I am writing in support of Colin Walsh. I’ve known Colin for many years. Here I’d like to describe the Campaign to save Russell Fields to highlight the talents he’d bring to the Council. Thought the first part of a larger West Village campus project had been built, in 2016 UC Davis proposed a comparably smaller amount of housing on Intramural Toomey, Howard and Russell playing fields between A St and California Ave - a recreation area for the whole student body.

Many in the Davis community, including student athletes and campus members, reacted strongly to having this beautiful open green space – lost. Anyone driving, biking or walking by could see these fields were used and enjoyed by all for recreation, and in high-spirited competitions, tournaments, intramural sports meets, and Special Olympics. 

The success of this campaign, of which I was a member, was due in great part to the spirit of collaboration that Colin brought to it. He collaborated with students and campus members, the community-initiated Friends of Russell Fields, and successfully worked with campus administrators and planners and the City Council to save the fields and relocate the proposed housing - a win-win for us all.  In particular, Colin’s networking with students from many different intramural teams and with community members helped them organize in order to amplify their voices to save the fields. Colin is a true team player.

This personal experience tells me that Colin will bring this same spirit of inclusive collaboration and problem solving to the City Council.  Please join me in voting for Colin Walsh.

Nancy Price

Join the League of Women Voters Davis Area and Davis Media Access for a Zoom forum from 3 to 4:30 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 27 for five candidates vying for three spots on the Davis Joint Unified School District Board of Education.

Zoom forums will also be held on Sunday, Oct. 4 for the nine candidates vying for three seats on the Davis City Council. The District 2 forum will be at 1 p.m., followed by District 3 at 3 p.m. and District 5 at 5 p.m.

This is the first time candidates will compete to represent specific city council districts and school board areas, which are different.

Larry Guenther cares deeply about the Davis community.

He is a people-person, which means his focus is on all of us who live here in Davis. He wants to build a strong Davis community that exists to support and strengthen all of us—regardless of age, gender, race, ability, or wealth.

If you believe in—and want—a strong Davis community, vote Larry for City Council (District 3).

Jordy Margid

Larry Guenther has some frustrations with Davis, but mostly, he has positivity.

He brings hope for a better future to Davis. But not just hope alone—hope teamed with ability and passion for making hope come to fruition.

He brings hope for more effective and people-oriented development projects. Hope for more advanced tech for all Davis. Hope for more effective, earth-focused solutions to our energy and waste needs. Hope for improved fiscal responsibility to better serve all Davis.

If you share these hopes, vote Larry Guenther for City Council (District 3).

Catherine Rudiger

(From press release) Greenbelt Chat with Colin Walsh on Thursday morning, Sept. 24, 7:30 am to 9:30 am!

Please come meet Colin Walsh, candidate for Davis City Council, District 2. Neighbors are invited to drop by the Greenbelt near the sculpture of the dog on the tricycle. Feel free to ask questions and share your concerns.

Literature and hand sanitizer will be available. Physical distancing and masks required.

Vote for Larry Guenther for City Council. The Council needs more voices committed to more transparency and procedural reform. Larry Guenther is committed to being that kind of voice. The City needs a healthy balance of the "expert" recommendations of staff and the considerable real subject matter expertise of the community and its Citizen Commissions.  

The Cannery project, with its litany of developer miscalculations and repeated applications for reconsideration of their ever-changing plan, is a text book example of failure in transparency and procedure. Cannery is just one example of a continued pattern of failure that is a huge problem for the city and its residents. All across the city we have been saddled with  months-long traffic problems and extra expenses without meeting our need for low income housing.

We need a city that does not regard the General Plan as an invitation to developers to come in with a half-baked request for an exception. The City Council needs to represent its electorate. There is a long history of the City Council's development decisions that documents its failure to do so. This goes all the way back to the saving of Central Park and the great Farmers' Market we now have there. If the City Council had had its way in 1986, we would have a three-tiered shopping mall, with incalculable damage to downtown business, crawling traffic and more climate carbon footprint.

We really have to get past the "business as usual" mentality, and Guenther will help us do that.

Don Price

(From press release) Lea Darrah, an advocate for children for more than 20 years, will be representing the Davis School Board as Trustee for Area 2. Under recently adopted policy, the Davis Joint Unified School Board election process established five trustee areas. As Darrah was the only person to file for candidacy in Area 2, she will be appointed to the office and her name will not appear on the Nov. 3 ballot, per CA Elections code 10515.

Darrah's term as the Area 2 representative is scheduled to begin in December. The district's Area 2 map consists of some neighborhoods in north to east Davis. But, as part of the full board, she represents all students in the DJUSD.

Join the League of Women Voters Davis Area and Davis Media Access for a Zoom forum from 3 to 4:30 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 27 for five candidates vying for three spots on the Davis Joint Unified School District Board of Education.

Zoom forums will also be held on Sunday, Oct. 4 for the nine candidates vying for three seats on the Davis City Council. The District 2 forum will be at 1 p.m., followed by District 3 at 3 p.m. and District 5 at 5 p.m.

This is the first time candidates will compete to represent specific city council districts and school board areas, which are different.

The Yolo Committee for Diverse and Inclusive Elections (YCDIE) will be hosting two virtual candidate forums on Saturday, September 12th. The first will run from 10 am to 12 pm and is for candidates running for the Davis Joint Unified School District and Los Rios Community College District boards. The second forum will run from 2 pm to 4 pm and is for candidates running for Davis City Council and the Yolo County Board of Supervisors (4th District).

