Davisville

Davis Makerspace, sort of a cross between a workshop and a public library, and open to science and tech as well as to art, opened in a converted storage unit in a downtown alley this year. So how does the budding nonprofit work, why is it here, who’s it for, and what does it offer to Davis? We get answers today in a talk with three of its members/directors – Nicholas Weigand (far left), Jeff Tolentino (holding a drum he made at makerspace), and Braden Pellett.

“Your Fatwa Does Not Apply Here,” a new book by UC Davis international law Professor Karima Bennoune, has stories about people in Muslim-majority societies who resist Muslim extremism; she discusses what the United States should do, why fundamentalism has spread, how the left and the right get the issue wrong, and more, today on “Davisville.”

The Davis proposed plastic bag ban—truthfully, more of a curtailment—is an odd mix of the irritating and the compelling. Whichever resolution you prefer, the tug of bags could resolve this fall, if only because City Council members must be growing tired of indefinitely extending a debate about the proper makeup of shopping bags. On today’s Davisville we talk with Davis Enterprise reporter Tom Sakash, who has written about the proposed law. We get a rundown on the current proposal, and where Davis stands as the council takes up the issue one more time.

For today's program and next we talk with Rob White, hired in March as Davis' first chief innovation officer. Topics in part 1 include the reason for his job, how he works, the techDavis group that initially paid half his salary, and entrepreneurs at work in Davis. Part 2, which debuts Aug. 19, addresses this spring’s surprise proposal to put a business park near I-80 and Mace; and looks at local economic trends, what Davis offers and lacks, and how others see us. Big ideas involving Davis are in play, and we discuss one of them: a possible test track for ultra-light-rail transit technology near UC Davis.