(From press release) As the COVID-19 pandemic ramps up in the Yolo County region, many of us are wrestling with the hardship of confinement and with other, more tangible, constraints. That’s precisely why it’s more important than ever to be our best selves during these times.

Businesses have closed, countless workers have been laid off, and everyone has been asked to shelter in place. Many who have lost their jobs may not be able to pay rent or buy food for their families.

The Yolo Food Bank — always an important resource in our communities — steps in during these times to provide food for those in need. Food Bank representatives say the number of requests for help is on the rise and is expected to increase dramatically in the coming weeks.

Valley Clean Energy, which is focused on the health and well-being of the communities it serves, has donated $2,500 to the Yolo Food Bank in the hope that others might also contribute during this pandemic.

(From press release) No one expected to see days quite like this. And for some of us, it’s beginning to feel as though we’ll have a tough time keeping our heads above water as our economies and paychecks adjust to this pandemic.

That’s why Valley Clean Energy representatives want to be sure that local residents are aware of the discounted electricity programs PG&E offers to income-qualified customers, even those who are Valley Clean Energy customers.

For example, the Family Electric Rate Assistance (FERA) discount from PG&E is open to all eligible customers of VCE. Those who qualify to enroll in the FERA program could end up paying much less to stay warm through a chilly spring and cool this summer.

(From press release) As Yolo County residents join others throughout California in sheltering in place, Valley Clean Energy (VCE) is working to assure that customers receive a safe, reliable electricity supply throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Electricity has truly become the lifeblood of our lives as we self-isolate in our homes,” said Don Saylor, a Yolo County supervisor who chairs the VCE board of directors. “The cleaner electricity we buy for you will remain unchanged during this time.

“We want to assure our customers that the Valley Clean Energy team is working to ensure that lights will stay on; computers, phones and data centers will be powered; food and medicine will be refrigerated; and homes and water will be heated.”

...thoughts from home quarantine

By Christy Corp-Minamiji

I had to take a Facebook break for a few days. My rage meter was spiking equally at the “It’s no big deal; I’m going to do all my usual shit” posts and the “PEOPLE ARE IN THE PARK!! HOW DO I REPORT THEM?!?” posts.

We all know this, but weird stuff happens when we are afraid. We dig in deep, often to the positions that most fuel our guilt, shame, and anger.

I get it. I’m a stubborn perfectionist. You ain’t seen digging in until I’m on a rant or feeling betrayed.

But, here’s the thing. Nature (aka a virus, let’s call it SARS CoV-2) really doesn’t care about our thoughts, emotions, or opinions. It doesn’t give a shit about politics or the economy. It doesn’t care about graduations or weddings. It doesn’t really even care about toilet paper. It just wants some cells to attach and replicate. Human cells.

I spent 15 years of my career thinking about diseases in populations — first in vaccine research then in livestock medicine. And the one truth about population medicine is that the comfort of individuals is irrelevant in the face of disease.

We’re well beyond individual needs and comfort now. Ask Italy. Ask Spain where an ice rink has become a morgue.

And yes, that means I’m saying all the things you’ve been hearing about social distance, isolation, flattening the curve, etc.

It also means I’m saying, hold back when you want to lash out, when you want to shame someone for doing it wrong. I get that urge. It’s an individual comfort thing. It’s the desire for control when faced with something over which we have little control.

But, as Brené Brown says, you can’t shame people into changing their behavior. Only solid info and compassion are going to get us to a place of looking beyond our own fears to the health of the population.

Things are going to happen over which you have no control. You’re going to feel guilty, angry, terrified, even hateful.

I get it. I like to think I was ahead of the crowd in social distancing and caution. My kids certainly thought so — yeah, guys, I know I’m a pain. But, here I am, officially on home quarantine with a cough and chest congestion. No fever yet. Could be allergies, could be “just a cold,” could be COVID19. There’s no way right now to know since I am privileged not to be a high risk patient.

