Davis Forever!

A Davis Conversation

This blog post deals with something unusual which happened to me (normally I only hear about these things from other people). Earlier this week I was walking down E St, about to grab an iced-coffee from Peet's when a car pulled over next to me.

The driver, a man in his mid- to late-fifties, proceeded to ask me whether I lived in Davis and whether I could help him with directions. Now as a loyal citizen of this great, little town, I was only too happy to oblige him. After all, shouldn't we all offer a warm welcome to any outsider who happens to be visiting Davis. The rest of the conversation went something like this:

Him: So I'm looking for the Davis Walmart store.

Me: Ah, I don't think there is a Walmart in Davis Sir.

Him: You kidding me?

Me: No, I'm pretty sure about this Sir. It's a small town and I've lived here a while now. Was there something specific you were looking for, maybe another store in town might have what you want.

Him: I was looking for a Walmart...the Davis Walmart. 

At this point he seemed to be getting a little uptight. I proceeded as best I could.

Me: I'm really sorry, but there isn't a Walmart in Davis. We have an Ace hardware and homeware store, we almost have a Target store, but we really don't have a Walmart.

Him: So you're calling Ernie a liar?

Me: Umm, who's Ernie?

Him: My cousin. He's the one that told me about the Davis Walmart.

Me: Oh I see. And Ernie lives in Davis?

Him: No. In Ohio. So where's the Walmart then? Ernie wouldn't lie to me.

By this point I was half tempted to just walk away. But I tried staying calm and proceeded to help him.

Me: Sir, maybe your cousin was referring to the Walmart in Sacramento, or the Walmart in Dixon, or the Walmart in Woodland. They are all pretty close to Davis, just 15 minutes drive east, west, or north of here.

Him: Look miss, I am not talking about any of these other so-called Walmarts. I'm talking about the Davis Walmart. I need to get to the Davis Walmart, now would you please tell me where it is?

Me (exasperated by this point): Sir, I can't do that...because there really is no Walmart in Davis, I don't know how else I can say this. But if you like, I can show you how to get to one of the other...

Him: Forget it! I always thought this town looked like the sort of place where no-one would stop to help someone. You're the third idiot now who's refused to tell me where you are hiding the Walmart. If you won't tell me where it is, I'll just drive around until I find it. I ain't no quitter!

And that was that. He drove off, last seen heading north on E St. A very rude man, in search of the mysterious lost Walmart of Davis. Maybe this is some sort of underground campaign by Walmart to get a store opened here. They'll keep sending people here who are trying to find it in the hope that the city caves in and builds the store for them.

Think you know Davis...what about Davis, Illinois?

Despite my occasional mocking of some of the peculiar decisions that sometimes are made in this town, I still love Davis and I'm thoroughly enjoying living here. Until today, if someone mentioned 'Davis' then there is only one place that I would think of. That is no longer the case. You probably don't know but our great country is blessed by three other places called Davis (in Oklahoma, West Virginia and Illinois). If we also consider the original name of Davis (which was Davisville) then there are also name-sake towns in Texas, Missouri, Alabama, Kentucky, and Rhode Island. Furthermore, if we extend our search to include 'Davis City' then there is also a place of that name in Iowa.

So why does it matter that our town is not unique (at least with respect to its name...it certainly is unique in many other ways)? Well, one of our fellow Davisites thinks that we should settle the question of which Davis is the best Davis by way of staging an inter-Davis contest. The plan (which is only tentative at the moment, but will possibly be submitted to the city council in the coming weeks) would be to invite representatives from our name-sake locations to Davis and challenge them at a number of events. Each Davis(-ville, City) would choose their own event, so I'm guessing that any event that we (Davis, California) nominated would surely feature cycling. Anyone have any ideas for what events we would be good at? I'm sure that if this actually goes ahead, then this would be the sort of competition where crazy events would probably be more suitable (how about a tree-hugging contest?).

I'm not sure if it would be entirely fair to do this all on home turf, but then if events had to be staged at every different location then that's going to get a bit complex to organize (and expensive too). Actually, I think there was some discussion that if this was successful, it could become an annual feature and each year would take place in a different Davis. Now I'm sure that all of the other Davis's, Davisvilles, and Davis Cities are very pleasant places to live, so I'm not sure if we want to risk creating rivalries by claiming that any one Davis is better than any other. However, I guess this could be a lot of fun and probably would be good publicity for Davis. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I love Davis...all of them!

UC Davis looks at 'alternative' ways of saving money to ease budget crisis

You'd have to be living with your head under a rock to not know about the perilous state of the Californian economy at the moment. Somehow our beloved Golden state finds itself with that not-inconsiderable shortfall of $24 billion. That's going to take more than a bake sale to raise that kind of moolah.

And from our own - some could say selfish - perspective, we know that what is bad for the Californian economy could be very bad for the Davis economy. That's because the easiest areas to target for additional budget cuts are schools and the wider education system. UC Davis recently hinted that this is going to be a very tough year for everyone associated with the university, with some very tough decisions needing to be made.

At the moment, no firm resolutions have been made as to how UC Davis is going to save money (beyond the raft of measures already in place to deal with the last round of budget cuts). Pay cuts and furloughs are the two most likely means. But let us not forget, that UC Davis has some very clever people, some of whom have been tasked with coming up with - how shall we put this - alternative means of cutting expenditure.

A source, who will remain unnamed, has revealed details to me of a range of possible measures that have at least been discussed by the powers that be. Once again I have to stress that none of these measures are yet confirmed, and they may all just be examples of 'blue sky thinking', but I think the suggestions for saving money are great examples of why I love Davis so much. The following are five of the more surreal suggestions from the the full list (my comments are in italics)

1. In the winter months, UC Davis could switch to an earlier work schedule to maximize the available daylight hours and therefore save money on lighting and heating (would this mean that we get to be in our own time zone?)
2. To combat the rising cost of water, the campus could reduce the frequency of sprinklers and additionally disconnect supplies to all drinking fountains (wait a minute, you mean drinking water would no longer be free? What would we drink?)
3. Additional revenue streams to be developed from existing infrastructure. Venues such as the Gunrock pub could move to being a full-service bar throughout the evening rather than closing at 2:00 pm (oh I see, we drink beer to save the university...sounds good to me)
4.  The organizers of the UC Davis Picnic Day could be asked whether it would be possible to charge a small entrance fee for all visitors, perhaps $10? (are you out of your freakin' mind? Still that would make a cool million bucks) 
5.  Staff and students could be encouraged to bring their own toilet tissue to campus in order to eliminate this large expense from the annual budget (whoa, steady boy! Is this really a large expense? If this idea goes ahead then UC Davis - like the toilet tissue - will really be going down the pan). 

What do you think about these ideas? I know that desperate times call for desperate measures, but surely we are not that desperate, well not yet anyway.