Davisite Banner. Left side the bicycle obelisk at 3rd and University. Right side the trellis at the entrance to the Arboretum.
  • League of Women Voters/Civ Energy meeting. Topic: Housing

    (From press release) The League of Women Voters Davis Area and CivEnergy are holding an educational meeting on the General Planning process in Davis. It is the first in a series of free, educational forums on housing that are open to the public. The meeting will be held at the New Harmony Mutual Housing Community, 3030 Cowell Boulevard in the Community Room from 6pm to 7:30pm on Wednesday October 16.

    This series hopes to begin the discussion on a major community issue: Housing. This includes housing policy, affordability, homelessness and such issues. These events also give the City of Davis residents the opportunity to educate themselves and provide input on the issues above and help steer the housing element of the development of the General Plan update process.

    Sign up for a free ticket at Eventbrite.

    The League of Women Voters Davis Area was recently restarted in May 2019. They will be accepting donations at this event to offset costs for future educational meetings and forums.

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  • Aggie Research Campus (ARC) Planning Considerations

    ARC-map-Oct2019The following memo was sent yesterday to the newly-formed City Council Aggie Research Campus (ARC) subcommittee, composed of Mayor Pro Tem Gloria Partida and Councilmember Dan Carson, with cc's to City Manager Mike Webb, Assistant City Manager Ash Feeney, and Principal Planner Sherri Metzker.

    By Greg Rowe

    The following comments and suggestions are respectfully offered for your consideration, in the spirit of facilitating a comprehensive evaluation of the proposed ARC project.  The subjects are not arranged in order of priority or importance.  I full acknowledge and recognize, as stated on page 2 of the October 8 City Council report (agenda item 5E), that the project will be scheduled for future commission meetings.  I also concur that, as noted on page 9 of the same report, “In sum, there will be a series of subsequent entitlements at which time more definitive detail will be proposed,” and there is “…the potential for building locations or other features to shift during the final planned development process.”

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  • Interfaith Feast of Fellowship in Central Park on October 14

    Feast 10.14(From press release) The Celebration of Abraham is hosting an interfaith Feast of Fellowship in Central Park on October 14 from 5 to 7 pm. All are welcome: those who follow any religious tradition, those who are not religious, those who are agnostic or atheist.

    The formal program will be VERY short—maybe five minutes. We hope folks with sit with folks whom they do not know well. Abraham will provide some potential topics for folks to discuss as well as some information on how to have conversations with folks who are different from ourselves on topics that might be uncomfortable. Abraham will also provide some resources on children’s books that can help folks begin discussions with young people on diversity.  The main goal is to enjoy our Davis neighbors and to build community across different groups!!

    Abraham will provide paper products and silverware. Please bring a vegetarian potluck dish to share. Also please bring a blanket to share.

    For more information contact Helen Roland hroland2@gmail.com

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  • City Council makes promises about proposal for business park outside of Mace Curve

    ARC-location-overviewGood outcomes in spite of bad process at Council meeting

    By Roberta Millstein

    As I and others had requested, at Tuesday’s meeting the Council pulled the items concerning the Mace Ranch Innovation Center (MRIC)/Aggie Research Center (ARC) from the Consent Calendar, meaning that there could be a brief presentation, public comment, and discussion and vote from the Council.  Unfortunately, it got personal and unpleasant at times (more on that below).  But there were a number of good outcomes from the meeting.

    My main reasons for wanting the items pulled was to let more Davisites know that the City was moving forward with the ARC, to inform people that there was a project description available on the City’s website, and to get more information about what was going to happen moving forward.  Those goals were achieved on Tuesday.

    In particular:

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  • United Methodists Host Program on Students with Disabilities

    (From press release) Large numbers of K-12 and college students have disabilities and, although schools are legally required to accommodate the special needs of students with disabilities, often they do not. 

    On Sunday morning, October 27, from 9:45 to 10:50, the Davis United Methodist Church will host a presentation on Disabilities, Students, and Schools with Joyceanne Beachem and Austin Tam, members of the Disability Task Force of the California-Nevada Conference of the United Methodist Church.   The church is located at 1620 Anderson Road in Davis. 

    (more…)

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  • Farmers Market turns into a Pumpkin Patch on Oct. 26

    PumpkinPatchSoroptimistsSM

    Soroptimists give away pumpkins, paint faces and help kids play games and paint pumpkins at the Davis Farmers Market Pumpkin Patch, coming up on Oct. 26. Enterprise file photo.

