Davis Downtown Business Association

The mission of the Davis Downtown Business Association is to promote the physical and financial health of the downtown as the primary business, social and cultural center of the City of Davis thereby enhancing our community at large. Our downtown spans 37 blocks with over 700 member businesses including retail, professional, service businesses, restaurants, hotels, and movie theaters. Downtown Davis serves as the city's center for business, culture, and entertainment.

Business and property owners, by virtue of their downtown location, are members of the the DDBA. Each business pays a Business Improvement District Fee to the City of Davis based on their annual revenue, which is used to fund DDBA activities. The DDBA, often in hand with the City of Davis organizes and promotes many events and activities that benefit the Downtown Davis Business Community. These events are designed to bring people downtown and increase pedestrian and retail activity.

Board of Directors

Events & Activities

• The Davis Downtown Gift Card
• Friday Nights Downtown
• Annual Sidewalk Sale
• Fall Welcome for UCD students
• Trick-or-Treat Downtown
• Holiday Open House - Children's Parade, Tree Lighting, business open houses
• Holiday Activites Downtown
• Breakfast with Santa
• Davisfest
• 2nd Friday ArtAbout

See also the Davis Downtown Event Calendar.

2007-10-25 09:13:23   It would be great to do an annual Art Walk in Davis - like the Sac's Second Saturday. I know it's riding on Sacramento's coattails, but I just attended their Second Saturday Art Walk, and it was fantastic. I can only imagine how grand this would be in Davis, and people would finally notice all of our cool shops and galleries. We went into this hair salon that was displaying local art, and oh man - we're going back for a shi'shi hair cut, seriously. It's good for business. —TimQuick

2008-07-26 19:27:53   The DDBA is a total rip... I had my shop in the basement of a building on the corner of 4th and E for 2 years and they kept sending me bills (which I paid) for "downtown beautification". I work in a freakin basement, I don't see the benifits of Downtown Beautification. And when it came time to promote my business, they kept "forgetting" to list me under bike shops even though the City and the Chamber (of which I am not a member yet) listed me. Finally after I kept on them, they listed me in their publication, with the wrong phone #. They just finally got everything right, and now I'm moving my shop, go figure. What a total waste of time. Hopefully their new director will do things better. —Aaron.Curtin

2009-06-04 23:30:49   I just read Tanya Perez's June 4 *Davis Enterprise* column: "Downtown businesses, have I got an idea for you!" Her idea is a really great one: to create a downtown gift card to resolve the hand-wringing process that most parents in this town face, when, at the end of the school year, we thank the numerous teachers, school/program staff, aides, coaches, sitters, etc. who are so generous to give of themselves in providing our children with happy, mostly-healthy, life skills—we're spoiled and we want to spoil them.

This idea of keeping gifts local to Davis is a real issue that Tanya hits on the head: For instance, I'm in a group of parents that was recently debating on an email list between offering $200+ for an Outdoor Davis gift certificate or the same sum for a Costco gift card...). You get the idea.

If such a universal gift card were created for use at local businesses, by the Davis Downtown Business Association, I'd rally we challenge them too, to give back. In line with the “Act local, think global” bumper sticker slogan, such a gift card program could provide an additional mechanism (and additional incentive to gift card buyers) to donate a percentage of the card purchases to worthy, viable nonprofits doing good for the planet—not necessarily in Davis—maybe dog eared by the gift card buyer? (see http://www.charitynavigator.org/). Or, even better, as a way to focus energy and attention in giving, Davis could 'adopt' a less fortunate town in another, less fortunate country—-not just a ‘sister’ town but a ‘sponsored’ town…

Because, like I said, we, our children, and our community are pretty much spoiled with so much thoughtful reciprocity in community building and gift giving, collectively, we can do a lot of good in the world by modeling what a good community does: think of others as well as care for ourselves and our own.

—wryezome

• You are apparently ahead of your time. As of December 3rd, the DDBA has released its new universal Downtown Davis Gift Card that works at over 200 stores, shops, and restaurants. The only places to purchase it are at The Avid Reader, through the DDBA itself, or online. Once I have more info readily available, I will create a page for it linked to this page. —SunjeetBaadkar

2012-12-18 17:48:19   I was thinking about purchasing a Downtown Davis Gift Card for someone. I looked, and one of the two places I was sure she'd want to spend it wasn't on their list. I was also very turned-off by the targeted lobbying on their page, blaming the 72¢ increase in their administrative fee per card on the Durbin Amendment to the Dodd-Frank law. While I have no doubt that the bank providing the backing for the gift card HAS increased the fee charged to DDBA, which then has to pass it along, I think they're guilty of over-simplification of the effort to finally try to break the oligopoly of mega-banks controlling the credit- and debit-card market in this country. It just reminds me that the DDBA has started to march in step with the Chamber of Commerce, and I'm not in political alignment with either one. —DougWalter

* I have tried to bring this up with the director of DDBA. I don't think they fundamentally understand how gift card services work, or the purpose of gift certificate driven marketing. The idea that a consumer looking for a nice gift idea for their college student, friend, etc, would find the card, think that paying money for the sake of loading money on a card that can only be used certain places, and then taking the time to lobby their Congress person is.... a little out of touch. My business buys paper gift certificates, usually sells them at a discount, and the third party service I use to sell them online takes 5%. It's the cost of doing business and I know that the money is now locked in to my business. I would be happy if the fee I pay to the DDBA every year would go toward covering the minimal cost of this card instead of nickel and diming and ultimately turning off potential Davis shoppers.