Fortunate that the drooling moron mayor of Davis now sleeps with the squashed toads.
[HT: Armchair Sinner: "Gawd, I forgot about Julie Partansky: a proponent of leaving potholes unpaved, lest we should lose their historic value (I'm not joking); one of the architects of the Dark Skies campaign, which dimmed and shaded streetlamps to better view the stars, much to the delight of drunken college students, graffiti "artists," rapists and muggers (finally, we folks in the Downtown Davis Business Association -DDBA- been able to make some headway against this crime issue); and, last but not least, Ms. Partansky was a vocal opponent of mosquito abatement, particularly with respect to West Nile Virus spraying.Posted by gerardvanderleun at February 12, 2017 5:08 PMRIP, Julie, 'cause now that you're gone, we sure are.
Oh yeahhh, we can't forget this little gem either (sorry about the Jon Stewart/Stephen Colbert link, but it's funny and from way back in 1999, when he wasn't so insufferable.):"]
You vastly misstate the goal of Dark Skies. With proper lighting, the light is not shaded, it is focused down on the ground where it is needed. Dark skies are a resource that should be conserved.
Posted by: Mike at February 12, 2017 7:14 PMI am not a fan of light pollution, but, with all due respect, Mike, the Dark Skies campaign in Davis, CA struck legislation at least a decade before LED lamps (which have their own light-quality issues) became the new norm in streetlamps. At that time, in order to focus output of the already-present Sodium vapor lamps downward, many of them were fitted with what we vintage car enthusiasts would call eyebrows, which are shades by any other name.
The eyebrows have 2 benefits: 1) they do indeed focus light downward, and 2) they reduce lamp glare as seen from houses directly across the street from the lights. However, reducing line-of-sight glare has an unattended consequence via the penumbrae (and antumbrae) of the shade, which often falls across front lawns and side yards, especially in developments and parks with sparser lighting or the newer dimmed lighting, like the downtown park in which a coed was raped late in 2015-- just out of earshot from other party-goers.
While many consider Davis a quaint and safe town, the fact is that Davis has (and has always had) some of, if not the highest, property crime rates in Yolo County-- a surprising factoid, in light of the various easy-mark shitholes surrounding the city that do not have the necessary funds for adequate policing (I'm looking at you, Woodland and West Sacramento); and while light pollution is indeed a nice little benefit, if you can get it, having sufficient illumination is a little bit nicer for home and vehicle owners, especially when their city is so easily accessible by highway.
Of course, these thoughts would never cross the mind of a mayor who rented (so it's been told) and bicycled everywhere. Affable and kind as she may have been, she's always reminded me of Robin William playing the King of the Moon's disembodied, floating head:
Shuck'd hence his stinking earthbound coil, for golden thoughts disburs'd in aether. Forsworn consideration come the toiling man, but joyously harped about the fucking weather.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5zVbzWgByk
Posted by: Armchair Sinner at February 14, 2017 6:42 PMAnd it's sinner for the win!
Posted by: Vanderleun at February 14, 2017 7:25 PM
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