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Davisite Banner. Left side the bicycle obelisk at 3rd and University. Right side the trellis at the entrance to the Arboretum.

  • Burrowing Owls and Davis elections

    Buow-croppedBy Catherine Portman

    As candidates run to retain their elected positions they will tout issues they’ve supported to win citizen’s votes. There will be advertisements, slogans and even face mask images that imply the candidate supports certain issues. Lest there be any confusion about what the City of Davis has done for burrowing owls, I’ll recount a few “lowlights” of the city’s inaction and neglect of burrowing owls over my 20 years advocating for the owls.

    In 2000 several natal burrows were disked at Mace Ranch housing development (Flatlander and Yolano Flame). The city did not pursue legal action against the developer for disking owlets into the ground.

    The city, as the CEQA lead agency, was required to mitigate the destruction of the Mace Ranch owl colony. Mitigation was secured at Grasslands Park. A  Burrowing Owl Reserve of 60 acres was established.  In 2004, a Burrowing Owl Habitat Management plan (a legal requirement under CEQA) was developed that required the vegetation not exceed 4 to 5 inches, year round. The city never kept the vegetation within that standard height. (Sustain Environmental.  Documents provided on request. ) Pam Nieberg and I contacted city council members, the Natural Resource Specialist and the Open Space and Habitat Commission. The city did not comply with the Habitat Management Plan. Pam and I met with then City Manager, Dirk Brazil. He told us if there was no money for vegetation management, it would not happen. When the consultant, Sustain Environmental, consistently found the vegetation height not in compliance with the Habitat Management Plan, the city ended the consultant’s contract. No more breeding burrowing owls at the Reserve or Grasslands itself.

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  • Local election season begins in earnest

    Featuring two measures, City Council elections, and DJUSD school board elections

    By Roberta Millstein

    For those who haven't been paying close attention, a lot of things about our local elections solidified on Friday: the "pro" and "con" statements for local measures were submitted (with rebuttals to come soon) and City Council candidates turned in their ballot statements and nomination forms. 

    The DISC business park project, proposed to be built on Prime farmland outside the Mace Curve, is subject to a Measure J/R vote and has been assigned the letter 'B'.  You can find the "pro" and "con" arguments online:

    Argument in favor of Measure B

    Argument against Measure B (I am one of five signers to this argument)

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  • Sutter Davis Hospital Farmers Market celebrates the big 1-0

    Fruitful-partnership(From press release) Call it a decade of deliciousness or a tradition of nutrition. The Sutter Davis Hospital Farmers Market celebrates 10 years of bringing farm-fresh produce and local foods to employees and visitors on Thursday, Aug. 6, as the nation celebrates National Farmers Market Week.

    “Fruit and vegetables are foundational to healthy living – and when they’re farm-fresh and locally grown? That’s good for everyone,” said Rachael McKinney, CEO of Sutter Davis Hospital. “In our simplest form, Sutter Health is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to health and wellbeing – both inside and outside the walls of our hospitals. The weekly market at Sutter Davis has easily become one of my favorite days of the week, where I can stock up on fresh produce and local items for my family, as well as interact with the community, our employees and patients. We are proud of this partnership and the benefit to the community it provides.”

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  • Why I am running for City Council

    Larry-bkyd-swtr-20By Larry Guenther

    I am running for City Council because I am frustrated with decisions that have been made and opportunities that have been missed.  And I'm running because I am hopeful and know our community can do better.

    I am frustrated when our Police Accountability Commission asks the City to improve transparency and accountability by reviewing the Picnic Day Report – a report all parties agree has factual errors – the City Council unanimously votes no.

    I am frustrated that when the Police Department asks for an armored vehicle and more surveillance equipment, the City Council unanimously votes yes.

    I am frustrated that:

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  • Keeping My Commitment to the Community

    Screen Shot 2020-07-31 at 7.51.43 AMBy David Taormino

    The list of challenges for residential developers and builders in Davis is long and well known.

    To be honest, our community’s reputation for opposing nearly all growth was a major hurdle when we presented Bretton Woods to 14 financially qualified and experienced national home builders. Almost all solicited builders turned down Bretton Woods without any consideration of the project’s merits, with its Davis location cited as their deciding factor. Several builders that turned it down are currently building in Spring Lake, aka “North North Davis,” where 80 percent of buyers come from Davis.

    Voters approved Measure L in November 2018, with the understanding that Bretton Woods would be a community intended to accommodate current Davis residents, and that 90 percent of sales would be limited to Davis connected buyers. This was what I pledged, and my commitment to achieving this goal remains unchanged.

