From the Target in Davis website:
“Measure K simply ratifies the decision of the Davis City Council to allow the “green” Target designed for Davis to be built on Second Street, near Mace Boulevard.”
At the time, it seemed a bit ludicrous to have a LEED certified building for Target, anymore than to have a LEED certified Hummer lot. In the end, despite the marketing, it probably came down to the fact that people in Davis wanted more shopping options.
Nevertheless the “green” Target was a huge part of the marketing campaign. But it was more than the “green” Target, it was the idea that Target would be made to reflect Davis-values.
So I was naturally stunned to find a huge, I mean huge flier attached to my door from Target. A big glossy advertisement from Target–so large that I cannot even scan the whole thing. My first thought–the “green” Target is wasting a huge amount of paper.
Then I said, no, calm down, this is the “green” Target, surely it must be printed on recycled paper.
So I looked and looked and looked some more and there was no recycle bug to be found. No notice that this was printed on recycle paper. Surely I must be mistaken, Target is “green” and supposed to represent Davis values. They would never, ever, deliver fliers to the entire city that were not printed on recycled paper, what are they thinking?
But there you have it, you can dress up Target in a LEED-certified building, but you cannot make them think like environmentalists.
Since Target is here and obviously not going anywhere, it seems more reasonable that instead of just complaining, we teach them how to be better. Maybe it will work, perhaps not.
So let us all do our part to protect the environment and allow Davis to really be Davis.
They do have contact info on the flier:
“For questions or comments on this delivery please e-mail inquiries@powerdirect.net or call 877-253-5100.”
More on Target
She writes:
“So, if you haven’t noticed, Target opened up two weeks ago. To be exact, it opened on a Wednesday, and much to my shock and horror, I shopped there Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I rested on Monday.
In fact, on Sunday I lamented to my 9-year-old son that I should not have been at the new Target store five days in a row, especially since I voted against it opening in the first place! He offered a little incentive: ‘How about if you go to Target tomorrow you owe everyone in the family $5 each?’ including the dogs, he informed me. Deal.
I’m no political activist, but I had strong feelings about a store of this size and scope coming to town. Nothing against Target per se, but I felt for the Davis businesses that would be jeopardized and the character that would be lost.”
Just great. The column got me thinking, which is always a dangerous thing. The first thing I thought of is that I have made most of major purchases in the last few years in Davis. I bought my new computer last December, my mattress, and this past June my first new car all in Davis. I’m rather proud of the fact that I had a computer custom built in Davis at Heron Technologies now Davis Computer.
I think I have done my part to keep business and tax dollars local, but I don’t feel much reciprocation from those who would benefit from my tax dollars staying local.
Between Target moving to Davis and the Davis Downtown Businesses opposing the 5th Street Redesign on selfish and nonsensical reasons, maybe it is time to change my philosophy. After all the city does not apparently care if local businesses are rooted out by Target and no amount of grant money is going to save some of them. And the downtown does not apparently care if I get killed on my way to shop there, so why I exactly should I care so much to shop in Davis and keep my sales taxes local so that the firefighters can get their six figure salaries and their 3% at 50?
I know I’m a bad person for thinking this way and maybe someone out there can convince me not to go to Woodland and do a thousand dollar shopping spree at Costco. I’m sure Matt Rexroad will chime on and tell me to go for it. Perhaps I should say, Vacaville instead of Woodland. I’ll bet they will appreciate my tax dollars more than Davis apparently appreciates my business.
At least I have Delano’s to look forward to next month. I’ll just have to quit picking on Target one of these days.
—David M. Greenwald reporting
I had a visceral reaction when I walked into Target and it wasn’t a good one. I had just come from downtown on one of those eerie quiet afternoons and the Target parking lot was full and bustling. I felt the foreshadowing of the end of downtown. I will continue to be vigilant – buying shoes, clothes, books, food and doing banking in central Davis. Downtown has personality and character and it is one of the things that makes living in Davis a richer experience.
I never bought into the idea of a “green” Target, but that what was sold to Davis.
you never bought into the idea of Target at all, so whether Target is green or not is a side point.
