Submitted by Julie Partansky 11/07

This entry relates to the past.

Categories: Davis Institutions, Famous People, Unforgettable Experiences. 

In 1991 I was working on a house on C Street between 6^th and 7^th Streets. A gravel alley ran behind the house.  The gal who lived in the house told me that there was a city surveyor in the alley taking measurements because the Public Works department was going to pave the alleys.

I became alarmed by this notion of the alleys being paved.  I had been living in the neighborhood since 1976 and loved the gravel alleys.  Walking or biking down them was one of my favorite things to do.  There is a lot of character to a gravel alley.  Puddles form when it rains; you can see clouds reflected in them. Birds take baths.  Cars drive slower.  People stroll down them as if its 100 years ago and life was simpler and slower.  The material of gravel, versus asphalt, is porous and rainwater permeates into the earth.  It’s a softer, gentler feel.

“Why would the city want to waste a bunch a money paving over our alleys?” I wondered.  I asked around the neighborhood and could find no one who wanted the alleys paved, AND no one knew about the plans!  “How could the City decide to dramatically impact a lot of people’s lives and NOT even consult with us?” I wondered.

Before you knew it I was surveying all the potentially impacted residents, and going to City Council meetings with other concerned residents to let our representatives know that 90% of the neighborhood did not want the alleys paved.  

I looked into other planned city projects and I was horrified.  There were plans to cut down

90 mature trees on 5^th Street to widen it for bicycle lanes, plans to bust open Richards Underpass and make it into a huge thoroughfare, plans to widen other streets in the downtown core.  All that character smashed to smithereens for cars?!!  That wasn’t what Davis was all about!  I decided to run for City Council.  Four years wasn’t enough time to stop all the bad projects, so I ran again in 1996 and received the most votes and thus became mayor two years later.