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  • Why NO on DiSC

    City-of-Davis-Measure-H

    By Marc Thomas

    The work from home trend in the business world has been slowly emerging and accelerated by COVID. Recently, Apple and other product companies are instituting a 3 day per week to Twitter which is now near 100% remote. And many are relocating to lower cost areas and reducing their real estate foot prints/costs.

    Other companies have gone totally remote, and many hardware/tech startups, such as the hardware/software startup I currently work with “started up” with a full remote team and does not have an office. The closest two team members are about 50 miles apart, the furthest two are probably 10,000 miles. It required a new way of organizing a team, collaborating, building and testing prototypes, getting approvals and overall, resulted in a considerable reduction in operating expenses, no bay area salaries, and zero expensive office costs…zero!. It was such a significant opex reduction that in addition to team members spending more time with families, the company was able to offer really good benefits appreciated by all.

    Startup businesses do not need expensive real estate for start-up, scaling, or going into mass production. One Mountain View startup in autonomous robotics took the steps to migrate from a Silicone Valley “old” model to a more agile and lower cost distributed organizational structure starting in SV, moving a short distance to Oakland, then fully embracing a remote model with team members all over the world and a manufacturing facility in Detroit! These changes enabled a more company friendly funding model as they were able to conserve cash by spending on what mattered, people and product, rather than on expensive facilities in expensive areas paying typical salaries demanded by Bay Area and CA professionals.

    The DiSC “business/innovation park” does not recognize this rapidly changing business trend, fails to recognize that there are lower cost (and local) areas to scale if the company must be local, and the housing portion will not solve the “affordable housing” challenge (remember the bay area residents with cash and the ability to work remotely), and does not address the environmental infrastructure and tax implications in depth and detail never-mind turning good/great agriculture land into concrete.

    At the current rate of change in the “work from home” trend, building an innovation/business part today will result in the empty and dead business parks of the future: Consider what Amazon did to “malls”…

    Any startup founder/team must have a very good story to tell an investor why they are spending the equivalent of multiple team members salaries and cash for a building space/office that is unnecessary, or used for a small percentage of the time at best, and increases burn rate without accelerating time to market or improving product.

    The desire (and need) to incubate companies locally is supportable, but incubating companies does not require the DiSC project as there is plenty of space in Davis to build out and or up.

    And I know another Davis company that has been here for 7+years, with 50+% of employees currently being remote, and going full remote by years end.

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  • Nonpartisan LWV forum on Local District Attorney Race

    (From press release) The League of Women Voters Davis Area and the Woodland League of Women Voters will co-sponsor a nonpartisan election forum on the county district attorney race on Wednesday, April 27.

    The event will run from 7-8:30 p.m. at the Woodland Community Center, 2001 East Street in Woodland.

    Both candidates — Incumbent Jeff Reisig and challenger Cynthia Rodriguez — have agreed to participate. The forum will focus on candidate qualifications and vision for the criminal justice system in Yolo County over the next four years.

    Questions will be prepared by League representatives and written questions will be accepted from the audience, but no voice questions or statements will be allowed.

    People who want to attend the event are encouraged to register at: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/league-of-women-voters-yolo-county-district-attorney-candidate-forum-tickets-317119110797. Seating may be limited because of placement due to the pandemic. Woodland TV (Channel 21) will be videotaping the event and livestreaming on their YouTube channel.

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  • Letter: Beck is a voice of hope

    Beck

    Juliette Beck

    As this decade begins, we walk briskly towards utter climate catastrophe. Before 2030 our planet will warm beyond 1.5 degrees and the worst of climate change will no longer be avoidable. Those twenty-nine years and younger, down to the child born as I write, will suffer the first cataclysmic effects of this disaster. But those over thirty will experience less and leave behind a world plummeting ever faster towards a fate that they hadn't the courage to change.

    But all is not yet lost. A new people are rising. Youth in communities across the Earth are standing up for a livable future…not a beautiful one, that has been taken from us. We ask only for a chance at life.

