The election is now just under two weeks away, but this was another opportunity for the students and also the public to hear where the candidates stand and make their final decision. The format was a bit different from other formats, one candidate would be asked a question and get two minutes to respond and some of the other candidates could jump in and respond for one minute.
Daniel Watts went first and argued, “That the big part of picnic day as far as the town is concerned is the drunken people downtown causing lots of trouble.” He on to argue that the problems in downtown Davis were actually relatively small compared to at other universities. His point of reference was UC San Diego and the Sun God festival which produced over 200 arrests just on campus compared to just 33 or so in Davis. He said that 33 was not really that bad, but “as far as the town is concerned it is bad, so what you have to do to alleviate those problems is to focus on the places where there are those problems, which is downtown.” He suggested fencing off the area, containing the area and give people wristbands. “Realistically, I don’t think Picnic Day is that much of a problem… I didn’t see a lot of the problems that people are talking about. I really don’t think it’s that bad compared to what happens elsewhere… I think what we got right now is pretty good and I think just a few tiny corrections could preserve that tradition.”
Rochelle Swanson said, “I came out very early and very public about Picnic Day and the first thing was to not cancel it.” She continued, “As many of you probably know, the Graduate came out with a pledge, which Charlie and I worked on together, which was to move alcohol sales later in the day until after 11, no drink specials, to serve food the entire time… and we’ve asked other bars in town to join us in that pledge. That hasn’t happened yet and we’re hoping that that can change.” She also suggested changing the “tenor” of the day, closing off parts of downtown, “Still make it a fun and open day, but make sure that we take reasonable steps so that we contain what’s happened so it doesn’t get worse.”
Jon Li said, “I think this is ASUCD’s responsibility more than anyone else’s put together.” He went on to say, “Picnic Day has become fueled by alcohol and that is the problem.” He pointed out that Davis was dry until 1979, and while people always got drunk on Picnic Day, recent times have seen that go to a new level.
The next question, “noise citations can be issued without a written or a verbal notification costing around $200 per resident, this can be up to a $1000 household fine, how can we alleviate the fiscal burden while protecting the rights of neighbors?”
Rochelle Swanson explained that the noise ordinance comes into effect at ten at night at 55 decibels, before that it is 70 decibels. The police come out after a complaint and measure the noise, if it is too high, they issue a citation. “I think part of it is an education campaign so that people understand what does 70 decibels sound like, what does 55 decibels sound like? But I think we can even take a step further back, because that it is a huge fine, prevention is always the first place.” Why is someone called? “Because the neighbor didn’t walk over, knock on the door, and say, your party’s too loud… can you please stop?” For her the key question comes to how can we improve relations in the neighborhoods between students and non-students? One thing that can happen is that people need a place they can complaint to address ongoing problems so that it doesn’t have to continue to escalate to the police department. She sees it as twofold, one being that the neighbors go to the neighbors to ask them to turn the music down while at the same time, those doing the parties need to prevent the noise from escalating to the point where people call the police. She said getting a warning is appropriate for misbehavior when issues arise. “I would like to get more to the prevention side of it and really have a sounding board for both students and residents so they can work forward to get better relationships.”
Sydney Vergis said that they had their first neighbors out party this year and some new students come to the party. The students had “already received their first noise citation a week after being there.” The students told the neighbors it was okay for them to knock on the door when things got too loud because it expensive. “Certainly I think that bolstering these ongoing partnerships that are already in place between the city and the university particularly through these opportunities like these neighbors night out parties really give a face to who the neighbors are and really start making it okay to make a personal connection that kind of personal communication to happen between neighbors.”
Joe Krovoza thinks the neighbors nights out is one way to go. “I think it’s a great opportunity for ASUCD and everyone to promote that because the more students know their neighbors, the more there’s going to be that comfort level with talking to each other and working things out. It’s much better to work things out between each other than have the neighbors call the police.” He agrees that there should be some notice before there’s a fine, however, “I also think that there shouldn’t be this cat and mouse thing where someone has to get out of bed at 11 at night and trudge over and knock on the door.” He thinks maybe there is a way to register parties on cell phones and enable people to call those numbers to complain.
The third question, what specific provisions or policies would you like to see added about renter’s rights in the city of Davis?
Jon Li answered, “I think we’re going to see for the first time in a while something more than a one percent vacancy rate and I think we’re going to see going to see more hardship cases among undergraduates in terms of their discretionary income, their ability to hold a part-time job, their ability to pay tuition… which is going to affect the vacancy.” He said that will impact the debate over what should be done over the model lease. He reminded the students that when the model lease came out, it was a huge victory for ASUCD and the students. “If it’s not adequate now,” he said, “then it needs to be updated. That gives you the opportunity to sit around the table and dicker with it.”
