DAVIS, CALIFORNIA

'Davis' is a city in Yolo County, California, United States. As of the local census, the city had a total population of 64,821 (60,308 in 2000). Davis is well known in the state of California as being a socially and environmentally conscious university, bike, and railroad town, home to the University of California, Davis. In 2006, Davis was ranked as the second most educated city (in terms of the percentage of residents with graduate degrees) in the United States by ''CNN Money Magazine'', after Arlington, VA.

Contents

History

Geography

Location

Climate

Neighborhoods

Demographics

Transportation

Bicycling

Public Transportation

Air Travel

Sights and Culture

Farmers Market

Toad Tunnel

Whole Earth Festival

Mondavi Center

UC Davis Arboretum

Picnic Day

Media

Notable Davisites

Education

University of California

D-Q University

Other colleges

Public schools

High School Controversy

City services

Sister cities

References

External links

History

Davis grew around a Southern Pacific Railroad depot built in 1868. It was then known as "Davisville," named for Jerome C. Davis, a prominent local farmer. However, the post office at Davisville shortened the town name to simply "Davis" in 1907. The name stuck, and the city of Davis was incorporated in March 1917.
From its inception as a farming community, Davis has been known for its contributions to agriculture along with veterinary care and animal husbandry. This has been especially true since 1908, when the University of California established a University Farm in Davis. It was upgraded into the seventh UC campus, the University of California, Davis, in 1959. Now the city is also known for its contributions in the areas of biotechnology, medicine and other life sciences.

Geography

Location

Davis is located at (38.553856, -121.738095) in Yolo County, California. The city is 18 km (11 mi) west of Sacramento, 113 km (72 mi) northeast of San Francisco, 619 km (385 mi) north of Los Angeles, at the intersection of Interstate 80 and California State Highway 113. Neighboring towns include Dixon, Winters, and Woodland.
Davis lies in the Sacramento Valley, the northern portion of the Central Valley, in Northern California, at an elevation of about 16 m (52 ft) above sea level.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 27.1 km² (10.5 mi²). 27.1 km² (10.4 mi²) of it is land and 0.1 km² (0.04 mi²) of it (0.19%) is water.
The topography of Davis is very flat, which has helped Davis to become known as a haven for bicyclists.

Climate

The climate in Davis resembles that of nearby Sacramento. Davis is also close to San Francisco Bay and the Sacramento River Delta, which moderate the more extreme temperatures found elsewhere in the Sacramento Valley and nearby San Joaquin Valley. The dry, hot summers and mild, wet winters are typical of a Mediterranean climate.

Neighborhoods

Davis is internally divided by two freeways (Interstate 80 and California State Route 113), a north-south railroad, and several major roads. The city is unofficially divided into five main districts made up of smaller neighborhoods:


★ Central Davis, north of Fifth Street and Russell Boulevard, south of Covell Blvd., east of CA-113, and west of the railroad tracks running along G Street.

★ Downtown Davis, roughly the numbered-and-lettered grid north of I-80, south of Fifth Street, east of A Street, and west of the railroad tracks.

★ East Davis, north of I-80, south of Covell Blvd., and east of the railroad tracks, and includes Mace Ranch and Lake Alhambra Estates.

★ North Davis, north of Covell Blvd. between CA-113 and the railroad tracks.

★ South Davis, south of I-80, and includes Willowbank. El Macero, California, although outside the city limits, is sometimes considered part of South Davis.

★ West Davis, north of I-80 and west of CA-113. West Davis includes Westwood, Evergreen, Stonegate (west of Lake Boulevard and including Stonegate Lake and the Stonegate Country Club) and the eco-friendly Village Homes development, known for its solar-powered houses.

★ Wildhorse, north of Covell Blvd., east of Poleline Rd.
The University of California, Davis is located south of Russell Boulevard and west of A Street and then south of 1st Street.

