Have you seen these reclaimed signs? Meet the artist behind the message, Will Alpers.

Will Alpers was born in Sacramento and raised in Davis. A visual artist, educator, and volunteer at the Davis Night Market, his art can be found all around town. From the Pence Gallery and Davis Night Market to Third Space Art Collective on Arboretum Drive. 

Recently, he has begun writing messages on Davis Is For Everyone signs. 

We sat down with Will to learn more about his perspective on the shortcomings of the support services in Davis, and how his message could challenge intersectional marginalized solidarity.

Contact Will Alpers:

@willalpersss

walpersbusiness@gmail.com

linktr.ee/walpers

Interview with Will Alpers

As a local, what is your relationship to the city of Davis?

I have lived in Davis for my whole life. I grew up here, I was educated in the Davis public school system and graduated from Davis Senior High School, I studied Political Science at UC Davis, and after graduating college I am a Davis local. I care a lot about Davis, and I think enough people have good intentions here that great things could happen, if only we developed the political will.

How has your perception of Davis changed over the years? 

My perception has mostly stayed the same over the years. Davis is great, if you have money. I remember forming this opinion in elementary school, when I learned that kids in the GATE program with me often had parents with higher incomes than families with kids who weren’t in the GATE program. Aptitude in school seemed to correlate with family income more than some idea of inherent ability, and I disliked how school districts would elect to separate kids based on anything at all in the first place. In high school, I learned that many of my teachers did not even live in Davis because they felt priced out, living in Woodland or Sacramento instead. I felt deeply disgusted by this dynamic of how my own teachers could not justify living in my community, and to this day it still disgusts me.

People largely believe in social equality here, but not so much in economic equality. We can see this when opinions come up about what actions to take regarding the unhoused population. This is structural and part of the DNA of what it means to be a suburb in California and in the U.S., but I still believe that we can work toward a better reality in Davis and beyond if we put in the work regarding our blind spots toward the poor and unhoused.

Too many people in Davis are suffering because they lack housing, food, and support. At the same time, these issues of housing and affordability are by no means unique or exclusive to Davis. These are California problems. These are United States problems. These are global capitalism problems. These are problems way larger in scope than just Davis. But I believe there is so much more we can do to fight back than what we are currently doing. The fact that we aren’t doing more to help poor and unhoused people, despite the abundance of resources and wealth in Davis, appalls me. This is a dynamic that heavily informs my perception of my hometown.

I will share the single most positive thing I have ever encountered in Davis, and that is Davis Night Market. We distribute free food that is rescued from restaurants and vendors every Monday through Friday from 9-11pm at Central Park in Davis. I have been volunteering there consistently and often for the last several months now, and I enjoy sharing my art there for the public to see. I even put on an art exhibition there that was part of Second Friday ArtAbout back in June! Davis Night Market was also featured along with my art exhibition in a Davis Enterprise article from June 21, 2025, which is a very well-written overview of what happens at Night Market that I encourage everyone to read.

We feed the community and fight food waste at Davis Night Market, and it’s overall a very robust operation with a high volume of food distributed every night. I believe that Davis Night Market is a wonderful, egalitarian experience that makes Davis and the world a better place. I wish that free food distribution was more common across more cities and communities in this country and beyond. Davis Night Market really is a great model for distributing free food and for fighting food waste. If every community had a large, active group of volunteers distributing free food like this, I think that would put us on the path toward a much better world.

I am overall just so grateful for Davis Night Market, and I am especially grateful to be a part of it with my volunteer friends. I am so proud of the Davis Night Market volunteers for changing the world for the better, and I encourage anyone reading this to check them out.

How did you learn of the Davis Is For Everyone lawn sign? 

I have seen the Davis is For Everyone signs across Davis in many locations over the past year and a half or so. I have had the idea to alter the signs and plant them in public places for a while now, and then I began this project a few months ago. I was not aware until the beginning of my project a few months ago that the sign was specifically an effort of the Davis Phoenix Coalition and community contributors after the bomb threats by bigots against Davis schools happened in the fall of 2023.

What inspired you to reclaim the signs for your message?

I reclaimed the signs for my message because I felt a feeling of disagreement and annoyance every time I saw the sign in a business window or other public place. The sign, unfortunately, rings untrue to me.

The phrase “Except the Poor” popped in my head a while ago as a catchy counter to the catchiness of “Davis is for Everyone.” I shared with my friends and with strangers the idea of making that message on one of the signs, and I was met with overwhelming agreement and encouragement. When I asked people’s opinions of my altered signs before I planted them, people said things like “I was thinking exactly the same thing!” and “I had the same idea of doing that with the signs too.”

