by Mayor Joe Krovoza
If you want to take a trip and have an end destination in mind, chances are you’ll consult a map prior to departure.
The Davis community, including sustainability advocates, the business community, and the university, acknowledge that we sit at a crossroads with our approach to business development. We have the ability and wherewithal to help guide new business developments, poise the community to take advantage of the synergy between our world-class university and our dynamic existing business community and potentially carve out long-term, environmentally sustainable economic cores for Davis.
To ensure that we have an economic development roadmap that is reflective of our community’s environmental values, representatives from UC Davis, the business community (through the Davis Chamber of Commerce), the Cool Davis Initiative and the City Council will be working over the next few weeks with William McDonough + Partners to scope out the process to create our community roadmap.
William McDonough + Partners is a uniquely qualified design, planning and consulting practice. William McDonough, the firm’s founding partner, has played a prime role in defining sustainable design for more than two decades. Many of McDonough’s approaches were developed with German chemist Michael Braungart and presented in Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things. The practice has created pioneering architecture and community designs that consider the long-term consequences of design; several are recognized landmarks of the sustainability movement.
The initial roadmap is a small step that we hope will inform a more significant Visioning Process, which will in turn facilitate a dialogue between community stakeholders in Davis, articulate the shared values in the community, and define the guiding principles to frame action plans to achieve long-term economic vitality for Davis. This roadmap will lay out the process for our community to determine what our long-term, sustainable economic system should look like.
We are excited that this discussion is underway and that we have the backing and support of our community partners. Once the Visioning Process is determined, we will be sharing ways that you, as a community member, can share your thoughts and provide your input. In the meantime, if you have questions, please do not hesitate to contact Community Development Director Ken Hiatt at 530-757-5610 or khiatt@cityofdavis.org.
Will there be an opportunity for the public to listen in and offer public comment on this visioning process?
I second Elaine’s question. Also, will the meetings be televised and streamed? Transparency, transparency, transparency.
Here is what I recommend with respect to Elaine and Barbara’s question…
Start with a visioning process design and schedule and aggressively communicate it to the public. Make it clear where the opportunities for input and feedback are, and where decisions will be made. Educate the public on the need to participate, the need to support the schedule and ultimately support the process and the final decisions. Seek input actively and broadly (surveys, interviews, group brainstorming, etc.), not passively assuming enough key stakeholders will just come to the table. Give the vetting process time. But cut it off at some point to make decisions and plans and actually do something. Make sure this hard line cutoff date is CLEARLY COMMUNICATED.
Then what we need is a grassroots effort by a leading group of citizens to beat back the perpetual critics, cranks and whiners. In the past, it is these folks that pop up at the eleventh hour and derail the hard work done be others. They need to be marginalized going forward assuming we allowed a robust and rigorous public input process. There is a time for opinion, and a time for action. It should be lead, follow or get out of the way!
The Mayor says he wants to “…carve out long-term, environmentally sustainable economic cores for Davis.”
If you carve out the core, sir, all you have left is a bedroom community indistinguishable from Vacaville, Fairfield, etc.
We cannot argue with the Mayor’s remarks,
“We have the ability and wherewithal to help guide new business developments, poise the community to take advantage of the synergy between our world-class university and our dynamic existing business community and potentially carve out long-term, environmentally sustainable economic cores for Davis.”
Everything the Mayor has said here has been done by the Twin Pines Cooperative Foundation (TPCF). We moved to Davis over a decade ago to add to the mix that is here. We work with cooperatives all acroos the US helping them to accomplish this type of initiative in their many communities.
TPCF initiated Davis Mutual Housing Association that grew quickly to 178 units of affordable housing with many green and susntainable elements.
TPCF obtained a grant from the State of California to put solar on the roofs of four food co-ops in California including the Davis Food Co-op.
TPCF lent money to Solar Community Housing Association to put the first solar panels on a nonprofit housing community in Californi.
TPCF obtained a grant from the state to publish a booklet on how cooperatives can add solar.
TPCF sponsored the Davis Cooperative Community Fund which has donated to scores of local organizations for environmental, social and other purposes.
However, the City Attorney has directed abolut one million dollars in public funds to defend an illegal co-op attempting to dissolve a co-op.
City staff found different ways to provide the illegal board and membership of DACHA with about $170,000 dollars to defend themselves against breaking cooperative law.