When the cough started, I felt deeply ashamed. What had I done wrong? Was I a hypocrite? I’d been going on for days about flattening the curve, and here I am, sick. Finally, yesterday, I remembered.

The virus doesn’t care. No virus cares. The pollens don’t care either. And my lungs have absolutely no opinion on how good a person I am.

So, it’s uncomfortable, even for an introvert, not knowing when I’ll be 72 hours symptom free, not knowing when I get to go for walks again, not knowing how long until my kids can come back. But, my comfort matters way less than the population. So, I’ll sit here and sip my tea, and pour myself a cup of compassion.

Interview with Matt Wieland

By Colin Walsh Photos by Matt Wieland and Iggie Walsh

Q: How long have you been skateboarding?

Matt:  I started skateboarding seriously in 1985. Bought my first board from Pet Cetera in downtown Davis.  Pet Cetera was a pet store that sold bikes and skateboards on the side.  At that time, Davis had several places to buy skateboards and equipment.  There was The Davis Sport Shop, Mountain Sports, Pet Cetera, and Brett For Sports over on Covell.

My first board was a Sims Blaster. Our favorite spot to skate was Whaleback Park because it had a circle embankment. It was our neighborhood skatepark and still kind of is.  The skate location there hasn't been taken of by the city. The wood is falling off the roof overhang and the cement is cracked and uneven.

Every time we ask city workers to move the picnic table that’s been chained in the middle of it they tell us that we have a skatepark we should be skating at.  That's the ignorance of people who just don't know what's up.  Skateboarding is a way of life.  The skateboard itself can be seen as a tool or example of how to progress with other things in life. How do you fight your fear? Do you face it?

What is UCD doing to support students with COVID-19 ?

By Eileen M. Samitz

On March 27^th, Chancellor May sent out a press release which is important for the Davis community to be aware of in case they have not seen it. The link to the entire article is at:

https://www.ucdavis.edu/coronavirus/news/checking-in-with-chancellor-may-we-are-resilient

The most relevant information in this article by UCD Chancellor May is the following section:

“Before I bring you this week’s updates, I must share that we have learned that a member of our faculty has been confirmed as positive for COVID-19. They were traveling in Europe and developed symptoms March 19 after they returned. They have been at home since returning to the U.S. and have not been on campus since March 5. For privacy reasons, we cannot release personally identifying information, but the faculty member has informed their departmental colleagues of the diagnosis and is currently self-isolating at home.

Earlier this week, in Dateline, we reported that a UC Davis student had tested positive for the coronavirus after returning home from a UC Education Abroad Program in Spain. They had been studying abroad since summer last year apart from a brief visit to campus in early January. The student is currently self-isolating at home.”

Since important and time sensitive details are not included in this press release by the Chancellor, I have sent him the following letter and asked for a response to these relevant questions.

Meanwhile our Major Arterial Roadways Deteriorate into 3rd-World Condition

by Alan Pryor

The following email was sent to the Davis City Council prior to last Tuesday's Council tele-meeting requesting that SB1 gas tax monies be only spent on main arterial roadway repairs in Davis because budgetary shortfalls will probably eliminate other needed roadway repairs of these critical main roadways and streets in Davis. The email was in response to a posted Consent Calendar item in which Council was asked by Staff to approve sending their proposed "wish-list"of neighborhood streets to be repaired in FY 2020-21 to the state as a pre-condition to receiving $1.3 million in SB1 gas tax monies for such repairs.

The list of streets to be repaired was prepared solely by the City  's Public Works Department and not ever vetted by the Bicycle, Transportation, and Street Safety Commission (BT&SSC) nor by the Finance and Budget Commission (F&BC) nor was there any indication in Staff's Report that these streets selected were in any worse state of disrepair than other neighborhood streets or major arterial roadways in town. It was simply a wish-list put together by Staff and there was no way of knowing if there was any quantitative basis for their selections.

