On Thursday, the Davis League of Women Voters (LWV) held a candidate’s forum for the three candidates vying for the open District 2 seat vacated by Will Arnold after serving two terms.
The forum featured: Victor Lagunes, Dillan Horton and Linda Deos and was moderated by Michelle Famula. Each candidate got 90 seconds to respond to five questions – with a possible 30-second follow up.
Note: This article covers questions 2, 4, and 5 (the previous article included questions one and three)
Question 2: What should be done to make the city more attractive to retail businesses and to reduce the number of vacant storefronts?
Dillan Horton
I think part of the reason that we’re in a strained fiscal situation as a city is that it’s really difficult to start and operate a small business in Davis. And that’s why the second plank in my agenda is boosting equitable economic development. We do that by stepping up our game in terms of staff support to small businesses. This is something that I got a lot of pointers on in a small business owners roundtable that I did a couple of years ago, and a member individual who owned Super Owl Brewing showed up there and he talked about how neighboring cities are having their staff proactively support folks who are aspiring to start a small business. And this is something that the city of Davis did not too long ago. We need to get back to doing that. We also need to focus on infrastructure improvements, including working with our other local government partners to provide expanded access to internet here in the city of Davis.
That’s something that residents rely on, but also business owners rely on as well. Additionally, we need to make it easier to start entry-level businesses like food trucks and popups. These are things that if you’re a first time person who is starting a business is a lot easier to find the money to be able to do that than it is to be able to start the next brick and mortar burgers and brew. So we need to make sure that it’s easier for people who don’t have their daddy and their daddy’s daddy’s money to be able to start a business to be able to do that in the city of Davis.
Linda Deos
I’d like a look at developing an economic strategy plan for our downtown. Let’s engage our business owners. Let’s find out exactly what they need, what they want, ask them what’s important, ask them what the impediments are for them going forward and building up their business or starting a new business. I’d love to see a diversification of what we have downtown. I think we are at about 20 boba shops right now, and perhaps we can have some other things there, but nothing wrong with Boba and keeping the city clean would be great. I mean, I was part of the Davis Sparkle. It was a couple of weeks ago, went downtown and we’re scrubbing the streets and trimming the trees and doing that and that was great. But that an integration with our downtown Davis waste management plan that’s in development because we’ve had the expansion of our food choices, that’s also meant an expansion of garbage. And so we need to be on top of picking that up and making sure that that’s happening. And I want to make a point with regard to the vacancy rate. It’s not as high as we might think just because we have this new development out on Second Street, that big warehouse that kind of popped our vacancy rate up from kind of a normal rate to that 17 to 18%. So let’s be clear on what the facts are around that.
Victor Lagunes
So one of the things that I gave as background is that my family do come from small business owners. And I think that when I mentioned that as part of community, I think that the really important part is the effect that we feel. So hopefully you all have already gone to visit fluffy donuts as it’s reopened and it’s over in West Davis. Super happy about that, especially right around the corner from work. But in discussing the things that are impacting small businesses with their owners, the thing that comes up most is the high cost of rent and the need to close up shop because they can’t be able to make the demands of the cost of rent as business owners. And so really I see that when the question talks about how do we make it attractive, I think that we need to one, ensure that we are increasing the number of people that are coming and purchasing in our areas and including specifically the downtown area.
And I think some of the concerns that are in our community right now are about the cleanliness of the downtown area, but also about the variety of shops and businesses. So there are a lot of eateries that are downtown. And while my students may disagree with the Boba comment, I think that it is indicative of what we’re seeing a lot of the downtown area look like. And to have more variety and to attract a greater variety of retail businesses would make it something that more people would want to aspire to come to and therefore enjoy rather than avoid.
Victor Lagunes
Yeah, I think that the vacancy rate, I mean while it may seem inflated because of certain developments that are waiting to get filled, I do think that that’s also part of the attractive component of our areas, the greater the vacancy rate than the fewer people are going to shop in those areas. And that can be effective or affecting some of our other commercial zones that are not just in the downtown area. Driving by one, you might see two, three empty shops. And then so you recognize that there’s very limited attraction to those places and therefore that’s going to impact what businesses want to be there as well.
