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enterprise THE DAVIS
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2020
Council ends glyphosate use by city
UC Davis deals with outbreak effects
Starting again ...
BY ANNE TERNUS-BELLAMY
BY CALEB HAMPTON
Enterprise staff writer The Davis City Council voted unanimously last week to formally end use of pesticides containing glyphosate (like Roundup) in all parks, greenbelts, bike paths and other “high public exposure” areas. Back in 2017, the council had voted to phase out glyphosate use by the end of 2020 in those locations, but with city staff reporting the phase-out was essentially complete, the council voted to end its use immediately. The chemical can still be used in areas of Davis without public access, such as around the water treatment plant. The council also voted 4-1 — with Councilman Will Arnold dissenting — to allow the use of a pre-emergent herbicide, Blockade, this spring to begin dealing with an overgrowth of weeds resulting from that glyphosate phase-out. “With the reduction in the use of pesticides or herbicides we have had some increased complaints related to weed growth,” said Stan Gryczko, director of public works utilities and operations.
SEE GLYPHOSATE, PAGE A5
Vote-by-mail ballots go out Monday BY ANNE TERNUS-BELLAMY
Enterprise staff writer
SEE CORONAVIRUS, PAGE A6
A BART train runs above single family homes in Albany in July. California lawmakers again rejected a bill that would have led to denser development along public transit routes.
Controversial homebuilding bill fails to pass Legislature in time BY MATT LEVIN CalMatters Developers, landlords, Facebook, construction unions, the state Chamber of Commerce, Realtors, environmental groups and even the AARP wanted to see the bill pass. So did big-city mayors including San Francisco’s London Breed and San Jose’s Sam Liccardo. Not to mention Sen. Toni Atkins, Democratic leader of the state Senate, who typically has a pretty big say in which bills make it out of her chamber. Nonetheless Senate Bill 50, a measure that would have forced cities to allow more mid-rise apartment buildings around public transit and next to some singlefamily homes, failed to get enough votes in the California Legislature
to survive in 2020 before time ran out. The question now is how Gov. Gavin Newsom plans to meet one of his signature campaign goals: building millions of new homes. And if cities, anti-gentrification activists and suburban homeowners could stymie the assortment of powerful interests backing that bill, what pro-development policy options are left? “California’s housing affordability crisis demands our state pass a historic housing production bill,” Newsom said in a statement shortly after the bill was voted down by Democratic and Republican lawmakers. So what does that housing production bill actually look like? Here are some options. The governor may not like many of them.
Zoning + redevelopment
Gallery offers reward to catch vandal BY LAUREN KEENE Enterprise staff writer
Vote-by-mail ballots will begin going out on Monday and absentee voters who do not receive one by Monday, Feb. 10, are encouraged to contact the Yolo County Elections Office. Registered voters who wish to vote by mail in the March 3 election must request a vote-by-mail ballot by Feb. 25. Applications to vote by mail are on the back of the sample ballot, on the elections office website (www.yoloelections. org) or in person at the county elections office in Woodland. Meanwhile, “No Party Preference” voters who would like to request a partisan vote-by-mail ballot to vote for presidential candidates in the American Independent, Democratic or Libertarian Party after
Who beheaded the White Light Madonna? That’s what they want to know at the Pence Art Gallery in downtown Davis, where someone smashed the head off the ceramic-and-tile sculpture in the gallery’s exterior courtyard sometime during the overnight hours of Thursday, Jan. 23. Gallery director Natalie Nelson announced this week a $1,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the unknown vandal or vandals, whose actions also are prompting the installation of security cameras in the courtyard area of the 212 D St. property. “It’s just sad,” Nelson said of the damaged sculpture, created by regional artist Donna Billick, which has been on display at the Pence since 2014. “It feels very personal.”
VOL. 123, NO. 15
SEE HOUSING, PAGE A5
ANNE WERNIKOFF/CALMATTERS PHOTO
Enterprise staff writer
SEE BALLOTS, PAGE A6
The governor set a campaign goal of 3.5 million new housing units by 2025 to help relieve the state’s crippling affordability crisis. In his first year in office, California was on pace to permit roughly 120,000 units — nowhere near Newsom’s audacious rate or what experts say is needed to offset rising rents and home prices (final numbers for 2019 are expected soon). After intervening to help pass a tenant protection bill last year, Newsom vowed to focus on housing production in 2020 — legislation that would make it easier for developers to create new marketrate and low-income housing. Despite never receiving the governor’s explicit endorsement, backers of the housing-near-transit bill presumed it would serve as the de facto legislative vehicle for the governor’s ambitions.
Countries around the world, including the United States, implemented further precautions against the novel coronavirus as the outbreak’s death toll in China climbed to 304 on Saturday, with more than 14,000 confirmed cases. There are currently eight confirmed cases of the virus in the U.S., including one in the Bay Area. The outbreak started in Wuhan, the capital of China’s Hubei province, in December 2019. On Thursday, the World Health Organization declared a global health emergency due to the public health threat the virus poses. The U.S. Department of State issued a travel advisory warning Americans not to travel to China. Delta, United and American Airlines have suspended all flights between the U.S. and mainland China. On Friday, the Trump administration declared a public health emergency in the United States and announced the U.S. would temporarily bar noncitizens who recently visited China from traveling to the U.S., Some U.S. citizens returning from China have been quarantined. UC Davis is taking
Adding insult to injury is the possibility that the vandalism, difficult if not impossible to repair, may not be covered by insurance, Nelson added. Police told gallery staff there were no other security cameras in the area that night that captured the incident, which occurred sometime after a class ended at the gallery at 10 p.m. Jan. 22 and 8 a.m. the next morning, when the assistant director arrived at work. Nelson said that’s when she got a phone call informing her that “somebody decapitated the sculpture out here.” “It looked like it had been hit with a baseball bat,” Nelson said of the damage, which broke the sculpture’s head into about two dozen pieces, scattering them across the courtyard. “They just went flying.” The gallery has been the target of prior vandalism —
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WEATHER FOG
Tod Patchy fog. Today: High 56. Low 36. Hig More, Page B8 M
someone etched a swastika into a window several years ago, for example — “but never the art outside the building,” Nelson said. Transient activity, including people sleeping outside the building and leaving human waste and drug paraphernalia behind, also has been an ongoing issue. “We’re probably going to have to get a lock system on our bathrooms,” Nelson said. “It’s just sad. We want to be open to everybody, but things are changing.” Meanwhile, Nelson and her colleagues are hoping the newly established reward will encourage witnesses to come forward. Anyone with information about this crime is asked to contact the Davis Police Department at 530747-5400. — Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise. net or 530-747-8048. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene
COURTESY PHOTO
The White Light Madonna had its head smashed, sending ceramic pieces flying across the Pence Gallery courtyard.
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