Sunday Commentary: In with the new…

pinkerton-steve

Steve Pinkerton’s last day in Manteca is Thursday, and his first day in Davis is Friday.  Tuesday is show time.  That is not a lot of turnaround time for Davis’ new city manager.

The Manteca Bulletin had a story on the end of their Pinkerton era, a three-year period of huge change.  It becomes clear reading this article exactly why the City of Davis hired this guy – he is going to be the hatchet man.

That is probably not a fair assessment, but it is likely how the city employees are going to view it.  They have until September 30 to find a way to cut $2.5 million, or we will likely get our first view of the hatchet.

In Manteca, they trimmed around $14.1 million from their city budget and laid off 88 city employees during Mr. Pinkerton’s tenure as city manager.

Writes the Manteca Bulletin, “The city also weaned itself away from a structured deficit by re-negotiating employee contracts and establishing a budget that relies strictly on money collected during a given fiscal year to pay for the cost of services provided.”

That is exactly what the City of Davis will be looking to do in the next year: cut spending from employee compensation, make structural reforms by re-negotiating employee contracts, and move toward multi-year budgeting.

Making that difficult task more difficult is the fact that the city is paying Mr. Pinkerton $188,000 in salary and much more in total compensation than his city predecessor.  So how do you convince city employees to be thinking about an era of shared sacrifice when their boss has not, in their minds, also sacrificed?

Nevertheless, the blueprint for Davis’ future lies in Manteca’s past.

In the article, Mr. Pinkerton said, “Manteca’s remaining 342 workers have stepped up in such a manner that he doubts there is another jurisdiction in the state that can compare with their efforts. Not only did city workers take on extra work as staff was reduced due to declining revenue, but they also took compensation cuts ranging from 19 to 23 percent. Pinkerton added that municipal workers have still managed to keep service levels up despite the cutbacks.”

And Davis’ City Council can learn other lessons as well. “The city manager praised the [Manteca] council for ‘staying focused’ by not letting differing opinions undermine efforts to move the city forward. Pinkerton noted that the council members have had strong differences of opinion but have set aside differences once a vote is taken.”

Unlike Davis, Manteca’s elected leaders, according to Mr. Pinkerton, acted decisively and fairly quickly when it became clear the recession was underway.

“All you have to do is look 10 miles to the north to see what happens when you are still in denial,” Mr. Pinkerton said.

Unfortunately, Mr. Pinkerton is soon to be in a city where there has been a state of denial.  The city first developed a budget deficit in 2008-09 fiscal year.  Instead of dealing with structural problems, the city balanced a permanent budget deficit through attrition and furloughs.

The result is that the city was working short-handed in critical areas due to the incongruities of transfers and retirements.  The city failed to deal with its structural deficit through the first wave of MOUs in 2009 and 2010.  That means that the tough work lies ahead.

It was only with the resignation of Don Saylor to move to the Board of Supervisors at the beginning of this year that the City of Davis began to seriously address its fiscal problems.

Moreover, as the fragile economy continues to collapse amid additional cuts in state government and UC, which are the two major employers in Davis, the city is putting its business community in jeopardy through steep proposed water rate hikes.

The bottom line is that Mr. Pinkerton knows how to achieve these sorts of cuts, and they clearly brought him in to oversee the streamlining of municipal government at the same time they look for economic development to continue.

But they have done things to make it more difficult, and the water issue is but one concern.  The city has failed to intervene in a number of disputes that have led to businesses leaving the city.  A grocery store is about to go under, yet again, in West Davis.

The city is looking to develop the largest swath of business park land as a residential development, and planning to use the bulk of its RDA money on a parking lot.

The biggest problem that the city faces, however, is fiscal.  By our calculations, rises in the costs of pensions and health care will soak up an additional $7 million (at least) of general fund money by 2015.

The city must absorb that at a time when sales tax revenues are flat, and even expected to decline, and the real estate market, which has come out less scathed than in other communities, continues to flat line.

The result is that somehow the city has to divert 20% of its general fund to pay for workers’ retirements.

At the same time, the city has to find ways to finance infrastructure maintenance and other unmet needs that are threatening to climb to $15 to $20 million.

Davis may have the appearance of coming out of this crisis in better shape that other communities, but the longer the economic downturn persists, the more vulnerable the community becomes. That is because the industries most impacted by the continued slow down are government industries such as UC and Sacramento, which provide the vast majority of jobs to Davis residents.