“They would never, ever, deliver fliers to the entire city that were not printed on recycled paper, what are they thinking?”
oh, my god! not using recycled paper? burn them at the stake!! Now they have really done it!!!! I’ll see them all hanged for this offense!!
sarcasm aside, I seriously doubt that if Target did put their flyers on recycled paper, that would make you feel any better about them.
measure K passed, we won.
I never bought into the idea of a green Target either, just like I’m not buying into the idea of a “green” Wildhorse Ranch.
Here’s another more positive review of Target on the Davis Voice:
[url]http://www.davisvoice.com/2009/10/confessions-of-a-target-shopper.html[/url]
Well, if Davis Ace had not over charged so many people for so many items for so long…
Including training the sales staff to point out the higher priced item when you ask them where something is as a tactic (higher priced item always at eye level, lower priced same item way up high or way down low)…
Then maybe the public would not have wanted a Target in the first place.
People get tired of being over charged.
They also get tired of hacks spewing downtown protectionist business propaganda. Some downtown businesses appreciate your business, others have engaged in pressuring the city council to thwart competition and taken advantage of their oligarchy market conditions to abuse the Davis public with poorer goods and services at higher prices.
To Phantom:
You say “measure K passed, we won”.
Wait a year or two when you see some downtown businesses having to close, for instance I can’t see the Ace Homewares Store surviving the intrusion of Target, and the resulting blight of empty shops. Tell us then how
“we won”.
“higher priced item always at eye level, lower priced same item way up high or way down low”
Please, you don’t think Target employs the same tactics?
Heck, they probably invented the idea.
There were a few things I felt that were “un-green” when I finally went into the Davis Target the first time yesterday.
The air conditioner in the store was set so high, I was freezing in a sleeveless shirt and shorts, which were perfect for outside weather, but evidently too cool for the store. While the restroom did not have tree-wasting paper towels, the air-blowing hand dryer seemed to be set at warp speed.
I don’t agree that Target is the end of downtown, as Jamie suggests. There are plenty of methods out there to make the downtown stronger, more economically viable and more appealing, however, the DDBA in their infinite wisdom decided that they needed to get rid of the Main Street program in 2007 at the time they were promoting their “new” DDBA, with the developer types on the board citing that it was only about historic preservation and for downtowns/cities that needed help because their downtowns were failing. The Davis program was both a state and nationally designated community.
Successful California downtowns such as San Luis Obispo, Grass Valley and Benicia are certainly not failing at all, and subscribe to, are members of, and practice the Main Street methodology, as well as more than 1,200 state, regional, and local programs coast-to-coast. Many of these programs have learned how to co-exist with the big-box piranhas and be successful as well.
I for one have always loved having Ace Hardware to close and convenient and knowing that they had in stock what I needed. If it cost a little bit more it was well worth it to me for the convenience and knowledge that we had a vibrant store in the core of our downtown. I will shun Target and always try to spend my money in our downtown.
Well, that’s strange and unexpected. Why do the comments block cross reference to a Sheryl Patterson article on Target on the Dvis Voice blog, above? One of the fun and interesting things about the comments section is the ability to learn relevant information from other pages offsite to this one. If we’re going in that direction, we’re also losing the ability to reference a diversity of points of view.
An advantage of the Vanguard blog has been to have a fairly open comments section. The Dvis Voice doesn’t exactly have that. All comments have to get approved before being posted. It makes it very awkward and stifling to have any back and forth response in their comments section. But if you prevent the ability to even reference the alternative blog, as you’ve allowed for referencing of Davis Enterprise articles, we’re not having open discussion, even as we take responsibility for our comments under our own names or pseudonyms very soon.
Please reconsider what you’re doing.
Test:
Davis Voice Blog = Dvis Voice Blog
Appropriate filtering:
S-h-i-t = Shit
Inappropriate filtering:
D-a-v-i-s V-o-i-c-e = Davis Voice
If you didn’t get the flyer for some reason, here is my attempt at scanning the large and awkwardly shaped monstrocity.
Has anyone received the latest Yes on P “green in your face” flyer:
It has a picture of a “chia house” on it in addition to a “timeline” of Davis development history, including a picture of a toad…these flyers are just beyond belief! BTW, Davis Wiki is now compiling images of them under “campaign propaganda”…I think the Yes on P flyer will go down in the annals of Davis political history as the stupidest political moves ever!