The purpose of these candidate forums is to allow the voters of Davis to learn more about the candidates running for various local offices in the November election. The forums will focus on issues of equity, inclusion, social justice, and race as they pertain to local issues.

Both forums are free to the public, but attendees must pre-register using the links below. Questions about the forums can be directed to ycdiedavis@gmail.com.

Colin Walsh, a candidate for Davis City Council 2020 District 2, is hosting a Zoom Town Hall on Wednesday, September 9 at 7 p.m. Members of the community are invited to this opportunity to get to know Colin and share your thoughts on Davis. Details at Walsh4Davis.com.

Citing grounds of “excessive traffic, greenhouse gas emissions, and poor land-use and planning”, the Sierra Club announces its opposition to Measure B in Davis CA on the November 2020 municipal ballot.

Measure B is a vote to allow the annexation of approximately 200-acres of Prime farmland on the northeast periphery of the City and the development of a business park along with a 850-unit housing development. The project site is now farmed and serves as foraging habitat for numerous Special Status Species including Burrowing Owls, Swainson’s Hawks, and White-Tailed Kites.

The endorsement of the opposition to this ballot measure follows an extensive evaluation process by the local Sierra Club Yolano Group, the Sierra Club Mother Lode Chapter Political and Executive Committees, and the Sierra Club California Local Measure Review Committee.

The Sierra Club has long-standing official policies designed to minimize urban sprawl onto farmland and habitat and maximize intensive infill development. These include planning policies that further conservation of open space and preservation of natural areas and agricultural lands. The Sierra Club opposes sprawl as a pattern of increasingly inefficient and wasteful land use with devastating environmental and social outcomes.

The Walsh for Davis City Council  campaign announces a Green Belt Chat with Colin Walsh on Thursday morning, Sept. 3, 7:30 am to 9:30 am! Please come meet Colin Walsh, candidate for Davis City Council, District 2. Neighbors are invited to drop by the Greenbelt near the picnic tables and play structure, where Eagle meets the Greenbelt. Feel free to ask questions and share your concerns.

Literature and hand sanitizer will be available. Physical distancing and masks required.

An upcoming Zoom forum will allow Davis voters to meet and greet the four District 5 City Council Candidates — Rochelle Swanson, Josh Chapman, Kelsey Fortune and Connor Gorman.

This virtual forum will meet from 2 to 3 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 30, and will allow time for two questions per candidate. The questions will be the same for each candidate and must be answered in 3 minutes or less:

• Please tell us about yourself and why you’re running for City Council?
• What are the three most important city council issues/topics to you and why?

Large commercial property owners are avoiding billions of dollars per year through a tax loophole created by Proposition 13.

Since the start of the pandemic, California's 165 billionaires have seen their wealth increase by $175 billion. None of that wealth has translated to lower prices for consumers and everyday people.

It's time for the people to take back what is theirs.

Join Sac, Yolo, and UC Davis Democratic Socialists of American this Saturday, August 29, at 2pm to call CA voters to say YES on Prop 15, Schools and Communities First: tinyurl.com/prop15phone-bank

Colin Walsh, a candidate for Davis City Council 2020 District 2, is hosting a Zoom Town Hall on Saturday, August 29 at noon. Members of the community are invited to this opportunity to get to know Colin and share your thoughts on Davis. Details at Walsh4Davis.com.

Community input to the Council majority of Partida, Lee and Carson is needed now

By Eileen M. Samitz

Many thanks to the Davis religious leaders for the excellent article published August 22 in the Davisite.

This incredible and sincere outreach by so many local religious leaders to the City Council majority is impressive and their recommended action is so needed to be taken by Council majority now.  So everyone’s input to the Council is needed now, to support the recommendation to reconsider approval of the University Commons project, before this Tuesday’s August 25^th meeting when the Council is scheduled to finalize approval of the project.

The Davis religious leaders group recommendation for the Council majority is to “take a pause and reconsider their approval votes” and to reject it. This terrible project does not offer any housing that is affordable. So, urging the Council to reconsider its approval is clearly the right thing to do for the sake of the UCD students, as well as the rest of the community needing housing that is affordable. The University Commons “affordable units” are affordable in name only, and it is an insult to even classify them as “affordable” with the rental prices they are projecting.

How Did We Get District Elections?

By Larry Guenther

In 2019, the City of Davis was threatened with a lawsuit under the California Voting Rights Act (CVRA) by attorney and former Yolo County Supervisor Matt Rexroad. The letter stated that if the City of Davis did not institute district elections, Mr. Rexroad would file suit on behalf of anonymous clients. The legal timeline for forming districts (90 days) did not allow the City to complete the process for the primary election in March of 2020. The City proposed to Mr. Rexroad that they would complete the process by the 2022 election. "Not good enough," said Mr. Rexroad. He pointed out that if the City moved its Council election to the November General election, there was plenty of time to complete the process. The City Council decided to change the City Council election to the November general election and change to District Elections.

The City Council also chose to stay with a 5-member council and created the map below. This November's election will be for representatives from districts 2, 3, and 5.

Faith leaders speak out

At the Davis City Council Meeting on Tuesday, August 18, a 3-2 vote approved the University Commons Proposal. We, the undersigned faith leaders, express our disappointment at this decision. While we are encouraged by Brixmor's increase from 0% to 5% affordable housing at the 80% median income for Yolo County, we also contend that this is not enough.

While the specific decision regarding the University Commons is the spark to this conversation, the housing crisis in Davis and across our state does not begin and end with this decision.

As faith leaders in the Davis community, we have the opportunity to engage with individuals from many walks of life, ministering with people of diverse economic, racial, generational, and educational backgrounds.