Re: Mike Mitchell’s letter to the editor Sept. 6: I was glad to learn that he lived in the limited equity co-op called Dos Pinos. In the 1980s, I worked for more than four years to take Dos Pinos from an idea to a financed reality. I worked on every part of the efforts to create Dos Pinos. I have continued to provide professional advice and support to Dos Pinos for the past 25 years, such as lowering the taxes, obtaining financing, doing board training and marketing Dos Pinos.

For everything I have ever done for Dos Pinos, I have not received a penny. I think I might have been given $50 when I spoke at the 20th anniversary celebration. I donated that to Twin Pines Cooperative Foundation. Twin Pines carried Dos Pinos’ website for free for a number of years and links to Dos Pinos through www.community.coop/davis.

I am glad that Mitchell and other families enjoy one of the best-kept housing secrets in Davis. Dos Pinos is a great cooperative community. My long-term study of Dos Pinos (at the site above), conducted since 1985, is one of the most complete comparisons of housing affordability in the United States. Today, the average three-bedroom rental in Davis costs $1,707 and at Dos Pinos costs $1,120.

About the year 2000, the Davis city attorney admitted that the city had forgotten to put resale requirements on 52 homes. The city lost a share in $10 million of gain.

DACHA was created to stop the windfalls by adopting the Dos Pinos co-op model. Neighborhood Partners received about $6,000 per unit to create 20 DACHA homes, compared to the $30,000 per unit city staff awarded to the land trust to create 29 homes. The Enterprise’s description of us making millions is untrue. For more information, call me at 530-757-2233.

The cash cow in the DACHA debacle is the about $1 million in public dollars directed by the city attorney to 31 highly paid lawyers to defend or cover up the actions of an illegal DACHA board. See www.community.coop/davis.

Start the investigation.

David Thompson

Davis

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