Rochelle Swanson added to that we need to update the model and include “some recourse if students are having problems.” She also talked about problems getting the security deposit back. “That’s a provision that needs to change that there’s an objective standard for reasonable use and wear and tear that becomes a checklist.” She hopes this is something both the city and university can work together on.
Joe Krovoza agrees that the rental market is getting softer and added, “I’m just going to say, flat out, you guys need to get more organized. With the rental market getting soft, that’s absolutely the opportunity for you guys to fight back.” He added, “There’s market forces at play here and you can wait for the city council to do something… The Davis Model Lease is absolutely broken, you need organize yourselves and fix. You need to simplify it, it is so complex, it is so long.”
Daniel Watts added, “The Davis Model lease is a huge problem.” Furthermore, “Attorney around the area know that it’s a problem. They know that the landlords in Davis violate the leases here. You are protected under California State law, but you just don’t know about it.” Students he said have a lot more recourse, but do not know they have it. He said that he would establish, and it would be really simple, have a city set up an automated complaint system on the city’s webpage, work with the university to integrate it with university web systems, that would provide information on rental rights and link in with attorneys who could assist the students when situations arise.
Sydney Vergis also responded. She said one of her top priorities would be to update the Davis Model Lease. “That thing hasn’t been updated in ten years. Certainly even the landlords know that it’s outdated.” She said the UC Davis- City Liaison committee is compiling a list of what renter’s rights. “The City of Davis also has additional services, like mediation services, that are very difficult to find out about. So putting it all in one location would be very beneficial.”
The fourth question was, “how would you work to improve bike safety?”
Sydney Vergis she said that she would like to see the city pursue grant projects to help facilitate connectivity and safety over biking and walk infrastructure. She also talked about volunteering Amgen and checking in over 200 people. “Certainly there is a lot of excitement about biking here and I think what we can do to facilitate day usage is a positive.” She continued that, “we’re not proactive about pursuing the grant opportunities at the state and federal level. There’s a shift in focus now about how to make the core livable, how to make complete streets, so how you make it more friendly to multiple modes of transportation is something that there is money available for and will be money available for. We just need the wherewithal to go after it.”
Joe Krovoza said, “There is an enormous missed opportunity on this campus that I have tried to address with two cycles of incoming freshmen, which is the amount of bike education for arriving freshmen is absolutely appalling. We’ve tried and we’ve lobbied student housing to work this into the orientation of freshmen, we’ve got to make that happen.” He continued, “We not only need bike education on this campus, we need pedestrian education because it is the pedestrians walking on the bike paths who don’t know where to go that creates all of these intersections.”
Jon Li said, “We lost our biking enforcement on campus about five years ago when it got so bad that the day that Davis Bicycles started, I had a meeting with Chancellor Vanderhoef and we talked about education, enforcement, evaluation, communication between the campus and the city. But establishing bike cops on campus unfortunately is a necessity.”
Fifth, “How can police-student relations be improved?”
Joe Krovoza acknowledged that he hadn’t give the topic much thought but did say, he would be interested in hearing from students “to be sure that the level of racial profiling that is perceived that’s going on in this community is not happening. I think we do have a Police Chief that seems to be very open to getting it right, working with students. If there are students that feel like they don’t think they’re being heard from our police chief, I’d be very interested in trying to broker that, making sure that happens.”
Daniel Watts said, “The police here are ridiculously abusive they racially profile, they pull you over for no reason, they stop you, they search your car for no reason, on Halloween they stalk you, they pull you over, they search your body, it’s horrible.” He continued, “I strongly believe and so do other people that they do racially profile based on gender and whether you’re a student, or you’re a young minority person from another town, they profile you.” He said, “I would direct the Davis Police Department to release the aggregate data on the race, gender, and age of the people that they stop and detain so that we can see whether they really are racially profiling or not.” He also suggested the need to establish clear guidelines for when the police can use physical violence including clubs and tasers to enforce the law. He wants these guidelines made public. “I would also establish a city bill of rights, establishing affirmative rights for everyone in the city expressing in clear language that residents have a right not to be interrogated unless they are doing something wrong, they have a right to courteous interactions with the police. The police,” he said, “violation the constitution because they don’t think it’s going to be enforced, but they won’t violate the city law because they’ll know that they’ll get themselves fired.”
