Jan Conroy, an Aggie for nearly 40 years
Mon, 07/30/2012 - 5:30pm | Bill BuchananEvery summer, thousands of people depart UC Davis. Most are graduating students, but summer is a common season for retirements too, and this year that group includes Jan Conroy. He spent nearly 40 years at UC Davis, first as a student (class of 1977, bachelor’s degree in design) and then as an employee. His final job was executive director for University Communications. He saw countless changes and presided over some, particularly in publications and especially in the UC Davis Magazine. He helped design the first issue in 1983 and has contributed to every issue since. It reaches more than 230,000 people, making it easily the largest publication to come out of Davis. On Davisville today we talk about the changes during his long career as an Aggie, at the campus, in media, and in Davis itself, where he lived for several years before enrolling at UC Davis.
Summers are busy for 
The Davis School Board eventually chose a smaller number, but for several weeks board member Richard Harris galvanized the town—at least, the part that pays attention to Davis schools and taxes—with his proposal to place a parcel tax of up to $642 per year on the local ballot this November. That’s at least two times larger than any schools tax previously approved in Davis, including the one voters endorsed just a few months ago. The board opted instead for a 
The second floor of Court ’N Cedar on G Street near Third has been one of downtown's neglected corners, but that’s changing. On Davisville this week, Michael Bisch, co-president of the Davis Downtown Business Association, and artist Marieke de Waard discuss the Open Door Art Studios now taking shape at that location. Based on the Torpedo Factory near Washington, D.C., Open Door seeks to turn a sleepy downtown upstairs into an artists’ hangout, where artists can rent space (this photo shows one of the studios) and work among their peers, and the public can observe and engage the artists. With some work, the downstairs courtyard could become a performance venue. The venture is part art, part economics, and part public attraction—and the latest example of how commerce and art can interact to support downtown Davis.
Among social media, Twitter has less impact than Facebook, but is much more than just another online flavor of the month. A recent Pew Internet/American Life Project study says 8 percent of Americans use Twitter daily. If that ratio holds true for Davis, then we’ve got more than 5,000 daily tweeters in our town. The guests for today’s show, Danielle DeBow (who works for Nugget Market) and Blake Cooper (employed at UC Davis), have started Davis TweetUp, which “connects Davis professionals in support of local businesses and our community.” On Davisville they explain what that means, the different ways they use Twitter themselves, and how it all ties in to Davis.
Today’s Davisville looks at spiders in Davis and Yolo County, with a focus on the Explorit Science Center’s “Spiders in Your World” community science project for 2012. Explorit board President Lars Anderson—pictured here with a properly capped black widow display jar—explains why they chose this project and what they want to accomplish. Of course, we talk about the little carnivores too. Spiders are never far away. Nor have we discovered more than a fraction of the types that exist in the world. Explorit hopes to conduct solid research on spiders in Yolo County by enlisting the public, all while acquainting us with the roles spiders play beyond lurking in the corners of garages. The project includes attitude surveys, home experiments, and a website for posting spider sightings.
San Francisco jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi (right, with characteristic handlebar moustache) wrote music for “Peanuts” specials, influenced countless musicians, and created one of the top-selling Christmas records ever (“A Charlie Brown Christmas”), but in-depth appraisals of his career are scarce. Davis author Derrick Bang has fixed that with “Vince Guaraldi at the Piano,” an account of Guaraldi and his music. Bang holds a copy of his book, left. Guaraldi, who performed in Davis in 1963 and 1972, died of a heart attack at 47 in 1976.