Mr. Pinkerton is said to like a good challenge, and this ought to give him one.

Welcome to Davis, Mr. Pinkerton; be sure to duck.

—David M. Greenwald reporting

Author

  • David Greenwald

    Greenwald is the founder, editor, and executive director of the Davis Vanguard. He founded the Vanguard in 2006. David Greenwald moved to Davis in 1996 to attend Graduate School at UC Davis in Political Science. He lives in South Davis with his wife Cecilia Escamilla Greenwald and three children.

    View all posts

Categories:

City Council

64 comments

  1. [quote]Davis may have the appearance of coming out of this crisis in better shape that other communities, but the longer the economic downturn persists, the more vulnerable the community becomes.[/quote]

    WE have serious problems but let’s be honest–we are in much better shape than Manteca, Stockton (the town 10 miles to the north) or most other cities in the central valley.

    Our main problem is simple–we gave away the candy store during the good times and its much harder to take back that candy (too high salaries and benefits) now, especially when some of the candy is in the form of longer term obligations that can be covered up today.

    Will Pinkerton be a hatchet man? I don’t know. Our City Council will have something to do with all this as well, but the general mood today is one of fiscal austerity.

  2. David, I agree, to cut, cut, cut is why in my opinion the council hired this guy and were willing to pay him more to do just that. Judging from some of the posts from the Manteca blog many of the employees weren’t too happy with this guy and I would think that was because he played hardball with them. You’ve got to believe that council negotiations when hiring a new city manager had to center around “how are you going to cut?” and Mr. Pinkerton must have really stepped up to the plate on that issue.

  3. @Dr Wu… how much too high do you believe the salaries are? Which benefits would you recommend cutting, and how would you propose cutting or eliminating them? Would you differentiate the cuts by income? Age? Competence?

  4. Fair enough David… depends on your assumptions… do you eliminate programs? Cities are generally founded to meet basic needs… that’s why Davisville became Davis…generally they are founded to meet critical needs… fire/police protection, roads, water, sanitary sewer and storm drainage are generally area where people cannot provide these for themselves, so they need a city to provide them collectively… is recreational programs a core function? is parks/greenbelts? Is streetlighting? I’ll assume you “want it all”… no cut in any program or service.
    OK… one way to meet you proposed cuts is to take it out 100% by staff cuts… you could cut employees by ~ 14.5%, if you made the layoffs proportional across the board. Another way might to layoff all management and supervisory employees. Those both have implications to service delivery.
    I’m going to make another assumption… you don’t want anyone to be laid off… OK, cut salaries, retirement contributions, medical/dental/other benefits by ~15%%. You might have to change a few laws to do it, but let’s say you do. Good luck on morale &/or employee retention.
    Let’s make another assumption that I think you’d support… make sure those making 60 K a year are made whole, particularly on the salary and benefits side. You could make the cuts by laying off the more highly compensated employees, or having them take even bigger cuts… 25-40% if necessary.
    David, I do not (and never had) claimed to have “the answer”. I just gave some options… they each have their flaws, and are done without the benefit of knowing how all the numbers play out. I am a little tired of folks saying employees are grossly over compensated, and that that is the ONLY problem. I am also tired of some of the folks saying that ‘they’re thinking of a number between one and ten’ when asking employee groups, the City Council, and/or the CM to “fix” this.
    Rich Rifkin has at least make some concrete proposals. The only one I recall hearing from you is for all management to take a 10% salary cut. That doesn’t start to deal with retirement, medical/dental that you and others have said are issues.
    BTW, I asked what I thought was a legitimate question of Dr Wu and Rusty. You jump on me. Personal animosity?

  5. @ moderator… cooled down, realized I was “acting out”… apologies to all for tone and last two paragraphs in particular… feel free to delete portions/all of my previous post.

  6. Hpierce: if you took that as me jumping on you, that was not my intention. Your questions to Wu and Rusty, triggered me to ask you that one which I had intended to ask you for some time.

  7. David… I do believe that some programs the city has are niceties that we cannot afford and even if they are important they may be duplicative of those offered privately, at the county/state/federal level, etc. I believe the answer to the crisis is not found in any one area. I see program cuts, service level reductions, layoffs, compensation reductions ALL as part of the palette.

  8. “I believe the answer to the crisis is not found in any one area. I see program cuts, service level reductions, layoffs, compensation reductions ALL as part of the palette.”