We have a fund set aside to develop cooperatives here. But that fund is being used up in trying to get the City to uphold cooperative law.
You and the new Council need to investigate the actions of staff and stop the blackballing of TPCF.
City staff have spent a lot of money trying to put a Davis based foundation out of business and to stop us achieving or supporting the aims you laid out for this initiative.
If the City Attorney and City staff are willing to spend a million dollars of public funds fighting one of your best examples of sustainable
development then another effort will not have much veracity.
Deal with the City Attorney and City staff and you will have our support for this initiative.
David Thompson, President, Twin Pines Cooperative Foundation
At the risk of once again revealing my ignorance of economic terminology, what the heck are “economic cores”? David, enlighten me since you state these things have been “done” by Twin Pines. I take it one “does a core”? Or perhaps one is “doing the core”? And in the past tense it’s “a core has been done”? Why isn’t it, “we did a core”? The latter seems more straightforward.
-Michael Bisch
Hate to rain on the parade, but I am still hoping Mr. DT Bizman or the Mayor or Ken Hiatt will tell me how much retail square footage does it take to generate one dollar of sales tax into the city’s coffers?
Then, calculate how much pork and waste and bad spending is going on in the city, total it up, and then calculate the amount of building you would have to do of retail space to earn the city the money it is throwing away?
Evan as recently as two weeks ago, the CC led by the Mayor and city staff where a hari away from throwing another million into the sands for the Woodland JPA project, which as nearly zero chance of making it through the Davis ballot box system if the CC ever actually got to recommending it to the Davis voters.
How about that $97K/month we are still spending on those bonds for the Parking Garage to Nowhere?
How about the 4th crew member on the fire crews?
How about the $30K or so a month we are enriching the city attorney and colleagues with for her creating the DACHA debacle?
Or, the CC’s attempt less than a year ago to throw over $250 million of our rate money at a Taj Mahal of a water project that had Davis buying 4x more water than needed?
Or, getting ready to throw up to $600K at a green business consultant. Why not convene a local task force, have some public discussions, make our own list, and do it? All for low cost.
Or, refusing to properly fund the DDBA so it can design programs to increase business? (I was at that CC meeting months ago where the DDBA was forced to beg for dollars … it was embarrassing.)
Or …. add your own item to the long list.
The City simply has to change the mindset of spending like there is no tomorrow. So far, I have not seen evidence of that. Sadly.
Mike, I agree with you in principle except that I don’t think you can be a world-class small city with only 60% of the state average per-capita sales tax revenue.
It is clear we need to do both: cut wasteful and unnecessary spending and develop our economy to improve cash inflows.
Hell, just make all city employees contribute 30-50% of the cost of their top-shelf benefits and set the retirement age to 60 for safety and 65 for the rest and you solve much of the spending problem. It is not rocket science, it is just politics.
David Thompson: you are off topic again. Please do not bring up DACHA again on any thread [i]unless the topic of the thread is DACHA. [/i]
Mike: you are off topic again as well.
To Elaine and Barbara’s questions, I would add:
– [b]What is the expected [i]overall[/i] cost of the visioning process?[/b]
[quote]The Davis community, including sustainability advocates, the business community, and the university, acknowledge that we sit at a crossroads with our approach to business development. [b]- Joe[/b][/quote] That’s an incredibly vague statement that does not identify any person or group. [b]Who, specifically, are these groups (names, please)?[/b] Who initiated this process? Was this a staff recommendation? Did the council perceive the need? Did one or more groups approach council members?
[quote]The initial roadmap is a small step that we hope will inform a more significant Visioning Process, [b]which will in turn facilitate a dialogue between community stakeholders[/b] in Davis [b]- Joe[/b][/quote]I expect you’d get more buy-in if you included stakeholders from the start. [b]I hope it will be recognized that [i]all[/i] Davis residents are stakeholders. [/b]
Mike Harrington, We are talking about economic development here. Not the water project, or DACHA, Fire staffing, etc. Try to stay on topic.
Oops. Sorry Don. You already pointed this out. You can remove this and my prior post.
“The Davis community, including sustainability advocates, the business community, and the university, acknowledge that we sit at a crossroads with our approach to business development. We have the ability and wherewithal to help guide new business developments, poise the community to take advantage of the synergy between our world-class university and our dynamic existing business community and potentially carve out long-term, environmentally sustainable economic cores for Davis.”
