By David M. Greenwald
Executive Editor
Davis, CA – Indivisible Yolo and Yolo People Power and DSA hosted a forum on Monday for the Davis City Council. Moderating the forum for District 1 was CJ Watson.
Dan Carson is the incumbent and he is being challenged by Kelsey Fortune and Bapu Vaitla.
Question: So in 2020, the city commissioner and hundreds of community members advocated for structural changes in public safety. Is there anything remaining from the nine safety recommendations that you want to advance and what have you done to do so?
Bapu Vaitla: There’s definitely still work to be done. I was involved intimately in the that process, so I’ve been tracking how we’re doing. We’re doing great on some and some remain to be done. We know that there’s racial disparities and arrests and recommended charges and traffic stops. We haven’t analyzed what the causes are. Is there actually bias in policing or is it more social determinants of crime? What are the factors that contribute? We also can expand our specialty court and restorative justice systems. We know that they’ve been successful in the amount that we’ve 
implemented them already. And what’s really close to my heart is creating a community navigator program where we can bring the talents of our community to bear in developing relationships of trust with the unhoused, with folks with mental health difficulties, folks with substance use difficulties to, to give them connection to the social services to which they’re entitled. Also say that the Department of Social Services is great that we’ve created it, but also we need to make some changes, to make sure the implementation is successful.
Dan Carson: When George Floyd was murdered, and this issue came before our council, we all were shocked. We all wanted to do the right thing to make everyone in this community feel safe, and to feel welcome. So we welcomed the three-part subcommittee report that came to us that gave us a very long menu of options to address these issues. We worked with our city staff and the community and our council subcommittees to turn that into a cookbook. What are the specific changes in dollars and people and policies to implement those things? I stand by the full list of the, the recommendations that our council approved on April 6th, 2021. We do have to follow through on the racial disparity data. We had a lot of work to do to make sure we fully implement a crisis now system that will divert calls from our police department through 988 emergency call system instead of 911. We’re trying to bring a large group of folks together across our county to do that. We need to make sure we stay on that for, it’ll take three or four years to do this right. We need to do it right,
Kelsey Fortune: I was also very active in these conversations happening in the community a couple years ago. I hope that we can continue to move forward. I know that “the nine” was a starting point and is not the solution to all of our problems. A crisis-now model for the county sounds great, but I would still like to see the city take more action when it comes to diverting calls away from armed response. Furthermore, that could easily be done through our 9 1 1 dispatch system rather than having a separate call service. As, often, people in crisis don’t know the best response even for themselves. I think it’s important that moving forward we collect data, that we utilize data as an economist, this is where I live and create performance standards across the board for our public safety so that we are getting what is working best for our community.
Question: Even with a perceived rise in crime rates, residents feel unsafe and uneasy. What are your thoughts about what should be done?
Dan Carson: There was a concern that showed up in a survey we did in the spring. And the question before council was is that because of a real change in crime rates or criminal activity, or was it a perception? We had national campaigns talking about crime, and was it that what people were showing up on Nextdoor Davis was a reaction to national politics. Our response was to ask our police chief to research this. Take a look. Is there something we’re missing in the data? Our criminal justice data was showing that other than a real spike in crime at the beginning of covid, that things settled down and stayed pretty flat…. I will say there is a real crime concern and a traffic safety concern that I’ve made a part of my campaign platform. We need to frankly have more cops writing traffic tickets. We need non-op solutions like the new speed bumps we just put on one of our streets on Humboldt in our district. And I’m after $250,000 to redesign a roundabout in our town that will solve accidents that are just waiting to happen among motorists, bicyclists, and pedestrians.
