Havin’ a say in your ‘hood
by Jon Li
Snap. Snap. So you’re mad at city hall, and you want to do something about it. Snap. Snap.
So how are things going where you live ? In your neighborhood ? OK ? Is traffic safe ? Do kids have easy access to schools and parks ? Are you satisfied with your representation down at city hall ? Many people are not, so they are pro-actively working to defend and improve their neighborhoods.
Some time ago, Davis became large enough that we shifted from being a town to being a city. The differences are subtle and gross: old timers seeing mostly strangers downtown, at Farmers Market, at the Post Office; and the high school grows enough that we have to start talking about a second high school and a real rivalry. Technically, the Federal Government defines a city or urban area as a “standard metropolitan statistical area” which is a population center of at least 50,000 people. We passed that in 1989.
Growth in Davis over the past decade has added a whole new concentric circle of housing with Northstar and Wildhorse to the north, Mace Ranch to the east, half of south Davis, and Aspen and Evergreen to the west. These folks have bought into the Davis version of quality of life, and they are already paying higher taxes. Southwest and east need schools. Their parks have been promised for years. South and east have been perpetually neglected over the past two decades, and many residents are exasperated with decisions by the city council.
The anti-growth city council’s infatuation with out-of-town developer Paul Petrovich has created several city agreements at the expense of South Davis residents who now must not only live with his developments but will end up paying him for the right to shop in his development’s stores because they are the least inconvenient.
According to some of the project’s neighbors, “this developer promised Oakshade a public room in the Towne Center, and it hasn’t been built. He misrepresented past stages of the Oakshade project. He grossly over-stated his efforts to inform and work with neighborhoods. This developer has no ties to our local community. Why trust this developer who has repeatedly been unable to predict what is a feasible project ? Wasn’t this both-sides-of-the-street mall his goal all along ?”
What should the City of Davis do ? Well, the council approved a shopping center for that tiny corner lot next to the school. It will pack even more traffic into an already over-impacted intersection in poorly planned South Davis. (Mike Corbett’s Contribution to Modern Art.)
The council should rescind their approval of any commercial use on the site, and order the developer to build a community meeting center on that parcel, which will be designed by a committee elected by South Davis residents. The developer is already going to make millions on the residents of South Davis and he should reinvest some of it in improving the area and its ability to wrestle with its future. The developer should be required to provide annual operating revenue of no less than $250,000 a year to the committee for staff, and for: evaluating the South Davis Land Use plan, creating a South Davis Community plan, organizing a monthly South Davis issues forum, providing for a monthly social event (block party, recreational sport day at Playfields, dance at the firehouse, three-legged race day, Sunday afternoon party at the Palms), and publishing a weekly South Davis newsletter.
There are several groups in South Davis in various stages of organization. A network is being coordinated by Heather Caswell, 758-6358, Lois Richter, 758-5058 and Bob Beverlin, 753-6805. They have on-going email, and a phone tree. They initially operated in a crisis mode in reaction to the latest addition to the mall, but they are settling into a routinized organization.
The reactive city council, in an effort to appease the South Davis activists, has ordered a city sponsored survey of the neighbors around the mall. The South Davis activists are distributing a sophisticated flyer laying out the issues, the history, and the concerns about the city council. They hope that the information will encourage the South Davis residents near the mall to respond to the city’s survey, and force the city council to make the developer provide western South Davis with the promised community meeting place and the where-with-all to provide real community programming. And the city council should find a more suitable location for Ross.
If they don’t, the only alternative for South Davis is to secede and make its own decisions.
So what about your neck of the woods ? Traffic problems ? Noise ? Is there some obvious change that would make life better ? Would you like to have some say in your neighborhood ?
The most important response to the transition from a town to a city is that it is no longer physically possible for most people to be familiar with all of their own area, let alone the entire municipality. Coping with talking about citywide issues becomes more manageable when the city is divided into distinct areas. In terms of economic policy, I view the city as having separate sectors: northwest, southwest, southeast, core, Stonegate, University Mall, Davis Manor, Oak Tree, Mace Retail and Mace Industrial.
But socially and politically, the divisions are much more organic. Recently, City Manager John Meyer took the pro-active step of establishing the city position of Community Partnership Coordinator in the Parks and Community Services Department. The job has been designed around the unique talents of Anne Brunette, whose 15 years experience with the city gives her the knowledge of city personnel and resources to answer just about any citizen question. But it is Brunette’s attitude that is the reason she is such a good fit for this job. She assumes that citizens can get their needs addressed by working with city hall. Sometimes she bangs heads with city bureaucrats. Next to the city manager, she is the best person in the city to talk with if you have an idea. The problem is that you still have to do the work to make the idea happen. She can give you the best information on what steps to take, but the progress rests on your efforts.
The main purpose of the Community Partnership Coordinator is to help organize neighborhoods all over Davis. Several already exist, with regular meetings and ongoing email. The city defines a neighborhood association as a group of area residents working together to open lines of communication and work together in an inclusive and collaborative manner to address issues affecting their neighborhood.
Here are the city’s ground rules to start a group in your neighborhood: have defined geographic boundaries, have a minimum of 100 developed parcels, meet at least once a year, all affected residents must be notified of neighborhood meetings, dues are not mandatory, membership must be open to all residents of a neighborhood and have at least one official elected by a minimum of 20 residents.
This city council is stumbling around so much that they are forcing some communities like South Davis to organize. We are beginning to establish a community based network as a substrata of our political culture. To find out more about how you can have some say in your neighborhood, call Anne Brunette at 757-5626.
Jon Li was a member of the City of Davis Governance Committee which invented the Community Partnership Coordinator position in dialogue with the City Manager. Jon can be reached at jli@yolo.com.