Twin Pines Cooperative Foundation agrees with the Mayor’s statement.
We are responding to the claims being made.
The City does not have a good track of business development.
We’d be happy to have a conversation about that.
We came to Davis to help develop cooperatives which should or could be one of the outcomes of the study.
Under present policies of the City TPCF is banned from participation that others have. We’d like to discuss that?
We have facilitiated sustainable development but it has been fraught with city staff antagonism.
What will be done about that?
We have witnessed a great deal of waste and abuse of funds by City staff in the economic development arena. What can be done to put an end to that?
We will not move ahead if we do not learn from mistakes.
TPCF assists food cooperatives throughout the country start, develop and grow. We help many food co-ops in downtown areas to renew their neighborhoods. We would like to be allowed to do that again in Davis.
We used to have almost all of our assets invested in Davis cooperatives, banks and credit unions. Now our two million in assets is invested in other cooperatives and their communities because it is not welcome here.
Would you like to know why our capital is invested elsewhere?
Our work on cooperative development is featured in the new book “Local Dollars Local Sense”.
If dialogue on the subject of the mayor’s challenge is denied then how do we as Mayor Krovoza said “facilitate a dialogue between stakeholders”.
David Thompson, Twin Pines Cooperative Foundation
Dear Michael Bisch
” At the risk of not being a good proofreader I cannot spot in my post the use of the word core.
“At the risk of once again revealing my ignorance of economic terminology, what the heck are “economic cores”? David, enlighten me since you state these things have been “done” by Twin Pines..”
So please point out where I used the word core?
David Thompson, Twin Pines Cooperative Foundation
I understand that an “economic core” would be a product or type of product or service that generates revenue. Businesses will often try to diversify too much and get into trouble, then cut back to its core business (the products or services that generate revenue). If you look at the City of Davis, its economic cores are education and car sales (apparently). What we need is several more industries that generate revenue in a big way – economic cores for the City.
David, you quoted the mayor’s statement about “economic cores” and then stated that Twin Pines had “done” them. It was an attemp to inject humor into a rather dry subject. I thought my comment was funny, but then again I crack myself up. Others apparently less so.
Ryan, I’m familiar with “core products”, “core services” , “core industries”, “core businesses”, the “industrial core”, of a region for example, but it’s the first time I’ve seen “economic cores”. Maybe Davis is the first to develop “economic cores”? Whoops! I forgot, Twin Pines has already “done” them. Sorry, David, I can’t resist.
-Michael Bisch
Don: NO, we are NOT off topic. The Mayor wants to write about using city funds to ramp up business, for the general economic well being of the city population, AND to increase sales tax revenue.
All that development the Mayor is talking about could be good, or very bad, for Davis. Look at Woodland: its Main Steet and most of the downtown businesses are destroyed by the exterior malls that the CC has approved.
I think we should look at cutting the city’s waste in the same essay as how to use city money to ramp up sales tax to increase the city’s budget. You cannot separate the two, and to do so is intellectually bankrupt.
All of you know I have my checklist of waste and pork and simply bad spending, and if the City agrees with my list, and makes the changes, you are going to see an immediate and dramatic shift in the budget outlook, and the City will have more money to spend on business development in town.
Cut the pork; spend some of the savings on business development.
I have been a true-blue friend of Davis business for many years, and I shall remain so.
Don: Frankly, the Chamber of Commerce, its GRC, and the DDBA leadership should all go down to public comment and demand that the CC cut the pork, cut the waste, and stop making obviously terrible spending decisions. And demand that a percentage of those precious dollars saved be immediately put back into increased funding for David economic development, including downtown and citywide projects.
When I ran the water referendum last fall, I had numerous Chamber members and businesspersons encouraging me, but no one would put their name out there publically. In terms of political leadership, only Brett Lee put his name on work for the referendum. There is safety in numbers, and the local business community should make noise — a lot of it — and demand that the City change the way it pours tax money down the drain, and spend some of those savings on ramping up the economic vitality that benefits all of us.
Don: I just re-read David Thompson’s piece above. His point is excellent: the TPCF generates positive economic activity, and has a great track record in this community. However, the same staff who have directed and encouraged the CC to spend well over a million dollars in general fund money to grind down the TPCF and attempt to bankrupt and destroy the housing consulting firm of two local businesspersons (David, and Luke Watkins) are still running the city’s affordable housing program, providing legal services to the city, and advising others on increasing economic development. In other words, why should any of us support the same staff cabal who set up and gave us the DACHA debacle and allowed them to spend our tax money on other programs that also might be botched?
