Local music store approved for alcohol license

Downtown record store Armadillo Music is looking to introduce beer to its wide array of novelties including vinyl, CDs, DVDs and music-related merchandise.

Owner Joshua Chapman applied for a Type 40 License, allowing specifically the sale of beer for consumption on site. On April 10, City of Davis’ Planning Commission unanimously approved the Public Convenience and Necessity Determination for Armadillo Music.

Chapman has plans to build a nine-foot-long bar in the store, complete with six beer taps –– four of which will feature local breweries and two that will be rotated through. Alongside the taps, the owners hope to provide non-alcoholic drinks such as sodas, waters and juices, as well as snack options. The presence of alcohol on site will not prohibit underage customers from entering the store due to this particular type of license.

“One of our goals from the very beginning, back in 1996, was to bring music and the community together, and we definitely embraced the college students as part of our community,” Chapman said. “The good thing about the Type 40 beer license is that it doesn’t exclude anybody. It doesn’t matter how old the person is, they can still come into the store and shop and buy music. We’re trying to include all the demographics across the board.”

Back in 2014, Armadillo Music moved into its current location at 207 F St. for the larger space and ability to build a small stage to host local bands, touring artists or even first-time performers. Davis and East Bay-based band Busy Lighthouse has performed multiple times at the downtown music hub. Jesús Rico, a fourth-year mechanical engineering major and lead vocalist and guitarist of the band, expressed how the Armadillo Music stage serves as a platform for growing artists to find a larger fanbase and how beer would add to the experience of performing.

“Of course I’m speaking for the people I know, but [most people] just drink for the atmosphere,” Rico said. “They’re not drinking to cause a ruckus or be obnoxious. It’s about trusting your community.”

The inspiration to pair live music with locally-brewed beers came from Chapman’s experiences at different record stores across the country. In addition to the bar, four listening stations will be set up for customers to sample music.

“We’ll have listening stations along the windows with turntables,” Chapman said. “People can sit down, grab a record, listen to music on headphones and have a beer. It’s just a way to have people come in and spend more time in here, interact and engage with a medium of music maybe they’re not used to.”

Aside from performing gigs, Josh Zucker, the Busy Lighthouse drummer and a third-year atmospheric sciences major, would find more incentive to visit the store if listening stations are available.

“I’ll just look at the records, but I don’t buy them because I don’t have a record player at home,” Zucker said, noting that the in-store turntables “would be great.”

The store’s application necessitated action from local jurisdiction to host a public hearing meeting due to the nature of the license, the high concentration of existing alcohol licenses and high level of crime in the downtown area.

“This request for Armadillo Music is a little bit novel because it’s for a music store,” said Tom Callinan, the City of Davis planning technician. “It is supportable because they have limited amount of square footage, and it’s going to remain in the store, which primarily sells music.”

Callinan noted that the City’s main concern was any law enforcement-related issues proposed by the police department. Consultation with the police department showed no law enforcement concerns with this particular license request.

“Eventually, if there’s something that’s going to increase crime to cause more offenses, or if there’s already existing problems with crime involving that establishment or area of town, the police are going to be the ones aware of that, and also the ones that are going to have to deal with any ramifications,” Callinan said.

Armadillo Music now awaits more approval from the building and health departments regarding its construction plans and inspections. The project is estimated to be complete before early June in time to support the Davis Music Fest in mid-June.

Written by: Renee Hoh — city@theaggie.org

Traffic enforcement part of cities solution to improve Mace Boulevard

There will be increased traffic enforcement on Mace Boulevard and Cowell Boulevard each Thursday and Friday from 3 to 8 p.m, according to a March 26 statement by the Davis Police Department. The increase in traffic is related to the city’s Mace Boulevard Improvement project.

“The traffic in this area is an ongoing issue that has resulted in many concern for our Davis residents,” the statement said. “The main goal will be to increase visibility, perform selective enforcement, (specifically gridlock violations), and monitor other unsafe behavioral driving.”

The Mace Boulevard Improvement project began in 2013 when the Davis Joint Unified School District completed a survey among its students about their transportation to school. They found that students who commuted through Mace Boulevard had the lowest rates of walking or biking in the district.

“The cars kind of go kind of fast on there, and there’s like an overpass and people are merging onto the freeway and coming out of that street so it can get kind of dangerous,” said Michelle Acoba, a second-year electrical engineer major and Davis resident of 19 years. “There can be a lot of traffic if people are trying to merge in and out of the freeway.”

Today, the project is still ongoing. A report released by the City of Davis Public Works department in January stated that the work should have done by March.

