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Davisite Banner. Left side the bicycle obelisk at 3rd and University. Right side the trellis at the entrance to the Arboretum.

  • Give students stronger representation on the UC Board of Regents

    Support ACA 18

    By Raymond de Vente

    In a public university system that manages a $53.5 billion annual budget, oversees three national labs, and educates nearly 300,000 students, you would expect those students to have a real say in how things are run. Currently, they do not.

    That is why Californians should pay attention to ACA 18, a new Assembly Constitutional Amendment moving through the state legislature. Authored by Assemblymember Jessica Caloza (D-Los Angeles), this measure would finally fix a long-standing democratic deficit at the heart of the University of California.

    Here is the current reality: Under the California Constitution, the UC Board of Regents, the powerful body that governs the entire system, includes just one voting student representative. One vote for almost 300,000 minds. While the constitution currently authorizes the Board to appoint student members, it does not guarantee meaningful representation. After a year of serving as a non-voting “designate,” a single student finally gets a vote. For a system this massive, that is not representation; it is a token gesture.

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  • Letter: Katie Porter is the fighter we need

    [Note: This letter first appeared in the Davis Enterprise online on Apr 6 and in print on Apr 12]

    Davisites, let’s throw our support behind Katie Porter for CA Governor — now, when we can really make a difference.

    California has a “top two” primary, meaning that the top two candidates from the June election will be the candidates we vote on in November. Right now, there are so many Democrats in the race that there is a serious risk of splitting the vote so badly that we will end up having a choice between two Republicans.

    We cannot let this happen. Thus far most candidates, even those with low polling numbers, won’t drop out. So we have to coalesce around one of the Democrats.

    I urge that we coalesce around Katie Porter.

    Porter is most known for her fiery whiteboard talks, holding corporate CEOs accountable, especially with regard to health care and big pharma. As a US congressperson, she passed laws that reined in the greed of the health care industry.

    She has a strong environmental record and will fight to expand clean energy and defend our clean air laws. She has pledged to protect our wildlands, open spaces, and oceans.

    She will work for federal funding for housing and to foster CA businesses.

    She has been endorsed by the United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals, the Orange County Employees Association, Senator Elizabeth Warren, and California’s Amalgamated Transit Union.

    Porter will bring the fight that we need in these difficult political times. Please write a letter or send a donation now to register your support.

    Roberta Millstein

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  • Let’s Play Contamination Whack-a-Mole with Opponents of Village Farms Davis

    By Alan Pryor

    INTRODUCTION

    A recent article was published in the Davis Enterprise (3/22/26) entitled “Village Farms Contaminant Risks” which purportedly discussed the alleged “risks” of environmental harm due to concentrations of a class of chemicals found in the groundwater beneath the Old Davis Landfill. These chemicals, known as PFASs, are likely found in the groundwater as a result of seepage from the long-since closed Old Davis Landfill. This article was later reprinted in a slightly altered form in the Davisite and Davis Vanguard on March 29,

    Unfortunately, however, the authors of the article really only repeated information already known about the concentrations of this only remaining organic contaminant currently found in  the groundwater.

    Further, the authors completely failed to actually quantify any real environmental “risk”of any type that this reported contamination might actually cause. Instead, the authors essentially  just say,”It’s there and it’s really bad”! – albeit saying that in a very ponderous and sonorous but seemingly credible manner. 

    But the authors did not even attempt to quantify the real likelihood of any environmental risk in their article. Why?…Because the risk of contamination is so infinitesimally low that to properly quantify that risk and disclose that information to the public would completely undermine their attempts to scare and frighten the public. This is not a thoughtful, deliberate scientific report. This is yellow journalism pure and simple.

    Let me explain.

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  • Fall Ballot Measure Would Open the Door to 3 Percent Down Payments to Buy New Davis Housing

    By Dan Carson

    A $25 billion statewide bond measure headed for the November 2026 ballot could pave the way for middle income Davis families to purchase new homes in Village Farms Davis with only a 3 percent down payment via an innovative new statewide program that would create no cost burdens for City of Davis or California taxpayers.

    Backers of the measure have already submitted 920,000 signatures to send the California Middle Class Homeownership and Family Home Construction Act to the voters, well in excess of the 546,652 signatures needed to qualify it for a November 3, 2026 vote. About 2,300 registered voters in Yolo County signed petitions to send the measure to the voters.

