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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.

  • Soroptimist International of Davis presents LUNAFEST: Films by and about women

    Luna-posterSoroptimist LUNAFEST is Sept. 25

    (From press release) Tickets are still available for LUNAFEST, a series of short films by and about women that will run on Sunday, Sept. 25 at Davis Odd Fellows Hall, or online that weekend. The event is a fundraiser for Soroptimist International of Davis.

    The event includes eight short films, told from perspectives that champion women and gender-nonconforming individuals, highlighting their aspirations, accomplishments, resilience, strength and connection. Though the films are unrated, they are most appropriate for ages 13 and up.

    The in-person event will be Sunday, Sept. 25 at Davis Odd Fellows Hall, 415 Second St. Doors open at 3 p.m. and the screening begins at 3:30. Food and drink will be available for purchase, including alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages.

    TESE

    LUNAFEST attendees who bring a new package of girls’ or ladies’ panties to the Sept. 25 screening are eligible to receive a free item from the snack bar. (Dzokerayi Minya/Courtesy photo)

    Those unable to join in person can still support Soroptimist programs by watching the films virtually from their smart TV or device. Beginning at 7 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 23, those purchasing virtual tickets will have 48 hours to begin watching the films, and 48 hours to finish viewing once they’ve started. The total running time for the eight short films is 80 minutes. Before the films, there’s a brief video from Soroptimist International of Davis, outlining how its programs improve the lives of women and girls in Yolo County.

    SI Davis is working with its Ruby Award winner Dzokerayi Minya of the TESE Foundation. Attendees who bring a new package of girls’ or ladies’ panties to the screening are eligible to receive a free item from the snack bar. These donations will support rural girls in Zimbabwe who need the panties to attend school.

    Proceeds from LUNAFEST benefit Soroptimist International of Davis, and its programs to educate and empower women and girls, as well as Chicken & Egg Pictures, a nonprofit organization that supports female nonfiction filmmakers.

    For LUNAFEST tickets, visit https://sidavis.org.

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  • US Citizens Dying in Jackson Mississippi

    Screen Shot 2022-09-09 at 3.31.44 PMBy Scott Steward

    The water crises in Jackson Mississippi, where 180,000 people don't have drinking water, is a sin: a sin in a state with highest percentage, 60%, of religious residents.

    It is beyond reproach that for 50 years, since federally mandated school integration, the Mississippi state legislature has systematically refused to invest in Jackson, because the power and authority in Jackson is not like the rest of Mississippi's white majority. 

    From the Columbus Mississippi Dispatch: "It's a damn poor farmer who starves his mule and then complains because it can't pull the plow."  And just in case you think it's all big media and out-of state progressives making the case that this is systemic racism, here is what the Digest had to say. "And to think, it all began because the idea of a white child sitting next to a Black child in school was too much to tolerate."

    We need to overcome the State's rights abuse that prevents the federal government from giving aid directly to Jackson.  Aid to Jackson has been blocked multiple times by the Christian majority legislature of Mississippi.   Current Governor Reeves wants to be sure that his standards of "accountability" are met and he plans to continue to righteously starve the mule as his predecessors have done for 50 years.

    In a country where it takes just 6 months to send $44.5B to Ukraine, we can't insure that a US city of  180,000 has drinking water?  We are ignoring people dying of thirst in our country. Stop. We can be urgent and insist that the State of Mississippi, and our federal government, have a plan (acceptable to the Mayor of Jackson) to insure drinkable water immediately and for the foreseeable future.

    It's not just Jackson, but let us start.  Let us turn this around in Jackson and then treat ourselves to the prosperity that is kinship with neglected US communities of all colors.

    Governor Reeves and others are woefully mistaken to take it upon themselves to be the arbiter of a wrathful God.  Give up this false passion and find resolution in the love of men and women of a common fellowship.  Open the spigot of your heart and make the water of prosperity flow in Jackson. Decide to do it – it's that easy.  

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  • Great Tree Search Bike Tour

    Image1(From press release) Tree Davis will kick-off its 2022-23 tree planting season with a bike tour. Beginning at 8:30am on Saturday, September 24, coffee and donuts will be served under the shade of a 22-year old Texas red oak and thornless mesquite at 1009 Kent Dr. At 9am Dr. Greg McPherson will lead a 6-mile tour with stops at 9 Great Trees. The tour will finish at the Farmer’s Market at 11:00am.

