Best Davis-specific Instagram account: @mydaviscalifornia

For the second year in a row, the title goes to the two content creators

Students often complain that Davis is boring or lacks activities to do. But co-creators Richard Jia and Gray Eby of @mydaviscalifornia prove this idea wrong with their Instagram account dedicated to exploring all that our college town has to offer. From visiting restaurants downtown to flying a plane, the duo has well earned their status as this year's best Davis-specific Instagram account.

“I want to say thank you,” Eby said. “Thank you for following us, for knowing we exist. We’re not going anywhere; we’re going to keep cranking it out as long as we can.”

This year’s win marks the second time in a row the pair have topped the Best of Davis category.

“Pretty awesome, back-to-back two-time champ,” Jia said. “Just kidding.”

The account has worked to fill the niche of Davis-specific content, featuring affordable food recommendations, interesting and lesser-known spots around campus and skits or jokes about life in Davis.

“Meeting and seeing all the awesome things that people have going on — whether it be a local restaurant or a person doing something crazy — we have just been exposed to a lot of unique situations and experiences,” Jia said. “We interviewed the chancellor [of UC Davis], I never thought I would ever have a moment to talk to the chancellor. I thought that was really cool — the wide range of things the page lets us cover is cool.”

Somewhat surprisingly, neither Jia nor Eby grew up in Davis. Both moved here later in their lives and decided to make it home because of the sense of community they felt. They acknowledge that without the community’s support, their account wouldn’t have grown the way it has these past few years.

“We wish we knew ourselves better, but the feedback we hear from the community all the time is, ‘You guys help us know what there is to do around town,’ [or] ‘We like this account because we know about a new restaurant that opened or an event or something going on,’” Eby said. “I think that the success is just telling the story of Davis and what’s going on. There’s just not been a resource on social media for this.”

Written by: Rivers Stout — campus@theaggie.org