    I think I have also made some concrete proposals:

    1. Reduce fire staffing from 4 to 3 on an engine
    2. Prioritize core city services
    3. move to have community groups and non-profits run some of the city’s recreational programs
    4. cut back on luxuries such as green belts and parks, have HOA’s take over some of the maintenance as appropriate
    5. increase employee contributions on pensions
    6. raise retirement age to 55 for safety, 60 for misc.
    7. reduction of top level pay, 10% across the board
    8. streamline government eliminating some of the management positions especially some of the middle tier positions

  9. “@ rusty… same questions I asked Dr Wu… would be interested in your approach (assume you are the new CM, and you are advising the CC).”

    I’m not the CM, I have/had my own profession. I don’t claim to have all the answers as that’s not my job, nor do I know all the particulars. That will be Mr. Pinkerton’s job. That’s why he makes the big bucks. All I know for sure is that there needs to be some drastic cuts.

  10. [i]1. Reduce fire staffing from 4 to 3 on an engine
    2. Prioritize core city services
    3. move to have community groups and non-profits run some of the city’s recreational programs
    4. cut back on luxuries such as green belts and parks, have HOA’s take over some of the maintenance as appropriate
    5. increase employee contributions on pensions
    6. raise retirement age to 55 for safety, 60 for misc.
    7. reduction of top level pay, 10% across the board
    8. streamline government eliminating some of the management positions especially some of the middle tier positions [/i]

    David, have you become a fiscal conservative? I don’t see any ideas for increasing revenue. This list of ideas comes directly from the Tea Party I think…;-)

    There was a good article in the WSJ Thusday about Vallejo. Phil Batchelor was hired as interim City Manager after the court-approved bankruptcy. Here are a couple of interesting quotes from that article:
    [quote]WSJ: You say bankruptcy is expensive and discourage other cities from filing, but Vallejo was able to make crucial cuts to employee health-care costs and benefits through the process. How do you reconcile the two?

    Mr. Batchelor: What some people may not know is that we have to not only pay our bankruptcy lawyers…but also lawyers for retirees. We pay both sides of the negotiating table. But it’s not just a matter of dollars and cents. There is a human cost.

    What does it do to your work force—the morale, the culture? It creates an angry adversarial relationship. Labor doesn’t trust you. Once you declare bankruptcy you have the very difficult task of reducing expenditures and it decimates the ranks. Bankruptcy is an all-around bad idea for a city.

    WSJ: What could Vallejo have done differently that might have prevented it from entering bankruptcy?

    Mr. Batchelor: You don’t want to agree to formula-driven salary increases. You are paying out increases based on what other agencies are doing. You are abdicating responsibility to other jurisdictions.

    WSJ: Central Falls, R.I., recently filed for bankruptcy after months of contentious negotiations between union and city officials. A similar dynamic occurred in Vallejo. Any ideas about how to better resolve such conflicts?

    Mr. Batchelor: Ideally what you want between management, labor and the city is open and trustful relationships. You need to be able to build bridges. Talk. You don’t have to like each other but there needs to be respect and trust there.

    WSJ: How do you hope to boost city revenue?

    Mr. Batchelor: We plan to place on the November ballot a one-cent sales tax increase that is projected to raise about $10 million annually. We also will aggressively pursue federal and state grants. We also plan to develop large commercial industrial properties to attract new business. We hope to create an environment that’s attractive to employers.[/quote]
    The sales tax increase is a bad idea, but the other two should be front-and-center for strategy to increase revenue.

  11. David… it was helpful to see all 8 of your proposals in one post… hopefully, getting more specific will help the community’s discussion… a “progressive idea” might be to go to charter city status, and impose a local income tax of 1%, exempting those under 40k per year… that could be #9.

  12. “David, have you become a fiscal conservative? I don’t see any ideas for increasing revenue. This list of ideas comes directly from the Tea Party I think…;-)”

    This list of ideas well precedes the Tea Party, which I scoff at.

    I’ve explained numerous times that liberals have to become deficit and budget hawks because we are living in a time of very scarce resources and people are unwilling to expand revenues. It is a matter of priorities and as I have explained for years, I prioritize spending for schools and infrastructure over spending on employee compensation and municipal government.

  13. hpierce: I’m not in favor of any revenue enhancements for the city. I think the city has done a good job of squandering the parks tax and sales tax it has received. Any revenue I would reserve for schools and county social services.

  14. Well, then perhaps good program cuts in the city would to be to eliminate educational and social services that the city provides, and use a portion of those savings to the county and schools. You could meet both objectives. Assuming of course county and school employees take reductions in compensation and benefits as you have proposed for city employees. I could support that.