[i]I know I’m a bad person for thinking this way and maybe someone out there can convince me not to go to Woodland and do a thousand dollar shopping spree at Costco.[/i]
David, you can shop wherever you want to shop. It’s a free country.
I also agree with wdf, by the way. Censoring links to the Dávis Vóice isn’t reasonable. In addition to looking ungenerous, it isn’t in your interest. One of the most prominent bloggers on the Internet, Glenn Reynolds, succeeded in part by freely linking to other bloggers.
A little greenwash will have a lipstick environmentalist salivating here in Davis… Sucks being seen as one-dimensional clowns by developers doesn’t it? Oh wait…
I’m giving my tax dollars previously spent in Woodland to Davis now, how is that a bad thing? I shop downtown for somethings, and previously shopped Target in Woodland for others. My shopping behavior has not changed, just where my tax dollars go has changed. People are not standing in line to buy cars, we need revenue from somewhere, because as sucessful as our downtown is…it doesn’t support our city expenditures.
I’m giving my tax dollars previously spent in Woodland to Davis now, how is that a bad thing? I shop downtown for somethings, and previously shopped Target in Woodland for others. My shopping behavior has not changed, just where my tax dollars go has changed. People are not standing in line to buy cars, we need revenue from somewhere, because as sucessful as our downtown is…it doesn’t support our city expenditures.
Sorry, didn’t mean to hit the button twice!
If a couple of downtown businesses wind up closing because of Target, so what? It’s not like downtown is offering us reasonable prices and parking. I, for one, am pretty impressed by the new Target – especially the grocery section. I had no idea Target planned to have *real* food, like produce and meat. The prices are almost as good as Wally except it’s a much shorter drive. Unlike the local grocery stores, you don’t have to buy two gallons of milk to get the low price per gallon. Who can argue with a price of $1.75 for a big box of store brand frosted mini wheats? Not me. Gotta love those big boxes and their one-stop shopping.
Gotta love it, gotta love it when alot our local businesses close in the downtown area, gotta love it when your local grocer shuts its doors. But at least you get to buy your cheap milk and frosted mini-wheats, that’s what is most important.
David said a week or two ago people were starting to use the Vanguard to promote the other blog, so I think this was his solution.
[i]David said a week or two ago people were starting to use the Vanguard to promote the other blog, so I think this was his solution.[/i]
Why not go ahead and let people promote the other blog? In the academic world, we view citations as a good thing. Cooperation is the whole point.
If people cross the line from citing The Davís Voíce to spamming for it, that’s not so good. However, comment registration will make it easy to control for that. I really don’t see the problem with relevant links in the comments.
For those interested, here is a Google search ([url]http://www.google.com/#q=”Confessions+of+a+Target+Shopper”&fp=1[/url]) that gets you to Sheryl Patterson’s article about Target in “the other blog”. Basically Patterson says the same thing as Tanya Perez: “I was totally against Target, now I can’t stop myself from shopping there.” I have seen this pattern before; the New York Times interviewed a woman in some East Coast town with exactly the same behavior after she lost a fight against a big-box store there. Personally, I think it’s ridiculous. It’s completely ridiculous when people not only don’t stick to their own business, but also don’t know themselves very well.
Does this link work? ([url]http://www.davisvoice.com/[/url])
Wow, I had no idea.
Hey David, we all make mistakes. Blocking a link to [b]www dot davisvoice dot com[/b] is a boner on your part. You should rethink that decision.
What I have found in looking at [b]www dot davisvoice dot com[/b] is that it’s not very good or very interesting. I haven’t gone back for that reason. You really have no reason to fear competition from a lesser product.
Wow, I can’t even type davis no dot voice as one word on here. You really blew this one.
Now that we’ve established the policies on this blog, perhaps we can get back to the issue at hand, I’m appalled that Target would be littering the streets using non-recycled paper. I sent an email to complain.
I am concerned about what the fresh foods section of Target might do to the south Davis Nugge. And I do not like that the plans to have a fresh foods section were not made public until well after the election on Target. Didn’t they not mention that until just a few months ago?
In fact Barbara, didn’t they specifically promise to limit the food section for that very purpose?