Demographics

As of the United States 2000 Census, there were 60,308 people, 22,948 households, and 11,290 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,228.2/km² (5,769.2/mi²). There were 23,617 housing units at an average density of 872.6/km² (2,259.3/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 70.07% White, 2.35% Black or African American, 0.67% Native American, 17.5% Asian, 0.24% Pacific Islander, 4.26% from other races, and 4.87% from two or more races. 9.61% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.^[1]
There were 22,948 households out of which 26.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 38.3% were married couples living together, 8.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 50.8% were non-families. 25.0% of all households were made up of individuals and 5.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.50 and the average family size was 3.00.
In the city the population was spread out with 18.6% under the age of 18, 30.9% from 18 to 24, 27.1% from 25 to 44, 16.7% from 45 to 64, and 6.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 25 years. For every 100 females there were 91.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 87.8 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $42,454, and the median income for a family was $74,051. Males had a median income of $51,189 versus $36,082 for females. The per capita income for the city was $22,937. About 5.4% of families and 24.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 6.8% of those under age 18 and 2.8% of those age 65 or over.
This city of approximately 65,000 people is home to a university campus of 31,000 students.

Transportation

Bicycling

Bicycling has been a popular mode of transportation in Davis for decades, particularly among UC Davis students.
Bicycle infrastructure became a political issue in the 1960s, culminating in the election of a pro-bicycle majority to the City Council in 1966.^[2] By the early 1970s, Davis became a pioneer in the implementation of cycling facilities. As the city expands, new facilities are usually mandated. As a result, Davis residents today enjoy an extensive network of bike lanes, bike paths, and grade-separated bicycle crossings. The flat terrain and temperate climate are also conducive to bicycling.

In 2005 the Bicycle-Friendly Community program of the League of American Bicyclists recognized Davis as the first Platinum Level city in the U.S.^[3] In March 2006, Bicycling magazine named Davis the best small town for cycling in its compilation of America's Best Biking Cities.^[4] Yet bicycling appears to be on the wane among Davis residents. From 1990 to 2000, the U.S. census reported a decline in the fraction of commuters traveling by bicycle, from 22 percent to 15 percent.^[5]
In 1994, 2001, and 2006 the UC Davis "Cal Aggie Cycling" Team won the national road cycling competition. The team also competes off-road and on the track; the team has also competed in the national competitions of these disciplines.
In 2007, the University of California, Davis also organized a record breaking bicycle parade numbering 913 bicycles.

Public Transportation

The city of Davis is served by two public bus systems, Unitrans, with routes servicing the city and university campus, and Yolobus, which services Davis, Woodland, West Sacramento, and other areas in Yolo County. In addition to these bus services, Amtrak offers rail service on the Capitol Corridor to both Sacramento and the Bay Area from the Davis Amtrak station, as well as connecting bus service to the San Joaquin line. Amtrak also provides long-distance rail service to Davis. The California Zephyr operates through Davis daily in both directions between Chicago and Emeryville, California, with a bus connection from the latter point across the bay to San Francisco. The Coast Starlight operates through Davis daily in both directions between Seattle, Washington and Los Angeles.

Air Travel

The nearest airport with regularly scheduled passenger flights is Sacramento International Airport, located approximately 13 miles (21 km) north east of the city. In addition, there are two general aviation airports in the immediate area; Yolo County Airport, which is about 4 miles (6 km) west of town, and the UC Davis airport, located on the UC Davis campus just south of Russell Blvd. and west of CA-113.

Sights and Culture

Farmers Market

Every Wednesday evening and Saturday morning, families and friends flock to the Central Park (on 4th and C street) in Davis to buy fresh produce, a healthful meal or baked goods at the Davis Farmers Market. Open rain or shine, this event allows the participation of independent farmers, non-profit organizations, craftspeople and local businesses in a communal atmosphere.
The times for the year-round Saturday market, as of 2006, are 8:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m. while the Wednesday market changes times with the season. During the months of April to October the popular ''Picnic in the Park'' runs from 4:30-8:30 p.m. while October through March the market is from 2:00-6:00 p.m.
Available products at the Farmer's Market include fruits (including local citrus fruit) and vegetables that are currently in season, baked goods, and dairy and meat products, often from certified organic farms. Other goods that may be available include locally-produced olive oil, crafts, plants and flowers, and food from various restaurants. The available stands and overall atmosphere, including musicians or events, depend on each particular market. For example ''Picnic in the Park'' is geared towards family attendance during dinner time because of the presence of a band and multiple restaurant stands. During the fall and winter months the Wednesday market becomes smaller and more geared towards weekly shoppers.