I also submitted two of my altered lawn signs to Third Space Art Collective’s July 2025 art exhibition “Eyes Wide Shut,” a politics themed exhibition. My signs were positively received by visitors during the reception a few weeks ago on July 11. I am happy to see that the message I wrote is a message that other people have thought as well, as I have been told over the course of this project.

As a side note, I am very grateful for Third Space Art Collective, and I owe much of my development as an artist to them. A significant portion of my art was created there during their public open hours on weekday evenings. It’s a great place for anyone to drop in and make art. Please check them out on 17 Arboretum Drive in Davis if you are interested in making art or in supporting the local art scene.

How did you acquire the signs? 

I acquired the signs from the Davis Food Co-op. I am grateful that the Davis Phoenix Coalition placed the signs in the co-op for the community to pick up and use, and I am grateful that DPC has a positive interest in the way that I used them.

What do you mean by “Except for the Poor”?

I have heard many poor and unhoused people express disapproval of the “Davis is For Everyone” sign because they do not feel included in the message or imagery of the sign. A primary purpose of my project with the signs is to amplify this feeling of alienation that a significant number of people in our community are feeling.

The “Davis is For Everyone” signs say one thing, but NIMBY Davisites say another. NIMBY Davisites say loudly with their actions that “Davis is Not For Everyone”, because they do not want to live near poor and unhoused people. This is what I mean when I say “Except the Poor.”

Davis undeniably has a dominant politics of people who say “Not In My Backyard” when it comes to housing and support services, and NIMBY is the opposite of “Davis if For Everyone.” Housing should be a human right guaranteed by our federal and state and local governments instead of a commodity in an immoral capitalist system, but unfortunately there are many people across Davis and California and the United States who seem to disagree.

I understand that a primary purpose of the Davis is For Everyone sign is to promote justice for LGBTQIA+ people, yet I also have heard opinions from people who are both LGBTQIA+ and poor or unhoused that they feel that the “Davis is For Everyone” sign does not speak to their experience as a poor queer person.

The fact is, Davis is not for everyone, in large part because of the actions of NIMBY Davisites who oppose housing for the poor, the unhoused, and students. If you are unhoused, you will not receive the support and help you need from the leadership and government of Davis, and you will face a general lack of compassion from community members who adopt the NIMBY ideology when it comes to building housing or support services. Davis police have harassed and harmed unhoused community members countless times, and unfortunately many Davis residents, particularly homeowners, support this. Our city government and leaders have not only fallen short in acting to help our unhoused population, but they are actively punishing unhoused people through recent measures such as Ordinance 2670. The ordinance makes public camping a misdemeanor, which is a harmful escalation and a threat to the unhoused population that is absolutely the opposite of what our community and our world needs right now.

It is not only this recent ordinance, of course, but a decades-long history of Davis NIMBYs fighting against policies that would help unhoused people. Too many times they get their way, but this is because NIMBY has been the dominant political culture of Davis for decades. It is part of a larger pattern of the Davis government and of most governments in general choosing to prioritize the wants of the comfortable and the wealthy over the needs of the poor.

I will give two recent examples of Davis NIMBY activism that informed my perspective.

When the new library in Walnut Park in South Davis was first proposed, many South Davis homeowners rallied to voice opposition to it based on the perception that a new library may bring unhoused people near their children and pose a safety risk. Luckily, the library was passed and is being built, but the NIMBYs seemed to interpret unhoused people as threats to the community rather than members of the community who are equally deserving of a library’s resources. I live in South Davis, and I am ashamed that people in my neighborhood would act in this way. Imagine that, Davis parents opposing a new library! I had thought that Davis parents valued education for their children above almost all else. I guess that’s not true if that educational resource also supports unhoused people. Libraries are for everyone. Apparently some Davis people disagree. As someone who grew up in South Davis, this infuriates me.

NIMBY Davisites also opposed the housing component of the new Nordstrom Rack development because it might have brought an unaesthetic tall building and large numbers of students to live near their homes. With that opposition in mind, the Davis City Council removed the housing component of that development, and Davis will be worse off for it. College students are a crucial part of the economy and life of Davis, and yet NIMBY Davisites stood in the way of welcoming more students into Davis who would have lived in that development near the UC Davis campus. As an alumnus of UC Davis myself, this infuriates me.

