Davis Enterprise Letters to Editor

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October 8, 2018

I am supporting Measure L because Davis needs more housing of all kinds. We recently had our home appraised for a refinancing and in the appraisal, under market conditions, the appraiser checked the box for shortage. The licensed professional knew that demand isn’t balanced by supply in Davis.

Another thing I find interesting in the current debate over construction in Davis is how today’s arguments against development contradict the arguments made a decade ago by the same people and groups. Recent arguments against both Measure L and Lincoln 40 have centered on the need for housing for families with children. Yet some of the people and groups they belong to, like the Sierra Club, making these arguments today worked against Measure X a decade ago that would have done just that, built housing for families with children.

It is important to remember these inconsistencies when listening to arguments for an election. Elections are traditionally one day events and often times people will say anything they think will sway the electorate to their preferred outcome if only for a single moment when someone is marking a ballot.

Vote yes on Measure L.

Ron Glick
Davis

 

Davis Enterprise Letters to Editor – WDAAC and Race

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October 7, 2018

Opponents of the West Davis Active Adult Community and Measure L argue that the WDAAC will perpetuate the racial profile of Davis that is skewed towards whites. I find this argument specious on two accounts: Davis’ racial profile is determined by other factors, and the WDAAC is racially indeterminate.

Davis certainly had a history of housing discrimination prior to the 1960s, and Davis’ racial profile certainly is more white than the rest of the county or state. Since the 1960’s our racial profile has been determined largely by three factors. First, the structure of job opportunities here is highly skewed towards high educational qualifications, where blacks and Latinos are underrepresented.

Second, house prices have consistently been substantially higher in Davis than in surrounding areas since at least 1970, and blacks and Latinos historically have had less wealth and fewer family financial resources than whites.

Third, the cultural climate in Davis is not friendly towards blacks or Latinos. Students of color in my classes at UCD often talked about racial profiling and harassment by police and shop keepers in town, making them feel uncomfortable and unwelcome. The WDAAC will have no impact on these three factors that determine our racial profile.

As currently proposed, the WDAAC restricts many housing units (say, X of them) to people with ties already to Davis. If this were not the case, those X units would be available to people of any race. But if it remains true, people moving into those X units will vacate X other housing units in Davis, and those X vacated units will be available to people of any race. Either way, X units are racially open. If Measure L is defeated and WDAAC is not built, no additional units will be available to anyone.

Jim Cramer

Davis Enterprise Letters to Editor – Backing WDAAC

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October 7, 2018

I support Measure L, the initiative allowing the building of the West Davis Active Adult Community and its inclusion within Davis’ boundaries.

I do so because of several reasons. However, the main reason is that 80 percent of occupants will be drawn from a Davis or Davis-related population. Davis seniors who are living in homes larger than what they need have been relocating elsewhere to downsize. WDAAC provides the smaller houses they need so these seniors have the option of continuing to live in Davis — as they have been for many years.

I support WDAAC because of this kind feature.

However, I also support it because when seniors leave Davis, our cultural memory leaves with them. Davis becomes less complex and less interesting.

I want an age-diverse Davis.

Vote ‘yes’ on Measure L.

Jim Leonard

Davis

Davis Enterprise Letters to Editor – Support for WDAAC

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October 5, 2018

Thank you to David Thompson and William Powell for setting the record straight on the affordable senior housing component of the West Davis Active Adult Community and Measure L.

It is generally agreed that we have a housing shortage in Davis and that shortage affects various demographic and economic brackets. One of the hardest hit populations is the senior community. There are currently over 440 people on the wait list for affordable senior housing in Davis. This year alone, there has been an increase of 225 people on the wait list for 59 affordable units at the Eleanor Roosevelt Circle. Only 3 apartments turned over in 2017.

With land donated by the developer, the WDAAC would put 150 units of much-needed low to very low-income rental units in our housing portfolio and would go a long way to help alleviate housing insecurity for seniors.

I am saddened to know that the local group of the Sierra Club is behind the dissemination of misinformation on Measure L. By portraying the WDAAC and the affordable housing developers as dishonest and deceitful, the Sierra Club is choosing to ignore the value of the land being donated, the proven track record of Delta Davis Senior Communities (the affordable housing developers), the proximity of the senior housing to Sutter Davis Hospital and other medical facilities and to the Market Place.

Without the passage of Measure L, these 150 units of affordable senior housing will not be built in the foreseeable future and our current lack of housing options and income inequality will continue.