Toad Tunnel

Davis' 'Toad Tunnel' is a wildlife crossing that was constructed in 1995 and has drawn much attention over the years, including a mention on ''The Daily Show''. Because of the building of an overpass, animal lovers worried about toads being killed by cars commuting from South Davis to North Davis, since the toads hopped from one side of a dirt lot (which the overpass replaced) to the reservoir at the other end. After much controversy, a decision was made to build a toad tunnel, which runs beneath the Pole Line Road overpass which crosses Interstate 80. The project cost $14,000. The tunnel is 21 inches (53 cm) wide and 18 inches (46 cm) high.
The tunnel has created problems of its own. The toads originally refused to use the tunnel and so the tunnel was lighted to encourage its use. The toads then died from the heat of the lamps inside the tunnel. Once through the tunnel, the toads also had to contend with birds who grew wise to the toad producing hole in the ground. The exit to the toad tunnel has been decorated by the Post-Master to resemble a toad town.

Whole Earth Festival

The 'Whole Earth Festival' (WEF) is a three-day music and education festival in the Spring, which always takes place during Mother's Day Weekend on UC Davis' main quadrangle. It is considered by many to be an event that characterizes Davis because it celebrates hippie culture, something Davis is overflowing with. Every year, thousands of environmentally conscious, politically active and/or music-loving people make the pilgrimage to Davis for this event, for which the UCD quad is filled with hundreds of craft booths, music acts, education booths, and food booths.
A continuous stream of bands, speakers and various workshops occurs throughout the weekend on each of WEF's three stages and other specialty areas. The majority of the festival is solar powered.
WEF is organized primarily by UC Davis students, in association with the Associated Students of UC Davis (ASUCD), Experimental College and the university.

Mondavi Center

The Mondavi Center, located on the UC Davis campus, is one of the biggest non-seasonal attractions to Davis. The Mondavi Center is a theatre which hosts many world-class touring acts, including star performers such as Yo-yo Ma and Cecilia Bartoli, and draws a large audience from Sacramento.

UC Davis Arboretum

The UC Davis Arboretum is a spectacular arboretum and botanical garden. Plants from all over the world grow in different sections of the park. There are notable Oak and native plant collections and a small redwood grove. A small waterway spans the arboretum along the bed of the old North Fork of Putah Creek. You can occasionally see herons, kingfishers, and cormorants around the waterways, as well as the ever present ducks. Tours of the arboretum led by volunteer naturalists are often held for grade school children.

Picnic Day

Picnic Day is an annual event held on the University of California, Davis towards the end of the month of April and is the largest student-run event in the US. Picnic Day starts off with a parade, which features the UC Davis California Aggie Marching Band-uh!, and runs through campus and around downtown Davis and ends with the Battle of the Bands, which lasts until the last band stops playing (sometimes until 2 am). There are over 150 free events and over 50,000 attend every year. Other highlights include: the Dachshund races, aka the Doxie Derby, held in the Rec Hall; the Davis Rock Challenge, the Chemistry Magic Show, the sheep dog trials, and of course the wonderful food made by student groups. Many departments have exhibits and demonstrations, such as the Cole Facility, which until recently showed a fistulated cow (a cow that has been fitted with a plastic portal (a "fistula") into its digestive system to observe digestion processes). Unfortunately, the cow is no longer on display.