Until there is full public accountability of the DACHA debacle, the involved staff fired, city attorney fired, and changes made in the way the city directs staff on these things, David is saying that he is not hopeful that any new programs are going to do any good, other than line the pockets of involved staff with fat comp, benefits, retirement, and bonuses, as what has happened for over ten years.
And on this, I agree with David Thompson.
Mike – we are not talking about water. You continue to insist on bringing everyone’s attention back to “when (you) ran the water referendum.”
You say that after laying off City Employees and firing a bunch of people, the City should put money into economic development.
OK, Mike. Where or what?
Discuss.
Don, please, please, PLEASE keep the repetitive, non-pertinent statements off the boards. I used to come to this blog multiple times a day. Now I’m finding myself checking it maybe once a week b/c all I hear is repetition from a few people (firefighters, DACHA, etc). It’s bogging down discussion to the point that the Vanguard is probably gonna a lose a reader (and I doubt I’m alone in that).
Dear Michael Bisch now I understand. I did not check that the Mayor used the word “cores.” I only checked my use of the word.
And so the answer is yes Twin Pines has done those or at least we think we have done what we think the Mayor means.
I could play on the word “core(s)” as the Davis Food Co-op of which I am the longest serving Director (17 years I think) has sold a lot of apples and their cores over the decades.
Twin Pines Cooperative Foundation and its sponsor Associated Cooperatives both played a role helping the DFC in its early days. The move of the DFC to the G Street location was led by myself and others and the first effort failed. The second effort succeeded. I always believed that the DFC would be stronger, serve more people, have more impact on the community if we moved to the larger G Street location.
We would not be there if the City did not have a policy that all shopping centers had to have a heighborhood grocery store. Safeway, the previous owner wanted to let the location be used by anyone and resented the City policy. Thankfully, that policy has got us stores now in Westlake and back in the Davis Manor Shopping Center.
The importance for me was that DFC had a stronger base and the downtown had a grocery store. I frequently call the Davis Downtown the Core. That may not be what Mayor Krovoza means by core.
Over the decades and during my time on the board I led the efforts to move there, buy the location,get other groups into the building (Community Clinic,etc) to expand the co-op within the location, led the capital drives to strengthen our balance sheet and the efforts to get the National Cooperative Bank to fund our different opportunities.
Associated Cooperatives and Twin Pines Cooperative Foundation led the California efforts to create the National Cooperative Bank and I was Co-Chair of the statewide coalition.
My wife Ann led the DFC to achieve its first million dollar sales year and I went on the board of the DFC shortly after she was elected to Council.
The DFC has grown into an almost $20 million a year business and the largest locally owned employer outside of government.
The DFC’s presence ensured that Davis was one of the few downtowns still with a grocery store. We are part of the continued viability of the downtown and for all of the people in the downtown we are a walk or bike ride away. The DFC is a great contribtor to the local economy in the jobs it creates,the services it buys from others,the recycling of local dollars and contributions to local nonprofits.
The DFC is the largest by sales retailer in the downtown and attracts a lot of people to the core.
I am glad to have played a role in that through my service on the board of the Davis Food Co-op, Associated Cooperatives and Twin Pines Cooperative Foundation.
I feel assured that the DFC has added to the Downtown Core and helpe to make very different downtown than other valley towns.
As to the role of cooperatives,sustainable development and the antagonistic role of City staff I will have a later post about how the City staff and City Attorney opposed much of what I did with the Davis Food Co-op.
David Thompson, Twin Pines Cooperative Foundation
Ryan and Concerned: the Mayor and business community simply cannot talk about using city money to ramp up business activity for, inter alia, ramping up tax revenue, when in fact the city could save millions per year of those same tax dollars by making 4-5 changes in staffing and programs that are well understood as wasteful. Cut the budget, use some of those savings to ramp up business. It all fits.
Concerned: if you are going to jump off the Vangaurd because you refuse to consider the city’s budget issues in a global sense, and want to block others making those global connections for readers to consider, then all I can say is hope to see you again sometime.
