Is Mayor Gary Davis Committing 'Rancho Cordovacation' of Elk Grove

Elk Grove Mayor Gary Davis

November 21, 2015 |

Let's start with this disclaimer - we in no way are trying to disrespect the good and hard-working residents of our sister city to the north and east of Elk Grove, Rancho Cordova.

Now that we have that out of the way, let's proceed.

For people who may not closely watch Elk Grove politics, our city's directly elected Mayor, Gary Davis, is a native of Rancho Cordova. Mayor Davis is proud of his roots for which we commend him.

Like most of us, he has used his Rancho Cordova upbringing as a basis for his life decisions and as an elected official. As readers of this news site may note, we often disagree with Mayor Davis.

There is, however, one area where we find common ground with Mayor Davis. That is on the piss-poor planning that has afflicted Rancho Cordova and how that same sort of planning has crept into Elk Grove.

While the Ranco Cordova leaders are trying to correct the numerous sins of Sacramento County planning and all the social ills it has caused, it is an on-going challenge. A cruise down Rancho Cordova's main circuit - Folsom Boulevard - reveals an ugly mishmash of strip centers populated with liquor stores, massage parlors, nail salons, fast food joints, smoke shops, prostitutes, and on the outer rings, topless bars.

On occasion, the mayor has spoken about this and has decried how this negatively affected the community of his youth. The Mayor has often said from the dais, he saw and felt the effects of the horrendous planning in Rancho Cordova at the hands of the County.

We agree with the Mayor. During the July 13, 2013, Elk Grove City Council meeting the mayor spoke and voted against the Walmart application to sell liquor at their Elk Grove Boulevard store. (Watch video below.)

Aside from the numerous, and we will add, hair-brained schemes the mayor has conjured up - think attracting David Beckham and his Major League Soccer franchise to Elk Grove or his desire to transform the city into a tourist destination - he will face another test soon regarding visual blight in Elk Grove.

As EGN reported, three of his fellow council members spoke wholeheartedly on Wednesday, November 18 for erecting electronic billboards throughout Elk Grove. Not surprisingly the trio of Vice Mayor Pat Hume and council members Steve Ly and Darren Suen indicated their support of more visual blight in Elk Grove.

Given that these three were all over this like stink on manure, the only thing left to see is who got to them financially. When financial disclosures are filed next year, we will see if it was Bruce Bishop, Sierra Outdoor/Outfront Media, Clear Channel Outdoor or some other electronic billboard operator pulling their strings.

And trust us, Council Member Ly doesn't have the institutional knowledge much less the ingenuity to suggest an electronic billboard workshop to City Manager Laura Gill without someone whispering in his ear and lining his pockets with cash.

The only thing missing from Ly's scene is his omnipresent personal photographer taking snapshots of the ascending pol. Hey, but who knows, he might be our Mayor or even Congressman some say - stranger things have happened.

That leaves Council Member Steve Detrick and The Mayor.

As we have seen with Detrick, there isn't a billboard developer he hasn't instantly become a friend of. Of course, that friendship has a price tag in the tens-of-thousands of dollars in campaign donations to slaughter some neighborhood of poor schleps who stand in his way, not to mention some fine wine and ski trips to the Sierra Nevada. Remember, that load of money doesn't influence his decisions though.

As for The Mayor, that is a bit of a mystery.

Will the Mayor remember all the blight created in the Rancho Cordova of his youth at the hands of piss-poor planning and fistfuls of dollars from developers? Or will he once again succumb to the allure of good cold-hard-cash from developers and once again sell the soul of Elk Grove?

We hope The Mayor uses his political - which isn't much anymore - display leadership for once, and kill this stupid idea lest when youth in our community, including his children, move away a few years from now to some other new edge city and bemoan the endless parade of liquor-shop-filled-strip-centers and a proliferation of gaudy electronic billboards populating their hometown. 

So what will it be Mr. Mayor - being courageous for a change and taking a stance for the future good of Elk Grove and try to nip this scheme in the bud or well you just be another tool in the "Rancho Cordovation" of Elk Grove?





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5 comments

Anonymous said...

Some of us are thinking the Mayor has placed Elk Grove second on his list, maybe even third. He has a full time job, plus his family and childrens needs. Add two businesses and the Charter School he is now pursuing and that leaves little time for the needs of the city which are many. You can sometimes spread yourself too thin and we believe that is what our Mayor is doing. We are no longer No. 1 after his family. Could we become a city as stated above? It appears we are headed in that direction, we have no core city, just strip centers and still too many vacancies. Of course that being said, we do have many projects somewhere...unknown to us taxpayers, in the works we're being told. Of couse we still have SEPA, but the city threw a dinger in that project with an unknown, the SOI, LAFCO project that started out as just some soccer fields for the kids.

Where is Elk Grove headed in the future...hopefully smarter heads will prevail and that house of cards they built will stand strong.

Thomas A. Anderson said...

Getting Davis or any of these council members to decline money from a developer is like trying to keep a meth head from scoring their fix. I have confidence they will do the wrong thing.

Warren Buffett said...

Most people came to Elk Grove because of the cheap homes and I'd bet that 95% of the residents never even heard of Gary Davis, nor do they care. He is not that important.

Proud to be a Sheep said...

.

Bring on the rooftops.

Bring on the crime.

Why do they want allow for the construction of more homes?

This city is full of residents most of whom can't find decent paying jobs in Elk Grove.

The council says that the business developers asked for rooftops.

Well there are already enough rooftops to house 160,000 people in Elk Grove.

What is with this penchant for building?

The reason that the Laguna area is going to pot is that the homeowners in that area move to the new subdivisions as opposed to staying and taking care of their homes.

Look at Antelope. That area went to the dogs when Rocklin, Lincoln and West Roseville were being developed.

Give people a chance to flee the gangbangers, car burglars, house burglars and they will.

Just like Los Angeles. They kept building and the older established areas became ghettos and barrios.


If we don't watch out and the developers keep slapping up stucco boxes on postage stamp lots, Elk Grove could become a sprawling suburban arm pit like Palmdale; dumpy neighborhoods with Section 8 on the east and high end neighborhoods on the west seperated by the railroad tracks along Franklin (just like Interstate 14 cuts west Palmdale off from the rest of the city.

Or closer to home;

Elk Grove, the new Stockton.

But hey, at least Stockton has a workforce that goes beyond low paying retail and food service.

.

Capt. Benjamin Willard said...

Undoubtedly Mayor Davis will vote for this when it eventually appears before the council, but he will be a bit more clever and re-frame the issue.

The Mayor will not talk about the extra revenue it might bring the city or how it be an economic development instrument. No, it will be all about the children.

The Mayor will say it is a valuable tool for things like Amber alerts and cite how an electronic billboard helped the FBI capture wanted criminals. But make no mistake, it will be all about the children.

Oh, by the way, Go Toledo Rockets!

http://www.sbnation.com/college-football/2015/11/22/9778308/ncaa-football-rankings-2015-week-13-ap-top-25

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