Jon Li said, “The best thing I can tell you is that Landy Black, our chief, would like to talk to you. If you have a problem, he would love to hear what that problem is.” He continued, “Communication with the police department is something that is a two-way street.”
Rochelle Swanson quickly added, “I passed out my flier with a picture of my family. This isn’t a theoretical issue for me, it’s real.” She mentioned her son now away at college. “It is an important issue that if people raise concerns whether it be pulled over because you’re young or pulled over because your music is loud or people get pulled over because of your ethnicity or race, something that’s really important can’t be set aside.” She suggested having workshops where the police and students can talk and also learn about interactions, and hear each other’s points of view.
Sixth question, “How should the city of Davis promote safe entertainment options for students and community members?”
Rochelle Swanson went first this time, “The city can encourage more interaction by working with the students and some of the business groups.” The city could work to increase that more and try to broaden experiences to promote entertainment that students would find entertaining and interesting. “Being able to have music right in the downtown, if not Central Park, then perhaps right in the E Street Plaza.” She continued, “I don’t think safe entertainment stops just between students. I think it’s something that most people are open to and want to be a part of and want to see options besides just going clubbing or going to the bars on Thursday or Friday night.”
Sydney Vergis thinks free concerts in the park that ASUCD is putting on, is a good idea. She mentioned as well the entertainment on the E Street Plaza that is put on for incoming freshmen is a good event. “I would love to see us pursue more of those kinds of things like block parties that do provide the kinds of safe entertainment options that also help the community build that bridge with the university.”
Joe Krovoza said, “Davis used to have much more of a permanent live music presence, it was actually very formidable and brought acts from across America here. It was called the Palms, in South Davis. When their land got re-zoned and taken away from them, Palms moved out to Winters. I am profoundly interested in bringing a permanent downtown music venue that can have affordable music regularly.” He continued, “There should be a place where every Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Thursday night, you know there’s going to be a concert at 8 o’clock and you know it’s going to be ten bucks.”
Daniel Watts just added that he thought a venue like the one Joe described would be very appropriate.
Final question was, “what do you wish to see happen with the future of West Village in terms of the integration into the Davis community?”
Jon Li went first and got two minutes to respond. “It’s the Chancellor’s and Regents prerogative as to who on campus gets to vote and at this point everything that’s on the campus is not part of the city. I say that there’s an electronic fence that’s freer on that side of Russell and it’s safer on this side. Law enforcement walks in here, they own the place. Fire department walks in here, they own the place. It’s different on the other side of the street. That’s the reality that we have to live with and that’s the context in which you need to look at every student that lives on campus and their right to vote, including the adults and the faculty and their families, they’re going to live in the county, they’re not going to live in the city.” He went on to say, “Having the fight about whether or not the city should integrate them into city services is a battle that the people that were in the neighborhood demanded that they not have the right to drive across the street. So there’s a barrier that prevents them from driving onto Russell Blvd. That’s bizarre. They have to go to elementary school, they have to go to Junior High, and they have to go to the grocery store…” He concluded, “What I advocate is that once the people move in they should advocate for their own self determination. At that point they can do it, but I don’t think we should impose it on them.”
Joe Krovoza said he has been very involved in the West Village project through his work at the transportation center. He said, “I am very worried that West Village is going to feel like, for lack of a better term, a gated community. There are incredible poor connections between the current design and the rest of the community. I think it should be annexed and if I’m on the city council, I will hard to get it annexed. I think the northern border with Russell should be much more permeable. I think there should be a fantastic bike path over to Trader Joe’s so people feel safe riding back and forth.” Moreover, he advocated for a bike underpass under Russell at Arthur.
Rochelle Swanson said, “I agree working on annexation is something that we want to look at going forward. But I also think we have to look at how do we get more student interaction at our presentation of the city council. What I would like to pursue is while we have elections and often have students who run, I would like to see a student rep if possible on the city council somewhat of what we do at the school board.” They would have an advisory role which would enable them to comment and interact but not have a vote. She said, “It’s twofold so that students are heard as part of the comment process on policy. But it also gives the city the opportunity to see that a student councilmember can be more dynamic than just about student issues, but can truly represent across the board.”
Daniel Watts agreed on the student representative idea. “I also support the eventual annexation not just of the West Village, but of the entire UC Davis campus and adjacent housing… into the municipal boundaries of Davis. Because if you live on campus technically you’re in Yolo County, you’re not in Davis although you’re affected by Davis…” He went on to say that there are 20,000 students and 37,000 registered voters, therefore if students would register and vote they would control or at least have a huge influence on city policies that affect them.
