Almost anyone listening today is likely to have an opinion about the topic — namely, how well are bicycles, powered scooters, e-bikes, vehicles and pedestrians co-existing in Davis? In terms of safety, courtesy, observing the rules … and what are the current laws for powered scooters and bikes? Probably not what you think, and the Legislature is looking at changing them.
Two people have been hit and killed while riding bicycles in or near Davis so far in 2026. We likely all have stories of seeing drivers who only slow for a stop sign, powered motorbikes in the bike lane as they zip past cars, or people walking into the street while focused on their screens. Hopefully, we’ve seen people make room for each other on the streets, too.
Today we talk about city statistics, the emergence of e-bikes and e-scooters, the laws so far, what the city is doing, and what individuals can do, with Davis Police Chief Todd Henry, and Ryan Chapman, the city’s director of public works engineering and transportation.
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Today on Davisville we talk with two of the five people who recently wrote “A Long-Term Pragmatic Plan for a Livable and Sustainable Davis.” Don’t let the dry title dissuade you — the article is clear, light on jargon, usefully specific, and all about Davis. Their ideas include developing denser homes along transit corridors in Davis, including along Anderson Road (pictured), over several decades.
Alex Achimore, an architect and urban planner, and Richard McCann, an environmental policy consultant, talk about the ideas, methods and reasons behind their approach on today’s program, including what they mean by density — think more along the lines of townhomes, duplexes and stacked flats, not apartment towers.
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There are lots of ways to get to know someone you like, lots of ways to date. What if your outing consisted of you painting pictures together with your friend, partner, perhaps prospective spouse? Call it a paint date.
The Davis Arts Center offers a Paint Date workshop as one of its events this spring, on May 16. It’s a clever idea for getting people to think about taking up a paint brush in front of an easel, plus there’s a social side. What do people paint, when they have an hour to paint something, in the presence of a friend? Are there any stories here?
Today on Davisville we talk with the Paint Date instructor, Roshelle Carlson, sometimes known as Miss Rainbow, and Sam King, executive director of the arts center. We’ll also hear about what else the center is doing this spring, and how it’s doing in this, its 67th year. King says they’ve come back strong from the pandemic, and she explains how they did it. |
With enrollment in Davis schools declining, the Davis school district is looking at shutting at least one elementary school. So far, two concepts have emerged — to close Patwin and possibly also Birch Lane — and to move programs and shift attendance boundaries. The School Board expects to decide in spring 2027, with any closure starting in fall 2028.
Colleen Zern, a local attorney and UC Davis lecturer, is among the Davis parents opposing this idea. Today on Davisville she talks about process, the new-home development projects that people in Davis will vote on this year, the petition to form a citizens group to look at options to handle declining enrollment, and how she wants the district to proceed.
(Related program: "Davis faces choice between more homes, fewer schools," May 12, 2025)
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The new economic development strategic plan for Davis might be an obscure document, but its pages include interesting goals for Davis and observations about the city, such as insights into how college students shape the city’s economy.
Today on Davisville we talk about the plan with Katie Yancey, the city’s economic development director since 2024. Customer service is a core concern. She wonders if Davis has “gotten sort of stuck in a cultural narrative of slow growth [that] has awkwardly translated into bad customer service. And that’s really the question … I’ve posed in this plan, and my conclusion is yes.” That doesn’t mean Davis must change its character -- more like do a better job of managing it.
We also talk about the city’s strengths, vacant commercial space, downtown, the city's reputation at UC Davis, and how this new economic plan differs from prior city efforts. Those earlier proposals focused more on a real estate strategy, she says, while this plan assesses “what we currently do and how to do it better.”
The photo shows part of a 1991 promotional map of downtown Davis created by Town Graphics of Woodinville, Wash.
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Pat McDowell (pictured) grew up in Northern California. I worked with him at the Fairfield newspaper 40 years ago before his career took him all over the world, working for the Associated Press, Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg. The experience helped shape his views on journalism, on how well Americans know the rest of the world, and how the United States has changed. We talk about this, plus one of his harrowing field reporting assignments in Iraq, on today’s Davisville.
Compared to the 1980s, McDowell says, “I feel like [in the United States] we don’t talk to each other as much, easily, now. There’s a little more default hostility, like in political discussions.”
Also, things don’t work as well. "Our relationship with the corporate world and the service world has changed,” he says. “I am amazed at the level of service that people accept as OK here. You can’t get anybody over the phone, everything is a chatbot, things don’t work …. I just find it appalling that we’ve sort of let ourselves be put through what I think is the meat grinder of the MBA system where no money is allowed to be left on the table.”
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After years of dwindling news coverage in Yolo County, two regional news outlets — the Sacramento Bee and Abridged, a news source started by Sacramento public TV station KVIE in 2025 — have each launched free Yolo weekly newsletters this year, using stories written by journalists assigned to cover the county.
Today we talk with one of the reporters, Daniel Hennessy of Abridged, about how he finds and reports stories, and why Yolo is now getting more attention. He plans to cover the entire county, and his topics so far include the respite center on L Street in Davis, a proposed downtown entertainment zone in Winters, the county’s budget deficit, and fly-fishing on Putah Creek.
Related program from September 2025: '"We talk with Benjy Egel, food editor for Abridged, a major new source of regional news," plus links to Yolo news at the Bee and Abridged
(The photo shows rural Yolo County west of Davis on a bright winter’s day in 2020.)
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Davis architect Maria Ogrydziak, whose designs include the Davis Food Co-op building (pictured) on G Street downtown, was born in Stockholm to Estonian parents, lived in Taiwan for two years while growing up, and began to make her mark as an architect when she recreated a gray classroom at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology — her alma mater — “to be more exciting, more inspiring.” Architectural faculty supported her, she says, MIT planners were apprehensive, and the outcome helped her win election as student body president the next year.
Today on Davisville we talk about housing, architecture, designing in Davis, and the influence of California's Central Valley on her work. It's no accident that a big tomato sculpture sits in front of the Co-op.
Ogrydziak is also part of Yolo Community Builders, and last appeared on Davisville in June 2025 with YCB Executive Director Bill Pride.
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Davis is updating its General Plan, which is meant to guide Davis’ physical development as a community through 2050. The update is a classic, easy-to-overlook civic project that works better when more people know about it and add their ideas about what they want for Davis.
The Davis Community Action Network, a local nonprofit, has spent the last couple of years meeting with people in Davis and Yolo County to learn more about what they would like to see happen in Davis, particularly in the areas of housing and climate. The group summarized its work in “From Voice to Vision: Community Insights for Davis’ General Plan Update,” released a year ago. The housing question has been refreshed by the City Council’s decision last month to place the proposed 1,800-home Village Farms development on the June 2026 ballot.
Today we talk about what the report says with Judy Ennis, executive director of the network, and Jonathan London, a member of its board. |
One of the new events in Davis for 2026 is a competition, led by a Davis marine biologist whose awards include an Emmy for his camera work, that’s open to anyone willing to make a short movie during the next month. The film must include a Davis-centric prompt to be announced this Wednesday, Jan. 28, and run no longer than 7 minutes. You’ll have about 4 weeks to get it all done.
The goal of the Davis Flash Film Challenge “is just to get people to make movies,” says Craig Musburger on today’s Davisville.“We really want to help kind of build on the creative community of Davis and the surrounding area.”
Musburger is president of Everywhere Science, a Davis nonprofit, but the movies don’t have to use science as their subject. He says he won’t be surprised to see superheroes or romantic comedies among the entries. As long as the entry doesn’t exceed the bounds of a PG-13 rating, “anything goes and everybody’s welcome.”
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