Because of their opposition to Measure L and the West Davis Active Adult Community, and their misrepresentation of facts, I am dropping my membership in the Sierra Club’s local club, the Solano Group. This isn’t the Sierra Club that I wish to support.

Elizabeth Lasensky
Davis

Davis Enterprise Letters to Editor – We Need These Units

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October 5, 2018

As a longtime board member of Davis Senior Housing Communities I am well aware of the unmet housing needs of low income seniors in Davis.

We discuss the long waiting lists we have at every DSCH board meeting. The need in Davis is well established. Except for WDAAC, there are no other plans to house the low-income seniors on our waiting lists. So at this rate it could be almost 20 years before the next affordable senior housing occupied.

At last count we had 224 low-income seniors just on the waiting list for Eleanor Roosevelt Circle in Davis. With only three turnovers in 2018 it will be 76 years before the last senior on our existing waiting list will be housed. From wait list to move-in is getting close to four years.

Our board has worked hard on meeting the needs of low income seniors in Davis for almost 20 years. We have built every one of the communities we have started. The claim by the No side that there is no guarantee the affordable senior housing will be built at WDAAC is nonsense. The intent, regretfully, is to completely stop our project from building 150 low-income senior apartments in Davis. For further information go to https://westdavisactive.com/affordable-senior-housing/

Please give hundreds of low income seniors a future place to live in Davis by voting Yes on Measure L. We should not wait another 20 years to get the next affordable senior apartments in Davis.

Shirley Humphrey
treasurer
Davis Senior Housing Communities

Davis Enterprise Letters to Editor – Empty ‘Support’

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October 5, 2018

While the Sierra Club Solano Group has supported many laudable causes, for which I am grateful, we are discussing your opposition to Measure L.

To say that the Sierra Club supports the low-income housing portion of Measure L (West Davis Active Adult Community) is an empty statement without recognizing how affordable housing is made possible. The low-income affordable housing component of the WDAAC is financially feasible with the donation of the 4.25 acres of land from the developers of the remaining 68 acres. Without this generous donation of land, the affordable housing portion would not happen.

Rather than the sprawl you label this project, the proposed WDAAC is a well-planned mostly senior community conveniently situated near Sutter Davis Hospital and other medical facilities, as well as the Market Place shopping center. It would have 410 single-family, single-story detached homes of various sizes designed with senior needs in mind and the 150 units of affordable senior housing. The largest home would be 1800 square feet. The complex would include a clubhouse, walking and bike paths, an agricultural buffer and an oak forest. WDAAC sounds like a nice place to live.

We have a housing shortage in Davis, which is exacerbating housing and income inequality here. While I applaud the Sierra Club for fighting for social-justice issues, by opposing housing development when it is so desperately needed at many income and demographic levels, the Sierra Club is assuring that housing will remain scarce and unaffordable. The WDAAC (Measure L) is a quality development that deserves community support.

Elizabeth Lasensky
Davis

Davis Enterprise Letters to Editor – A Good Project

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October 3, 2018

I wondered why the Sierra Club was against the West Davis Active Adult Community (Proposition L). On Sunday they explained. They favor the affordable housing component; they are just against the rest of the project, which they consider to be urban sprawl. Do they really think the affordable housing can happen without the rest of the project?

And do they really think Davis can stay the same size forever?

WDAAC looks like a good project, proposed by people who listened to our concerns — very unusual for developers. I will vote for it.

Diane Moore
Davis

Davis Enterprise Letters to Editor – Measure L

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September 27, 2018

How can we, the citizens of Davis, morally justify the continued exclusive nature of our senior and low income housing market? Our housing market is the result of years of under providing for both segments of the population. When we are presented with a beautiful, practical development that will relieve some of the housing pressure, and is consistent with the values that Davis desires we should say yes, bring it on! Support Measure L, a plan created by long time Davis residents who know what is important to us.

Tom Frankel
Davis

Raising Kids Around Their Grandparents is Important

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The proposed West Davis Active Adult Community place high importance on keeping families together. This article gives a very interesting perspective and some key reasons why this is so beneficial to raising our families.

Read more here

 

The proposed West Davis Active Adult Community was unanimously approved by the City Council on Tuesday (6/12/18) to be place on the November ballot for a vote under Measure R.

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A West Davis development project aimed at increasing the supply of housing for Davis seniors — including low-income seniors — is headed to the November ballot.

The City Council voted unanimously on Tuesday to place the West Davis Active Adult Community on the ballot for a vote under Measure R. The vote came exactly one week after Davis voters approved a Measure R project — the Nishi student housing development — for the first time.

Read more…