Places: Davis, California

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By Mark Barna

Davis residents can be prickly about their city. Bring up the toad tunnel, the coming Target or GPS-equipped parking patrols and citizens either spout their opinions like a pent-up geyser or stare searchingly to glean your motives.

“Outsiders might think we are arrogant, and some of us have good reason to be,” says Janis Lott, who has lived in Davis for 30 years. “But we’re just passionate about this town because there is a quality of life here.

“People confuse arrogance with caring,” she says.

Davis’ population of 64,000 is split almost evenly between UC Davis students and everyone else. The city’s leafy downtown bustles with bicyclists, coffee shops, cheap and ritzy eateries, and boutiques. 

Eleven miles west of Sacramento, Davis is known for its throng of intellectuals (second most educated city in the country, according to Money magazine), cycling ethos (the city has more than 50 miles of bicycle paths), farmers’ markets (Wednesdays and Saturdays) and cutting-edge agricultural and biological research (courtesy of UC Davis).

The university is what has kept Davis from being indistinguishable from all those other Central Valley farm towns. Originating as the University Farm, the campus soon attracted more than farm boys learning animal husbandry — faculty and graduate students from the United States and foreign countries came to work and to study. They lived in town, whose southwest city limit abuts the campus’s northeastern boundary.

As can happen in other long-term relationships, there have been squabbles, some relatively mild, some downright hostile. A few years ago, alarmed at UC Davis’ bid to build a federal government biocontainment facility on campus, a contingent of residents mounted a multipronged campaign in opposition. They believe their protest played a large part in the lab’s being awarded elsewhere.

These myriad controversies and ordinances keep conversation brisk in the city. Residents were split on approving the Covell Village housing development and whether to allow a Target to be built in Davis (the first failed at the polls; the second prevailed). And online bloggers debate the use of GPS devices by downtown parking patrols. Alas, no more scraping chalk off a tire to avoid a fine.

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