Sydney Vergis said that annexation was her area of professional expertise. She went on to say, “In an ideal world West Village would be annexed, folks who live there would be able to vote in the city elections. But the technical realities on the ground are that the University and County would have to sign off and say yes that they agreed to this annexation. In the fall the County sent the city a memo saying that they weren’t interested in annexation. They’re cash strapped. They’re having a hard time with a lot of unfunded mandates.” She concluded, “certainly as much as we’d like to control our own destiny and the destiny of those areas around us, we can’t get sign off from the county.“
—David M. Greenwald reporting
Daniel Watts can’t be taken as a serious candidate the way he talks about the police .
Daniel Watts said, “The police here are ridiculously abusive they racially profile, they pull you over for no reason, they stop you, they search your car for no reason, on Halloween they stalk you, they pull you over, they search your body, it’s horrible.”
Goodbye Daniel, you just killed any slim chance you might have had.
Davis cops rock!
Is John Li wearing an Obama t-shirt?
Is he a Democrat?
Has anyone looked to see if he has an Obama bumper sticker on his car?
I don’t know if I can vote for an Obama supporter. They way Obama has way overspent our budget does that mean Li might not be fiscally responsible too?
Everyone knows Obama is at the feet of the unions. Will Li be tough with union negotiations?
Do you now see how foolish the whole Swanson being a Republican is when it can be applied to Democrats too?
I think everyone knew that Daniel Watts was not very likely to win. However, there is a value to people like that. I’ve gotten to know him and think he’s a very bright guy, has a lot of good and fresh ideas, and he can raise points that others cannot. This is one of them.
I’m a big fan of Landy Black, but the fact remains that racial profiling remains a concern in this city for certain groups of people, none of whom are like Rusty, no offense. I still have yet to meet an African American who doesn’t have a racial profiling sty. It too pervasive to simply dismiss.
Would I call Davis police, ridiculously abusive, no. I would say that of the major jurisdictions in the county, I have heard directly less things in recent years about Davis police than the police in Woodland, West Sac, the Sheriff’s Department, UC Davis, or even Winters. (Look up Winters police and you will see a rash of them arrested in recent months for example). But that does not mean there are not concerns that need to be addressed and I think Daniel raises a number of them that are valid and should not be immediately dismissed.
Rusty: FWIW, Jon Li is not a Democrat, last I saw he was registered green. However, I believe your point is good here, I don’t think party should matter. Now there are areas where party bleeds onto local politics and if people find that a certain candidate does not support the local positions that they find important, that is valid. For instance, if because Jon Li supported Obama, he also supported large raises in benefits and salaries to city employees, then that would be a valid concern and btw, I made that example up, Jon Li has stated the opposite, that are wages and benefits are too generous.
“I’m a big fan of Landy Black, but the fact remains that racial profiling remains a concern in this city for certain groups of people, none of whom are like Rusty, no offense.”
David, you know nothing about me except that I tend to be conservative. I think that’s somewhat narrow minded of you to assume that I can’t be of color or a race other than white because of my political views.
Do you think we could statistically be fairly safe in making such an assumption? How many conservatives live in Davis as a percentage of the population? 15% maybe, at most. How many minorities? Probably pretty small especially after eliminating Asians. So how many conservative non-white, non-Asians do you think there are in Davis? Five? The laws of probability suggest I made a safe assumption, has nothing to do with how narrow my mind may or may not be.
[quote]Davis cops rock![/quote]
They rock if you’re over 35, Caucasian, well-dressed, and driving a nice car.
If you’re homeless, they do not “rock.”
If you’re under 25 or have visible tattoos, or listen to rap music, or if you’re black or Latino, they most certainly do not “rock.”
And that’s my point, rusty49: Chances are, you’re not in the demographic the police tend to trample on, so you don’t understand the problem. I’m running to bring attention to problems like this, which are real problems. You may not experience them because of your own privileged status, but others do. The ASUCD asked this question about student-police relations because there is a problem there.
And yes, as David said, I criticize the police when others can’t or won’t. I can criticize the firefighters — by name — when others can’t. I’m not worried about losing campaign contributions or votes. Importantly, Rochelle also touched on this issue at the ASUCD forum last night, though she was more tactful:
[quote] “It is an important issue that if people raise concerns whether it be pulled over because you’re young or pulled over because your music is loud or people get pulled over because of your ethnicity or race, something that’s really important can’t be set aside.” [/quote]
“The laws of probability suggest I made a safe assumption, has nothing to do with how narrow my mind may or may not be.”