    This will also be a fun opportunity to participate in the City of Davis’ Urban Forest Management Plan Photo Contest. Snap photos of your favorite trees along the biking route! Submission for the photo contest can be shared here: https://www.treedavis.org/city-of-davis-urban-forest-management-plan-photo-contest/

    Tree Davis has asked residents to nominate Great Trees and 33 specimens have been recorded in one of four categories: Unusual Size, Species, Form and History. The Great Tree Search is helping residents better understand and appreciate the educational, environmental, and cultural contributions of our trees.

    This annual community event is fun for the whole family. We hope you will join us in celebrating our great trees!

    Sign up for the Great Tree Search Bike Tour at https://tinyurl.com/GTSBikeTour

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  • Yolo SPCA’s “Black Cat Adopt-A-Rama” event this Saturday’s Sept. 10th at Petco

    567F8BF6-868B-4207-86C2-5DCC0ECE3AB5Did you know that black cats bring good luck?

    (From press release) Yes, contrary to some archaic stigma about black cats in our country, black cats have a very positive image and represent prosperity and good luck in other parts of the world! For instance:

    • In Scotland, if a black cat appears on your doorstep, it is seen as a sign of prosperity.
    • In the south of France, black cats are referred ‘magical cats’ and, according to local folklore, feeding and treating them well will bring good luck to the owner.
    • Owning a black cat in Asia is considered lucky
    • In parts of England, a black cat as a wedding gift is thought to bring good luck to the bride.
    • In northern Europe, taking in and caring for a black cat can ensure fair weather and safe passage during voyages on the sea.
    • If you hear a black cat sneeze in Italy, you’re in for a streak of good luck.
    • Black cats are a symbol of good luck in Japan and if someone sees a black cat crossing their path, they say ‘konnichiwa’ and take control of their own luck.

    (more…)

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  • Vaitla Suggests Return to RoundUp Use in Davis Parks.

    Spray picBy Nancy Price

    I was stunned to read that Bapu Vaitla, who is a candidate for Davis City Council in District 1, is considering overturning the City's phase out of glyphosate (manufactured and commonly sold as RoundUp by Monsanto) instead of improving and strengthening the City's Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program. (see Question #2 at  https://newdavisite.wordpress.com/2022/09/07/part-5-candidate-responses-to-the-sierra-club-yolano-group-questionnaire-for-the-2022-davis-city-cou/#more). None of the other candidates made this audacious proposal.

    Here is some background. The City decided to phase out glyphosate in 2017; finally discontinuing its use in 2020.  The process involved three City citizen-advisory commissions: Natural Resources, Recreation and Parks, and Open Space & Habitat. It took over a year and a half and involved a widely attended public citizens forum, a city-wide citizen survey, many individual Commission meetings, and a 3-way joint Commission meeting. Despite considerable stonewalling from staff, who attempted to derail and water down THIS [the] citizen-based effort, the measure was finally unanimously approved by the City Council. What passed in 2017 wasn’t perfect, but it was well-received by citizens. (For more details, see https://newdavisite.wordpress.com/2018/07/17/bad-process-leads-to-mediocre-decision-on-pesticide-use-in-davis-and-not-without-wasted-time-and-eff/). 

    Around the same time, the city forced out its popular and highly respected IPM specialist (see https://newdavisite.wordpress.com/2018/05/18/martin-guerenas-statement-city-of-davis-environmental-recognition-award-2018/). Regrettably, that position still hasn’t been filled. But given the clear desire expressed by many staff to continue using non-organic pesticides over other less toxic weed management strategies, it is hard to see the ongoing long-term failure to fill the position as an unintended accident. 

    Instead of advocating for hiring an IPM Specialist, Vaitla thinks we should go back to glyphosate because, he says, — “we cannot reasonably resort to mechanical weed management.”

    There are several problems here. One is Vaitla offering an opinion that either ignores or is ignorant of this recent controversial history of pesticide use by the City. A second problem is his complete dismissal and disregard of the work of the public and three citizen-advisory commissions which collectively devoted many hundreds of hours of work to this effort, most of which occurred prior to Mr. Vaitla's most recent move to Davis. 

