A few weeks ago, Michael Bisch and Rosalie Paine wrote an article in the Enterprise that backs plans to build a parking garage and 12,000 square feet of new shopping space between E, F, 3rd and 4th streets. Today's show focuses on the idea.

The basic question is why downtown needs another parking garage when it already has two; plus lots at the Amtrak station, behind the former Border’s, and next to the E Street Plaza; plus street parking; plus the tree-shaded lot that exists (see photo) where the new garage would be built. The answers lie in a discussion of where downtown is headed, in terms of growth (UC Davis’ plan to add 5,000 students in five years is a factor), civic policy, and other development ideas. Those other ideas include creating a new E Street promenade which, in one version, would close E to cars from 1st to the new garage.

Davis isn’t known for its military connections, but 4,500 U.S. military veterans live in town, as do 2,000 more who currently serve. What do veterans want from Davis? Do they get it? On this edition we discuss those questions, plus broader ones involving all U.S. veterans, with Ted Puntillo and Rich Dryden. Puntillo, a former Davis postmaster and City Council member, became veterans service officer for Solano County on Aug. 1. He held the same job in Yolo County from 2003 to 2008. Dryden is executive director of the California Disabled Veteran Business Alliance – a group with a growing constituency, due to the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and to the advances in medicine that help combat veterans live through what would have once been fatal wounds. We cover a lot of ground in this interview. Among other points, Dryden explains why some vets are better employers than employees. Puntillo notes that he talks to every person he sees who holds a "homeless veteran" sign.

The regional job market is looking better, says employment market analyst Rick Reed on this edition of Davisville.

Reed has surveyed area employers several times a year since 1992 for what is now a quarterly employment forecast, the Pacific Staffing Employment Trends Survey. Among other questions, he asks his contacts if they’re hiring, as well as why or why not.

In our talk, Reed discussed trends, what he thinks employers want to see before they accelerate hiring, fields with the best job prospects, how agriculture helps the area job market, and more.

Basic civic infrastructure usually attracts scant popular interest, but the triple-your-rates impact has made the proposed city water project an exception this summer. The prospect of the average Davis household paying another $700 to $800 per year for water by 2016 has brought the issue front and center in Davis.

On the current Davisville, Bob Clarke, interim Davis public works director and city engineer, and Diane Phillips, public works engineer and Davis’ project manager for the surface water project, discuss what’s behind the cost, some alternatives, city water quality, and why Davis concluded that it needs the project.

Clarke and Phillips also discuss project details, prospects for savings, the possible ratepayers’ protest vote that would block the rate increase, and what comes next.

A print newspaper for college students might seem anachronistic, but The Aggie made $50,000 more this year than it expected. On the latest Davisville, two students who edited the UC Davis paper for 2010-11 discuss how it continues to find its audience despite the shift to digital media. The guests are Mark Ling, editor for 2010-11, and Becky Peterson, who was city editor and will return as managing editor in 2011-12. The Aggie earns much less than it did several years ago, but cuts in expenses, easy access to copies on campus, and a steady focus on its audience have kept the paper a solvent part of UC Davis student life.