I will repeat that Davis NIMBYs are stating loudly with their actions that “Davis is Not For Everyone.” This infuriates me, and this is what I respond to when I make and plant my version of the “Davis is For Everyone” signs. 

What do you mean by “Davis ordinance 2670 says otherwise”?

Davis Ordinance 2670, which took effect in January 2025, makes public camping a misdemeanor. The ordinance further criminalizes any unhoused person trying to survive rather than offering housing or any kind of assistance from the city. If that is not the opposite of “Davis is for Everyone,” then I don’t know what is. I will state again that Davis Ordinance 2670 is the exact opposite of what our community and our world need right now, and to the city council members who voted to pass it, I say this: Please repeal the ordinance. Please house people. Please do better.

Current city council member and founder of Davis Phoenix Coalition Gloria Partida was one of the three city council members who voted to pass the ordinance in December of 2024. That is a disappointing and ironic fact to me that the person who founded the group that went on to make the “Davis is For Everyone” sign would then act to pass harmful policy and make Davis not for everyone. It is my hope that Partida and the rest of the council will reconsider their vote, repeal the ordinance, and change their direction toward policies that help people over ones that harm people, and I hope that this conversation could be a step toward that direction.

Why did you write your message over top of the progressive Pride flag?

Writing the message on the Pride flag was, in my mind as an artist, the most visually appealing way of getting my message across from a color theory perspective. The marker and the words would not have shown up well on any other part of the sign.

I am a strong supporter of LGBTQIA+ rights, especially transgender rights. I strongly oppose conservative efforts to harm and erase transgender and queer people. As a left-wing person, I am infuriated by the conservative movement in general.

If the Davis is For Everyone sign had instead stated something along the lines of  “In Davis, We Support LBTQIA+ People,” I would have no disagreement with that sign and would not think of making alterations to it. I feel the same way about, for instance, a Black Lives Matter lawn sign. I would not alter that sign because I have no disagreements with it. The Davis is For Everyone sign is a different story, and so I wanted to depict my disagreement with that exact phrase in the form of my art project.

I have also heard people describe the Davis is For Everyone sign as pinkwashing, a practice where an entity’s support for LGBTQIA+ rights is used to distract from the same entity’s harmful policies in other areas. I believe that the phrase “Davis is For Everyone,” placed above a pride flag on a sign, unintentionally plays into this dynamic on behalf of “Davis” either as a cultural or governmental entity. I do not believe that this was the Davis Phoenix Coalition’s intention, nor do I believe that the DPC is advocating for harmful policy in any way. I do believe that in pursuit of a catchy slogan to state support for LGBTQIA+ people, DPC’s choice to feature the words “For Everyone” inadvertently revealed a blindspot for poor and unhoused people that is pervasive in Davis leadership and in the broader Davis community. My intention with this project is to reveal this blindspot, and to urge leaders to please direct more effort toward solving our housing crisis.

Do you regret any of the project?

No.

Do you have a message for the community and/or city leadership?

To the city leadership: please repeal Ordinance 2670, and please pass ordinances and measures that actually help people. I am not knowledgeable about how the nuts and bolts of city policy and budgets work. But my understanding is that three people on the five-person Davis city council have the power to house people in the immediate future. Three people on the council could vote to pass an ordinance or measure that houses people. Please do that. You are a government with a budget, with staff, with resources. Use them. Install tiny homes on some land. Make safe camping areas. Buy or get access to some land. Don’t think you can? Get creative. Call an emergency to grant the council whatever powers could be granted. This ongoing crisis where the people you serve are sleeping outside without shelter seems like an emergency to me. Please serve everyone in Davis, not just people who talk to you and donate to your campaigns. Serve the people who are not visible to you. Make Davis truly a place for everyone, even people who don’t have money, degrees, nice clothes, or housing. Understand your blind spots, and be on the right side of history.

Is there anything else you would like to share? 

I am grateful to Davis Phoenix Coalition for engaging with me on this important issue. It is my hope that this conversation could lead to unhoused people being housed in the city of Davis.

Will’s message is an important reminder that intersectional systemic oppression can divide communities which could be stronger in unison. His controversial visual art reached us, and we could all learn more from each other if we only listen. 

Resources for LGBTQIA+ communities as well as unhoused support services are listed on our website under the Resources tab. We are committed to partnering with community organizations like Davis Night Market to strengthen our collective impact. The Davis Phoenix Coalition promotes a world where all people are safe, respected and free from violence. This includes the unhoused.