Davisville

About 30 to 40 percent of food in the United States is wasted, for reasons that range from spoilage and overproduction to unsold inventory and bad planning. A new California law, SB 1383, requires major changes in how we dispose of surplus food, with waste redirected to compost and edible food to the hungry. Michael Bisch, executive director of the Yolo Food Bank, believes the changes spurred by the law -- and conditions in Yolo County -- mean Yolo will be “pretty darn close to a fully food-secure county within three years, five years tops.” On today's Davisville, he explains why this breakthrough is now possible, plus how to pay for and achieve it.

A little more than half of Yolo County’s residents are now fully vaccinated, and the phase where thousands of people were eagerly signing up for the vaccine has ended. What’s next? Yolo County Public Health Officer Dr. Aimee Sisson appears on Davisville today to help us understand the status of the disease in Yolo County as of mid-July 2021. The subjects include herd immunity, the delta variant, answering questions from individuals who are reluctant to get the vaccine, and the ambiguity of not knowing what behavior is completely safe, even when you’re fully vaccinated.

June 16 update: Aaron says that in the interview, when he's talking about a restaurant's need to hire employees for re-opening, he inadvertently mentioned the incorrect restaurant. He meant DeVere's Irish Pub, not Delta of Venus.

This week, California ends many of the restrictions that it imposed last year because of the Covid-19 pandemic. If you’re not entirely clear on what to expect or do now, you’re not alone. As one way to understand the changes, we talk today with Aaron Wedra, marketing coordinator for the Davis Downtown Business Association, about how this step back toward normal conditions might play out for the businesses, shops, restaurants, and their customers, in the core of Davis.

(This program first aired on April 8, 2019) As Davis grows and evolves, what parts of its history should it keep? Scott Miltenberger, a professional historian who chairs the city’s Historical Resources Management Commission, has suggestions.

On today’s program, first aired in April 2019, we talk about what "historical resources" are – the term is not just another word for old – and how the criteria are applied, including recently to the Mad Men-era building at 3820 Chiles that was torn down to make way for housing. We also talk about the closed Freeborn concert hall on campus, how to tell when the desire to preserve history is really just resistance to change, and one of his favorite historic locations in town: the city's first bike lanes (early Davis photo courtesy of Bob Sommer).