Further, since the list to be sent to the State was not due until May 1, there was ample time for the consideration of the list of selected streets for repair by the appropriate Commissions prior to the submission deadline.

By Colin Walsh and Roberta Millstein

The Davis Enterprise recently published an “Our View” editorial column arguing that newspapers play an essential role during this COVID-19 emergency.  They encouraged people to write to reporters you appreciate and thank them.  We decided we should take action too.

We agree that the Davis Enterprise plays an essential role in our community now, and for many, years in the past as well (it is our community’s oldest business, founded in 1897).  But it needs our support to continue to do so in the future.  In this article, we make the case for why you should subscribe to the Davis Enterprise  if you are not already. Details are at the end of the article.

Davis’s first attempt at online democracy has significant, “Kinks”

By Colin Walsh

Last night’s City Council was a hot mess. For the first time the council attempted to hold an interactive online meeting using the Zoom video conference platform, but the meeting was attended by several Zoomers intent on disrupting the meeting. Mayor Brett Lee repeatedly referred to the difficulties faced by the Council and the staff as “kinks,” which may have been more on point than he realized.

Meeting attendees included the profane “Haywood Jablomi,” “aids,” and “Test Test” to name a few of the obvious fake names trolls chose while disrupting the City Council meeting.

The New York Times reported about this rising phenomenon on March 20^th, stating that as Zoom’s “user base rapidly expands, the video conference app Zoom is seeing a rise in trolling and graphic content.” The Times noted that trolls “are jumping into public Zoom calls and using the platform’s screen-sharing feature to project graphic content on unwitting conference participants, forcing hosts to shut down their events.”

In Davis last night, this feature was used to project hard-core pornography on the shared screen in the middle of the council meeting and an annotation feature was used to repeatedly scrawl racist messages, including the n-word, on the shared screen. In one case, an offensive picture of former President Obama was displayed.  There is no doubt that these words and images made many members of the community feel threatened and unwelcome.

Over $200,000 each for Kitchen Remodels During these Disastrous Times? - You Have Got to be Kidding Me !!!

By Alan Pryor

Davis and the entire world are in the midst of an economic meltdown for which nobody has a clue when it will end. Locally, Davis will be hardest hit by the huge loss of the transient occupancy tax (TOT) collected by our now near empty hotels and motels and the plummeting sales tax caused by the collapse of retail and auto sales. This will cost the City many millions in lost tax revenue just as the City's revenue needs will likely surge due to humanitarian costs.

Yet in the midst of this obvious economic calamity and according to a Consent Calendar item on this coming Tuesday's Council meeting agenda, Staff is asking Council for approval to spend another $43,000 on local architects Indigo | Hammond + Playle Architects (Indigo Hammond) for design/engineering of heating, ventilation, and cooling (HVAC) system upgrades and disability access improvements as part of the planned complete remodels of two kitchens in Fire Stations 31 and 32 in Davis. The two kitchen remodels are expected to cost over $422,000 for the remodels and this may not even include the additional costs for HVAC system upgrades and disability access improvements at one of the fire stations.

But get this, the kitchens are reportedly working fine right now!

If true, this is a foolhardy discretionary spending decision that the City is considering in light of the public health and economic perils we currently face. And this is from a City management that promised us that they were laser-focused on cost-containment when they asked us to renew the existing 1% sales tax on the recent March ballot less than 3 weeks ago.

Let me explain.

Outdoor exercise, care for the children and elderly, and more

By Roberta Millstein

Last night at around 10:30 PM, the Office of the Governor of California tweeted that there was new information available for the Governor’s Stay-at-home rule.  You can find those online at: https://covid19.ca.gov/stay-home-except-for-essential-needs/

For example, many people had wondered whether they could still go outside for exercise.  The webpage clarifies that:

Schools to stay closed indefinitely

By Colin Walsh

On March 20, 2020 the Davis School District announced that they, "expect DJUSD schools to remain closed after Spring Break and for an undetermined amount of time." You can find the announcement here.