    “We are excited about this promising new ballot initiative,” said Sandy Whitcombe of the Yes on V campaign. “If it passes, this program could be the key for the many young families who can afford monthly payments for a modest home but haven’t been able to save up tens of thousands of dollars for a 20 percent down payment —  a goal post that keeps moving further away from them as home prices increase. Village Farms Davis was designed with a diverse mix of new housing options for the missing middle, and it appears most of the homes would qualify for this downpayment assistance.” 

    The full text of the measure can be found via the link below. It would authorize the issuance of new state revenue bonds that would be sold to spur the development of additional housing within the financial reach of middle income families.

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  • No on Measure V campaign at April 4th Farmers Market

    (From press release) The No on Measure V campaign will be at the Farmers Market tomorrow, Sat. April 4th, with literature and lawns signs and  volunteers to meet with Davis residents wanting more information. The campaign now  has a website, NoOnMeasureV.org posted with information about many reasons to vote NO on Village Farms on June 2nd.

    Village Farms is a proposal for a 1,800-housing unit project on 498 acres, at Covell Blvd. and Pole Line Rd. It is the largest project ever proposed in Davis, with the worst impacts and it would  impose costs on Davis residents.

    The project housing would be unaffordable particularly to local workers and families with young children. The vast majority of the project would be housing priced at $740,000 – $1.34 MILLION  per the BAE fiscal report which means a monthly housing payment of at least $6,000 to cover the mortgage, property taxes, insurance, CFD, and other fees.  Families with young kids cannot afford this so the project will not bring hundreds of kids as the School District believes, and therefore it will not help the schools as claimed.

    The developer is not responsible for building the affordable housing , except possibly 100 apartments in the last phase of the project 10+ years into the development.

    Concerns also include toxics, including carcinogenic PFAS’ “forever chemicals” leaking from the adjacent Old Davis Landfill/Burn Dump and Sewage Treatment Plant into the project site. Vapor intrusion can result exposing future residents to these carcinogenic chemicals. The project also has high levels of could toxics including neurotoxic toxaphene and lead on the proposed Heritage Oak Park site where kids would play.

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  • Why not a Passover Liberation for both Israel & Palestine

    By Alan Hirsch

    This year at my Jewish family’s Passover Seder we will be reciting the poem “Red Sea” by Aurora Levins Morales. This poem recalls the crossing over of the Red Sea as part of the Exodus story of deliverance and freedom.

    The poem echoes Martin Luther King Jr’s observation that “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” We must continue to grapple with and embrace the truth that the only path forward is one of mutual liberation.  

    Red Sea: April 2002

    This Passover, who reclines?
    Only the dead, their cupped hands filling slowly
    with the red wine of war.  We are not free.

    The blood on the doorposts does not protect anyone.
    They say that other country over there
    dim blue in the twilight
    farther than the orange stars exploding over our roofs
    is called peace.

    The bread of affliction snaps in our hands like bones,
    is dust in our mouths. This bitterness brings tears to our eyes.
    The figs and apples are sour.  We have many more
    than four questions.  We dip and dip,
    salt stinging our fingers.  
    Unbearable griefs braided into a rope so tight
    we can hardly breathe,
    Whether we bless or curse,
    this is captivity.
    We would cross the water if we knew how.
    Everyone blames everyone else for barring the way.

    Listen, they say there is honey swelling in golden combs, over there,
    dates as sweet and brown as lovers’ cheekbones,
    bread as fragrant as rest,
    but the turbulent water will not part for us.
    We’ve lost the trick of it.

    Back then, one man’s faith opened the way.
    He stepped in, we were released, our enemies drowned.

    This time we’re tied at the ankles.
    We cannot cross until we carry each other,
    all of us refugees, all of us prophets.
    No more taking turns on history’s wheel,
    trying to collect old debts no-one can pay.
    The sea will not open that way. 

    This time that country
    is what we promise each other,
    our rage pressed cheek to cheek
    until tears flood the space between,
    until there are no enemies left,
    because this time no one will be left to drown
    and all of us must be chosen. 
    This time it’s all of us or none. 

    “Red Sea” first appeared in Rimonim: Ritual Poetry of Jewish Liberation by Aurora Levins Morales, Copyright © November 2024. Published with permission of Ayin Press and Anderson Literary Management LLC

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  • Village Farms Contaminant Risks

    [This Op-ed article was originally published in the Davis Enterprise on March 22nd in response to February 18th Davisite and Davis Vanguard articles in which Alan Pryor asserted that valid concerns related to contaminants associated with the proposed Village Farms Davis project, are “myths”.  This is a slightly modified version of that article.]

