The Advisory committee meetings are littered with the battles of committee members trying to advise, and how adamantly staff defended their right to stop any communication of change ever actually getting to the city council.

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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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