    Too often we are told by adults our ideas are impossible. Yet those very adults in power have kept us on the road to disaster. Obviously, what is politically 'possible' isn't enough.

    But a broken system gives the youth little power of our own. Carrying signs, chanting, protesting, praying are acts of strength but they alone cannot save the world. We need our elders to begin listening and using their power to implement our ideas and solutions. Have they forgotten this was always their job? To follow the will of the people? We must elect adults who fulfill their promises.

    Juliette Beck, running for Yolo County Supervisor D2, is a voice of hope in a time of fear. She is dedicated to climate justice and pledges to make the imperative changes now, and to give youth a place in decision making. I'm confident Juliette will be true to her word. She is heartfelt, loving and inclusive. Juliette Beck will invite in every perspective to ensure that decisions which affect us all are made by everyone. She is firm in the belief that this is not a campaign of one, but of all.

    I give my strong support to this candidate and strongly urge others to do the same. The time for idle politics is over, the time for immediate action is upon us.

    Emma Larson
    Davis, CA

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  • Citizens try to recoup costs resulting from spurious lawsuit

    Scales-of-justice(From press release) Today in Yolo Superior Court, the attorneys for the citizens who wrote and signed the No on Measure H ballot statement, filed a motion for an award of legal fees and costs they incurred in their defense of a lawsuit filed by Davis City Councilmember Dan Carson. Carson had previously sued the ballot signers claiming their ballot statement was false or misleading.  

    The citizen Defendants (the “real parties”) named in the Carson lawsuit retained legal representation on a partially contingent basis which permitted the attorneys to seek an award of their legal fees if they were successful in defending the ballot language against Carson’s claims.  

    The Defendants’ filing states “The Court outright rejected three of Petitioner’s challenges and adopted Real Parties’ suggestions for the two modest edits it ordered.” 

    Alan Pryor, the Treasurer of the No on DiSC campaign and one of the Defendants stated “Carson’s lawsuit requested whole sentences in the ballot statement be stricken by the Judge. In his final ruling, however, made only two small changes that were suggested by authors of the statement.” 

    “In my experience, it is highly unusual for a sitting public official to sue their own citizens over ballot arguments,” said Beverly Grossman Palmer, an experienced election attorney and partner at Strumwasser & Woocher. “None of the attorneys in my firm can recall a similar situation in any of our collective years of practicing election law.”

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  • Councilmember Carson sued me for signing a ballot statement

    6F907AC2-43BA-422A-A5DC-F4974707938FBy Roberta Millstein

    Two weeks ago, I was stunned to learn from a Davis Enterprise article that I and other signers of the Argument Against Measure H (Argument Against DiSC) were being sued by none other than Councilmember Dan Carson, who is serving as the “Honorary” Chair of the developer-funded Yes on DiSC campaign. Measure H is on the June 7 ballot; DiSC is a proposed development project on 100 acres of mostly prime farmland outside the City limits, adjacent to I-80 and Mace Blvd.

    Apparently, the suit had been filed on the last possible day. I waited to be served papers, but none ever arrived. I did receive a phone call, later learning that Councilmember Carson had obtained my phone number from a Commission Chair. I was extremely surprised to learn that he would do something like that, especially since he apparently did not let on what he wanted my phone number for. It is still unclear whether Councilmember Carson funded this lawsuit himself or if someone else funded it; he has refused to answer several people who have asked him.

    With a tight deadline for the ballot to be printed by the County, citizens opposed to DiSC suddenly found themselves having to find a lawyer within a matter of days (like, two days) and the prospect of spending tens of thousands of dollars to retain one — well in excess of the budget for the entire grassroots campaign.

    And what was the suit about?  Well, perhaps Councilmember Carson thought that he could pull the wool over a judge's eyes, but the judge found no problems with our contention that DiSC is in violation of the City's General Plan or our contention that there would be unmitigated greenhouse gases from the project or that there were almost no commitments.

