City of Davis

Under normal conditions, one would expect both the Sacramento Bee and Davis Enterprise to back new development in Davis.  In the last decade, the Davis Enterprise has backed virtually every pro-development candidate and backed every project on the ballot.  In fact, their 2004 endorsement of Sue Greenwald for Davis City Council stands out as the lone exception, up until now.  Meanwhile, the Sacramento Bee treats Davis more like the red-headed stepchild, treating its limited growth policies as oddities and signs of weird Davis.

Since the Enterprise endorsed in 2004 Sue Greenwald along with Don Saylor and Stephen Souza, they have a perfect record of supporting development.  They backed the sprawling Covell Village project in 2005 that was defeated handily by the voters.  They back Target.  And they backed every pro-development candidate and not just the three incumbents that make up the council majority, but Mike Levy (2006) and Sydney Vergis (2008).

I have to confess, not only have I not gone into the Target, I have not even gone by its location since it opened.  Based on media reports, I must be about the last Davisite left.  Then again I make it a point not to give my business to union busting companies that pay their workers with less than living wages.  Costco may not be local but at least they pay their workers with a living wage and give them health care to boot.

Reading Dunning yesterday, he noted:

Quietly and without much fanfare, the Woodland/ Davis Surface Water Project Joint Power Agency organized and elected officers.  The JPA was approved by both city councils in September, creating an entirely new government agency to over see the massive water project.

At the first meeting, William Marble, the Woodland City Councilmember was elected chair and Davis City Councilmember Stephen Souza was elected Vice Chair.  The other members are Woodland City Councilmember Martie Dote and Davis Mayor Pro Tem Don Saylor.  Art Pimentel and Lamar Heystek were named alternates.

I never bought into the idea of a “green” Target, but that what was sold to Davis.  You know the Target that would be “unique” to Davis built in a unique looking building, LEED certified.  But that was the major marketing plan to get Davis voters who like to think of themselves as environmentalists to vote to bring a huge store to East Davis.

From the Target in Davis website:

I remember once upon a time a political consultant telling me that Davis is not different from anywhere else, and while Davis may be more educated than the average city, the campaign tactics, tried and true, that work elsewhere, work in Davis.  I’m not sure I really believe that. 

The ordinary rule of thumb in any campaign is that if you get people talking about your campaign, commenting on your mail pieces, you have success.  You see, few people pay much attention to campaigns.  I know this is shocking for an audience that scrutinizes every little point raised by both parties, but I wonder how many people in Davis really know there will be an election in less than two weeks.  And so, any piece that can get on the radar of the people, has to be a good one… Or so conventional wisdom will tell you.

When I see the XXL houses in South Davis, Wildhorse, and Mace Ranch, I feel sorry for the people living there. They have bought into this unsustainable idea that living extra-large is somehow a good thing, when all evidence points to that kind of lifestyle choice resulting in an impoverished world and loss of their own happiness. In a different way, I also feel for the students, parents of students, and working people in Davis who are struggling to make all those frayed ends meet. I wonder how people will survive economic decline and find a reasonable place to live. It’s at times like these that I would consider building affordable housing somewhere convenient to Davis’ amenities; housing that is sustainable in terms of size; and housing that doesn’t sit on top of our declining agricultural lands. Unfortunately the newest proposed Measure (P) for housing in Davis does none of these things.

Two weeks ago, the Sierra Club announced that they had endorsed Measure P.  Like everything in this campaign, that endorsement has trigger a bit of controversy in part because of their reputation as one of the preeminent environmental groups in the nation and indeed globally.

Critics immediately complained about the process by which the endorsement was obtained.  Some have suggested this was largely a political decision made at the local level by people beholden to certain developer interests.  Others have pointed to the lack of ability of opponents to present their reasons for opposition.  Along those lines, supporters contend that the meeting was noticed in the newspaper twice.

Two weeks ago we were a bit perplexed that the Council Majority was opposed to commissioning a senior housing survey asking if we wanted to determine the need for senior housing,.  Should we not collect survey research data in the form of a phone poll?  Amazingly the council majority disagreed with that approach and voted 3-2 to turn down staff’s recommendation to use restricted monies to commission a fair and impartial survey.

What was particularly surprising was that back in June, they seemed willing to utilize data collected by a group called CHA, a front group for the Covell Village developers.  However, the council majority fell over themselves, often resorting to using arguments made by right wing organizations to discredit mainstream polling.

I contemplated whether or not to let Dunning’s response this morning go.  I took an unusual step on Friday morning of asking Davis Enterprise Editor Debbie Davis to have the Davis Enterprise offer a public apology to the young ladies whom Bob Dunning chose to malign in his column last Sunday.  She artfully dodged that request, suggesting that Dunning himself would have a response to their letter in today’s column.  I was bracing for the worst.

His response comes across as part defensive and part denial.  There is no contrition.  To believe him, he was misunderstood.  Much of it represents an artful play on words in order to make insinuations without taking responsibility for them.