  15. David, your last statement amazes me. One of my concerns with your column is that you analyze the city budget very critically and in great detail, but you give the county and school district a pass. Have you ever looked at the county budget? There is far, far more fat in the county budget. And I don’t follow management level pay at the school district, but you should be giving it the same level of scrutiny that you give the city.

  16. I agree. I’m actually increasingly concerned about the social services department in the county and am looking into it.

    The school leadership did two things that did not happen in the city. First they got rid of one of their Associate Superintendents, on the educational side. And while they kept Bruce Colby who is the counterpart to Navazio, they got rid of all of his top support staff. The second thing they did was the top admins took a pay cut, something that has not happened with the city.

    Even with the parcel taxes, they have had to cut quite a bit of revenue and thus expenditures. But to me, the school district has been more responsive to budget tightening than the city.

    No need to get defensive about that Sue, if the council had followed your lead and Lamar’s lead the last four years, the city would be in a lot better shape than it is now. Unfortunately, back in 2008, Souza and Saylor were doing chest bumps about a balanced budget with a 15 percent reserve while you and my wife were warning about the next shoe that would be falling in a few months.

  17. This discussion reminds me of the Davis City org chart I saw and heard discussed a year or so ago at CC. I think Don was still on the CC. It was noted that there were many layers of supervisory titles, many only supervising one ot two employees. Unclear how it has come to this situation but seems as tho a way of raising employees salaries excessively. I suggest the new CM and staff look carefully at our city’s employee structure. Perhaps employees would be willing to agree to a realignment of titles and salaries rather than cut jobs cut OR if not, this cutting of middle, middle, middle management might be the best place to start.

  18. [i]”This list of ideas well precedes the Tea Party, which I scoff at.”[/i]

    Well, in any case, this is an example of sound fiscal logic. There are many on the left with their head still in the sand that we can still find some politically-acceptable tax increases. At least you seem to have accepted that it won’t happen.

    At the national level, the Democrats have become fixated on VAT taxes.

  19. [quote]
    1. Reduce fire staffing from 4 to 3 on an engine
    2. Prioritize core city services
    3. move to have community groups and non-profits run some of the city’s recreational programs
    4. cut back on luxuries such as green belts and parks, have HOA’s take over some of the maintenance as appropriate
    5. increase employee contributions on pensions
    6. raise retirement age to 55 for safety, 60 for misc.
    7. reduction of top level pay, 10% across the board
    8. streamline government eliminating some of the management positions especially some of the middle tier positions [/quote]

    This is not a bad start though I don’t think green belts and parks are luxuries and adding HOAs is a tax by another name, but I think some maintenance costs might be reducible here.

    AS far as revenue enhancement, I don’t mind paying more taxes if and only if the City starts to address these issues. I think the average Davis voter will be far less inclined to approve tax increases in the future–the school increase barely survived.

  20. [i]At the national level, the Democrats have become fixated on VAT taxes.[/i]

    I don’t know of any significant number of Democrats who are advocating a VAT, regardless of what Grover Norquist might be saying.
    [url]http://thehill.com/homenews/house/147431-calls-for-new-vat-tax-prove-to-be-unpopular-with-both-dems-gop[/url]

    [i]4. cut back on luxuries such as green belts and parks, have HOA’s take over some of the maintenance as appropriate [/i]
    Aren’t some of the tax measures specifically for these?

  21. [quote]4. cut back on luxuries such as green belts and parks, have HOA’s take over some of the maintenance as appropriate [/quote]

    Don’t even get me started on this one – it is a bad, bad idea…

  22. DG, you express concern about business community, yet you then take positions contrary to the positions of the business community.

    1) There would be no grocery store at Westlake had the Council not intervened. But the Council’s intervention was politically motivated, not business oriented. The business community was not clamoring for a Westlake grocery store, DANG was. The Westlake grocery store opening was ill conceived and their problems are self-baked. I don’t begrudge DANG a grocery store, but this matter has nothing to do with the business community. I haven’t kicked over a hornets nest here!

    2) I’m fairly certain that the business community would prefer housing to a business park at the ConAgra site. Furthermore, you falsely state again that the ConAgra site is zoned as a business park. I sent you the pertinent zoning with the permitted uses many months ago.