“In order to perform the final paving and striping, dry weather with temperatures in the high 50 to 60 degree range will be necessary,” the report said. “It is presently estimated all of the work will be done by late February, or early March pending acceptable weather.”

According to Acoba, while the majority of Mace Boulevard is fine to navigate through, the intersection of Mace Boulevard and Cowell Boulevard has had a lot of traffic.

“It’s really irritating because there’s a lot of restaurants there like [Taqueria] Guadalajara and Wok of Flame, and when when I’m trying to get food or hang out with friends it’s really annoying,” Acoba said. “The streets are kind of weird — like where to turn left or right — like you don’t really know where you’re supposed to go.”

According to Idan Shemy, a second-year computer science major and former Unitrans trainee, the area of traffic enforcement — Mace and Cowell — has a very difficult intersection to navigate through.

“We call it the Mace curve, which is the curve from Mace to Cowell or Cowell to Mace,” Shemy said. “It’s a school zone, for a really long time, but there’s reason a student would run out into the street anyways, and the school is so far away from the street, so maybe it shouldn’t be a school zone for so long.”

According to a different Facebook post released by the Davis PD on April 2, there is still some work to be done. Paving and striping on Mace were done on April 3 and 4.

“We are in the process of working on urgent and long-term solutions to the Mace traffic problem,” the report said. “[…] Paving must be completed now and temporary striping will be added immediately with final striping will be added immediately with final striping to follow.”

Written by: Hannan Waliullah — city@theaggie.org

City to promote sustainable landscaping with City Hall frontage redesign

Landscape irrigation accounts for up to 65% of water use in the Sacramento Valley, according to the City of Davis website. The site goes on to encourage residents to implement sustainable landscaping that will reduce water use and runoff, improve wildlife habitat and foster healthy soils. With the Russell Boulevard Green Street Demonstration Project, the city aims to go beyond only encouraging sustainable practices by demonstrating these practices in action.

The Russell Boulevard Green Demonstration Project — which the city must complete no later than May 1, 2020 — will redesign the Russell Boulevard frontage of City Hall, converting nearly 25,000 square feet of turf to drought tolerant landscaping. The grant-funded project will also create seven new gardens and planters, new permeable paved seating areas and walkways and a vegetated swale — all of which is intended to capture, filter and control stormwater and runoff.

Candidate plants for the project include native and adaptive drought tolerant plants such as “island pink,” baccharis pilularis and “blonde ambition,” as well as stormwater plants like “elk blue” and accent and street trees.

Mayor Brett Lee commented on these plant type changes.

“We’re expecting that it’ll actually be a good example of sort of native plants and things that typically use less water,” Lee said.

Showcasing these sustainable techniques specifically at City Hall is a strategic move. Mike Webb, the city manager, said that the city hopes to lead by example in offering these examples of green redesign.

“The idea of doing it at City Hall really arose out of the idea that we have a lot of people that visit us and visit City Hall that are local architects [and] contractors that could benefit from seeing first-hand some of these techniques put into practice,” Webb said. “We as a city often find ourselves in a position of requesting — or in some cases even requiring — that certain drought tolerant features and runoff control features be integrated into private development projects. What better way to help sort of encapsulate that or to sort of promulgate those ideas by us as the city doing as we say?”

Stephen Wheeler, a landscape architecture and environmental design professor at UC Davis, said that the project seemed like a good idea, and highlighted the importance of sustainable practices like stormwater control.

“There’s no reason why not all stormwater runoff should be handled onsite by streets and parking lots,” Wheeler said. “That’s better for the ecology of the water table, and it avoids runoff into local waterways, which tends to erode and to have negative effects, and just takes the water out to the Pacific Ocean.”

The project is funded by a California Natural Resources Agency Urban Rivers grant, which was awarded to Davis in December 2017.

The 2014 Proposition 1 Water Bond funds the Urban Rivers grant program in order to support green infrastructure projects that “conserve water; improve water quality; buffer climate change impacts; reduce greenhouse gas emissions; and restore as well as protect rivers, creeks and streams,” according to the city’s calendar event of a Russell Boulevard Green Demonstration Project community input session.

In addition to its greening efforts, the project may also make City Hall more inviting to visitors, incorporating two plazas with permeable paving, shaded seating and interpretive signs, as well as new sand pedestrian pathways and an ADA-accessible boardwalk.

Dale Sumersille, the parks and community services director and lead on the project, said signage will be educational, referencing hopes for QR codes on the signs.

“Our goal is also with this project is to make this an opportunity for education,” Sumersille said.

Sumersille acknowledged the limits of Davis’ current green infrastructure teaching.