Normally wouldn’t do this, but my niece was born a couple of hours ago, Sydney Elizabeth, first niece on my side of the family…
[img]images/stories/sydney_elizabeth.jpg[/img]
[i]I had no idea Target planned to have *real* food, like produce and meat.[/i]
That’s interesting, JayT. When I saw the food section at Target, my main thought was that Nugget has nothing to worry about. It might be great if you just want to grab frozen dinners and a cucumber, but it isn’t good for much more than that.
On the other hand, it is easily the best place in Davis to buy housewares and clothes. It is also nice not to have a wild goose chase for different types of durable goods. I do not enjoy going to Gap for clothes, then Ace Housewares for kitchen utensils, then CVS for school supplies. After all, is that good for the environment? DDBA should stick to things that big stores don’t do very well. Watermelon Music is a great example of what local stores should be like.
Regarding Target: I haven’t been to it yet. However, if you don’t like the store, then don’t shop there. It’s pretty much like http://www.d*visvoice.com/. If you don’t like what they have to say, then just don’t go there. It’s moronic to campaign against a store or a competing website.
Speaking of new places to spend money in Davis: I cannot recommend enough the outdoor dining experience (when the weather is good, as it was yesterday) at Village Bakery’s new location at 403 G Street. Some of you probably don’t recall that Chuck Roe owned that house and had planned to give it away for $1 to anyone who would move it to a new location in a traditional Davis neighborhood. Chuck had hoped to build an office building there, with retail/restaurant on the ground floor. But that fell through due to the economy, and he sold 403 G to Aziz (I can’t recall his last name). Aziz then remodeled the house (beautifully in my opinion) and has recently opened it for a great dining experience, indoors or out. It really looks gorgeous.
The house itself had a lot of historic merit. It was a craftsman, built in 1914 by one of the pioneer Davis families, the Grieve family. The Grieves were early hoteliers in town. They owned and operated a giant hotel near the depot called The Buena Vista. That hotel burned to the ground in the years prior to incorporation. (The reason Davis became a city in 1917 was to achieve much better municipal fire protection.)
You might wonder, why did the HRMC not try to prevent Chuck from moving the house or Aziz from changing it the way he did? The answer is context. Because of the Jack in the Box, the 4-story McCormick Building, the Theater/garage/Dept of Ag complex and the buildings immediately north of 403 G, the context of a home in a neighborhood of homes was entirely lost. It still had some merit due to its connection with the Grieves. But it was not itself all that unique architecturally; and with no context in its setting, it did not rise to the level of historic preservation.
That said, I think the remodel is a superior alternative to everything that might have happened otherwise. It would have been nearly impossible to change it the way Aziz did, if it had been in a traditional neighborhood. (If it had been, I would have opposed its changes.) Yet changed as it is, and because the restaurant is so good, it should be a successful business for a long time. And I recommend everyone give it a try.
Re Tarzhay, and Patterson’s and Perez’s conversions, it reminds me of the many times I see former “Save Our Stores” activists shopping at the Oak Tree Plaza Nugget.
@RR Thanks for the recommendation, been meaning to try it out.
I remember all the fear that Borders would put our independent bookstores out of business. It didn’t, although many years after Borders opened the economy did kill some independent bookstores. And let’s remember that the Carousel stationary store died (a huge loss to our community, in my opinion) as a result of the economy (or a landlord’s desire for higher rent), well before Target opened.
There is little overlap between the quality level of the merchandise sold at Target and that sold by our downtown businesses. The Davis Target seems to be bringing home business that would otherwise have gone to the Woodland Target or Woodland WalMart, or that would have gone in the past to Gottshalks or to Mervyns in Woodland, reducing driving to Woodland and increasing tax dollars for Davis. Target may take a little business away from CVS and RiteAid, neither of which are downtown businesses.
The bigger threat to downtown businesses is the lack of adequate downtown parking for longer than two hours.
Yeah Keith, you’re absolutely right. Getting more for my grocery dollar is very important to me and I’m sure it is to a lot of other people too, especially people shopping for larger families. Somehow I don’t see the likes of Safeway, SaveMart or Nugget closing the doors because of competition from Target or Wally. They’re parts of big chains and can well afford to lower a lot of their prices if they need to in order to stay competitive. If it makes you feel smarter or better than the rest of us to pay twice as much for something because it’s from a *local* grocery store, then go for it.