The District is working to address the ongoing education at a time when kids can not physically attend school.  they are "focused on the development of an equitable, accessible, and innovative solution to serve all of our students’ academic growth and social-emotional needs through a Distance Learning model."

The District announced, "the launch of our first Phase One of continued learning with a new Learning@Home website for students and families with links to educational websites and our core curriculum that can be accessed voluntarily. These resources are not designed to replace or replicate classroom instruction; they were compiled to build a habit for learning at home, keep students engaged and curious in learning, and provide DJUSD with time to design a thoughtful Distance Learning plan for all District teachers and students, which will launch on April 13, 2020." 

The district is also making efforts to provide computers and internet connection to students who do not have access at home. "If you have a computer that your child can use at home, please provide that access. Our Instructional Technology team has a plan in place to provide Chromebooks and Internet Access to students who lack these resources." 

The District is providing 3 options for students that do not have computers:

Option #1

Fill out the Chromebook Loaner Request Form. Within 24 hours a DJUSD representative will contact you or you can pick up your Chromebook between March 23-27. See pick up locations and hours below. 

Option #2

Call the DJUSD Instructional Technology Department at (530) 757-5300 x117. Leave a voicemail with your full name, student's full name, and a contact phone number or email. Within 24 hours a DJUSD representative will contact you or you can pick up your Chromebook between March 23-27. See pick up locations and hours below. 

Option #3

Show up to the pick up location during the hours below, fill out our Chromebook information and agreement form and be on your way. Please bring your child’s DJUSD Student ID #.

Pick up locations will be at Harper, Montgomery and Patwin. more details can be found here.

The District is also making arrangements for students who do not have at home internet access. They request families of students in need of internet access call, "DJUSD’s Instructional Technology Department at (530) 757-5300 x117 and leave a voicemail with your name and contact information. A DJUSD representative will contact you within 24 hours." 

The District also urges anyone who knows of a student that needs a computer or internet access to also call and inform the district. 

DJUSD will als be providing tech support for DJUSD Chromebooks, just call  Instructional Technology Department at (530) 757-5300 x117.

The District announcement includes no information for specialized instruction for students with Individualized Education Plans (IEP) but does promise that, "DJUSD is committed to providing appropriate resources and strategies focused on making distance learning both engaging and accessible for all English Learners and students with disabilities. Our teachers will receive professional development on designing distance learning and instruction with all learners’ needs in mind (Universal Design for Learning)."

(From press release) The sixth annual Davis Pride Festival, originally scheduled for Sunday, May 17, is postponed. For a new date, organizers are considering a Sunday in September or October.

The decision to delay the event is prompted by public health officials’ guidance on preventing spread of the novel coronavirus. The move follows steps recommended to organizers of large public gatherings to ensure the health of the larger community.

By Don Saylor

(From press release) Valley Clean Energy (VCE) is our local community choice energy program serving electricity customers in the communities of Woodland, Davis and unincorporated Yolo County. The purpose of VCE is to provide customers with higher levels of renewable electricity, encourage energy efficiency and local generation, and offer rates that are competitive with PG&E, the region’s investor-owned electricity provider.

Decisions on rates, energy resources, programs and finances are made locally, in public, by a local board composed of people elected by the residents of our communities.

Most electricity customers in our area have been receiving their electricity from VCE since June 2018. Their monthly bills display VCE’s electric generation charges and PG&E’s electricity delivery charges.

Based on changes to state regulations, the VCE board decided to delay until 2020 the enrollment of solar customers who had installed solar panels on their homes or businesses before we launched in June 2018. In 2020, these energy-conservation pioneers will begin receiving their electric power from our local agency.

Being a bit of an information addict, I subscribe to several newspapers/journals and read lots others in the library or online.  One paper I do subscribe to is the Washington Post which has added quite a few reporters in the last couple of years.  They do a particularly good job of following health and public health issues.