David, so you’re saying that the laws of probability matter and has nothing to do with how narrow minded one might be. So if a cop stops four Mexican looking gang bangers roaming town late at night he could easily say he stopped them because the laws of probability dictate that they’re probably up to no good even though they weren’t doing anything wrong. I’m sure you’d be the first to cry that was racial profiling.
Daniel, you stated:
“The police here are ridiculously abusive they racially profile, they pull you over for no reason, they stop you, they search your car for no reason, on Halloween they stalk you, they pull you over, they search your body, it’s horrible.”
That statement was way, way over the top. I’m not going to say that some very isolated incidents haven’t occured, but for you to paint the whole Police Dept. that way was just wrong. Overall the police here do a great job and if there is a rogue cop then that needs to be dealt with.
just by the way you talk here about immigrants and “out of town gangbangers,” rusty, i’d be willing to bet you’re white and somewhere in your 40s to 50s.
Wu, are you using the David method of the laws of probability and you feel you can make that assumption?
Racial profiling is racial profiling whether by the police or bloggers that don’t seem to know when they are doing it. You both should just knock it off!
I agree with Skip. Please focus on the candidates and their positions, not on the demographics of the people who post here.
[i]”Joe Krovoza … said, “I am very worried that West Village is going to feel like, for lack of a better term, a gated community. There are incredibly poor connections between the current design and the rest of the community.”[/i]
That’s because there is no automobile access to Russell Boulevard. It looks like there will be three ingress/egress points for bicycles and pedestrians. (Two of those will permit emergency vehicles access.)
[i]”I think the northern border with Russell should be much more permeable.”[/i]
It is permeable for bikes and pedestrians. Just not for cars.
[i]”I think there should be a fantastic bike path over to Trader Joe’s so people feel safe riding back and forth.” Moreover, he advocated for a bike underpass under Russell at Arthur.”[/i]
I really cannot understand why Joe K. doesn’t call for auto access. The best point to connect WV to West Davis is where Arlington meets Russell Blvd. For that connection to happen, the WV street map will have to change slightly. But it is doable.
I realize that at certain times of the day, this will inconvenience some West Davis residents who drive on Russell. But that’s really what it will take to fully integrate West Village into the City of Davis. Otherwise, WV is almost an exclave.
Perhaps if there is vehicular access from West Village onto Russell, it might make sense to make that for northbound traffic only. That is, let cars out there, but have them enter West Village from Hutchison. I don’t know if that makes sense, but something is better than nothing.
[img]http://www.dateline.ucdavis.edu/photos_images/dateline_images/021006/wv_site_mapWEB.jpg[/img]
My recollection is that auto access onto Russell Blvd. was one of the key complaints by West Davis residents who opposed West Village. It may be that this lack of auto access is an intentional response to neighborhood concerns about increased traffic there. Since I don’t think Russell can be widened without harming the historic trees, increased traffic there could lead to bottlenecks. In sum, there may be good engineering reasons as well as neighborhood issues involved in the current design.
I also don’t think UCD particularly cares if West Village is an exclave. I know various folks have talked about annexing it to the city, but I can’t think of why the university or the county would have anything to gain from that. Sue Greenwald could probably provide some perspective on that.
“She concluded, “certainly as much as we’d like to control our own destiny and the destiny of those areas around us, we can’t get sign off from the county.”
Taking such a blanket negative position certainly precludes it happening. If the Council and University think that it is in their best interests, certainly negotiations with the County could be attempted. Perhaps the Davis Council approving some “acceptable” peripheral development that would have minimal impact on Davis infrastructure in exchange for the County accepting the annexation is an area to explore in negotiations. Of course, it would have to get by a Measure J vote but the right kind of project in the right location within an acceptable time frame is something to look into.
Rusty-
“So if a cop stops four Mexican looking gang bangers roaming town late at night…”
What does a “Mexican” look like and while we’re at it what does a “gang banger” look like? What is the nature of the stop?
“he could easily say he stopped them because the laws of probability dictate that they’re probably up to no good even though they weren’t doing anything wrong.
Actually, that would be unlawful, which the laws of probability do not necessarily supercede, if the officer detained someone just because the “odds” are that Latino’s hanging out late at night in Davis have, are or are about to break the law. If, however, the officer just asked the quartet if he or she could speak with them(ie consensual encounter-don’t need articulable suspicion) then there would be nothing unlawful about the contact(“stop”), up to that point.
Again, depends on the circumstances and the officer’s ability to articulate a reason beyond a hunch, gut feeling or racial stereotypes, if they were detained.
“I’m sure you’d be the first to cry that was racial profiling.”
No, that would be national origin profiling, Mexican being a nation and not a race or ethnicity.