[i]Re Tarzhay, and Patterson’s and Perez’s conversions,[/i]
The most disappointing thing is that in some cases, there has been no real conversion. Maybe these three people truly have changed their thinking, but certainly in some cases, it’s “Save me from myself! I don’t make sense!”
In other words, there are people who enjoy fighting against big stores, then when the stores open they enjoy shopping there. The fact that it’s contradictory is an afterthought.
To change the subject a little bit, congratulations to David for becoming an uncle. That topic could reasonably be made a separate post.
here’s my email to inquiries@powerdirect.com
_____________________________________________
Hi Target Marketing,
Nice of you to introduce your new store with “door-hangers” here in Davis, but your fliers were not printed on recycled paper. You promised a “green” Target in our community, we expect you to live up to your promise. If you continue your abuse of natural resources I and many of my neighbors will boycott your store as a matter of principle and will use your example to educate our fellow citizens. Hopefully, you might just take this as a corporate-wide lesson learned.
_____________________________________________
C’mon everybody…….
To JayT
It doesn’t take paying a little more for goods and services in order to help our local businesses over giving money to big box corporate giants to make me feel smarter than you.
You’re missing my point, Keith. Why should I feel any loyalty to local businesses who routinely charge me more and don’t provide sufficient parking? I see no reason to spend half a day driving around looking for parking so I can pay more. If that’s your bag and it makes you *feel smarter than me* fine … but don’t even for a minute believe that because that’s your choice it makes you somehow smarter than me or anyone else. Now, I think I’ll take the money I saved by getting my groceries last week at Target and go out to dinner somewhere.
JayT
I go downtown all the time and never have a hard time finding parking, it might take an extra trip around the block sometimes but hardly half of my day. I know I for one will really miss my local grocery store if it had to close. Why don’t you take that extra money you saved at Target and go downtown and buy something. There you go now.
Robin W:”I remember all the fear that Borders would put our independent bookstores out of business. It didn’t….”
Most lost 30% of their sales immediately. One closed beforehand.
“And let’s remember that the Carousel stationary store died (a huge loss to our community, in my opinion) as a result of the economy…”
Carousel was irreversibly damaged by OfficeMax.
“The bigger threat to downtown businesses is the lack of adequate downtown parking for longer than two hours.”
My understanding is that downtown parking is the top priority of the DDBA. The current site being considered for a parking structure is next to Union Bank/Kinko’s.
Vincente: “In fact Barbara, didn’t they specifically promise to limit the food section for that very purpose?”
It is part of the development agreement that they limit grocery sales to 20% of total area.
“David said a week or two ago people were starting to use the Vanguard to promote the other blog, so I think this was his solution.”
I haven’t seen any gratuitous promotion of the “other blog” on this website. I personally read the other blog from time to time and find that there are occasionally views and perspectives that don’t get mentioned here.
I have made previous links to the other blog when there were stories that were on topic to the Vanguard’s. But I have also done the same for plenty of newspapers, including the Sac Bee, the Enterprise, the Daily Democrat, the Folsom Telegraph, the SF Chronicle, etc. I definitely didn’t have in mind gratuitous promotion of those news sources when I mentioned those stories.
If the comment post is only, “Read the ‘another blog’. It’s a great blog!” well that clearly would be gratuitous promotion and probably off topic and should be eliminated. To censor direct reference to the other blog will probably actually create more buzz than would be merited. It can become known as the “blog that is so forbidden that even the Vanguard censors references to it.” You know pretty well what Dunning will inevitably do with what has already been posted even before this comment here.
I agree with Rifkin that the Vanguard is a better product for what it offers than anything else currently out there. Even the Enterprise can’t get it’s online site anything like the Vanguard when it comes to community discussion.
David, there’s a reason that Don Saylor presented you with that award a few months ago, and it wasn’t for censoring other news sources on this blog.
Here are some good things about the Vanguard:
1. It is willing to investigate and question where other news sources won’t.
2. It offers something daily that I can read as one of my morning news sources, along with NPR and the Sac Bee.
3. Comments are posted immediately, offering almost real time discussion.
4. It offers links to other local blogs/news sources (except for that other blog)
If I could spend a little more time than I currently have, I would come up with a few other advantages.