“[What] we need to do a better job of is in educating the public of what green infrastructure looks like,” Sumersille said. “Sometimes they’re very overwhelmed by some of the things, so if we can show them this is what we mean, then they have a better understanding of it.”

The project as a whole also features a public art opportunity. The civic arts commission is seeking an artist or collaborative team to design artwork that will adorn the faces of six planned concrete seat cubes, each measuring 2 feet by 2 feet. The city’s request for proposals said the artwork should “reflect sustainability, greening-related themes, local flora and fauna, history of place, and/or the architectural themes of City Hall,” and suggested using mosaic glass, tile or stone panels, ceramic tile squares or “artfully arranged items encased in weather-resistant resin.”

The artwork element is planned to be unveiled in November of 2019.

Currently, the city is still in the bidding process. Sumersille said that the city had to go out to bid a second time, as bids received for construction the first time around were incomplete.

Cunningham Engineering has been developing the project design, and Sacramento Regional Conservation Corps will help with the demo.

The city has sought to involve the public both with community outreach meetings for the project and with a volunteer opportunity that will be announced toward the project’s completion in which community members can help with landscaping.

Wheeler said that this project leaves opportunity for more implementation of green streets and sustainable landscaping practices.

“The biggest story might be simply that maybe we’re entering a new era of street and parking area design in Davis that many of whose strategies will be illustrated by this,” Wheeler said. “Green streets are a movement which is relatively recent, which hopefully will expand quite a lot.”

Written by: Anne Fey — city@theaggie.org

City of Davis celebrates food with 19 purveyors offering samples to those who purchase tickets

From baked goods, pizza and wines to specialty brews, the City of Davis recruited 19 companies to offer food and beverage samples to those who attend this year’s celebration of food: A Taste of Davis.

The event will take place on April 25 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Davis Odd Fellows Lodge Hall downtown at 415 2nd Street Each year, The Odd Fellows offers up invitations to various businesses willing to showcase what they do best.

“We invite restaurants, breweries, wineries, dessert houses, etc. to participate,” said Dan Rosenberg, the co-chair of A Taste of Davis. “It is by invitation only. We do not charge them to participate. They agree to provide samples to the guests. This year, we have 19 purveyors in the Taste of Davis. Tickets are $20 per person, and for that price, guests sample food and drink from these 19 purveyors. It started as another community function of the Lodge, featuring the town’s restaurants, wineries and breweries for the enjoyment of the community.”

Rosenberg has played a huge part in putting on this event since the first year the festivity started. He described the function as “probably the premier social event for the City of Davis” and explained how much of a bargain it is to have access to 19 businesses for $20.

Ticket sales have been open since March 16 and will last until the day of the event if space is available. Presale tickets range from $20-25 at the door, and individuals may acquire a ticket beforehand at The Avid Reader in downtown Davis.

Securing a ticket allows people access to drink and food from the following cafes, caterers, restaurants and breweries: Chay Corner, Chickpeas, Common Grounds, DeVere’s Irish Pub, Dunloe Brewery, The Hotdogger, Jack’s Urban Eats, Lamppost Pizza, Lazi Cow, Let Them Eat Cake, Matchbook Wine Company, Sudwerk Brewing Company, Sundstrom Wines, Seasons Kitchen and Bar, Solomon’s Delicatessen, Three Mile Brewing Company, Turkovich Family Wines, Upper Crust Baking Co. and Water Pig.

Each year, the 300 men and women that make up the fellowship choose a company to donate a share of the money raised to. This year’s beneficiary for the event is the Yolo Food Bank.

“What an exciting honor for Yolo Food Bank to benefit from this 10th annual event,” said Joy Cohan, the director of philanthropic engagement for the Yolo Food Bank. “Bringing together a celebration of Davis’ food and beverage purveyors to support those in the community who are not able to dependably provide nutritious food for themselves and their families is both a brilliant and meaningful selection on the part of Davis Odd Fellows. Yolo Food Bank is deeply grateful for this opportunity.”

Students, staff and faculty interested in volunteering with Yolo Food Bank are welcomed and encouraged. More information about volunteer roles and how to become involved can be found on the Yolo Food Bank website.

The Davis Odd Fellowship hopes to provide another successful year of wine and food tasting as residents inside and outside of Davis get a chance to experience A Taste of Davis.

“Folks enjoy the opportunity to chat with friends and neighbors, and to see and be seen,” said Lea Rosenberg, a long-time co-chair of A Taste of Davis.  

The Rosenbergs urge those interested to reach out and buy tickets early as they do sell out and prices may increase.

Written by: Lauren Tropio — city@theaggie.org