Month: May 2010

Climate Action Plan – The presumable final draft of the Climate Action Plan for the City of Davis was presented by the City’s Sustainability Manager, Mitch Sears. Mr. Sears initially reviewed the history of the plan and its development beginning in 2007.  Indicating that many cities have a much greater head start than Davis in implementing a Climate Action Plan (e.g. Seattle, Portland, Berkeley, and San Francisco), Mr. Sears said that many of the elements of the Davis plan were drawn from the best features of those cities’ plans. He also acknowledged that he was delayed in completing this final report of the Davis plan which was otherwise approved by the Climate Action Team over a year ago because he has recently assumed many other responsibilities including assistance and preparation of a number of grants seeking funds for the City.

However, as their movement and membership has presumably grown, they have opportunities to become something more than that.  They sponsored a city council candidates forum.  They packed the senior center.  A number of their members including Don Villarejo and Mary Jo Bryan among others are well respected members of the community.  This was their chance to show that they were more than just an astroturf group, that they could be a broader senior advocacy group that spoke for thousands of Davis residents on a variety of key issues.  They could have erased the perception that they were merely fronting for a developer (development?), a synthetic group developed by a powerful interest to create the impression of a mass movement, aka an astroturf group.