Pepperoni Ballots

The Davis Enterprise isn’t hurting for advertising these days. Next Tuesday in a local election the town of Davis will decide whether to allow a 1,864-unit housing development called Covell Village on the north side of town to go forward or not. Voices are running high, to say the least. Today’s headlines read “Tactics assailed: Covell Village criticized for ‘smear’ campaign”. The article goes on to describe events in this past week of early voting:

In the past week, Yes on X [the Covell Village project] was stopped from passing out free pizza coupons on the UC Davis Quad to students who gave proof they had voted; a Yes on X campaigner was asked to remove himself from working at the campus polling station; and a complaint was filed with the California Fair Political Practices Commission alleging that Yes on X is underreporting its campaign expenditures.

Not that the No on X folks are exactly innocent. There are a couple of entries in today’s two-page spread of letters to the editor from people who were either for Measure X or undecided on the project who were shocked and dismayed to see their names used in an anti-Measure X advertisement.

Opinions on the project range from it being sensible New Urbanist development to something that will cause horrible traffic problems and will bankrupt the city. Personally, I don’t believe that the housing mix will be very affordable, despite proponents’ claims to the contrary.

Not that we get to vote on the matter, living on the other side of the county border. At least this means we can courteously avoid engaging with those who will accost us tomorrow for votes at the Farmers’ Market.