    This map from the Draft Environmental Impact Report, which was not included in the Davis Enterprise Op-ed article, shows Village Farms proposed drainage and housing adjacent the Old Davis Landfill/Burn Dump and Sewage Treatment Plant and monitoring well locations. The liner discussed in the Davis Enterprise op-ed article and the Partial Draft Response to EIR Comments does not appear in the Development Agreement or Baseline Project Features. 

    By Steven Deverel, Marjorie Longo, and Robert Okamoto

    There was a recent attempt to dismiss contaminant risks related to the proposed Village Farms project in north Davis. We herein summarize data and potential risks related to contamination from the adjacent Old Davis Landfill, Burn Area, and Wastewater Treatment Plant.

    First, it was posited that contamination from the landfill has dissipated, per and poly fluoralkaline substances (PFAS) are not a health issue and that Village Farms Davis will not be built on the landfill.

    Response

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  • Who will really pay for the Affordable housing at Village Farms?

    By Matt Williams

    I learned something very interesting in the last few days that gave me an incredible sense of “Here we go again!” Specifically, where is the $6 million Affordable Housing contribution coming from?

    Alan Pryor has said on the Vanguard that the $6 million is coming from the developer, but is it? Or is it actually going to be coming from the taxpayers?

    The history of the Cannery tells us that there is a very good chance that the taxpayers will end up footing the bill for the $6 million. But because Village Farms is so sketchily defined/described, there is no way to know.

    Cannery was much better and more completely described/defined, but one year after the documents had all been signed, they came back to the City saying they “needed” $12 million more cash. City Council negotiated the $12 million down to $8 million … and then imposed a 30-year Mello-Roos Tax on the Cannery residents, with the taxpayer total payments of which amounting to more than $21 million taken out of those taxpayers’ pockets.

    There is nothing in the Baseline Features or the Development Agreement for Village Farms that tells Davis voters whether there will be a Mello-Roos levy (often called a CFD), and/or how large the Mello-Roos levy will be.

    To add insult to injury at The Cannery, the City Council never asked the developer what value the City would be getting back in exchange for the $12 million being asked for, or the $8 million eventually given. Unfortunately, the City got zero dollars of value in that Cannery situation.

    We have no way of knowing what might happen in the case over Village Farms. This is just one more way this project is not ready for prime time, and the only logical vote on Measure V is “No.”

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  • An exchange over misleading Village Farms promises about affordable housing

    Greenwald concedes Village Farms could result in little or no affordable housing being built

    By Roberta Millstein

    I want to let readers know about some followups to my two previous posts about the toothless promises concerning Affordable Housing and affordable-by-design housing in Village Farms, which we will vote on in June as Measure V. One is that I meshed the two articles into one, did some more editing, and submitted the new article to the Davis Enterprise, where it appears, here. Now the analysis of affordable housing in Village Farms, which rests in large part on understanding the difference between Baseline Features and Development Agreements — and which “promises” appear where — is all in one place.

    The second thing I want to highlight is a response of sorts to my DE article from the Davis Vanguard, here. What I find interesting about this response is that at each point David Greenwald actually agrees with what I say about the promises of affordable housing. Indeed, there really is no other interpretation — it’s in black and white that the affordable housing is so flexible that the project could end up with little or no affordable housing at all. And he agrees that our city councils have a history of giving in to developers. Quoting from Greenwald’s article (my emphasis added):

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  • Picnic in the Park Returns to Davis Farmers Market April 1

    Beloved Wednesday evening tradition brings food, music, and community back to Central Park

    (From press release) The Davis Farmers Market is excited to announce the return of its popular Picnic in the Park season beginning Wednesday, April 1, 2026, and continuing every Wednesday through August 2026 in Central Park (Davis).

    During Picnic in the Park season, the Wednesday market expands from 3-6 p.m. to 4-8p.m. and features a variety of prepared food vendors, farm-fresh produce, and artisan goods, making it easy for visitors to build a delicious picnic dinner straight from the market. Guests can also enjoy local craft beer from rotating breweries, wine from local wineries, and, brand new to the market, we will also have mead available, offering a taste of the region’s vibrant food and beverage scene.

    Each week also includes live music performances and children’s activities, creating a festive atmosphere that has made Picnic in the Park one of Davis’s most cherished community traditions. Families, friends, and neighbors are invited to bring blankets, relax on the grass, and enjoy an evening in the park.

    Celebrating 50 Years of the Davis Farmers Market:

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