The current disadvantage of the Vanguard is the ugly tone that develops in the comments, most recently centering around Measure P discussion. It’s a turn off. I take no pleasure at seeing Mr. Greenwald personally attacked in blog comments, even if I don’t agree with him.
At the other blog, there are no ugly personal attacks; in fact there are hardly any comments at all — okay maybe 1 or 2 kudos to the author of the article, but that’s all.
I applaud the decision to require registration. Maybe it will work, maybe it won’t, but at least you’re trying to improve the product.
[i]David, there’s a reason that Don Saylor presented you with that award a few months ago, and it wasn’t for censoring other news sources on this blog.[/i]
Yeah, that’s a really good point. The message and the expectation of a community award is cooperation, not competition.
David:
Please come to Woodland. We would love to have you.
Any time you want to spend $1,000 at our Target or Costco I will personally meet you at the store and push your cart for you.
Matt
My wife was in Woodland today and stopped at the Target at 102. She told me the parking lot there was empty. So what is the biggest green thing about Target in Davis? It is that everyone saves gas and CO2 by traveling to the periphery of Davis instead of the leap frog development of Spring Lake. Could this be a metaphor for housing growth on our periphery as well?
Sorry Matt, your tax revenue will be down at Target and at the nearby gas stations too since Davis pulled its collective head out of its you know where and brought Target to Davis.
@wdf – just checked, you can now comment in real time at that “other blog” aka d*visvoice.c0m
what i like about that other blog:
1) positive tone
2) variety of community members are contributing
3) the monday posting “YOUR Government” does a reasonably good job consolidating all of the public meetings
4) the friday posting “This Weekend” pulls together an interesting mix of entertainment opportunities
David – have you ever heard that 2+ restaurants on a corner do much better than one? if people have a reasonable content link to the http://www.d*avisvoice.c0m, whats the harm?
also, their coverage of Measure P has been great.
Multiple — It’s nice you say you like that blog. Everyone has the right to his or her own tastes and or opinions. However, when you say that anonymously, as you just did, does it not come across as obvious to everyone with an IQ above 64 that you are one of the principals who writes on that blog? Because you are, obviously, your complimentary words about your own blog come across as self-serving pablum.
If you consequently deny that you are Kemble Pope or one of the other d*avisvoice.com authors, no one but an idiot will believe you. Just come out and give your name. You have nothing to lose by owning your own words in this instance.
That said, David Greenwald’s decision to block links to Mr. Pope’s website, which so far is not all that good*, is really stupid on his part. Yet all of us make mistakes, and I’m sure David will come to realize that and correct his error.
*Just because davisv*ice so far isn’t all that great, does not mean it won’t eventually get better. David Greenwald, for example, has improved a lot since he began this blog. Hopefully we will have a good second blog in town which covers issues in the news, and in the way David does, uncovers topics which need a lot of time and attention to draw out the facts.
Seems like many are leaving this blog because of the new rules. I’m gone too, this will be my last post. Since I’m no longer posting here there’s no reason to read David’s articles either. Good move, you just lost alot of traffic and will become that much less significant.
Please vote for measure P. Davis needs a green housing complex. Truly green. And yes they are affordable given they are solar. How is it possible that we allowed target to come here but not a green housing community. It’s just ridiculous that people are actually considering voting no on measure P. Davis only has one semi-green complex. Let’s live up to our hippie stigma and build a green community already!@!!!
I can’t believe how many people were posting during one of the most gorgeous days of the century. Then, when the sun goes down most of you quit posting. Another wasted day in front of the computer…
Hey Rifkin, this whole “If you respond this way… Then you must be (this person)” is ridiculous… Are you having cyber hardy bros dreams? Do us a fvor and stick to the point, Stop bashing that other blog because you don’t like the people…
I know plenty of people who regularly read and enjoy d@visvoic€.c0m . Just because they don’t see shadowy conspiracies in every corner like you and David doesn’t mean they don’t offer a worthwhile service to our community. If you truly do want more active blogs then why don’t you contribute to the voice??
He obviously borrowed Mike Harrington’s patented Anonymous Poster Reveal-O-Meter, which was so successfully used a couple of months back to ferret out all those anonymous posts from Eileen Samitz. As you may recall, he unequivocally demonstrated that there was only one poster in the entire City of Davis that was opposed to the Parlin peripheral subdivision.
