I am ambivalent about writing this article. It is likely to bring hate mail, the kind of letters you receive after you publicize someone’s favorite location for fishing, surfing, abalone diving or collecting morel mushrooms. Those who value a finite resource don’t want publicity. Fortunately I don’t think many Bay Area residents read the Davis Life, and those who do already know what I am saying. Please don’t forward this article to anyone living on the far side of the Carquinez Straits.

The most significant reason why Davis is such a great place in summer is the low density of people. College students are our bread-and-butter, our baby sitters, waiters, and store clerks, and the future of California rests in their able hands, but this is a case where absence makes the heart grow fonder. I appreciate the students more in July and August than in mid-September when the traffic on the streets increases ominously each day. Low population density means not having to wait for cars before crossing Eighth Street, shorter lines at the supermarket or movies, no delay getting tables in restaurants, and walking the side streets at night listening to crickets and cicadas without hearing traffic noise. The night is wondrously still during summer. We eat outside listening to the silence, broken only by the occasional mournful train whistle and crows flying to downtown roosts. The parade of visitors adds variety to the town-- the cheerleaders, soccer teams, conference attendees with their plastic name tags, and tour groups with cameras photographing local