RUSH TO JUDGMENT … although we keep hearing the city wishes to do a thorough study of all water options and rate structures before putting the issue before the voters, the headlong rush to place it on the November general election ballot proves otherwise … the simple truth here is the city thinks the surface water project will have a better chance of passing with higher voter turnout in November than it will in a one-issue, water-only ballot next spring …

I’ve always been one of those who believes we should do everything possible to make it easy for people to vote … the more the merrier … but not at the expense of fully studying an issue before putting it on the ballot …

There’s no question more people will come to the polls in November if we toss in some ballot candy like Barack Obama, Mitt Romney, John Garamendi and a juicy proposition or two than will come to the polls to vote only on the water issue in March or April … but the notion that a spring water ballot will somehow “disenfranchise” those who choose not to participate is pure nonsense …

No one is being denied the right to vote … officialdom is not trying to make it difficult for people to come to the polls … if people choose not to vote in a water-only election, that’s their right … and also their fault …

Given that it takes all of about 20 seconds to mark a single-issue ballot and drop it in the mail, it’s hard to claim the bar has been set too high … rushing this thing to a November ballot to accommodate those folks who are either too lazy or too disinterested to participate in a water-only vote in the spring is absolute foolishness … take the time to do it right and in the end the citizens who do show up at the polls are likely to be highly motivated and well informed … as for those who don’t show up, well, they had every chance to do so …

ART IN PUBLIC PLACES … if ever a wall screamed for a mural, it’s that incredible stretch of white paint on the south side of the massive new Mori Seiki building along Second Street on the extreme east side of town … for another $91,650, I wonder if those two talented young women who painted the East Area Tank would be willing to tackle yet another only-in-Davis job … certainly nothing as complex and confusing as their yeowoman efforts on the tank, but perhaps a piece that links three long-standing Davis symbols …

Yes, I’m thinking of a bicycle built for two, with a giant red tomato riding on the front and a gnarly old sugar beet on the back … true enough, we don’t raise sugar beets anymore after all the processing plants closed, but it’s an important part of our history … and doesn’t the Yolo County Fair still crown a Sugar Beet Queen every August? …

THE READERS ALWAYS WRITE … Dennis at pacbell.net laments that the city “will waste time deciding if plastic bags should be banned for some in Davis.” … “some” is the operative word here, all right … in other words, some retailers will not be able to use plastic bags and other retailers will be allowed to use plastic bags … it makes no sense on any level …

Adds Dennis: “You can argue the merits of plastic vs. other packaging all day. Some believe the consumers should decide; others that it is appropriate for government to decide. What is incredible to me is that if plastic is bad and should be banned, shouldn’t it be banned for everyone? Why ban it just for some?” … because they can, my friend, because they can …

WAY AHEAD OF THE CURVE … gas at Costco always trends far under what we pay for it in my dearly beloved hometown, but you have to drive to Woodland to get it … and for all those Davisites who think big-box stores are the very definition of evil, Costco doesn’t pack your groceries in either plastic or paper … and no one had to pass a law to force them to do so …

— Reach Bob Dunning at davisenterprise.net

Comments

comments