View From the Saddle: Into the Past

Biking to the Solano Park Apartments—on the UC Davis side of the arboretum gateway—is like traveling back several decades into the past.

Initially I wondered: what is going on with this very large, spacious apartment complex that is full of green space and playgrounds? Even the apartment patios are covered in children’s toys.

Is this where faculty live? I expected to see independent students, but there were so many small children.

After posting on Facebook, I received a fair amount of community input. Locals revealed that Solano Park Apartments is designated as UC Davis family housing. There were accounts of grad students living there at relatively affordable rates with their spouses and children.

A lot of people have fond memories of living there. A friend even told me that my grandmother and aunt had lived there at one point. I'm glad to have stumbled upon Solano Park Apartments and asked questions that initiated a dive back into the past.

Unfortunately, perhaps, rumor has it that the complex is slated to be torn down in the near future. Others say that plans to tear down the complex go back about a decade, so it is hard to know how long the opportunity to bike through this unique landscape and feel a particular sense of Davis nostalgia might last.