    A third problem is that, although Mr. Vaitla gives lip service to the Precautionary Principle, he doesn’t follow it. Notably, just this past June, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected EPA's analysis for determining that glyphosate is likely not carcinogenic to people and ordered EPA to conduct "further analysis and explanation." The science is far from settled, and since there are valid reasons to think that glyphosate is a human carcinogen supported by respected international authorities and agencies, we should avoid using it especially since we have other methods at our disposal. 

    Vaitla's position is hasty, overlooks a long City history and the latest Court rulings, and lacks respect for the citizen and commissions-led process in Davis. And, most importantly, it fails to protect our health. This attitude generally does not bode well for the sort of Councilmember he would make. 

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  • Part 6 Candidate Responses to the Sierra Club Yolano Group Questionnaire for the 2022 Davis City Council Election

    Sierra-club-yolano

    Waste Management and Financial Contributors

    Introduction – As has been our custom for over 20 years, the Sierra Club Yolano Group prepares a wide-ranging questionnaire and presents it to candidates in races of interest to our local membership. The questionnaire for the 2022 Davis City Council race received answers from all 5 candidates in the 2 of the 5 City Council Districts for which an election is held in November, 2022.

    The candidates, listed in alphabetical order by their first name, are:

    District 1 (West Davis): – Bapu Vaitla, Dan Carson, and Kelsey Fortune

    District 4 (East Davis ) – Adam Morrill, Gloria Partida

    Questions were asked in the following general categories :

    Part 1 – Land Use and Housing Development – Peripheral Development

    Part 2— Land Use and Housing Development – Downtown Core and Student Housing

    Part 3 – Energy Use and Greenhouse Gas Emissions

    Part 4 – Transportation Management

    Part 5 – Toxics in the Environment and Other Environmental Issues

    Part 6 – Waste Management and Financial Contibutors

    Parts 1 through 5 in this series can be viewed by clicking on that article's title above which is linked to the earlier publication.

    This is the 6th in the series of articles and focuses on Waste Management and provides candidate responses to the following questions:

    Question #1 – Recyclable or Compostable Take-out & In-Restaurant Food and Drink Containers

    Davis has adopted a Zero Waste Resolution striving to achieve zero waste by 2025. As part of this program, all food service industry tableware and drink containers must be reusable, recyclable or compostable including a ban on all Styrofoam containers. All waste must also be segregated by organics, recyclable, or landfill but few fast food or other restaurants are currently doing so.

    What should the City do to enforce this Ordinance?

    Question #2 – Proposed Commercial and Multi-Family Recycling and Food Waste Collection

    The City of Davis waste management plan also now requires mandatory commercial and multi-family segregated recycling and segregated food scrap collection but this City has yet to roll-out these mandatory programs on a widespread basis?

     

    Do you support these measures and why or why not. If yes, how should the City go about rolling them out and enforcing them?

     

    Question #3 – Financial Contributors

     

    How much money have you collected overall to date and from which unions, developer or real estate interests, or other entities doing business with the City of Davis? Will you accept all contributions from any of these interests?

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  • Part 5 Candidate Responses to the Sierra Club Yolano Group Questionnaire for the 2022 Davis City Council Election

    Sierra-club-yolano

    Toxics in the Environment and Other Environmental Issues

    Introduction – As has been our custom for over 20 years, the Sierra Club Yolano Group prepares a wide-ranging questionnaire and presents it to candidates in races of interest to our local membership. The questionnaire for the 2022 Davis City Council race received answers from all 5 candidates in the 2 of the 5 City Council Districts for which an election is held in November, 2022.

    The candidates, listed in alphabetical order by their first name, are:

    District 1 (West Davis): – Bapu Vaitla, Dan Carson, and Kelsey Fortune

    District 4 (East Davis ) – Adam Morrill, Gloria Partida

    Questions were asked in the following general categories :

    Part 1 – Land Use and Housing Development – Peripheral Development

    Part 2— Land Use and Housing Development – Downtown Core and Student Housing

    Part 3 – Energy Use and Greenhouse Gas Emissions

    Part 4 – Transportation Management

    Part 5 – Toxics in the Environment and Other Environmental Issues

    Part 6 – Waste Management and Financial Contibutors

    Parts 1 through 4 in this series can be viewed by clicking on that article's title above which is linked to the earlier publication.

