Category: Uncategorized

By Colin Walsh

Sacramento's ABC 10 ran an uplifting segment about long time Davis residents Ellen Pontac and Shelly Bailes on Monday June 10th. The 6 minute segment shares this long time Davis couple's story in their struggle for marriage equity. 

After years of domestic partnership that the state refused to legally recognize, Bails and Pontac were first married in San Francisco in 2004 but the marriage was invalidated by the California Supreme Court. The second time was the charm and in 2008 they became the first same sex couple to wed in Yolo County.

Bailes told me, "We think it was very sweet that ABC 10 did this. It was a fun interview because we got to talk about the past and reminisce."

https://www.abc10.com/article/news/this-davis-couple-had-a-long-road-to-marriage-equality/103-b0a1c094-dea9-4d79-bdc2-89476e95c9db?fbclid=IwAR0xMeUkG6EwS6RGo0zAzBPoNNcm1hZo4HdeePB9kVjOVn9jApd9FsiFRJE

By Michelle Jillian Bailey

The welcoming aroma of coffee. The clink of dishes and whoosh of the foamer. A tiny woman behind the counter. She owns a huge smile and an even bigger heart. This mighty woman is Jira, proud new owner of Barista Brew Café.

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On 6/4/2019 Matt Williams, Chair of the City of Davis Finance and Budget Commission, acting as a representative of the commission presented the following resolutions to the Davis City Council.

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Comments provided by Abbie Dewitt to the Davis City Council 6/4/2019 published with permission.

Good evening. My name is Abbie, and I live on Evergreen Court, the first residential coul-de-sac closest to the Pacifico property, the entrance being about 700 feet away, to give you an idea. I have lived on this street my whole entire life, and I've seen how the community and neighborhood has changed over the past 20 years.

Growing up, I rode my bike to school with my best childhood friend who lived on the same street as me, via the bike path behind our house – the same one the residents of Pacifico use to access their living units. I remember the first day our mothers let us go alone in the 3rd grade, and how independent and mature I felt. Now, almost a decade later, a 3rd grade girl lives in that same house my best friend used to live in. I've babysat her since she was 5, and I know how much she would love to ride her bike to school, but her mother refuses to let her because of how dangerous that same bike path is now. Contaminated needles on the ground, garbage, and people screaming and cursing, to name a few concerns.

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A future focused interdisciplinary institution grows from the deep roots of UC Davis’s alternative communities.

By Annika Forester and Colin Walsh

In the middle of Saturday afternoon at the 50^th anniversary Whole Earth Festival a throng of die-hard festival goers left the UC Davis Quad and headed west. We gathered together with others at the Student Farm, a place on campus that showcases many of the values and ideals the Whole Earth Festival has celebrated for five decades. As special as the festival’s golden anniversary was, we were headed to something more important focused on the next 50 years.

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Firefighters to lock it up at night

By Colin Walsh

The City of Davis Parks department delivered as promised and the Arroyo Zipline is back up and zipping. Even so the Change.org petition to reopen the zipline permanently has continued to gather signatures.

This afternoon I found several Davis Parks employees restoring the zipline to operation. They reattached the swings and I witnessed them squirting large amounts of lubricant onto the tracks. Even Martin Jones, the Superintendent of Davis Parks, was there. They were smiling and clearly happy to be restoring the equipment.

Interestingly, the lock up mechanism is no more than a beefy chain and pad lock. Jones described the lock down plan for me. A City Parks Employee will unlock the zipline every morning and a Davis Fire Department Employee will lock up the zipline every night.

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Noise complaints, a petition, and City response

By Colin Walsh

On May 20 the City of Davis disabled the large brand new zipline playground equipment in Arroyo Park apparently in response to noise complaints from neighbors. The substantial over 30-foot-long equipment was only just opened at the end of April but was already quite popular with parents and kids.  Since closure just 4 days ago, already a change.org petition titled “Permanently bring back the Arroyo Park ziplines” has received 248 signatures.

Neighborhood sentiment was easily visible on Facebook and Nextdoor with many posts urging the City to reopen the Zipline.

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Yes On L Campaign Investigation Continues

By Colin Walsh

The Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) have ended an investigation into the No on Measure L WDAAC. The City of Davis provided Davisite.org a letter from the FPPC addressed to Alan Pryor “No on Measure L – No on West Davis Active Adult Community” Treasurer that states, “The Enforcement Division will not pursue this matter further.” This puts to an end an investigation into the No on L campaign committee that was originated by WDAAC developer and the Davis City Council.

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by Colin Walsh

In an item on tonight’s City Council agenda, Developers and City staff are asking the City Council to relax requirements at the Target shopping center on 2^nd Street by Mace. 10 years in, there are still store fronts there that have never held a store. Sadly, the City staff report urging the change has huge glaring problems.

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PART II: Obfuscation and Misdirection

By Colin Walsh

Part I of the article series “Vanguard Slams the Door on Required Public Disclosures” discussed information requests made by Rik Keller to the Davis Vanguard seeking in-person inspection of documents required by federal law to be made available and the Vanguard’s refusal to provide these, both figuratively and literally slamming the door in the face of these requests. This information request is directly connected to the investigative work that Keller and others (including myself) have been performing to publicly document possible ethical and legal violations by both the Vanguard and the Davis City Council in relation to a planned upcoming fundraiser that the Vanguard has advertised, Keller and others have also publicly called for the Vanguard to adopt principles/policies/guidelines regarding ethical journalistic practices and funding/donor transparency, including standards and guidelines advocated by the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) and the Institute for Nonprofit News (INN).

After the Davisite published Part I of this series, the Vanguard posted some of the tax records Keller requested to www.davisvanguard.org. On the face of it this may seem responsive to the requests and the previous article, but there is more to the story.

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