嘿嘿视频

CHANCELL-ING: Getting Back to Business

News
Davis Needle
The Davis Needle at Third and A streets, as seen in May of 2019. (Gregory Urquiaga/嘿嘿视频)

You can feel glimmers of hope that downtown Davis is coming back to life.

Chancell-ing column logo

Of course, we have a way to go before it鈥檚 business as usual again. The COVID-19 pandemic has turned the economy upside down. The university, the city and our local business owners are certainly feeling the strain. In some cases, such signature businesses as Bistro 33 and Davis Sports Shop have closed for good during the past few weeks.

My hope is that we can show support for our local businesses while making sure we stay safe. Many local shops have done a great job in following public health orders by enforcing mask rules, offering hand sanitizer and limiting occupancies to prevent virus spread.

Past partnership provides a model

I am certainly rooting for our business owners during these historic times. I think of areas like the intersection of Third and A streets, a key link between 嘿嘿视频鈥 lecture halls and the wider community with its businesses and services. Just about a year ago, we celebrated an improvement project at Third and A streets that brought new paving, street lighting, bike racks and other features to this signature part of town.

And of course, you can鈥檛 help but enjoy 鈥淭he Davis Needle,鈥 a 25-foot sculpture made of repurposed bike parts that now marks this business corridor. In the coming weeks, you鈥檒l see new banners along Russell and Fifth Streets that further demonstrate our shared interests in our community.

This multi-year project where the campus meets downtown took a lot of coordination between 嘿嘿视频, the city and its business community. This is the kind of partnership and goodwill that鈥檚 needed to get Davis through the uncertainties of the coming days.

We鈥檒l also need a lot of resilience, and it鈥檚 a good thing that our Davis business owners and organizational leaders are a tenacious bunch.

Inspiring alumni

Danea Horn comes to mind. She鈥檚 a 嘿嘿视频 Ph.D. student in agricultural and resource economics who co-owns the Burger Patch at Davis Commons. This vegan restaurant was originally supposed to open on Picnic Day in April, though COVID-19 changed all that.

Horn and her husband, Phil, kept pushing while adapting to this new age of dining. They focused on a business model that emphasized take-out food and learned all they could about online ordering apps. After a series of successful preview events, Burger Patch held its grand opening in late-June and continues to draw faithful customers.

I鈥檓 also thinking of Gia Battista, a 嘿嘿视频 alum who serves as a founding director of the Davis Shakespeare Festival.

The festival was set to celebrate its 10th year in July, but COVID-19 forced the cancellation of its stage productions. Yet instead of going down in defeat, Battista found virtual ways of sharing their love of Shakespeare and theater. They created online Shakespeare reading groups and a series of youth workshops that were a hit.

It takes a village

Throughout this time, it鈥檚 been encouraging to see such strong local support for our business community. The Gifting Stimulus Program launched in April by the Davis Downtown Business Association, or DDBA, was an overwhelming success. More than $200,000 was pumped into downtown businesses through a gift card program that also included matching funds split between the DDBA and city of Davis.

Let鈥檚 keep this kind of support going for our local businesses. And let鈥檚 also continue to wear our masks and practice physical distancing so we can get past this pandemic. If we all work together, we can enjoy business as usual once again.

Chancellor Gary S. May鈥檚 monthly column appears and then in Dateline 嘿嘿视频.

Primary Category

Secondary Categories

Current Perspectives

Tags