Media

Davis has one daily newspaper, the ''Davis Enterprise'', founded in 1897. UC Davis also has a daily newspaper called the California Aggie which covers campus, local and national news. There is a community television station (DCTV), along with numerous commercial stations broadcasting from nearby Sacramento. There are also two community radio stations: KDVS 90.3 FM, on the University of California campus, and KDRT 101.5 FM, a subsidiary of DCTV and one of the first low-power FM radio stations in the United States. Davis also has a City Wiki, DavisWiki.

Notable Davisites

★ Antoinette "Butterscotch" Clinton - Contestant on America's Got Talent

★ Sara Albert - Contestant on America's Next Top Model

★ Peter S. Beagle - Author (''The Last Unicorn'')

★ Dylan Brown - supervising animator on "Ratatouille" and "Finding Nemo"

★ Tony Cline Jr. - NFL Tight End

★ Denise Curry - Basketball player

★ David Dionisi - Author (''American Hiroshima'')

★ Rick Ele - Radio host; blogger

★ Jason Fisk - NFL Defensive Tackle

★ Karen Joy Fowler - Author

★ Michael Franti - Musician

★ Myril Hoag - Former MLB outfielder

★ Nyjah Huston - Professional Skateboarder

★ John Lescroart - Author

★ Barry Melton - Musician

★ Paul Moller - Inventor and professor

★ Stephanie Murata - member of the United States wrestling team in the 48 kilogram division

★ Marcy Place von Schottenstein - member of the US women's field hockey team at the 1988 Summer Olympics

★ Kim Stanley Robinson - science-fiction author; famous works include Mars trilogy

★ Stephen Robinson - Astronaut (received Bachelor's degree from UC Davis, 1978)

★ Paul Scheuring- Screenwriter (''Prison Break'', ''A Man Apart'')

★ Dave Scott - Triathlete

★ DJ Shadow - Turntablist musician (born Josh Davis)

★ G. Ledyard Stebbins - Botanist

★ Sean Stewart - Author

★ Charles Tart - Parapsychologist

★ Alan Taylor - Pulitzer Prize-winning author and professor of history

★ Jessica Utts - Professor of Statistics, parapsychologist

★ Gary Lee Yoder - musician, part of several 1960s psychedelic rock bands

★ John Brown - Rapper (''The (White) Rapper Show'')

★ Nick Watney - PGA Tour golfer

Education

University of California

Main articles: University of California, Davis

The University of California, Davis, or UC Davis, a campus of the University of California, had an enrollment of 30,475 students as of Fall 2006^[6], and is a major research university. UC Davis provides a major influence on the social and cultural life of the town.

D-Q University

Also known as 'Deganawidah-Quetzalcoatl University' and much smaller than UC Davis, D-Q University is a two-year institution located on Road 31 in Yolo County 6.7 miles (11 km) west of California State Route 113. This is just west of Davis near the Yolo County Airport. About four miles (6 km) to the west, the Road 31 exit from Interstate 505 is marked with cryptic signage, "DQU." The site is about 100 feet (30 m) above mean sea level (AMSL). NAD83 coordinates for the campus are
The curriculum is said to include heritage and traditional American Indian ceremonies. The 643 acres (2.6 square km) and 5 buildings were formerly a military reservation according to a National Park Service publication, ''Five Views.'' The full name of the school is included here so that readers can accurately identify the topic. According to some tribal members, use of the spelled-out name of the university can be offensive. People who want to be culturally respectful refer to the institution as ''D-Q University''. Tribal members in appropriate circumstances may use the full name.

Other colleges

An off-campus branch of Sacramento City College is located in Davis.