We need some tough, crusty, penny-pinching Republican business types to publically tell the CC to stop wasting our money. If you save $3 million, it would be reasonable to put some of those saving back into economic development that the entire community buys into, like David Suder writes above. Who are these people that the Mayor wants to throw our money at??
To Michael and David T: let me try to clarify, and I think concernedcitizen makes my point somewhat for me.
David’s 4:56 pm post is useful and on-topic. The topic of this thread is the mayor’s release about the consultant hired and the process going forward to discuss business development. David Thompson has explained the role one important local stakeholder can play.
Almost anything could be considered tangentially related to the topic of the thread. Unfortunately, that is how threads get sidetracked. [i]If your point is tangential and not direct, please try to make it brief[/i] and try not to repeat things that have been addressed elsewhere in detail on the Vanguard. We probably don’t need a long list of examples of things you think are wasteful. We don’t need the details of past problems that have already been posted. [i]You could provide a link back to a previous forum thread. Or you could start a topic at the Bulletin Board and provide a link to that.[/i] That helps keep the forum focused.
So DACHA, firefighter staffing, the water project, etc., are not directly pertinent to the topic of how the city council is going to make a road map about economic development going forward. When I ask that you stay on-topic, I’m trying to get you to re-focus the conversation.
Michael:[i] “Who are these people that the Mayor wants to throw our money at??”[/i]
This is the consultant that the CC approved a couple of weeks ago. As far as I can tell, this is just Mayor Krovoza’s press release announcing the process that is being set up based on that vote.
Financial investment is spending money with expectation of financial gain over some period of time. This tough, crusty, penny-pinching Republican business type does not have a problem investing in economic development that will provide a greater return in increased tax revenue.
However, I agree that it would better if the effort was funded through spending cuts. In fact, I worry that projections of revenue increases will lower the pressure for making necessary cuts.
Can someone explain the REAL legal/policy/timing barriers for our council addressing the 3-man fire crew question, and changes to labor contracts and MOUs to require greater benefits contributions from employees and to increase retirement ages?
Is the resistance to dealing with this based on technical issues, or is it all political?
Jeff: Your post is exactly on point. And it’s political, to answer your question.
Don: sorry if I repeat myself,but I feel that the budget cuts will be forgotten if not done now while the city is strapped for cash. Once revenues go up, forget any cuts even if the money is thrown away.
Don, I appreciate your comments.
However, I do feel that you are quicker to tell me I am off topic when in watching the blog I often see otehrs go off topic without any comment from you. That is of course my own perception.
This topic is about a number of issues surrounding economic development and I do believe I was responding within the constraints of those topics.
I suspect we disagree about that.
“We have the ability and wherewithal to help guide new business developments, poise the community to take advantage of the synergy between our world-class university and our dynamic existing business community and potentially carve out long-term, environmentally sustainable economic cores for Davis.”
The first time I know of a Harriet Steiner relates to her playing some role (in the 1980’s)in an effort that nearly succeeded in having me removed from the board of the Davis Food Co-op.
Where that effort to have succeeded I doubt the Davis Food Co-op would be here today. And the various other efforts undertaken by the City staff were attempts to stop the DFC from getting very needed funding at the most difficult moment in the DFC’s history.
The $45,000 that was finally awarded to the Davis Food Co-op created what we have today.
It is the best $45,000 the City ever spent on econimc development but the story of how the City Attorney and City staff played a role in trying to stop that is well worth knowing.
That’s where Harriet Steiner’s name first came into view.
That event was a shameful moment in economic development in Davis.
And it appears to have now gone on for thirty years.
So as we look to economic development planning for the future how the past is considered can help a lot.
I can only add that among the business and development community there is grerat fear of the City staff because of the power they yield over projects, the demands they make and the recriminations they participate in. Too many of the city staff are too difficult to work with. The Council needs to face up to that reality. No one, except a few) will dare speak up.
The New Council could create a safer environment and should.
David Thompson, Twin Pines Cooperative Foundation
I know it’s far more fun to talk about green business than cutting $3-4 million in wasteful bloated spending, but if you cut first, you greatly ramp up the second, even faster. Both have to discussed in the same breath.
How about it, Mayor? Let’s see your list for budget cutting and how much of the savings you want to spend on economic development and how? Now, THAT would be a full and interesting discussion
Give us your list !
Is this consultant really costing $600,000?
From the previous thread on this….this is what the CC approved.