    3) You rail against the use of the RDA money on a “parking lot”, even though the entire business community strongly supports the 3/4/E/F retail & parking project. The Chamber, the DDBA, and the BEDC have all come out in support of the project. Indeed, you completely distort the purpose of the redevelopment project and use numerous mistatements of fact to support your position (see last Friday’s blog).

    If you care about the business community, and every citizen should since we are a vital part of fostering a sustainable community, why aren’t you receptive to our ideas and input?

  23. [i]”Too many times the business community just cares about itself and not the best interests for Davis as a whole.”[/i]

    Rusty, I get your point, but I would word it a bit differently.

    Business pursues its own self-interest to make as much as profit as possible within the scope of the mission of the ownership. There is nothing at all wrong with this. It is to be honored as the one clear motivation that can result in tremendous benefits to many from wealth created, jobs created and tax revenue created.

    My problem with the downtown business association is not them, but the city and population that protects them like some type of victim charity case. But then seems to punish them by preventing development that would benefit them.

    The mindset from the Davis politico elites is one of top-down control. It is a mindset of controlling development outcomes to the nth degree.

    It is interesting to me because I still live here and I like living here. Liberals tend to make nice places to live with their propensity for top-down control. They tend to be very detail oriented and this lends itself to a careful vetting of ALL development projects.

    The problem is the lack of a larger consideration of local macro social and economic factors. There is also a lack of understanding and appreciation for local economic development that is friendly, dynamic and encourages a healthy level of competition. By blending a propensity with top-down control with a more sophisticated economic development vision, I think Davis would greatly benefit. Without the second part, we are somewhat dysfunctional and it makes the downtown businesses appear both pampered and whiny at the same time.

  24. Rusty, is your 8:55am post a response to my 8:36am post? If so, I’m not folowing the relevance. DG expressed concern for the business community, but then takes positions contrary to fostering a strong, vibrant business community. How does your comment address this contradiction?

    Separately, Rusty, perhaps you’d care to cite these numerous times where the business community cared just about itself and not Davis as a whole? I’ll settle for the times this has happened in the last year or two because your comment strikes me as empty rhetoric. But maybe I’m simply unaware of the numerous instances you’re about to cite.

  25. “My problem with the downtown business association is not them, but the city and population that protects them like some type of victim charity case. But then seems to punish them by preventing development that would benefit them.”

    Anymore such protection and there’ll be an even smaller local business sector. There seems to be a fundamental lack of understanding regarding the primary role that a vibrant business sector plays in fostering a sustainable community. We’re not talking about coal mines, petroleum refineries, and large multi-nationals here. The business sector in Davis is for the most part small, locally grown, environmentally-conscious, businesses. I’m wondering who the citizens think provide the goods and services; the jobs that homeowners need to pay their mortgages and property taxes; the state taxes that pay for all the govt. and university jobs and pensions; the support for schools and worthy causes? The benefits that the local businesses provide go on and on. These benefits to society are not provided through osmosis.

    The economic spark struck by a business owner and an employee coming to an employment agreement is the very foundation of society as we know it (including the agreement of an individual deciding to be self-employed). This spark pays for EVERYTHING. You’d never know it by listening to the debates on local economic policies and projects.

  26. “The economic spark struck by a business owner and an employee coming to an employment agreement is the very foundation of society as we know it (including the agreement of an individual deciding to be self-employed). This spark pays for EVERYTHING. You’d never know it by listening to the debates on local economic policies and projects.”

    Exactly, that is why the Cannery should bring in business.

  27. DT Businessman: Again, I don’t fault you or any downtown business owner for working hard to ensure your business remains viable and profitable. However, I live in West Davis where shopping options are scarce. It is a 10-15 minute drive to get downtown and park if I can find a place. This small city swells to over 80,000 people when school is in session. Our downtown cannot provide all the selection, service, price and convenience needed by the entire population. Many of us head to Woodland, Dixon, and West Sacramento to spend our shopping dollars.

    I think we can handle more periphery shopping alternatives without harming the core area. And some types of retail – like hardware and lumber – would be better off out of the core area. However, in any case, while we are forced to travel 15 minutes to purchase a nut and bolt, I would prefer adequate parking.

  28. JB, my business operations are citywide, only my office is DT. My comments moments ago pertained to business througout the City, not specifically to the DT.

    R49, I don’t believe any of the business groups have taken formal positions on the ConAga project. However, if they did, I’m fairly certain those positions would be in favor of housing at that site, with perhaps, a small commercial component, but not a business park. So are you suggesting the business groups don’t know what is good for the business sector? If you are, it’s not surprising. I often get to hear politicians and other commentators tell me what is good or isn’t good for business even when those opinions contradict what the business community is advocating. It’s an upside down world we live in.