Kelsey Fortune: When it comes to a perceived rise in crime that makes people feel unsafe, I think it’s really important that we’re communicating the data to our community. And the fact that while it may feel different right now, then it has felt before that that’s may not actually be the case. I feel like there hasn’t been as open communication between our council and our community in previous years. And that’s something that can be improved upon by council members making themselves accessible by having office hours where people can come and actually speak with you about the issues that they’re facing. The fact of the matter is we don’t report crime very well. We don’t record it very well because there are a lot of crime happening in Davis that are not the kind of thing that people feel comfortable going to the police with. We’re in a college town, those violent crimes are happening, and we’re not talking about that. Instead, we’re talking about catalytic converters. We need victim services so that people can feel comfortable and confident going to get help and they’re actually being help for them.
Bapu Vaitla: City council has this dual role where it needs to comport itself in a way where people feel like they’re being heard, that if there’s fears that they feel like they’re being listened to and council is responding, but also to provide a holistic picture of what’s happening with both crime and crime reduction in our community. And when we look at the data, we do see that property theft is sometimes rising a little bit, sometimes stable. We also see that other kinds of crime, including violent crimes within city limits, are declining. So that kind of communication is really important. It’s nuanced is to make information accessible and available. Part of the problem also is that we know that neighborhood, social media and the information polarization of our society, where you have preexisting ideas that then get reinforced that’s part of the problem. But nonetheless, we still have to make a commitment to making information about trends in crime accessible, available, transparent and nuanced.
Question: There was a survey that we’ll talk about later, but it demonstrated significant differences in perception of police when comparing by respondents of race. Each of you have talked about equity in some way, but I would like for you to be able to step up, and talk about your equity platforms.
Kelsey Fortune: The question is really what equity issues are faced are we facing in our city. And that’s much broader than just policing. Though policing is a piece of that. There are many other inequities faced by the people in our community. Those less represented are often at the, at the front of this we see inequities in our environmental access. It’s been shown that, you know, the distribution of trees in our community is inequitable based on, if you look at it based on income, it’s been you know, there’s often heat islands from parking lots near lower income areas as well. Access to our community gardens is often not something that’s available to everyone as there’s long lists. There’s so many things in our community that are inequitable. And we really should be looking at every single piece as something that is, has the potential to be treating people differently based on their gender, based on their age, based on their ability. And we need to make sure that that’s a, a focus in all policy.
Bapu Vaitla: I’ll be really blunt in answering this question. The hard truth is that Davis is not a welcoming place for people of color. We can think of ourselves as tolerant. We can think of ourselves as committed to social equity. But the number of friends of color who’ve been low income, middle income, high income, who’ve chosen to move away from our community because it doesn’t feel comfortable for them, it doesn’t feel safe. I feel that, I feel that every day. And I can only imagine what African Americans and black people in this also feel you know, just this past weekend at the Homecoming parade for our high school, a white man leaned out of his truck and yelled white power to a group of black high school students. They’ll keep that, those students, those kids will keep that inside of them for the rest of their lives. Like I have kept incidents inside me for the rest of my life. This is also our community for all the things that we should be proud of. There are some things that we need to take a hard look at and say, this isn’t right who we are, what we’re doing is not good enough. We need to critique that. Ultimately the evaluation of whether we’re anti-racist isn’t about just data. It isn’t about our own self-evaluation of that we’re equitable. It’s about whether black and brown people want to and can live in our city. I would add in closing that representation on city council, diverse rep representation is important to make that happen.
Dan Carson: As Bapu mentioned about the treatment of people who are here… We’re not immune from, from racial problems, driving while black is a real thing that affects real people, but it’s also about how it affects the people who are not here, who are excluded from our community. Our housing approach is very much, has to do with equity. I have fought for housing. I have fought hard for housing. It makes me unpopular in some quarters around here, but it’s very important. When we had that vote on the university mall, I was the swing vote to allow student housing across the street for the university. And some of those emails that were coming to me and my council colleagues were disparaging of students. They don’t contribute anything to our communities, some folks said. it was appalling. And you can’t ignore the fact that at this point at UC Davis, a disproportionate number of the students, if you will, and it’s a good thing, are Hispanic and Asian. They’re enriching our community. And maybe folks don’t understand when they’re anti student, they’re putting their thumb on the racial makeup of our community. We need to bear that in mind when we think about fighting for housing in this community.