Question 4: Affordable housing is beyond the reach of most public employees as well as our grown children who want to remain in Davis. What actions should the city Council take to improve the situation?
Victor Lagunes
I think that affordable housing is a critical need for us, and it’s not just capital A affordable housing that people are qualifying for, but housing affordability as well. So when you look at, you mentioned public employees, I mean, one of the things that we talk about frequently is the educators, the 45% of educators that can’t afford to live in the community that they teach in. And so there is a significant need for us to address not just capital A, affordability, affordable housing, but affordability as well. And I think that pushing for design that is either higher in density or lower in square footage that is at price points that are more accessible for individuals. I think that investment in our housing trust funds so that we can provide assistance to those with down payment assistance so that they can start building their own equity in those smaller size and more affordable units are really impactful ways that we can truly move the needle on the number of people that we’re able to include in Davis as part of our housing. And I really think that besides the affordability, it’s ultimately the stock as well, so that that way there is less strain on the number of renters that are part of our community and that there’s more single family homes that are made available for individuals that are looking to come here and start families as well.
Dillan Horton
This housing crisis, really it hasn’t, it’s not leaving anyone untouched in terms of its impact over the past few years and past few generations in our community, about half of our population are renters and they’ve gone unrepresented. I think for far too long on the Davis City Council, I’d be the first renter elected in a long time. I think to represent folks on the Davis City Council, it’s important that we, in terms of making affordable housing more accessible to people that we prioritize, building more workforce housing, building more mixed use developments, building more market rate housing so that students, families, seniors and working folks can all afford to live in town. We really need to be sure that we are strengthening the Renters Resources program at this point. It levies fees on noncompliant landlords in town at this point. The fees are too small to be a credible disincentive to bad behavior or finance the program.
Anything more than a part-time City staffer right now. We need to make sure that the first time a home buyer program has money in the piggy bank, folks like myself who would want to be able to utilize the program to transition out of rental housing aren’t able to utilize that today to move through the housing continuum. And I think that’s really a shame in terms of housing justice in our community. We need to also utilize the city’s owned property to advance workforce housing. That’s critical for our police officers, firefighters, teachers, and so many folks who again, work so hard in our community but aren’t able to take a part in Davis’s quality of life.
Linda Deos
Well, thank you for bringing this question forward. I think it’s the most important issue facing our community. And I’m not surprised that all three of us are kind of on the same page here. We need more housing. We just downright need more housing. And I think back, my wife, her first home here was a split lot duplex. She came to Davis in 1986. We stopped building those. We stopped building those small homes that people could start with. And that’s that affordability by design. We need to return to that again, get more density on the lots, get more density going up, going around, build those duplexes, build those triplexes, build all of those. But we have to link transportation with density. We can’t just go say out on the mace curve for example, and build a lot of density out there and not have a way for people to get around because that’s just going to add other issues to our community. So I think we definitely need to link that together with a transportation plan.
And I agree that I believe we need to do this through public and private partnerships. I think the city can’t do this alone. We don’t know how to be a landlord. We don’t know how to do these programs. We have partners that do mutual housing in California, mutual housing at the area. We’ve got community meals here who have done housing in the past. Think of Paul’s place. So let’s work together in making that happen. And if I had the answer to fixing affordable housing in California, I think I’ll be running for a higher office.
Dillan Horton
Sure, no problem. I just wanted to talk about a little sort of a case study of this issue. Just a couple yards from here. Essentially, we’re going to have the soon to be former school district headquarters, right? A place right smack in the middle of town and was on the edge of town when it was originally built. And there’s a lot of question and conversation in the community about what that property is going to be used for. I think that’s a great opportunity for the city and the school district to work together to advance workforce housing, particularly with our teachers and so many other city employees.
Victor Lagunes
Yes, I did. I actually was really happy that Workforce Housing was brought up by both of you because I think that this is something that I put a lot of work into as DTA president in partnership with D-J-U-S-D and the trustees talking about the issues that are really impacting our employees and what could get them into our community. And we’ve done a lot of work on salary and benefits. So since my time as leader of Davis Teacher Association, our salary and benefits have improved beyond inflation. And we’ve done a lot of work on that, but that still has not moved us any closer to making it more affordable. And so that’s where workforce housing became part of the discussion so that there’s a part of that program. And I’d love to partner with the city on that.
