The Davis Voice

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

Whole Earth Festival weekend is my favorite weekend of the year. Every year I anticipate this weekend more than my birthday, Hanukkah, and Halloween; Craft vendors from all over sell their ecologically responsible wares, musicians big and small entertain the masses, children frolic with wonderment and mirth...it really doesn't get any more 'Davis' than this.

While I plan to spend the majority of the weekend dancing at the DJ Stage or relaxing with out-of-town friends in a shady spot and indulging in gourmet 'good-for-yous,' others can find entertainment and enrichment at any of the other various events going on around town this weekend. Find out my picks after the jump.

Whole Earth Festival

There is a Hippie Inside All of Us

Do you like hand crafted, artisan products?  How about folky, jam band music played by an amorphous collection of families that live in a bus half of the year?  Do local, organic foods cooked to order and served on reusable plates in the great out of doors turn you on?  Have you ever dreamed of having dreadlocks?  Do you enjoy learning about progressive issues in temporary geodesic domes? If you answered yes to any of the above questions, then get ready for a fantastic weekend in The People's Republic.

Whole Earth Festival (WEF) is many things to many people.  For your editor, it's better than Picnic Day because there is little in the way of schedule and the expectation of hosting a killer house party is much lower.  Also, it is a chill, blissed-out weekend to embrace the inner hippie in us all.

WEF is a cooperative event that can only run with the help of volunteers.  So, point your browser thingy here and sign up for a couple of hours.  Your editor will be washing dishes on Sunday.

For all of the details for some funky fun in the sun, click here.

This Weekend in the People's Republic

It's May...and that means Bike Month. Whether you're a commuter cyclist or you just appreciate the occasional ride, it's as good a time as any to dust off that seat, lube up that chain, and Get Thee Outside! Log your miles at www.mayisbikemonth.com.

Ride nowhere in particular or to any of the various events I've handpicked for you this weekend. They're just after the jump.

This Weekend in the People's Republic

Hooray, the weekend is upon us again! It's a time to brush elbows with your neighbors at the farmer's market, catch up on projects, and spend some extra time with friends and family either relaxing at home or at any of the great events we have coming up.

After the jump, read about my favorites.

Downtown Parking Madness

Sexy Meter Maids Probably Won't Solve Our Parking Problems.

Our very own mensch-about-town, Michael Bartolic, if often ahead of the curve when it comes to public policy issues in our fair little burg.  He submitted this piece about downtown parking over a month ago and, failing to recognize its importance, your editor left it languishing in the depths of the Davis Voice inbox.

Perhaps your editor failed to give credence to this piece because he no longer drives a gas-guzzling vehicle and the only parking problems he has stem from being unable to remember his bike lock combination.

Anywho, last week the City Council decided to institute paid parking in the E Street Plaza Parking Lot… Dollar Scoop Night at Baskin Robbins just got mroe expensive if you want a close parking space.  A total of 59 spaces will be part of a paid system that will allow you to park your gas-guzzler for as long as you want to pay.  Get all of the details here (pdf). 

The Davis Voice thinks that we should have paid parking everywhere downtown to encourage more bikers and to fund street calming and better biking infrastructure downtown.

After the jump, read Mike’s downtown parking horror story: one of many reasons to completely revamp downtown parking.

Earth Day Special

Live Blogging with help from Local Asparagus, the Davis Bike Czarina and Councilman Max Headroom

In case you were unaware, today is Earth Day (soon to be renamed "St. Al of Gore Day" because he invented the environment and protection thereof.)  This is the one day of the year that we are allowed to pat ourselves on the back for all of the new and exciting things that we are doing to create a more sustainable planet. 

Obviously, it is also a day of reflection for all of the things that we could be doing better.

This Earth Day, your Editor is attending an event at our Community Chambers.  We are currently celebrating Earth Day with a presentation from the Farmer's Market people and soon we will have a  Joint Meeting of the Planning Commission and the City Council to hear a presentation about the finalized report from the General Plan Housing Element Update Steering Committee (how, where, and when we should build new housing units in Davis until the year 2013.)

After the jump, find all of the fun liveblogging details from Community Chambers on Earth Day and our how Councilman Max Headroom and his colleagues are going to solve all of our housing needs.

Climate Action Team Begins Work

Envisioning the Future of Davis is a Brainstormer's Dream

Our fair city has long been a bastion of forward thinking environmentalists.  We have a stellar (for America) bicycle infrastructure.  We tax ourselves to protect open space around our community.  Our urban density is one of the highest in the nation for our population.

But, many of our citizens (including your author) believe that, as of late, we have been resting on our green laurels.  Earlier this year, the City Council directed city staff to investigate how our People's Republic could go about reducing its carbon footprint.

One part of that solution was the formation of a citizen's advisory board, the Climate Action Team (CAT).  Your author is honored to serve on that commission as a representative from the Open Space & Habitat Commission.

After the jump, learn more about the CAT and it's efforts to convince the citizenry of Davis to get back on the bleeding edge of the green movement.

Blue Oak Energy: Hometown Hero

In the Beginning, There Were Photovoltaics

Most political candidates craft a plank in their platform emphasizing the need to diversify the tax base by attracting more business.  Our right and relevant candidates for local office are no exception.  Indeed, most of them take it to the next level, stating that we need to attract innovative green technology businesses to our fair town.

Is this all talk? 

Does our local government actively seek out new green businesses, court them, and then grant them work visas for our People’s Republic?

To answer that question and in order to highlight a local kid gone good, we sat down with Tobin Booth, Founder and President of Blue Oak Energy.

After the jump [Tobin – this is blog term “after the hyperlink, see the full article”], get the details on a local commercial photovoltaic installation company (think big projects, Google campus big) that deserves our accolades, encouragement and business.

Saving the City of Davis GEM Fleet

How the Davis GEM Cars are Getting Their Groove Back

Last Sunday, on a blog-free and car-free day that involved waking up late, reading a copy of the NY Times from Newsbeat, buying a burger  from Burgers & Brew, and then washing it down with some iced tea at the Delta of Venus, I was accosted by several friends and acquaintances who were concerned about the front page article in the Enterprise (weird that I can link for free to any article in The New York Times, but not the Enterprise...) that gleefully told of a used electric car sale.  This feature story was not a paid advertisement, although it read like one. 

The story detailed how the City of Davis planned on selling half of our GEM car fleet.  Those little white electric cars that make it so easy to spot Dalebrities are slated for auctioning to the lowest bidder in Arizona, or some such place.  I was demoralized, but decided to ignore the matter until I had finished my Sunday fun.

Now, I'm live-blogging from the Davis City Council meeting.  After the jump, find out how the GEM cars are going to be saved from a wretched and boring existence carting around golfers in Scottsdale.