But the limited growth policies that have remained popular with the Council (and a majority of the citizens, it would seem) have also kept the price of real estate high. Davis maintains the necessary amount of low-income housing, but many of the occupants are entry level workers at the town's biggest employer -- the University. These people tend to have college degrees and are -- you guessed it -- predominantly white with a large proportion of Asians as well. There simply is not enough space to fill the demand in Davis, and this has caused quite a premium in the cost of owning or even renting real estate in the city. There is another gesture of economic favoritism that speaks even more tellingly about the unconscious racialization of Davis. The housing development that has occurred in the past twenty years saw the creation of two enormous semi-gated communities with generally large and expensive homes. Again, the racialization did not occur on a direct level, but...

I grew up in one of these tract homes, and I cannot recall ever having had a black or Hispanic neighbor. There were a few Asians around the block, however.
People in Davis do not treat each other differently based on race. They don't really need to -- there aren't enough people of another race for them to take notice. I myself am guilty of this. But the deeper problem is on a policy and institutional level. Until the real world economic disparities of the racial issue is fixed, every decision is racialized.

References

City of Davis. "Who's who on the City Council." Accessed 13 April 2009. http://cityofdavis.org/cmo/whoswho.cfm

FactFinder. "U.S. Census Bureau Statistics." Accessed 13 April 2009. http://factfinder.census.gov/home/saff/main.html?_lang=en

U.S. Census Data. "City of Davis, California, 2000." Accessed 13 April 2009. http://davis.areaconnect.com/statistics.htm