Linda Deos
And this is going to sound like that broken record, but again, if you want to get this work done, turn to somebody who has the experience to get the work done. Somebody who has serving on our planning commission now, somebody who’s been part of this community for years and somebody who knows how to bring partners together to, again, get it done.
Question 5: Our streets and parks are not in good shape. What should be done to make them safer and more welcoming?
Linda Deos
Right that time on who went next? Again, that was one of the things I fell in love with. Coming to Davis wore those green belts in our parks. The streets not so much. I too shared the street of Alvarado with Dylan here and go down it all the time. It’s a problem. The bike paths are a problem. That’s a way that our children get to school and I want to make sure they can get to school safely. That’s a whole reason why they were built, has they were built to lead kids to the schools. How can we fix it? What can we do about it? Well, one thing we can do is pass Metric U. That’s going to make a big difference in moving that forward, but safer and more welcoming. I look at lighting. I look at getting rid of the foxtails. I get those other little sticky things that get into my dog’s paws that come into the house. That’s going to be a partnership in making that happen. Can neighbors adopt parts of parks? See if I can get that out. Again, working together in community with Trees, Davis, other organizations moving forward to make Davis as welcoming as we want it to be.
Victor Lagunes
Yeah, so I think that part of this starts with the sheer number of them and who they’re used by. I mean, our university students and the faculty that are part of the university also use them besides our students, which I’m glad came up because I think that from my perspective, those are, you’re looking at commuter lanes. And so it’s important to recognize that there is some partnership between the city and the school district on that they are about to hire a new safe routes to school coordinator to ensure that our students are making it to their school campuses safely. And I think that addresses part of that question. But we’re talking about 118 miles of bike lanes throughout the city. And when we talk about deferred maintenance on those and when that was needed starting up to even 10 years ago, and how we haven’t done a lot of maintenance on our roads and bike paths, it’s obvious that Dylan mentioned the rollercoaster that is oak when you’re below DHS.
I mean, there’s two speed bumps there that don’t need to be there at all with the conditions of the roads. And so I really think that it’s quite obvious that the maintenance is necessary and part of the rationale for Measure Q. But in terms of safety, we also have to consider our growing climate changes. And we have more triple degree weather that’s out there, and we have many water fountains that are not in operation around our green belts. And for those that take advantage of our parks, that’s really something that’s necessary for both us as humans, but also our pets that are out there. And we need to really consider our canopy and coverage, shade coverage along those areas as well.
Victor Lagunes
So I think that the other consideration is that the bike path is a current infrastructure that we have. That’s wonderful. And interestingly, both of you brought up where you live. I don’t live that far away because it’s a district and I’ve taken a lot of advantage of being there. And I think that the other part of this is that a continued investment in our green belts and our bike paths is necessary. And that means that if we have any new developments, that those are planned to expand our bike paths and green belt areas as well, so that it’s not just where they exist now.
Linda Deos
You. Oh, have a follow up. Sure. I just want to follow up on that point of, with new developments, having new parks, new bike paths, et cetera, and connecting to everything I want to make sure those can be paid for. I want to make sure that we’re placing the burden properly so that it’s not all on the city having a hard time keeping up now with what we have. So when we are adding more capacity, let’s make sure we are finding mechanisms to cover that capacity. Thanks. Thank you. Yes.
Dillan Horton
I thought of something too. Anyway, so I had a meet and greet on Sycamore, sort of as you’re going toward Trader Joe’s not too long ago. And goodness, I feel like two thirds of the people who showed up at that forum talked about street safety issues in that portion of Sycamore people ripping and running up and down that freeway, not freeway. They think it’s a freeway ripping and running up and down that street with really no regard to pedestrian and biker safety. Excuse me. And so I think it’s not really necessarily a matter of how good that condition, the condition of the road is, but how safe it is for people to travel down. I think that’s something that we need to concentrate on as leaders in the community.
