 Late each August, thousands of college students move in and out of apartments all over town. The mass move generates piles of cast-offs that students no longer want—furniture, clothes and housewares, but also unexpected stuff like anime, Ikea furniture and gift cards—and could turn the city into one big sloppy flea market if the volume got out of control. For 15 years, the city has organized the Apartment Move-Out Waste Reduction Program to tame the tide. Today Jennifer Gilbert, the city’s conservation coordinator, and Marisa Schafer, one of the volunteers who make it work, discuss how it all comes together, the need for semi-secrecy ... and the things people leave behind.
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Author Julia Scheeres, right, and Thom Bogue recently spoke at the Avid Reader about her book, “A Thousand Lives: The Untold Story of Jonestown,” and his memories of the remote South American camp of the Peoples Temple where 918 people were killed or committed suicide one day in November 1978. Bogue, then a teenager and now vice mayor of Dixon, was one of the relatively few survivors. Scheeres’ critically praised book draws on previously unavailable recordings and records from the temple, which once had a major presence in San Francisco. They talk about it today on Davisville.
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Davis doesn’t have a lot of natural beauty—we have great trees, but no dramatic mountains or river—so buildings are maybe more important here than they would be elsewhere, in terms of defining the look of the town. So, what makes good architectural design in Davis? What does Davis need more of, or less of? We talk about this today with Davis architect Robert Lindley, who over a 30-year career has designed many buildings in Davis and elsewhere (including Mishka’s Café, behind him in this photo).
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UC Davis’ top undergrad for 2013-14 didn’t have a Facebook page at college. She does have a brother who sometimes made her dinner. She scheduled fun into her routine, played in the Cal Aggie Band-uh, was mentored by a retired astronaut, graduated with a 4.0 grade-point average, and is working this summer for NASA in Texas. And she loves Davis. Today we talk with Ashley Coates (photo by Karin Higgins/UC Davis) about everything from how she got it all done, to whether she thinks humanity will ever achieve the kind of space travel presented in Star Trek.
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Davis voters elected Robb Davis to the City Council in June. On today’s program we talk about financial problems facing the city, as well as what he's doing to get ready to take his seat on the council.
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In May, on a bulletin board at Armadillo Music in Davis, Sonja Martin posted a flier that said “Punk rock grunge band members wanted. No pervs. Weirdos. Harddrugaddicts. Scumbags. JUST MUSIC.” The language was clear, direct, funny in places, opinionated, and showed real respect for serious music. Anyone who has pursued something meaningful and difficult should recognize the ambition. I wanted more of her story, and that’s what we have today on “Davisville,” including a performance of her song in progress, “I Breathe You In.”
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Jenna Jae Templeton's job is to get more people in Yolo County to vote. One of her teaching tools, when she talks to high school students, is the fanciful sample ballot she's holding here—it shows new voters how a ballot looks, even if the “Proposition 42” on this sample concerns a “Zombie Apocalypse Emergency Tax Measure.” Templeton works for the Yolo County Elections Office, and on today’s show we talk about voting rates in Yolo, some reasons people don't vote, and what she's doing to change that.
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On June 21, downtown Davis will host the fourth annual Davis Music Fest. On today’s show Kyle Monhollen, part of the Davis Live Music Collective and one of the festival’s organizers, talks about this year’s concerts and related subjects, including how they choose the lineup and why they want to bring more live music to Davis. He also updates us on last year's look at creating a permanent live music venue downtown; even just the cost of the sprinklers ended up looking pretty pricey.
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The names of departed Davis businesses come easily to local beauty-salon owner Gerri Adler (pictured outside the I Street home where she grew up in the 1950s and '60s). On the walking tours she leads downtown, she describes places and people now gone who once epitomized Davis, the ways the town has changed, and people whose names we see today on buildings or street signs. Listen in as she talks about growing up in Davis, a town she still loves.
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Drink a 20-ounce regular soda daily for a week, and you’ll consume as much sugar as you see in this one-quart Mason jar. On today’s program Harold Goldstein, executive director of the Davis-based California Center for Public Health Advocacy, talks about their efforts to tame the tide of sugar in the name of public health.
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