  29. DT Businessman: Ah… that helps me understand your perspective a bit more. I work downtown too and the company I work for does small business economic development throughout CA. I think Davis needs to expand its vision a little more toward the Folsom model and a little less toward the Carmel model.

  30. [quote] I think Davis needs to expand its vision a little more toward the Folsom model and a little less toward the Carmel model.[/quote]

    This is an interesting observation. I do think there are two competing visions of Davis. Many seem to want the Carmel model, which may or may not be viable here…

  31. [i]And some types of retail – like hardware and lumber – would be better off out of the core area.[/i]

    Those are two of the anchor stores in the downtown.

  32. Elaine: If you look at Folsom and Vacaville and other growing small cities, the trend had been to allow peripheral development while rebranding the old core to “old town”. Davisites seem to think we are some type of vacation destination like Carmel where we force most of our retail to stay in the core area.

    Somewhere in the middle seems about right to me.

    We need a more comprehensive city-wide vision that factors car-required shopping and pedestrian-friendly shopping. I think much of our development conflict is rooted in an over-protection of the downtown… creating too many conflicting interests than cannot be satisfied.

    I think the core area should be rebranded as “old town Davis” at some point, and certain types of retail like hardware and lumber should be relocated to periphery areas where access and parking is easier. The downtown area is not at risk of decay and blight at this point. We have done a fantastic job of blending residential, business and retail. It will remain vibrant. I would prefer that we close off E street between 3rd and 1st street at some point to make it pedestrian and bike only. I also support the road-diet plan for Fifth Street. However, all of this conflicts with a vision to force everyone to head downtown for shopping. If I have to drive downtown to purchase plywood, I will need to park my big truck close to the plywood.

    Lastly, the lack of viable peripheral alternatives causes the downtown property owners to inflate lease payments.

  33. [i]”Those are two of the anchor stores in the downtown.”[/i]

    Like I said, this creates development conflicts because of the need to haul products. I think it is time for a new vision that redefines what we want as anchors for our downtown. I’m not even sure that is a beneficial concept for a town as big as Davis. It makes sense for a shopping mall to have an anchor… but a downtown?

  34. [i]If I have to drive downtown to purchase plywood, I will need to park my big truck close to the plywood. [/i]

    I have never had difficulty parking at Hibbert.

    [i]the lack of viable peripheral alternatives causes the downtown property owners to inflate lease payments.
    [/i]

    I believe the lease rates at the South Davis shopping center are higher than downtown.

    [i]…certain types of retail like hardware and lumber should be relocated… I think it is time for a new vision that redefines what we want as anchors for our downtown.[/i]

    I am really surprised to hear you saying this. Seems to me that is the property owners’ decision, [i]n’est pas[/i]?

  35. [i]I am really surprised to hear you saying this. Seems to me that is the property owners’ decision[/i]

    Nice try Don. I am not talking rent control, I am talking allowing more peripheral development (you know, that free market view that property owners have freedom to develop their property as they see fit). It would still be the property owners’ decision for what rent to charge, but if Watermelon Music, for example, had options, the landlord might make a decision to lower the rent to retain his tenant. It is that easy to understand supply and demand principle.

    [i]”I have never had difficulty parking at Hibbert”[/i]

    If you can manage to find a time to shop there when it is actually open!

    I agree that the parking situation is better there mostly because their lot is not located next to other shopping destinations. In this respect, they are kind of on the periphery of the downtown and meet my criteria for easier parking. However, getting there still means traversing the downtown roads… and with the 5th street road diet plan, it will likely become even less convenient.

  36. Peripheral development kills downtowns. That is simple and provable, as I’ve said before, by visiting any of our neighboring cities. Peripheral development is the definition of urban sprawl. Urban sprawl is poor planning. Davis has a strong planning principle of preserving the downtown and the carefully managed neighborhood shopping centers in balance with each other. Peripheral developments such as you have in Woodland, Vacaville, Dixon distort that planning process. That is what was wrong with Second Street Crossing (Target) and what is wrong with the way every city locally has grown except Davis.
    Davis Ace is a strong downtown draw. Losing it would be a serious blow to the business health of the downtown. That isn’t to say that part of it couldn’t be redeveloped. But part of what makes Davis downtown unique is that it isn’t all boutique stores.