New train stops opened in Fairfield, Vacaville

The Capitol Corridor train stations recently opened up new stops in Fairfield and Vacaville to provide commuters another option for travel.

Meanwhile, the City of Fairfield plans to revamp the area with a new downtown so that people have easier access to the train station. Dave Feinstein, a planning division manager for the City of Fairfield, notes that the station will provide more than just transportation for commuters.

“The train station is the centerpiece for a much larger land plan around the station itself,” Feinstein said. “We have a land plan within half a mile of that station, which will include a new downtown. There is a street that will lead from the town centre area right to the train station about a block away. It’s what we call a ‘transit village’ here in the city of Fairfield.”

The new stops were installed after years of planning.

“The earliest planning that I’ve seen for this station leads to the early 1990s,” Feinstein said. “In 2005, the Capitol Corridor approved a resolution. There were a collection of decisions along the way that lead to the station. It takes a long time for the fundings and to actually build it and working with the Union Pacific Railroad to stay within their right of way and accommodate the platform. It takes a long time, but we’re finally there.”

The train will provide an alternative option for commuters, which could also lessen the congested traffic during rush hours.

“One of the things we work very hard to do is to provide people with choices for how they get places,” Feinstein said. “The problem is so many people try to drive at the same time, which clogs our freeways during the commute hours.”

The stops will allow commuters to travel to neighboring cities like Davis, and the train will also link commuters to other forms of transportation at different stops as well.

“It goes to UC Davis, downtown Sacramento, and you can connect to the bus system,” Feinstein said. “It goes all the way down to the heart of the East Bay and connects to BART in Richmond. It continues all the way down to San Jose so there are a large range of options.”

Michael Hendley, a transportation services manager for Capitol Corridor, considered both the negatives and positives of the new train stations.

“Trains will have more noise, as far as the sounds of horns and safety measures for the crossings,” Hendley said. “[However,] the positives outweigh the negatives because now you’re reducing the amount of cars that are within the city and reducing greenhouse gasses.”

Hendley also noted that students and other people headed for Davis would be able to travel more efficiently.

“The new Fairfield and Vacaville stop will positively impact Davis because there will be less passengers going into Davis to get on the train because some passengers live on the outskirts of Davis, like Dixon, [which is] in between Vacaville and Davis,” Hendley said. “We’re going to see those passengers boarding from Fairfield and Vacaville and bringing out traffic from Davis.”

People moving away from the Bay Area will also be looking at transportation services provided, so the new stations could allow more options for those new to the area.

“As the real estate market increases in the Bay Area, people moving out will look for housing and choose to commute, and they’ll be on the freeway,” Hendley said. “So, to get them off the freeways, I think the stations that we have like Fairfield and Vacaville will give them the opportunity for convenience. The trains have Wi-Fi, so people can start their workday on the train, so that helps them out.”

Priscilla Kalugdan, a marketing communications officer for Capitol Corridor, explained that adding the new stops would not impact travel times for the other stations.

“The new stop has been planned for within our new schedule,” Kalugdan said. “We’ve reduced the station dwell times from two minutes to one minute at four of our stations, and that’s part of an overall project that we’re embarking upon. Dwell times is how long a train will stop to board passengers.”

Kalugdan pointed out that people are still searching for new ways to travel or commute, and that Capitol Corridor could potentially provide more choices for those who seek ways to avoid traffic.

“Our riders continue to grow each year, and people are searching for options away from the congested freeways,” Kalugdan said. “We certainly welcome more riders on board and are happy to offer any convenient mode of travel for them.”

Written by: Stella Tran — city@theaggie.org

KDVS hosts dance party fundraiser at Delta of Venus

In downtown Davis on Nov. 16, KDVS hosted its fall fundraiser at Delta of Venus cafe. As part of a yearly effort to raise $70,000, the Davis radio station brought out its local DJs to bump music for a night of drinks and dancing.

“All my DJs did a great job,” said Mitchell Rotter-Sieren, the general manager for KDVS. “All of them did this thing called free pledges, where they ask a different family to help support the station, and we got funds from listeners as well. I’d say overall it went really well.”

The lineup included Larry Rodriguez, Breezy, Cherry Blossom and DJ Tropa, among other KDVS DJs. According to KDVS design director Violet Elder, most DJs played “their greatest hits and favorite songs for their show.” A DJ table was set up both inside the cafe and outside on the patio, with the inside DJ playing rock and funky music for dancers and the outside DJ acting as backdrop for a more mellow vibe. Party attendees could choose to mingle outside or venture onto the dance floor inside.

Beyond radio listener generosity, the night’s fundraising was also achieved through purchase of KDVS merchandise and tips put in the displayed donation jar. Additionally, drink purchases could be made from Delta of Venus’ selection of beers and hard ciders.

