The Davis Voice

New Cell Phone Law

Enter the Age of DWT's: Driving While Talking (on your cell phone)

Beginning tomorrow, July 1st, two new laws regarding driving a motor vehicle while talking on your cell phone will go into effect.  If you are under 18, then you may not use a cell phone at all while driving.  If you are 18+ years of age, you may use a wireless device (e.g. Bluetooth over-the-ear) while you are driving.

Fines are $20-$50 and ticketing is at the discretion of the officer.  And yes, an officer may pull you over simply for this infractions. 

For your downloading pleasure, find the FAQ sheet from the CHP.

Download cell_phone_faq.pdf

No word yet from my crack team of legal eagles, but I don't believe that there are any regulations prohibiting bicyclists from "Biking While Talking".  And once again, legislation is behind the times: looks like "Texting While Driving" is still very dangerous and very legal.

Climate Action Team Public Forum

Ladies & Gentlemen, the CAT is In the Building.

If you're worried about global climate change, your carbon footprint, peak oil, and/or sustainability issues, then tonight is the perfect opportunity for you to share your ideas, comments, and suggestions with a group that has been tasked to help reduce our community's carbon footprint.

City of Davis Climate Action Team Public Forum
TONIGHT, Thursday, June 26th 2008
6:30pm-7:00pm - Background Presentation
7:00pm-8:30pm - Open House: Drop-in format to share your ideas
Veterans Memorial Center MPR

Click here for our first post on the CAT.  After the jump, a little more information about tonight's proceedings.

This Weekend in the People's Republic

June in Davis is a magical time. It is a time of transition and of celebration. For some, it means graduation and the beginning of a life elsewhere...for others, it means incorporation into the Davis community. Whether you're departing, arriving or sticking around, discover your love for our idyllic town for the first time or all over again.

Summertime means less people. Take advantage of the barren streets and go for a bike ride, or read up on the events I think you'll love; they're after the jump. 

Google Street View Launched in Davis

Is that a GPS-enabled panoramic camera or is GoogleMaps just excited to see Davis?

A little over a year ago, my buddy Brian and I attended the Where2.0 Conference.  It's the annual mecca for all things GPS/GIS related.  We were stoked to be in the audience when the good folks at Google announced the launch of 'Street View' on their GoogleMaps platform.  At the time, you could simply type in an address in SF or NYC and get a 360 degree, panaromic, street level view rather than a tired old map.

Now, to little or no fanfare Google has added this option in our own little burg.

Direct your web portal browser thingy to: maps.google.com and type in a Davis address, click on "Street View" in the upper right hand corner, then click on the little yellow man on the map and prepare to be amazed. 

ALSO, in the directions portion of the site, be sure to also check out the "Public Transit" option.  Google will tell you how to get from Point A to Point B in Davis via public transportation.

After the jump, more musings about this fancy new technology.

Election Roundup: 7 Days Later

Let them eat wedding cake and drink Shiner Bock.

Greetings and salutations from across the country.  Ten hours after the polls closed on Election Day I was safely ensconced in an airplane that took me quickly away from the exhausted environs of our Right & Relevant City.  Since then, the Gmail vacation responder has been on and I've ignored all calls from "Dirty 5-Thirty."

But, for those of you who don't read The Enterprise and are wondering what happened to all of those lawn signs around town... I have results, and a little commentary for you.  For those of you that are ecstatic, angry, morose or simply bored and want me to create some pithy punditry, tough luck.

My endorsements went 3 for 6 this time around.  Following are our new (or returning) elected officials.

State Senate: Lois Wolk (won the Democratic primary)
State Assembly: Mariko Yamada (won the Democratic primary)
Yolo County Supervisor, 4th District: Jim Provenza
Davis City Council: Don Saylor, Stephen Souza, Sue Greenwald

After the jump, find a very small amount of commentary (a couple of little ones are begging to go play on the swing set.)

This Weekend in the People's Republic

Did you know that there is something interesting going on every day of the week? Every weekend, there are at least a dozen activities that might interest any given person. There are so many resources at our fingertips (literally...it's all over the internet!). If you're into music like I am, undietacos.org and the Mondavi Center's and Sophia's music calendars are great places to check for performances. If you're into Davis politics and would like to attend Planning Commission and City Council meetings, dcn.org is the best place to check. My favorite place on the web for all things Davis?  The daviswiki.org Events Page! With all of these wonderful opportunities for entertainment and community involvement at such a close distance, what are you waiting for?

Stay with me until after the jump, and I'll tell you about my picks for this weekend.

League of Women Voters Forum

City Council Candidates are Questioned.

This is the fourth forum that I’ve covered for The Davis Voice.  This forum took place on May 8th. I would have liked to post it earlier, but as you can tell by reading the Sierra Club information, we are providing you with a lot of information. The format for this event was three questions to all of the candidates and some questions from the audience.

Also, by now you can see the forum on our local Davis Media Access station on Cable 15.  The election is on Tuesday, June 3rd.  Be sure to vote!

After the jump, find all of the details from this Candidates’ Forum.

Editor's Endorsement

It's my soap box & I'll shout from it if I want to.

CA Senate - Lois Wolk

CA Assembly - Christopher Cabaldon

Yolo County Supervisor - John Ferrera

Davis City Council
Stephen Souza, Sydney Vergis, Don Saylor

I have spent many years of my life advocating for increased civic engagement by younger voters.  From middle school thru college, I was an active force in student government.  When I turned 18, I began registering my fellow students.  In my 20’s, I helped start and lead a non-profit whose mission was to bring young voters become regular voters by engaging them on public policy matters in a non-judgmental and rational monthly forum.  Then, I worked for two years as a national staff member of the non-partisan, young voter registration group "Rock the Vote".

For the past four years, I have gladly given many of my nights to our City and School District by serving on the Open Space & Habitat Commission, the Grande Site 7/11 Committee, and the Climate Action Team.  To this day, I still encourage people to register and vote.  I started this blog because I think that our community needs to do a better job of engaging the citizenry about the facts, difficult decisions, and realistic consequences and benefits of our public policy choices.

So, my frame of reference for choosing candidates is focused on their ability to promote: positive civic engagement, open space protection, innovative measures to preserve our natural resources, a more diverse tax base, and affordable housing for young families, civil servants and seniors.

After the jump, find all of the reasons that I encourage you to vote for some candidates and also (gasp!) reasons to NOT vote for candidates.

Sierra Club Candidates' Forum: Part Three

Third in a series of three.

After the jump, find answers to questions about Measure J, relations with the County, how to assist the School District, encouragement of bicycling and others.