“If you truly do want more active blogs then why don’t you contribute to the voice??”
Rich has his own blog. Maybe he can post that address here for you w/o censorship.
Test:
L-o-r-d-V-o-l-d-e-m-o-r-t = Lord Voldemort (he whose name must not be mentioned)
D-a-v-i-s-V-o-i-c-e = Davis Voice (blog whose name must not be mentioned)
It would be nice if this silliness could end tomorrow. Probably not, though.
For those who want affordable housing in Davis, the best way to make living affordable is to pay a living wage. I suspect that the wages at Target’s grocery stores will not be equivalent to Safeway or Nugget.
When folks have a community that they care about it improves their quality of life. I care about student tuition becoming less affordable, and that there is local farmland and organic farmers to produce food that I trust and doesn’t increase global climate change by being shipped around the world.
Frankly shopping on line is generally the cheapest and most convenient – but that doesn’t reflect all my values. The bottom line is what kind of community do you want to live in. So you won’t find me very often at Target. But I also won’t be self righteous about low paid workers at Target shopping at Walmart – when you don’t have many options you do what you have to.
[quote](Rich), do us a favor and stick to the point. Stop bashing that other blog because you don’t like the people… [/quote] I don’t dislike anyone associated with davisv*ice. A few of this listed contributors are friends. My opinion, that it’s not yet all that great, is not really bashing it. It’s just giving my review. And as I said, I hope it gets better. [quote]they don’t see shadowy conspiracies in every corner like you and David [/quote] I have no idea what that sentence means. I have never made mention of or in any other way alluded to a conspiracy. [quote]Rich has his own blog. Maybe he can post that address here for you w/o censorship. [/quote] My blog, alas, gone down hill since I started it. I just don’t get around to writing much. My last piece was 10 days ago. I wrote in favor of collecting DNA samples from those accused of crimes ([url]http://lexicondaily.blogspot.com/2009/10/fear-of-dna-by-privacy-advocates-is.html[/url]) and in opposition to those who think collecting these samples is an invasion of privacy. (I’m sure, by the way, David Greenwald and most Davis liberals hold the opposite view.) Four days before that, I commented on the brutal attack against a UCLA student in a chemistry lab ([url]http://lexicondaily.blogspot.com/2009/10/ucla-madness-its-va-tech-all-over-again.html[/url]) and compared the accused person to the mass murderer at Va. Tech who killed 32 people. Since I published that piece, there was a horrific murder of a Sacramento State student that made me think it might involve a mentally ill murderer. However, I think, instead, it might be more of a case of temporary insanity, if there is such a thing.
For a few months I was also blogging about interesting words ([url]http://lexicondaily.blogspot.com/search/label/Word of the Day[/url]), but I’ve let that go.
One more quick note on the Sacramento State murder, where one suite-mate beat another to death with a baseball bat and beat himself with that same bat and then threatened responding police officers with a kitchen knife, until they shot him: This story ([url]http://media.www.statehornet.com/media/storage/paper1146/news/2009/10/22/News/Coroner.Releases.Name.Of.Beating.Victim-3810197.shtml[/url]) from the Sac State paper says, “What caused Jones to attack Hawkins is still under investigation … Jones had no known mental illness.” One of his roommates suggested he may have been experimenting with a hallucinogenic drug called DMT, but that has not been confirmed, and a researcher on DMT says it has no association with violent behavior. According to a report I saw on one of the local TV news shows, the alleged murderer, Quran Jones, had, as a minor, a criminal record, but it’s hard to say if that means anything. There just seemed to be no motive at all.
[quote]Seems like many are leaving this blog because of the new rules. I’m gone too, this will be my last post. Since I’m no longer posting here there’s no reason to read David’s articles either. Good move, you just lost alot of traffic and will become that much less significant.[/quote]
We’ll see. A lot of people have told me they have stopped posting recently because of the negative tone particularly on P stories. I didn’t see evidence that a lot of people would stop posting. Nevertheless, this figures to be the biggest month of traffic on the Vanguard, so something must be going right.