From the Davis Enterprise:
“If the council approves the agreement, McDonough will be authorized to carry out the first phase of a five-phase plan, developing an “initial road map” that defines a clear path that the city could follow toward its economic and environmental goals.
Following the road map, city staff would return to the council with a refined visioning process and funding approach before proceeding with the subsequent phases, which include inventory, definition of principles and goals, opportunity assessment and implementation/optimization.
The $15,000 contract would be shared equally by the city, UC Davis and a handful of local business supporters.”
Isn’t this topic supposed to be about economic development and the assessment of opportunities available to the community? And not City budget issues which have been brought up on other threads? It seems to me that there is a singular focus on substantially reducing the size of our City government, cutting services, getting rid of staff that people have conflicts with and, bizarrely, a call for the implementation of Republican ideals.
Meanwhile the City Council, UCD and a handful of local business supporters are starting a process to help us develop a long term, sustainable economic environment.
Dear Preston:
By the way, that’s the name of a proud Lancashire town 17 miles from where I was born. The Coketown of Dickes fame.
Study Cost:
I believe that when Council member Brett Lee asked, what would the full five phase plan cost the answer was about $600,000.
David Thompson
[quote]Study Cost:
I believe that when Council member Brett Lee asked, what would the full five phase plan cost the answer was about $600,000. [/quote]
Sigh. The city only agreed to spend $5000, not anything beyond that…
Michael and David, there is a simple straightforward solution to the off-topic issue that has sidetracked this and many other threads. Specifically, when you see an article that you believe is only addressing a selected portion of the whole picture, and you feel it is important to make a “tangential” point that fleshes out the whole picture, then submit that point in an e-mail to David so he can post an additional article by you that runs in parallel to the original story. For example, I think a very interesting parallel article for today could be as follows:
[i]In a Vanguard article submitted today, Mayor Krovoza writes about using city funds to ramp up business, for the general economic well being of the city population, AND to increase sales tax revenue.
All that development the Mayor is talking about could be good, or very bad, for Davis. Look at Woodland: its Main Steet and most of the downtown businesses are destroyed by the exterior malls that the CC has approved.
I think we should always be looking to cut the city’s waste whenever considering how to use city money to ramp up sales tax to increase the city’s budget. You cannot separate the two, and to do so is intellectually bankrupt.
All of you know I have my checklist of waste and pork and simply bad spending, and if the City agrees with my list, and makes the changes, you are going to see an immediate and dramatic shift in the budget outlook, and the City will have more money to spend on business development in town.
Cut the pork; spend some of the savings on business development.
I Hate to rain on the parade, but I am still hoping Mr. DT Bizman or the Mayor or Ken Hiatt will tell me how much retail square footage does it take to generate one dollar of sales tax into the city’s coffers?
Then, calculate how much pork and waste and bad spending is going on in the city, total it up, and then calculate the amount of building you would have to do of retail space to earn the city the money it is throwing away?
Evan as recently as two weeks ago, the CC led by the Mayor and city staff where a hari away from throwing another million into the sands for the Woodland JPA project, which as nearly zero chance of making it through the Davis ballot box system if the CC ever actually got to recommending it to the Davis voters.
How about that $97K/month we are still spending on those bonds for the Parking Garage to Nowhere?
How about the 4th crew member on the fire crews?
How about the $30K or so a month we are enriching the city attorney and colleagues with for her creating the DACHA debacle?
Or, the CC’s attempt less than a year ago to throw over $250 million of our rate money at a Taj Mahal of a water project that had Davis buying 4x more water than needed?
Or, getting ready to throw up to $600K at a green business consultant. Why not convene a local task force, have some public discussions, make our own list, and do it? All for low cost.
Or, refusing to properly fund the DDBA so it can design programs to increase business? (I was at that CC meeting months ago where the DDBA was forced to beg for dollars … it was embarrassing.)
Or …. add your own item to the long list.
The City simply has to change the mindset of spending like there is no tomorrow. So far, I have not seen evidence of that. Sadly.[/i]
For me that would be a good article in and of itself, and running in parallel to the tangential article would produce two simultaneous, focused comments streams that would both be better for their focus . . . and when taken together will flesh out the whole picture (as the author sees it) very well.
Don and David, you can feel free to move this comment of mine into an article of its own, for focused discussion that does not distract from the core discussion of Mayor Krovoza’s thoughts on “long-term, environmentally sustainable economic cores for Davis.”