    This is the 5th in the series of articles and focuses on Toxics in the Environment and Other Environmental Issues and provides candidate responses to the following questions:

    Question #1 – Wood Smoke

    Small particulate pollution is the leading cause of respiratory disease in the Central Valley. Approximately 50% of winter ambient air particulate pollution is related to residential wood burning and a number of Davis residents have complained of nearest-neighbor wood smoke pollution causing respiratory distress. Davis has implemented a wood smoke ordinance that allows complaints to be filed against wood burning residents if they are producing visible smoke from a non-EPA approved wood burning device. However, the police department and code enforcement) will not respond to complaints during nighttime hours when almost all wood-burning occurs because they do not have enforcement tools or available personnel.

     

    Why or why not do you support this ordinance, and what changes, if any, would you support to it including any enforcement mechanisms?

    Question #2 – Pesticide Use Reduction

    Several years ago Davis banned the use of pollinator-killing neonicotinoid class of pesticides and phased out the use of the herbicide glyphosate (the active ingredient in Monsanto’s Round-up product). However, the City Council declined to require that only certified organic pesticides be used in the City’s Parks and Open Spaces as recommended by the Natural Resources Commission.

     

    Do you support restricting pesticide use on City properties to only those certified as “organic” and why or why not? If not, do you favor restrictions on where non-organic pesticides or herbicides may be used?

    Question #3 – Resiliency

    Davis will face threats to infrastructure, operations, and quality of life as climate change impacts become more apparent including extreme heat events and drought, or excessive precipitation.

     

    What would be your strategy for making Davis more resilient in the face of coming issues related to climate change?

     

    Question #4 – Other Environmental Related Issues

     

    What are other environmental or climate change-related issues facing Davis and how would you propose the City address these issues?

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  • MAGA Abortion and Election Deniers

    Screen Shot 2022-09-05 at 7

    By Scott Steward

    You can say it this way or you can say it that way, either way you say it MAGA stands for pain. It stands for Mad Americans Gone Awry.  Is there something to be angry about?  Absolutely.  Worshiping AR-15s is not the answer and following authoritarian Viktor Orban (Hungary's authoritarian leader) into an SS style penal society is not the answer.  Going apoplectic at a school board meeting is also not the answer.

    The answer is working Americans working together. The Biden administration signed laws to force pharmaceutical companies to lower drug prices, apply a minimum tax for corporations, provide veterans (exposed to military waste burn zones) medical care, and take steps to provide us with clean domestic energy security.  That's what government is for.

    Most Republicans, most people, independent or otherwise, want corporations to pay taxes, want to stop being gouged by pharmaceutical companies, care for our veterans, and want to have the energy we need to heat and cool our homes and get us where we need to go without sending our dollars to Russia or Saudi Arabia.  Having government for the people and not a government reaching into your doctor patient relationship that is what US people want.

    Some Americans are all for lining up behind an Orbanesk dictatorship.  Donald "We love Hungary" Trump is one of them.  Trump who applies the toddler rules of possession to national security documents.  "If I like it, it's mine. If it's in my hand, it's mine. If I can take it from you, it's mine."  For Trump, national security is not the issue.  He would say, "public office would just be so much better if it was just 100% me."

    Who is lining up behind the MAGA "minority alt-right grab America" way? Who is willing to take democracy down to do it?

    Thirteen Election Decertification MAGA leaders choosing Trump over democracy:

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  • Part 4 Candidate Responses to the Sierra Club Yolano Group Questionnaire for the 2022 Davis City Council Election

    Sierra-club-yolano

    Transportation Management

    Introduction – As has been our custom for over 20 years, the Sierra Club Yolano Group prepares a wide-ranging questionnaire and presents it to candidates in races of interest to our local membership. The questionnaire for the 2022 Davis City Council race received answers from all 5 candidates in the 2 of the 5 City Council Districts for which an election is held in November, 2022.