[quote]Seems like many are leaving this blog because of the new rules. I’m gone too, this will be my last post. Since I’m no longer posting here there’s no reason to read David’s articles either. Good move, you just lost alot of traffic and will become that much less significant.[/quote]
We’ll see. A lot of people have told me they have stopped posting recently because of the negative tone particularly on P stories. I didn’t see evidence that a lot of people would stop posting. Nevertheless, this figures to be the biggest month of traffic on the Vanguard, so something must be going right.
We’ll be testing.
“David – have you ever heard that 2+ restaurants on a corner do much better than one? “
Kemble, I suspect that while it may be true that two restaurants do much better than one, you will never see one restaurant promote the other in advertising or on their site.
[i]Kemble, I suspect that while it may be true that two restaurants do much better than one, you will never see one restaurant promote the other in advertising or on their site.[/i]
That’s not true, Vicente, I have seen it.
Besides, a community blog isn’t a restaurant. The best blogs are happy to promote each other.
I read a lot of blogs, I don’t see a lot of blogs with differing views promoting each other. You don’t see the Huffington Post promoting some of the leading conservative blogs, maybe criticizing, but not promoting.
[i]You don’t see the Huffington Post promoting some of the leading conservative blogs, maybe criticizing, but not promoting.[/i]
The Huffington Post is perfectly happy to post links to conservative blogs, and to let commenters post links to conservative blogs. Maybe it wouldn’t want to be spammed with such links, but relevant links have always been fine.
By contrast, the policy here is that the Davís Voíce is such a hostile enemy that its name is censored even when there is no link. (I’m playing tricks to be able to mention its name.) The idea that Davís Voíce represents the opposite ideology is highly dubious. But even if it, it wouldn’t be any kind of enemy.
“I read a lot of blogs, I don’t see a lot of blogs with differing views promoting each other. You don’t see the Huffington Post promoting some of the leading conservative blogs, maybe criticizing, but not promoting.”
I would invite you to check out the Eschaton/Atrios political blog run by Duncan Black — link below. It doesn’t produce much in the way of longer format stories or commentary (like the Vanguard), but posts tons of links to outside sources — liberal, conservative, and neutral blogs and news sources. The blog itself has a liberal bent as far as what links get picked.
By all appearances, very heavy traffic, and with a reputation as a place to go to get a flavor for what’s currently out there. The Vanguard doesn’t have to be like this blog, but it demonstrates the value of having access to a wide number of links.
There is a real value added to the content stories posted on the Vanguard, and to the blog site as a whole, by allowing links to outside sources with related content.
[url]http://www.eschatonblog.com/[/url]
With the registration requirement, we’re taking out that block. The problem was that on one day we had someone spamming the board with the link to the website. With registration requirements, that makes it far less likely.
@Dee: Same here. The women socks section in the Davis Target are already almost devoid of merchandise because so many people have been buying them. Seriously, other than athletic socks at Fleet Feet and the drugstores, there was no place else to buy a variety of women’s everyday socks. Carseats for kids? Towels and sheets? I was buying all these things at the Target in Woodland. Now I buy them here and my tax dollars go to Davis, not Woodland. So sue me.
btw, interesting how AGAIN the comments completely veered away from the topic of the article into an argument about Measure P and other unrelated issues.
“With the registration requirement, we’re taking out that block. The problem was that on one day we had someone spamming the board with the link to the website. I don’t have time during the day to monitor things closely, so if abuses start happening, I may have to put it back in however with registration requirements, that makes it far less likely.”
Seems more like a spam problem than an issue of links; people will spam for all kinds of crazy reasons. But thanks.
Test:
Davis Voice
Test ([url]http://www.davisvoice.com[/url])
[i]”With the registration requirement, we’re taking out that block.”[/i]
The block is still there.
It’ll happen, I don’t know when today.
This store is barely in Davis, and nowhere near downtown. The only business I can see it directly competing with is Ace Hardware (and Gottschalks if it still existed). Really, the level of complaint over the store is absurd. It’s built, it’s fine, the world didn’t end, get over it.
The store is roughly in my backyard, and it hasn’t caused me any problems at all. I save gas because I don’t have to drive to Woodland or Sacramento for toilet paper, housewares, or electronics anymore. I can’t imagine shopping for food there, I still get that at Nugget or Costco. I shop downtown for everything else.
I imagine I’ll shop at Target for cheap clothes too, but there was no way I was ever getting my clothing from any of the expensive boutiques downtown anyhow.