So, I read this article which came out about 4 p.m. (Pacific Time) yesterday about the national CV death toll .........with some great interest:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/us-coronavirus-death-toll-reaches-100/2020/03/17/f8d770c2-67a8-11ea-b313-df458622c2cc_story.html

The Washington Post folks do a daily count which they keep updated and just sent me an email answer to this question:  "Have there been any confirmed deaths of CHILDREN from CV?"

Their answer:  NO.

So, no deaths to children.... which further reinforces the likelihood that they are "the perfect transmitters"...... they get the bug, they carry the bug, they feel no symptoms or few, they don't die from it and therefore are fully available to then transmit the bug.... increasingly to their grandparents and other caregivers who are taking care of them now that school is out.

Dispersing them from school, especially in the absence of test data, may have been a less than optimal choice (being nice here).  

Again, these are challenging times especially with the lack of testing data and I am confident everyone is acting with the best interest of the kids and families in mind.  

It is just my opinion that maybe that decision should be re-visited.....

John Troidl

But Wednesday and Saturday Farmers Market will continue

(From Press release) The Davis Farmers Market announced Monday it will delay the start of Picnic in the Park until at least May 13.

The decision to postpone the extended Wednesday evening hours is prompted by Gov. Gavin Newsom’s recommendation on Sunday to eliminate public gatherings of more than 50 people for a minimum of eight weeks, to prevent spread of the novel coronavirus. On Monday, President Trump said the same for gatherings of 10 or more.

So, we are ALL dealing (even those in denial) with the corona virus threat.  And I believe that everyone is trying to be as conscientious as possible in our decision making.  Which is a bit of a challenge given that we have so very, very, very little testing data to know "how big this thing is" and that includes we lack community level data regarding who has the virus.  

Even with the lack of large scale data which has been done in South Korea, we seem reasonably confident in some "knowns":

1.  The virus is contagious: "Currently, the R0 for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the disease COVID-19, is estimated at about 2.2, meaning a single infected person will infect about 2.2 others, on average.".  This means.... it is going to spread. (https://www.livescience.com/coronavirus-myths.html)
2. The people who are most vulnerable are seniors and especially seniors with pre-existing health conditions. (https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/us-coronavirus-death-toll-reaches-100/2020/03/17/f8d770c2-67a8-11ea-b313-df458622c2cc_story.html).  Others, such as children, may get the virus but are not being affected by the virus nearly as much.  
3. The reality is, most people who get the virus DO NOT SHOW SYMPTOMS.  At all.  And that goes for adults, seniors, and children.  This is a game changer.

So, work with me on this one.  If you think there is a flaw in my thinking, please bring it up.  (But do your homework and think rigorously, I have been working on this and run it past some very smart people who think I might have a good point here.).

If the most vulnerable are our seniors and the least harmed are our children.... and the children can be/are unwitting transmitters.... then when we look at the decision to suspend school we have two main options:

1. Keep the kids in school.  This is the "base case" or default position.
2. Send the kids home.  This is the "novel case" (named after the "novel virus").

It is also novel because I don't think that this situation.... send the kids home for a month has ever happened before.  No big deal if it has, I just don't recall it in 30+ years in Davis.

Ok, so it looks like the School District, at the urging of the Yolo County Public Health Department chose Option 2:  Send the kids home.  This seemed reasonable, the desire was to implement "social distancing" which would theoretically "flatten the case curve" which would delay, but not reduce, the incidence of illness.  

But theoretically is theoretically and we live in the real world, don't we?  

So, how does this work?  Let's examine a "theory of action" or take it step by step in the implementation phase.  

So, with essentially no warning or time for preparation, the parents are told "Take 'em, they're yours for the next month" and last Saturday received their children for the duration.... estimated to be one month or until April 12th.  How are the families going to manage this?