    The candidates, listed in alphabetical order by their first name, are:

    District 1 (West Davis): – Bapu Vaitla, Dan Carson, and Kelsey Fortune

    District 4 (East Davis ) – Adam Morrill, Gloria Partida

    Questions were asked in the following general categories :

    Part 1 – Land Use and Housing Development – Peripheral Development

    Part 2— Land Use and Housing Development – Downtown Core and Student Housing

    Part 3 – Energy Use and Greenhouse Gas Emissions

    Part 4 – Transportation Management

    Part 5 – Toxics in the Environment and Other Environmental Issues

    Part 6 – Waste Management and Financial Contibutors

    Parts 1 through 3 in this series can be viewed by clicking on that article's title above which is linked to the earlier publication.

    This is the 4th in the series of articles and focuses on Transportation Management and provides candidate responses to the following questions:

    Question #1 – Bicycle Use

    Davis prides itself on being a bicycle-oriented city with miles of bike lanes and paths throughout the community to facilitate bike use as an alternative form of transportation. Yet, the bicycle mode-share in Davis has dropped in recent years.

    What would you propose to make the bicycle a more viable and safe transportation mode in Davis?

    Question #2 – Downtown Parking Structure

    Do you support the construction of a new automobile parking structure near or in the downtown core and why or why not?

     

    If yes, where would you like to see it located, how large should it be, and how should it be paid for?

    Question #3 – Downtown Parking Meters

    Do you support the addition of parking meters on downtown streets or in downtown city-owned public parking lots or parking structures and why or why not?

    Subsequent articles in the series in the coming days will focus on the two remaining general categories in Parts 5-6.

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  • Part 3 Candidate Responses to the Sierra Club Yolano Group Questionnaire for the 2022 Davis City Council Election

    Sierra-club-yolano

    Energy Use and Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions

    Introduction – As has been our custom for over 20 years, the Sierra Club Yolano Group prepares a wide-ranging questionnaire and presents it to candidates in races of interest to our local membership. The questionnaire for the 2022 Davis City Council race received answers from all 5 candidates in the 2 of the 5 City Council Districts for which an election is held in November, 2022.

    The candidates, listed in alphabetical order by their first name, are:

    District 1 (West Davis): – Bapu Vaitla, Dan Carson, and Kelsey Fortune

    District 4 (East Davis ) – Adam Morrill, Gloria Partida

    Questions were asked in the following general categories :

    Part 1 – Land Use and Housing Development – Peripheral Development

    Part 2— Land Use and Housing Development – Downtown Core and Student Housing

    Part 3 – Energy Use and Greenhouse Gas Emissions

    Part 4 – Transportation Management

    Part 5 – Toxics in the Environment and Other Environmental Issues

    Part 6 – Waste Management and Financial Contributors

    Parts 1 and 2 in this series can be viewed by clicking on that article's title above which is linked to the earlier publication.

    This is the 3rd in the series of articles and focuses on Energy Use and Greenhouse Gas Emissions and provides candidate responses to the following questions:

    Question #1 – Greenhouse Gas Mitigation for New Development

    Davis has declared a Climate Emergency and mandated carbon neutrality by 2040. Often 70% or more of a new project's GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions are due to transportation-related impacts which are not addressed in increasingly stringent building standards. Some have proposed that developers pay for mitigation of these GHGs because they cause public harm just as sellers of tobacco pay a tax for their associated public harm.

    Do you support in principal a GHG mitigation fee on new developments in Davis and why or why not?  If yes, do you have any ideas how such a fee might be assessed or used by the City?

    Question #2 – Commercial / Multi-Family Solar PV Ordinance

    There currently is a mandatory solar PV requirement for new single-family home and low-rise apartment construction in Davis. However, there are currently no similar requirements for new multi-family housing projects greater than 3 stories or for commercial construction.

     

    Do you support a proposed ordinance mandating solar photovoltaic systems on new multi-family housing, or commercial construction in Davis if not otherwise planned for a net-zero energy use?

    Question #3 – Other Energy Conservation Measures

    What additional steps could be taken by the City, its businesses, and residents that you believe would be most effective in reducing overall energy use and GHG emissions in Davis to meet our climate action and adaptation goals?

    Subsequent articles in the series in the coming days will focus on each of the general categories in Parts 4-6.

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