That’s not what makes you “unpopular”.
I believe the argument is that they don’t contribute much (financially) to Davis, compared to other demographics.
In any case, have you seen what some students students said about some of the long-term residents? And the dismissive manner in which they viewed them and their concerns?
They are disproportionately Asian, for sure. Even more so if you count the International students.
White people are the second-largest category. And as a side note, men are solidly in the minority. Black students comprise 2% of UCD’s student population, per the reference below.
https://www.collegesimply.com/colleges/california/university-of-california-davis/students/
So, why is concern about student housing in the city being compared to discrimination against “black and brown” people – which is supposedly where the “problem with the community” is? Especially when the black population is in the 2% range?
Again, they’re disproportionately Asian, which (for some reason) is being compared to “black and brown” people. It seems that Asians are counted as “people of color” when it’s convenient for an argument.
Per my “unscientific observations”, it’s almost always white students who are protesting issues, working for local developer public relation firms, canvassing on behalf of developments, etc.
Is “social determinants of crime” another way of saying that different demographic groups commit crimes at different rates? And, is bias also a result of that?
Sounds like you have a real “problem” with Davis. And yet, you want to represent it?
If you want the “hard truth”, places like Oakland, Stockton, and Richmond are not welcoming places for people of “non-color” (and aren’t that safe for people of color, either). For actual reasons, other than “discomfort”.
I don’t believe this, and no data has been presented. People of color (any color) are likely safer in Davis than they are in almost any other community.
Do tell.
You are not alone in “imagining” how African Americans and black people “feel”, and drawing conclusions based upon your beliefs. (As if they were all a cohesive group in the first place.) Gee, I wonder how Gary May is able to “tolerate” Davis.
Black people are definitely in the minority on campus, and in Davis. There is always a level of discomfort in being in the minority – including for “white” people who venture into “communities of color”. (Which they usually avoid at all costs, for actual – rather than “perceived” reasons.)
As far as a guy leaning out of his truck, I’m already starting to suspect that he may not be from Davis. Does anyone even own a truck, in Davis? 🙂 But seriously, you’re going to “tar-and-feather” Davis based upon that? While simultaneously seeking to represent Davis?
I do recall seeing a truck-based “Trump rally” driving through Davis during that last election. (Again, not likely from Davis.)
Wait a minute. Wouldn’t this have to be predicated on the implied requirement (throughout this article) that tickets (and pulling someone over in the first place) should be proportionately based upon skin color?
How, exactly, are you going to ensure that this is the result?
I don’t know but maybe when pulling over someone for a traffic violation only issue warnings to people of color and write tickets to those who check off the white box on ethnicity?
If people commit actual traffic violations – then give them citations. The real problem is not that. It’s pulling people over on pretext stops.
Which of course implies that cops are biased, in regard to who they’re pulling over.
And will ultimately lead to them “sweating”, whenever they pull someone over who is “black or brown” – even if they didn’t know that in advance.
“Oh, I’m sorry sir – I thought you were white (or Asian). I see now that you’re black (or could possibly identify that way), which is “even worse” than pulling over a Hispanic person. Damn – I’m sure that I’ll have some explaining to do, back at the office.”
“It’s as if I were fishing, and inadvertently caught an endangered species. Before you know it, someone will claim that I was targeting that species.”
By the way, do Asian people get pulled over less-often than white people? And if so, does that mean that Asians are “privileged” compared to white people?
And in general, are women pulled-over less often? And older people less-often than younger people?
Does it also make a difference regarding what type of car you drive?
Another question I’d ask (if I actually wanted to study this) is, does time of day impact “who” is pulled over? In other words, do a higher proportion of drivers on the road get pulled over at night?
And, does more crime (both traffic infractions, and otherwise) occur at night (when there’s much fewer cars on the road, as well)?
Do nighttime drivers represent Davis’ demographics, proportionately? Is there a difference between nighttime drivers, vs. daytime drivers regarding this?
I don’t doubt that bias occurs, but the degree to which it occurs is never going to be pinpointed.