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  • Three Students and Civilian Exclusion Order No. 79

    Tetsuo Ito 1By Aaron Wedra

    Our new exhibit at the Hattie Weber Museum focuses on the three Japanese-Americans enrolled at Davis High School during school year 1940-41: siblings Tetsuo and Tayeko Ito, and Miyo Hiromoto. All appear in the DHS yearbook of 1941, photographed with their classes and also as participants in many of the school’s activities. Despite mounting world tensions, the spring of 1941 was a tranquil period in Davis. Tetsuo, a senior, graduated in June and had been accepted by the University Farm to pursue a degree program for the following fall. According to his senior prophecy, his ambition was to be a concert singer. He was on the basketball and track teams, and in the orchestra and chorus. His sister Tayeko, a sophomore, was her class treasurer, and Miyo, a junior, was active in athletics, chorus, and publishing.

    Class of 1942However, the following December, everything changed for them. Shortly after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, Executive Order 6099, issued 80 years ago this year, required everyone of Japanese descent living in specific areas of Washington, Oregon, and California to prepare to be “interned” in camps located in isolated areas in the interior of the country. The justification was that they posed a security risk.

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  • DISC is anything but ‘sustainable’

    Annexation Area DiSC 2022_070721By Stephen M. Wheeler

    Davis residents have begun receiving calls and mailings from backers of the so-called Davis Innovation and Sustainability Campus (DiSC 2022) in preparation for the June 7 election, when the project will be on the ballot as Measure H.

    Don’t be fooled by the rosy promises and endorsements on the developer’s materials: DiSC represents neither innovation nor sustainability. It is another big piece of suburban sprawl promoted by one of Davis’ most aggressive sprawl-builders, Dan Ramos.

    DiSC is essentially a greenwashed business park. Business parks are a traditional, much-discredited economic development approach in which cities designate a large area of land on their periphery for whatever commercial development they can manage to attract. These projects are highly motor-vehicle-dependent and undercut efforts to revitalize more centrally located downtown areas.

    DiSC materials talk about bike and pedestrian connections, renewable energy, use of native and drought-tolerant species for landscape design, energy-efficient construction, and shuttle buses to downtown. This is greenwashing. These environmentally oriented details are nice (and many are required by existing regulations).

    But they aren’t nearly as important as the fact that 1.34 million square feet of new commercial space would be allowed by a freeway exit far from downtown. Approving huge projects that will build out over 20-plus years — almost certainly in different ways than originally envisioned — is just not a good way for a city to move towards sustainability.

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  • Ada Vox and OneUp Duo to headline Davis Pride Festival

    AdaVox

    Ada Vox (Julián P. Ledezma/Courtesy photo)

    (From press release) Drag queen singer Ada Vox and pop music’s OneUp Duo will headline the June 12 Davis Pride Festival. The music is part of a weekend of activities in downtown Davis that celebrate International LGBTQ+ Month.

    Vox was a semi-finalist in ABC’s “American Idol” in 2020, and the runner up this year on the Paramount+ drag queen singing competition “Queen of the Universe.” The San Antonio-based singer lists her influences as Lady Gaga, Beyoncé, Aretha Franklin and Patti Labelle. Notable performances include The Animals’ “House of the Rising Sun,” Jennifer Holiday’s “And I am Telling You I am Not Going,” and Journey’s “Open Arms.” She was the first drag queen in Idol’s history to make its Top 8. She recently released her first single, “Because of You.”

    OneUpDuo

    OneUp Duo (Courtesy photo)

    OneUp Duo is a Detroit-based pop/soul vocal combo comprised of husbands Adam and Jerome Bell-Bastien. The team was a finalist on NBC’s “The Voice” in 2018, serving under coach Kelly Clarkson. The couple rose to fame with their blind audition video of The Spinners’ “Could It Be I’m Falling in Love?” The pair was the show’s first same-sex duo, and known for dynamic, high-energy performances. OneUp Duo’s new single is “TRN IT UP.”