    (From press release) Pumpkins, plants, face painting and a petting farm. Those are just a few of the highlights at the annual Pumpkin Patch, Saturday, Oct. 26, at the Davis Farmers Market.

    The event, from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., has all of the usual Saturday market vendors, with fruit, veggies, nuts, bread, breakfast, lunch and coffee. But this annual event has lots of extras that celebrate the fall harvest and mark the transition to a Winter Market schedule on Wednesdays. Come in costume and enjoy the many activities in Central Park, 301 C St.

    Soroptimist International of Davis will have free pumpkins for youngsters, as well as face painting, pumpkin painting and games. Soroptimists work to educate and empower women and girls, and give out free pumpkins once a year to thank the community for supporting their beer and wine booth at Picnic in the Park. All profits from beer and wine sales go into Soroptimist programs like monthly mentorship at King High, grants for single moms, and their work to end human trafficking. The service organization is also a key supporter of Davis Farm to School.

    (more…)

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  • Open Letter to City Council on Jump’s Age Discrimination

    Jumpvote

    Uber photo modified by T. Edelman

    Todd Edelman sent the following email to the City Council today for tonight's Council meeting. For reference, please see yesterday’s article by the same author.

    Dear City Council,

    1 -  I feel it is important to note that when modifications to the bike share ordinance related to bike share were initially adopted, the BTSSC was bypassed, and that one element which Staff pushed hard for – locking bikes TO racks – resulted in a lot of the problems we had with bikes parked where they were not supposed to. Though Sacramento's unofficial policy permitted flexible parking in 2018, the Staff resisted a change until the spring of this year. Thankfully, the current Staff Report recommends e.g. "parking in the street like a motorcycle".

    (more…)

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  • City of Winters set to join VCE in special meeting, Thurs, Oct 10

    VCE(From press release) The Valley Clean Energy board of directors has scheduled a special meeting for 3 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 10, in the Woodland Council Chambers, 300 First St. in Woodland.

    The board is scheduled to accept the city of Winters’ request to join Valley Clean Energy, a community choice energy agency that has been providing electricity service to customers in Davis, Woodland and unincorporated Yolo County since June 2018.

    The Winters City Council is set to execute a joint powers agreement with VCE on Oct. 15 and authorize enrollment of Winters’ municipal, commercial, agricultural and residential accounts.

    (more…)

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  • Tell City Council it’s time to lower the age limit for Jump bike share

    SWNS_THUNBERG_MURAL_006

    Credit: SWNS

    By Todd Edelman

    If Greta Thunberg had visited Davis last month for the Climate Strike, she wouldn’t have been able to use Jump bike share. Perhaps before arriving, she would have learnt that kids of all ages in Davis are the national champions of cycling for transportation: To school, to the park, to the homes of their friends, to the library, to the movies, to places they’re not supposed to go…. In the USA, they use bikes more than anyone else in their age group.

    Greta is only 16. Perhaps she would have forcefully asked why Jump bike in Davis (and the region) has a minimum age limit of 18.

     

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  • City moving forward on 200 acre business park outside of Mace Curve

    Aggie Research Center (formerly, Mace Ranch Innovation Center) on Tuesday’s Council Consent Calendar

    ARC-location

    Location of proposed ARC, with sunflowers and corn. Picture taken by R. Millstein 9/2019

    By Roberta Millstein

    Back in June, I noted that developers had asked the City to resume processing their application for a massive ~200 acre business park on prime farmland outside of (i.e., to the east of) the Mace Curve.  Things were mostly quiet over the summer.  Now, with a pair of items on the Tuesday City Council Consent Calendar, the City is moving forward on this application before the project has even been presented publicly. 

    The Council agenda notes, “All matters listed under the Consent Calendar are considered routine and non-controversial, require no discussion and are expected to have unanimous Council support and may be enacted by the Council in one motion in the form listed below” (emphasis added).

    Item A on the Calendar concerning the so-called “Aggie Research Center” (or ARC; formerly Mace Ranch Innovation Center, or MRIC) authorizes “the City Manager to enter into a contract with Economic and Planning Services (EPS) to prepare an updated study of the market demand assumptions, the economic impact analysis, the fiscal impact analysis, and the financial feasibility analysis and public financing evaluation for the Aggie Research Campus.”  Item E on the Calendar appoints a City Council subcommittee for the project (Partida/Carson).

    Yet ARC proposal has not been presented to City (at least not publicly), its Commissions, or its citizens.  The ARC proposal has been modified from the previous one – which was also not fully vetted (see link at the beginning of this article).  Why is the City planning on moving forward with the proposal without discussion and public input?

    (more…)

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