Public schools

The city has ten public elementary schools (North Davis, Valley Oak, Birch Lane, Pioneer Elementary, Patwin, Cesar Chavez, Robert E. Willet, Marguerite Montgomery, Fred T. Korematsu, and Fairfield Elementary, which is technically outside the city limits but opened in 1866 and is Davis Joint Unified School District's oldest public school). Davis has one school for independent study (Davis School for Independent Study), three public junior high schools (Ralph Waldo Emerson, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and Frances Harper), one main high school (Davis Senior High School), an alternative high school (Martin Luther King High School), and a small technology-based high school (Leonardo da Vinci High School). Cesar Chavez is a Spanish immersion school, with no English integration until the third grade. The junior high schools contain grades 7 through 9. Due to a decline in the school-age population in Davis, several of the elementary schools may be closed. Valley Oak will be closing after the 2007/08 school year.
At one time, Chavez and Willet were incorporated together to provide elementary education K-6 to both English-speaking and Spanish immersion students in West Davis. Cesar Chavez served grades K-3 and was called West Davis Elementary, and Robert E. Willet (named for a long-time teacher at the school, now deceased) served grades 4-6 and was known as West Davis Intermediate. Willet now serves K-6 English speaking students, and Chavez supports the Spanish immersion program for K-6.

High School Controversy

Since the opening of Davis Senior High School (DHS), the school has remained the sole public high school in Davis. There have been controversies over whether there be another high school built to relieve the population stress on DHS.
Opponents, such as School Board candidate Joe Spector, say that it would be unnecessary to cut the student population, roughly 2,000, in half. Instead, it is suggested that small private schools should be built, like Da Vinci High School, a small high-tech school located on DHS grounds.
Those who are for a new high school say that DHS is overcrowded. Students must share lockers and classes are starting to become crowded. It is said that the only logical choice is to build a second high school for accessibility and to make it overall easier on everyone, including the rising student population.
There seems that no command to build a second high school in the future, students and adults alike are still wishing for a high school while the opposition has a strong hold to keep Davis small.

City services

The Davis Fire Department, founded in 1930 after a series of devastating fires, has three stations. Two of the existing stations, downtown and in south Davis, were built in 1960; the third, in west Davis, was built in 1980. The UC Davis Fire Department is a separate organization working in cooperation with the city. UC Davis's fire department is one of only two University fire departments in the University of California system, the other being the UC Santa Cruz Fire Department.
The Davis Public Library is located in Community Park, and is a branch of the Yolo County Public Library system.

Sister cities

Davis has four sister cities, as designated by Sister Cities International, Inc. (SCI):

★ Cherkasy, Ukraine

★ Inuyama, Japan

★ Qufu, China

★ Uman, Ukraine

References

1. ''Factfinder.census.gov'' Retrieved on 05-15-07
2. http://www.ci.davis.ca.us/pw/pdfs/2006_BikePlan_withMaps.pdf ''Ci.davis.ca.us'' Retrieved on 05-15-07
3. http://www.bicyclefriendlycommunity.org/October2005awards.htm ''Bicyclefriendlycommunity.org'' Retrieved on 05-15-07
4. http://www.davisenterprise.com/articles/2006/01/29/news/339new5.txt ''Davisenterprise.com'' Retrieved on 05-15-07
5. http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/DatasetMainPageServlet?_program=DEC&_submenuId=datasets_0&_lang=en ''Factfinder.census.gov'' Retrieved on 05-15-07
6. http://facts.ucdavis.edu/student_population_headcount_fall.lasso


★ MONEY magazine: Best places to live 2006: Top 25 Most Educated

External links

★ Web site for the city government

★ Factual Information from www.city-data.com

★ Davis Joint Unified School District

★ Downtown Davis Business Association – lists all downtown businesses

★ Yolo County Visitors Bureau – information on hotels, restaurants and attractions in Davis

★ Davis Wiki – The Community Wiki for Davis

★ Davis Cycling – Cycling in North America's most bike-friendly city

★ Evolution of a Bicycle Friendly Community – the Davis Model

★ D-Q University. from ''Five Views: An Ethnic Historic Site Survey for California,'' U.S. National Park Service.

★ Davis Farmer's Market site – includes directions and calendar of events

★ The Davis Enterprise newspaper site

★ Davis Community Network, one of the nation's oldest community networks

★ Davis Community Television

★ KDVS 90.3 – freeform community radio station

★ KDRT 101.5 – LP community radio station

★ Aerial photos – From the Davis Community Network website