Members of KDVS prepared for the dance party fundraiser by hyping one another up before the event.

“There was a lot of love and excitement,” Elder said. “A bunch of people were hanging out in the lounge — way more than normal. Somebody brought down a whole bunch of food for us two days in a row. There was just a whole lot of excitement, especially because of our events like the dance party.”

Nithya Kumar, a fourth-year food science major, attended her first Delta of Venus event for the KDVS fundraiser.

“I thought it was really cool,” Kumar said. “It really fit KDVS’ vibe. It felt like a house party, but it was a more mature setting, which I really liked.”

As students like Kumar and Davis residents engaged in an evening of freeform radio music, KDVS worked toward fulfilling its operating budget. The $70,000 raised between the spring and fall fundraisers will help to pay KDVS salaries, radio tower rent and general maintenance. The radio station aimed to collect $35,000 from the dance party fundraiser.

Written by: Eliana Sisneros — city@theaggie.org

Candidates for City Council discuss changes they hope to bring to Davis

The upcoming election to determine who will fill the opening spot on Davis City Council in 2018 has already sparked the campaigns of several candidates in the Davis community, including Brody Fernandez, Eric Gudz and Dan Carson. All three candidates have a variety of experiences and goals they wish to show to the city of Davis.

At age 28, Brody Fernandez is the youngest candidate running for city council and is an enrolled returning student at UC Davis. His interest in running for office sprouted from his ongoing experience within the Davis community over the past decade as both a student and an Uber and Lyft driver.

“When I started going out there and talking to the constituents, to the citizens of Davis, to my neighbors, I discovered that there are people in the city who have the same fervent passion about fixing these issues as I do,” Fernandez said. “When I moved to Davis, I recognized that there were so many similarities with my hometown and so much that I saw that was positive, but additionally I started to see things that could be fixed and could be changed for the better. And being a journalist, I wanted to stop writing and wanted to actually go out and do things.”

His campaign focuses on a variety of issues, including normalizing the housing market as well as addressing parking in the city, transit and traffic safety and the campaign of loving your neighbor, in order to increase cooperation with neighboring cities.

“I not only identify with the students and the young people, but at the same time I can identify as a 28-year-old college graduate and effectively represent that demographic as well,” Fernandez said. “I was born into a working-class family. My father was a janitor and my mother is a retired school bus driver — that’s what I’m proud of most — to be able to have tangible experiences with the middle-class constituents that work in Davis.”

Eric Gudz, a recent UC Davis graduate, is also one of the youngest candidates running for office. They served as one of the architects for cannabis policy throughout the city and are on the Unitrans advisory, due to their experience with transportation research. Gudz became intimately familiar with particular issues and struggles that younger people were facing through their experiences both on and off campus.

“One of the biggest tragedies of Davis is that the connection we once had with the university is tragically under par and needs work,” Gudz said. “I want to build and provide for the next generation that will be a part of our Davis community, especially those that are struggling to find their place within our community. Front and center with that is issues around housing, the supply and condition specifically.”

Gudz’s interests also expand to getting solutions for economic innovation through creating space- and base-level entrepreneurship, as well as increasing spaces for social services like Planned Parenthood. They also are the first openly gender non-binary candidate to ever run in a Davis election.

“We’re building a movement that’s fueled by the next generation of Davisites,” Gudz said. “The campaign slogan is ‘A Seat for Everyone,’ and that means the necessity of including everyone, even those who haven’t been traditionally included. The ability to be able to connect with all that makes Davis what it is, [which] is absolutely imperative.”

The third candidate is Dan Carson, a 30-year-old Davis resident. His campaign focuses on three vital issues: the city’s financial condition, the town’s relationship with the university and sustainability in terms of issues such as homelessness, housing and climate change. Carson worked as a fiscal and policy expert for the state legislature in a nonpartisan and independent office for 17 years.

“The heart of my campaign is to protect the quality of life we all enjoy, and to do that we need to [be] fiscally stable and we need to address some of the real challenges this community faces including the shortage of affordable student housing,” Carson said. “One of the things I’m going to do if I’m elected to council is to try to establish an effective process for how we deal with this next round of growth in student enrollment and make sure we have a process where everyone is heard and we have a real dialogue that’s created to have a healthy long-term relationship with the university.”

Carson also recognized the high spirit of volunteerism in Davis, proactively working on a lot of these issues, and said that the Council’s task is to ease the burdens of the volunteers and share those appropriately.

“It gets down to the fact that Davis is such an amazing place,” Carson said. “We’ve got all of these passionate and dedicated people here — none of this is accidental. People choose to live in Davis or attend UC Davis in part because of our shared values.”

The election will be held on June 5, 2018. Community members have up to 15 days prior to the election to register to vote.

Written By: Hadya Amin — city@theaggie.org