Davisville, May 12, 2025: Davis faces choice between more homes, fewer schools

The Davis school district might have to close up to three public schools over the next decade for reasons that include declining birth rates, high housing costs, and changing job patterns. Adding more homes for families in Davis could blunt that...

Davisville, April 28, 2025: Yolo Local has a question for you -- 'What do you need to know?'

Last year’s idea for a new “civic information hub” in Yolo County has grown into Yolo Local, a budding project to create a new source for local information and news. This spring the project is surveying people throughout the...

Davisville, April 14, 2025: As others fled Saigon 50 years ago, she stayed

You might have seen the famous photo of a U.S. helicopter incongruously perched atop the roof of a Saigon building, with people lined up on a sloping ladder, backlit by the sky, hoping to board. The image illustrates the final hours...

Davisville, March 31, 2025: Tales of vanished Yolo County from 19th century painters

If you go this spring to the Gibson House, a 19th century mansion-turned-museum in Woodland, you can see portraits of people who lived in Yolo County in the 19th century. There are a lot of stories in those paintings, and in...

Davisville, March 17, 2025: Clean, cheaper than PG&E, resilient -- microgrid proposes big change in energy for new parts of Davis

Advances in technology, say today’s guests on Davisville, make it possible to create a community microgrid in new parts of Davis that would deliver clean, resilient, solar-powered energy to its customers for less than Pacific Gas & Electric charges. To accomplish...

Davisville, March 3, 2025: Yolo nonprofits feel first wallop of Trump spending freeze

The Trump administration is hammering away at the federal government by eliminating jobs, cancelling programs, freezing spending and generally creating confusion. Today on Davisville we look at one part of the fallout in Yolo County -- the effect of the spending...

Davisville, Feb. 17, 2025: Recreating downtown

Several changes are pending in downtown Davis. To counter problems with public safety, the district is adding volunteer ambassadors and hopes to gain a police officer assigned to patrol the area on foot or bike; it plans a “rediscover” event for...

Davisville, Feb. 3, 2025: ‘NextGen Talks’ host Jazmin Garcia brims with enthusiasm

You’ll hear a lot of enthusiasm from today’s guest on Davisville — also love for Yolo County, curiosity for the world around her, the importance of “bringing youth perspectives to the table,” talking up civic engagement, appreciation for friendly neighbors, what...

Davisville, Jan. 20, 2025: How to create realistic climate plans

So — climate change. How do you come up with a plan that actually makes a significant difference, and that people will follow? Maybe even want to follow? For Davis and Yolo County, but really, for any city, any county.

Our...

Davisville, Jan. 6, 2025: Checking in with Weitzel and Dunning, half a year after they exited the Enterprise

This week on Davisville we hear from Wendy Weitzel and Bob Dunning (in photo at the new KDRT studio), colleagues who exited the Davis Enterprise in mid-2024 and recreated their work on Substack. We talk about their readership and fast success,...

Davisville, Dec. 23, 2024: A long-ago play and the empathetic power of teaching ‘or maybe’

The December holidays are the weekend of the year, when normal routines loosen up. Today’s Davisville arrives in that spirit — no civic issues today. Instead I reconnect with a friend I hadn’t talked with in decades, Teresa Ozoa. She and...

Davisville, Dec. 9, 2024: What would make transit genuinely attractive? The search is underway

Today we talk about a post-pandemic effort to figure out, seriously, what would make public transit more attractive to more Californians, so that more of us actually use it.

Our guest is Kari Watkins, co-director of the Transit Research Center and...

Davisville, Nov. 25, 2024: For this year’s movie show, 2024 Derrick quotes 1974 Derrick

This fall’s annual movie show with Derrick Bang arrives with a few extras. To note his 50 years as a movie critic, he reads — and critiques! — the first paragraph of the first movie review he wrote, in 1974 for...

Davisville, Nov. 11, 2024: Deciding what Davis citizen commissions should talk about

This week’s subject is narrow, but contains a question worth considering. It involves one of the ways that ideas emerge and ultimately shape public life in Davis. This specific path involves the Davis citizen commissions that advise the City Council on...

Davisville, Oct. 28, 2024: Founder of Davis nonprofit Sahaya believes in local knowledge, trust and ripples

Sahaya International, a Davis nonprofit, took shape after a chance meeting when founder Dr. Koen Van Rompay (pictured), a researcher at UC Davis, was in India for an AIDS conference. Since then Sahaya has grown into a group of friends and...