But for sure, Dan Carson’s goal is at odds with the “defund the police” crowd, who tend to be highly concerned about such things. However, I believe that (despite how “vocal” they are), they’re actually in the minority (no pun intended). I think Bapu would agree with that, given how he views Davis himself (as already noted).
Ron O
The statistics have been presented on the Vanguard over and over showing the bias in how cars are pulled over and tickets are issued. The statistics from other jurisdictions also overwhelmingly show this point. However, you’ve never been swayed by evidence presented contrary to your viewpoint.
Statistics presented on the Vanguard (or really, anywhere else) do not necessarily tell a complete story. As a “professional economist”, you should already know that.
I already noted some other factors which aren’t measured by those statistics, which have nothing to do with bias. I can think of others, as well.
And yet, I also acknowledged that bias may (also) exist.
Do you even read my comments before responding?
Ron O
Students are the financial lifeblood of Davis because Davis would not exist in its current form with UCD and the students it serves. Just look to Dixon or West Sacramento to see that similarly situated towns are not as populous and don’t have the same amenities. Focusing solely on students’ disposal income ignores the larger benefits accruing to the city due to their presence.
And what do you care about what students say about long-term Davis residents? You’re a resident of Woodland and have no stake in that discussion.
Plenty of UCD students graduate and go on to settle and live in Davis, long term. I am such a person. I hope I’m welcome after living here a few decades.
I’m sure many UCD students also end up in Woodland either while attending school or after they graduate. So yes, Woodlanders do have a stake in the conversation Mr. McCann.
Students (themselves) are not the “lifeblood” of Davis. They are the lifeblood of UCD, due to the subsidy that UCD receives from state taxpayers.
It’s already been documented (by others who HAVE done the research) that students don’t spend as much as other residents do. They often don’t have the funds to do so in the first place. (However, it doesn’t really take “research” or a “professional economist” to know this, as it’s common sense.)
UCD generally does not contribute to the “amenities” of Davis. Those who live in Davis (and/or property and business owners) do. (I don’t think this applies to those living in Affordable housing, however. Even those living in and/or owning “market-rate” housing are not paying the full cost, as demonstrated by the city’s long-term deficit.)
Anyone who works for UCD is trading their labor for their salary. UCD is not “gifting” those funds to the recipients OR the city.
Anyone who purchases a house (and pays a “Davis premium” – which existed even prior to Measure J) is paying for those amenities.
As far as any connection I may personally have to Davis, it is none of your business. Nor does it have anything to do with the substance of any comments I make. This has been pointed out to you repeatedly, and yet you persist (with the cooperation of the Vanguard).
Let me know if you’d actually like to engage on issues, rather than continuing to make trolling comments. So far, that’s all you’ve repeatedly done.
You and I have gone over and over this before. Your continued comparisons to West Sac and Dixon are ridiculous. As for amenities? You mean yet another burger or burrito place? Oh wait….you mean that Davis was blessed with a Raising Cains! (seriously how is that place so popular? I tried it once, well cooked chicken tenders but BLAND beyond belief. I’m guessing the experience is highly dependent on dipping the chicken in their sauces….but I’ve had better chicken tenders at Save-Mart).
UCD isn’t going anywhere. So it’s not as if the city stops catering to students UCD is going to magically disappear from the outskirts of the city. The city and UCD many years ago decided to go their separate ways. So UCD’s continue imposition of forcing the city to house their revenue producing assets shouldn’t be supported without reason. If Ford Motor company set up next to Davis (outside of Davis and doesn’t pay city taxes) and said that the city needs to plan for parking lots to house their cars they plan to sell…would that be cool? I’m all for planning for a student quarter in the city that focuses their community and businesses that cater to them so the city can capture their disposable income through sales tax (if UCD is smart they’re start to plan for mixed use commercial development near their new dorm projects).
Uh…of all the UCD students that go to UCD every year. What percentage do you believe stay in Davis? So yeah…let’s not base local policy on your personal experience.