I didn’t expect Michael Bisch to like my op-ed since it reported on his and Robb Davis’ mischievous surprise vote at the Parking Task Force meeting to exclude me and erase my testimony. Despite opposition from store owners who invited me, they had the votes to do it by joining a group seeking to milk city funds for building unneeded parking structures where existing surface lots are underutilized because they’re too far from Davis’ commercial core. That aligned with long-standing city staff policy of eliminating parking in the commercial core and adding it in distant areas where it’s unneeded.

From my work in nature preservation, earning me 2013 Environmental Council of Sacramento Environmentalist of the Year despite being a disabled senior, I was familiar with the “no net loss” phrase staff used to justify this since sprawl developers also use it to justify paving over biologically rich wetlands while creating sterile bulldozer scrapes elsewhere and calling them “vernal pools.”

Michael, Robb and the wannabe parking structure builders had a common multimillion-dollar agenda of draining Davis’ fragile budget to install unneeded parking structures and meters. The result would restrict Davis’ commercial core to bicycles and the few drivers rich enough to laugh at hefty parking meter surcharges on every downtown visit. If that had prevailed, there’d soon be little reason for anyone to visit a downtown dead zone of closed stores and restaurants.

Robb may not care about any of that because it uses our money to advance his imagined agenda of excluding cars from Davis, but fortunately, there was only so much harm he could do on the task force. That might not be true if he were on the City Council.

Fortunately, his agenda didn’t prevail thanks to an incumbent council that’s as fine, wise and dedicated a group of public servants as we’re likely to see. Unfortunately, Bisch has the gall to blame them for his own misbehavior.

Glen Holstein
Davis

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