    Celebrate Davis Pride with several events, June 11 and 12 in Central Park, 301 C St. Produced by the Davis Phoenix Coalition, activities include:

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  • Argument in Favor of Bee Wash

    DavisBee33PARODY – see note below

    Vote for the Bee Wash to approve the Davis Bee Ecosystem because it enhances and advances more of what we love about our city.

    Bee Wash gives voters in Davis an exciting opportunity to:

    • build affordable housing for the next generation of Davis’s beneficial insects; 
    • protect endangered species and permanently preserve nearly two acres of wild land;
    • provide good bee jobs close to home, for UC apicology graduates and others;
    • produce more sweet internship opportunities for Davis high school and college students;
    • preserve Davis’s quality of life without raising the price of honey.

    DavisBee22

    Bee Wash is supported by residents, business leaders, students and environmentalists, because it advances Davis’ community values and provides opportunities for everyone. Bee wash will build on Davis’ commitment to bold environmental and agricultural leadership by attracting next-generation companies focused on solving the world’s greatest challenges, like climate change, food supply, and water scarcity. And Bee Wash will be a carbon-free model for California, requiring 100% renewable power onsite.

    Bee Wash will improve existing trails and add new bike and pedestrian paths and a safe overcrossing of Mace Boulevard for flying insects. An objective, independent study confirms that flying will reduce commute times near the Mace/I-80 interchange by up to 3-1/2 minutes.

    Bee Wash improves the amenities that matter to Davis. It creates new greenbelts and trails, native habitat, and soccer, softball and other recreation fields — all at no cost to taxpayers. Bee Wash brings millions of dollars a year to the City budget and for support of Davis schools, while generating $29 million in one-time revenues to fix our infrastructure and help pay for a new South Davis bee hive, honey library and community center.

    Bee Wash is endorsed by the entire City Council, the Davis Chamber of Commerce and UC Davis student associations. Learn more at Beewash.com VOTE YES on Bee Wash!

    DavisBee11

    Signers:

    Gloria Beekeeper – Mayor of Davis

    Pamela G. Honey – Founder Marrone Bio

    Joseph “Buzz” DiNunzio – DJUSD Trustee

    Gerald Beeswax – Member, Valley Clean Energy Community Advisory Committee; Member, Davis Utilities Commission

    Ruth Uy Honeycomb – Former Davis Mayor

    ******

    Parody notes: This article is based on images used for the proposal for the car wash at 480 Mace Blvd and text of the Yes on H (DISC 2022) ballot argument.

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  • Odd Fellows to hold Music for Natalie 2022 on April 2nd

    Nat-cor-grad 1(From press release) The Davis Odd Fellows invite the community to 'Music for Natalie 2022' on Saturday April 2nd from 12 to 5 pm at the Odd Fellows Lodge at 415 Second Street in downtown Davis. The event will be held outdoors at the back of the Odd Fellows and Lyons Realty properties.

    Music for Natalie is free and open to all. As one Lodge member said, “Music for Natalie is an opportunity to celebrate the memory of Officer Corona. Her service to our community was special. We hope our scholarship program will encourage others to serve in similar ways”. There will be Handheld Sweet & Savory Pies, lemonade, a beer garden, and live music by local bands Major Six, Mike Blanchard and the Californios, and the Natalie Cortez Band. The music starts at 1 pm.

    Music for Natalie is held annually and is part of the Odd Fellows’ outreach for the Officer Natalie Corona Odd Fellows Memorial Scholarship. This scholarship program was started to help high school seniors who want to follow in Natalie's footsteps and is funded by an endowment started by the Davis Odd Fellows Lodge. Information about the program and how to donate will be available at the event and also at the link below.

    https://www.davislodge.org/officer-natalie-corona-odd-fellows-memorial-scholarship/

     

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