The families that I talked to are scrambling.  Some families have a stay at home parent (Mom or Dad) who can step up to have the kids full time (and don't think that this new situation is an easy adjustment or stress free).  In some families, both parents are working but they have a baby sitter for at least some of the time the kids will now be at home.  For some families, their kids are old enough and responsible enough to be left home alone (some estimates are that there are approximately two families in Davis that meet this criteria).  And for the rest of the families, the strategy is "call in the grandparents"!

Across the US almost 40% of grandparents already care for their grandchildren and the percentage is expected to go up during this corona virus crisis. (https://www.newsobserver.com/news/coronavirus/article241226456.html)

So, let me ask you.... and I'd love to be wrong..... did we just create the circumstances to give our seniors in this community the MAXIMUM exposure to the corona virus by dismissing the kids from school before any of them could be tested?  Instead of "flattening the curve" have we, by spreading out the kids into the community and in heightened contact with their grandparents, actually accelerated the curve?  

I am sure that all of you have seen the kids in Davis out and about... and of course spending more time at home.  Is the "law of unintended consequences" gonna come and bite us on the rear end as our elders, with this heightened exposure from the kids who have been sent home from school, come down with this disease in increasing numbers?

All thoughtful comments, reflections, and even rebuttals are welcome.  I'm just concerned and wanted to share that with you.

Regards,

John

Dear Davis City Council,

Thank you for considering declaring a local emergency.  I am fully in support of that.  I am writing to strongly urge that you add (something like) the following to the “Proclamation of a Local Emergency in Response to COVID-19”: 

“The City will not take action on any major development projects during the emergency, including but not limited to the Aggie Research Campus (ARC).”

My reasons are as follows:

Council asked to give broad and ill-defined powers to City Manager

By Colin Walsh

The City of Davis has announced a “special meeting” for tomorrow evening to address the COVID-19 virus and local situation. The agenda contains only 3 action items:

• A proclamation of local emergency
• Urgency Ordinance Adopting Emergency Regulations Related to Evictions
• Closed Session with the city attorney on a matter posing a threat to the public’s right of access to public services or public facilities

The proclamation of emergency grants considerable authority to the City Manager.

The City Manager or their designee is to be the head of the local emergency response and they will have latitude to purchase supplies as needed and to “to ensure the continued operations of essential city services, including but not limited to police, fire, water, streets and highways, wastewater, or solid waste services.”

“The City Manager is further authorized to take any necessary actions to approve plans and specifications; to award and execute construction contracts, amendments, and equipment purchase contracts where sufficient funds have already been budgeted in appropriate programs for these purposes or where appropriate funds can be identified; to approve subdivision improvements, final maps, and parcel maps; to accept modify, or quit claim easements; to apply for or accept grants, and to approve budget adjustments.”

This ordinance gives the City Manager latitude to address the potential looming COVID-19 health crisis, by giving the ability to approve emergency development without council approval, like a new hospital for example.

The language “to approve plans and specifications,” and “to approve subdivision improvements, final maps, and parcel maps; to accept modify, or quit claim easements,” also seems to give the City Manager the authority to advance new non-emergency development, like new apartment complexes, housing subdivisions, or business developments.

[edit 3/17/2020 12:15am] - much of the language cited in the paragraph above "The City Manager is further authorized... budget adjustments." is largely the same as resolutions the council passes when they take a summer recess, for example this one from the summer of 2018 and actually grants fairly limited power to the City manager as it relates to new development.

What is most notable here is instead this language, "In order to reduce the number of necessary public City Council meetings." The City Council will be considering whether or not to essentially take a recess or at least to meet less for an undefined period of time. Usually recess resolutions like this have a defined end date, but in the case of the emergency resolution, no end date is defined. Instead, the City Managers extra authorities only ends when the council votes to end the declaration of emergency.

Thank you to Council Member Frerichs for explaining some of this. [end edit]