    In October 2019, I asked the City, on behalf of the builder, to amend the Development Agreement (DA). The builder requested that the City remove the 90 percent Davis connected limitation from the DA for two reasons — they would have more autonomy if the market for Davis based seniors was not as substantial as expected; or if someone filed a discrimination-oriented lawsuit. Some in the community criticized this request to remove the language pertaining to the Davis Connected Buyers Program a “bait and switch.” I want to explain why that is not the case.

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  • Walsh Seeks City Council Seat In District 2

    Walsh4Davis(From press release) Colin Walsh is running for Davis City Council in District 2 (see map). Walsh states he is motivated to run “out of a deep love for our community and from a sense of duty and service”. If Walsh had to sum up his campaign platform in two words they would be “transparency” and “inclusivity” he says. 

    As someone who grew up in Davis, but has lived in many cities, Walsh values the fact that Davis has become home for people from all over the world. He now lives on the same street he grew up on with his two children and his mother. Colin works as a litigation graphics and technology consultant and has led teams supporting civil trials in courts across the country.

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  • Honu and Moa: Hawaiian Storytime in the Park with Edna Cabcabin Moran

    An invitation from Multiculturalism Rocks! and Sol Summer Camp Davis

    Image0(From press release)

    Date: Friday, July 31, 2020
    Time: from 10 am – 1 pm
    Location: Central Park, Davis, CA (We will be at the carousel and picnic tables).
    Please wear a mask, bring a hand sanitizer (extra will be provided). The 6-feet rule will be enforced.

    Be treated this Friday to a Hawaiian Storytelling & Hula Dancing Lesson by author/educator Edna Cabcabin Moran! Edna (https://kidlitedna.com/) is an author, illustrator, educator and climate change activist based in the Bay Area. This Friday she will:

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  • Improving City of Davis Decision Making: An Open Letter

    Screen Shot 2020-07-23 at 9.29.40 PMInformed and transparent decision-making is an essential pillar of good local governance. In Davis, this pillar is eroding. Recent years have seen multiple alarming instances of secretive action, shortsighted planning, and disconnect between community and leadership priorities.

    We the undersigned—including current and former members of city commissions—call on City Council to address these issues. Specifically, we urge swift adoption of the attached common- sense proposals regarding (1) transparency, information disclosure and public engagement, (2) city commissions, and (3) advancement of significant actions and initiatives.

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  • Rebuttal to University Commons Staff Report

    19universitycommons

    By Greg Rowe

    This is a rebuttal to the staff report on the proposed University Commons project.  It falsely implies that limiting 4-bedroom units to 45% of the 264 units (or 119 units) is a developer concession.  But as stated in the EIR Notice of Preparation (November 16, 2018, p. 4), the developer originally proposed that 66 units (25%) would have 4 bedrooms. The 45% cap now offered is higher than the original proposal by 20 percentage points and 53 units. Specifying there would be no units with 5 or more bedrooms is meaningless because the original proposal had no such units.

    The report asserts student oriented rental projects can have a beneficial impact by easing pressure on single-family neighborhoods and reducing competition for single-family rentals. That would be true if UCD's student population remained static, but UCD's July 16 "University News" confirms that UCD is continuing its relentless enrollment growth far beyond the City's ability to respond. UCD offered fall 2020 freshman and transfer admission to a record high 45,820 applicants, including 35,838 freshman admissions, a jump of 17.5% above last year.  The campus expects to enroll 9,500 freshmen and transfer students, or 5% more than fall 2019. The upshot is that UCD's student growth will outpace available housing no matter how many more student projects the City approves. The need for rental housing near campus for UCD employees has meanwhile not been addressed.

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  • Please Endorse the Planning Commission’s Unanimous Vote Against the Umall Project

    19universitycommons

    The following letter was sent to the Davis City Council and is reprinted here at the request of the author.

    Dear City Council,

    I am writing  to ask you to support the unanimous decision of the Planning Commission to not  approve the U-Mall project for all of the reasons they gave and the ones that were elaborated on in great detail by Commissioner Rowe. I will only highlight several key points.

    Firstly, let it be noted that last week UCD projected that fall enrollment would be almost 40,000 students, or, I think, 13.6% above last year. I am a retired university professor and I have lived in university towns all my life in the US and UK. I am not anti-student. I continue to like living in a university town and that was one reasons I moved here in 2000 and bought my first house. However, I never imagined that UCD's rapid enrollment expansion would, and will further,  drastically re-shape the city. I don't have time to crunch a bunch of numbers but few cities in the US can have such a high proportion of students to its population. Furthermore, until about five years ago I was not aware of UCD's abysmal record, the worst in the UC system, of building on-campus student housing.

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