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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.

  • Local Environmental Heros Honored by Sierra Club

    Sierraclub
    (From Press release) This year, environmentalists from the local Sierra Club Yolano Group's area (primarily Yolo County) received 4 of the 6 individual awards given for all of Northern California at the Sierra Club’s Mother Lode Chapter Annual Awards Banquet in Sacramento on May 18. One additional special award for meritorious service was given to a local environmentalist by the Yolano Group.

    The Mother Lode Chapter of the Sierra Club covers almost all of Northern California from Yosemite to the Oregon border and the Inner Coast Range to the Nevada state line. The Sierra Club is the nation's largest and oldest environmental group and has almost 1,500 members in Yolo Co. and 3.5 million members nationwide.

    Following are the local environmental heroes receiving the awards at the gala event and a brief description of why they were recognized.

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  • Criticism of City Council For Ties To Davis Vanguard Continues

    14May2019CityCouncilVanguard Defends Council

    The following are comments that Roberta Millstein, Colin Walsh, and Rik Keller provided to City Council on Tuesday evening, May 14, during the open citizen comment period (these may not be verbatim as language could have been modified slightly during presentation or cut short due to time constraints).

    14May2019GreenwaldIt should be noted that after we again criticized the City Council for their involvement with the Vanguard fundraiser, on Wednesday morning in the Vanguard “premium newsletter” David Greenwald attacked Colin Walsh several times after identifying him as a potential City Council candidate – and then proceeded to defend the current Council, which has three incumbents who may be running for re-election, on a separate issue.

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  • Davis Hosts Green New Deal Town Hall as Part of Nationwide Mobilization

    WHAT:
    Community members from Davis and surrounding areas will meet at the UC Davis Art Annex to discuss the ​Green New Deal and how to best address the climate emergency on Saturday, May 25th, from 10am-12pm. The event is one of more than 250 town halls for the Green New Deal taking place all over the country. It hopes to stimulate conversation and action on climate justice in the region.
    WHEN:
    Saturday May 25, 10 AM – 12 PM
    WHERE:
    UC Davis Art Annex 107
    WHO:
    ● Sunrise Movement ● Yolo County Progressives ● Sierra Club (Yolano Group) ● UPTE – University Professional and Technical Employees ● YDSA – Young Democratic Socialists of America at UC Davis

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  • No On L Campaign Cleared by FPPC

    L graphicYes 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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  • City Council Makes Target Mall Decision Based on Demonstrably False Claims

    By Daniel Urazandi

    I wasn't at all surprised when the sitting council voted unanimously to remove the zoning restrictions on the Target mall. But I was astonished by the content of the staff report they based that decision on. It makes claims that are demonstrably false to anyone who has taken even a walk around downtown, and then these are the very statements that have been parroted by the chamber in a support letter and by council in their decision. From the report:

    “In 2006, the city was concerned that the shopping center could have a negative impact on the economic viability of the downtown.

    Studies were prepared that showed there was little likelihood of urban decay, which has held true.

    After 10 years of operation in the city, staff believes it can be empirically deduced that the tenants in the shopping center are not relocating from the downtown area nor are they causing closure and mass vacancy in the downtown area”

    “In fact downtown is thriving regardless of the existence of other businesses in Davis”

    “there is no evidence that the shopping center has an impact on the downtown area.”

    In other words, they are doubling down on the lie they told in 2006 even in the face of plain evidence from the intervening years.

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  • AFSCME 3299 and UPTE-CWA 9119 Strike at UC, May 16

    May16-strikeBy Connor Gorman

    Solidarity forever! The UC still hasn't agreed to provide basic rights and dignity to many of its workers (much less what they truly deserve). On top of this, the UC is continuing to outsource countless jobs to for profit companies whose employees are treated even worse than UC employees. Because of this, AFSCME 3299 (which covers service and patient care workers) will be striking this Thursday (May 16) along with UPTE-CWA 9119 (which covers technical and professional employees). The only picket-line in the region for this strike will be at the UC Davis med center (in Sacramento) since there will not be a picket line on the main UC Davis campus this time but some people are arranging carpools between Davis and the picket line. For more details see:

    tinyurl.com/supportstrike

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  • New study challenges Wiener’s approach to housing

    Eminent economic geographers say that deregulation and upzoning will make gentrification in cities like SF much worse.

    By Tim Redmond

    Pretty much everybody who’s paying attention to the housing crisis in San Francisco – except, apparently, the Chronicle – is talking about the new study by eminent economic geographers Andrés Rodríguez-Pose and Michael Storper that argues against looser zoning rules as a solution to the housing crisis.

    Even Richard Florida, who used to love the idea of cities attracting the young “creative class” (before he discovered gentrification) says the study is important. It’s the latest in a series of studies that challenge the notion that allowing the private market to build more housing will bring down prices.

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  • City Staff Misleads the Council on Target Mall

    IMG_4062by 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 2nd 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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  • Davis Vanguard IRS Disclosure Problem

    Door_cropPART 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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  • Whole Earth Festival at 50

    17880393_10156045259041562_2837432402355387804_oBy David Kupfer

    This festival was absolutely the first of its kind some 50 years ago, an art happening/educational event produced for and by students to advance alternative ideologies and enjoy enlightening music and speakers, all focused around a shared appreciation and worship of our Mother Earth home planet.  It presaged Earth Day which occurred around the globe the following year and continues to this day. In the turbulence of the late 60s, a beautiful form of community expression manifested that lives on today. I grant you the nudity and clouds of weed smoke have disappeared due to the University’s prudish conservative character, but the spirit goes on.

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