Davis
was a nice little college town. However the town is
going in the wrong direction, now it is generally antagonistic
toward the University specifically antagonistic toward students. Too many people
have prevented development as the University has grown and as
a result the town has not kept up with the
needs of the students – not enough housing, not enough
shopping and not enough entertainment. Currently many students are forced
to find housing outside of Davis – which was not
the case previously. Another negative is the number of political
activists who stir up social discord at the expense of
young people. Over the past two years Davis has had
three times more people charged with hate crimes than the
per capita average for the state of California – every
one has involved young people, mostly high school and UCD
students. None of the cases have resulted in convictions because
the allegations have consistently been baseless. There is a
culture of crying wolf in Davis and that puts students
in danger.
Housing is a problem. Prices have risen dramatically
mainly because of general real estate price increase throughout the
region. The real problem is the way students are treated
– they are being taken advantage of by landlords and
the city of Davis is doing nothing to prevent it.
Students have to go to court to get security
deposits back.
The city of Davis is facing a cash
crunch (as are many other California communities) and one “solution”
has been strict enforcement of noise violation ordinances, If students
have a party they need to charge a fee to
cover the almost certain $120 noise violation.
I used
to have a very positive view of Davis – that
view has changed. Take a very close look before
sending your children to UCD.
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