GOALS -Informing & improving public policy through research

TO Maintain Marin as a Healthy Sustainable Community WITH REASONABLE density

TO Reject Costly "Pet" Public Programs that add little value & INCREASE overlapping bureaucracies - SEE WILDFIRE TAX RESULTS

High density and crowding will destroy the nature of Marin County; at this rate we could become another Livermore.

For example, look at the SMART TRAIN. The purpose of the Smart Train was to have a basis to bust open the housing market in Marin and foist the high cost of the "empty" train onto Marin taxpayers. Now Developers can claim "mass transit" exists so as to increase building and overcrowding and destroy open spaces.
The diesel belching train - is not a "green" solution - instead it is wasteful, costly and polluting. Marin taxpayers subsidize each passenger with $100 for each round trip.
Density in Housing Skyrockets. The train opened the floodgates to development in Marin. Now, legislation has passed and more is pending attacking single family housing as "racist," and allowing multiple dwellings to be placed on small single family home-lots. Density limits are "out," set back limits are "out," parking limits are "out," overcrowding is "in."

We stand for the proposition that Marinites should reject taxes and fees that require us to pay for our own demise.

____________

TO Reject Costly "Pet" Public Programs that add little value & INCREASE overlapping bureaucracies - SEE WILDFIRE TAX RESULTS

$17 million for salaries and goats

The Wildfire tax passed by a hair. It was supposed to be operated by existing Fire Depts and representatives of the towns that supported it. [Tiburon and Belvedere opted out as they knew it duplicated services.]
Instead, they took the $18 million annual tax (for 10 years) and they started giving out salaries for CEOs and Administrators, now up to $600,000 - and they just started.
They could have added REAL firemen instead, who could actually fight a fire if needed.
They can't even figure out where to spend all that money, so they just gave a chunk to FireSafe Marin that was previoiusly funded by other government money and donations - - to remove vegetation, just like they were doing before.
They added more goats; did that cost $17 million this year?? These must be expensive Marin Goats, and Marin Goat Administrators.

Provide Clarity about Public Policy choices: WASTE $500,000 ON NAME CHANGE FOR DRAKE HIGH SCHOOL?

TO Reject Costly "Pet" Public Programs that add little value & INCREASE overlapping bureaucracies - SEE WILDFIRE TAX RESULTS

Provide Clarity about Public Policy choices: WASTE $500,000 ON NAME CHANGE FOR DRAKE HIGH SCHOOL?

RE-NAME SIR FRANCIS DRAKE BLVD?

A recent posting by Robert Galbraith on Nextdoor.com provides interesting info on the SFD debate

Thoughts on "Drake". I think that if Sir Francis Drake's name offends or disheartens people of color/indigenous people in our community, places brandishing his name should be changed-- regardless of financial implications. That being said, I've read some history lately and discovered he was oddly a more morally "grey" figure than I realized. I'm worried that perhaps historical nuance is being ignored for the sake of doing something actionable and easy. I feel as though ultimately this won't do much to alleviate Marin's racist attitudes, housing problems, or homogeneity (at a cost to schools, businesses, and taxpayers). I found that SFD did work as deckhand on two slave trading voyages, supposedly both when he was less than 20 years old. After that, he spent his career slaughtering, terrorizing, and trafficking Irish and Spanish people. During his conquests in the New World, he actually ended up liberating and befriending thousands of African people enslaved by the Spanish--so much so that many joined his crew. One of them, Diego, became his best friend and first mate, and a key contributor in his circumnavigation of the globe. Furthermore, unlike Columbus, Drake generally had amicable relations and respect for native peoples-- notably the Coast Miwok of Marin. I'm not at all trying to say that SFD was some virtuous figure: It's clear that his career was violence-filled and he lacked value for human life. His involvement in the slave trade (albeit brief) shouldn't be ignored. But it does seem as though history demonstrates his propensity for violence, trafficking and camaraderie wasn't based on race. Shouldn't the real topic of discussion be Fairfax's name? A town named after a southern plantation owner (Lord Thomas Fairfax) who's descendants were staunch confederates? Maybe not, since the town's name is divorced from the life of Thomas Fairfax, as is John Harvard's from Harvard, or Elihu Yale's from Yale, George Washington's from Washington State, and arguably Sir Francis Drake's from Drake High-- who's mascot is a pirate caricature named Petey. Couldn't the proposed 500k to change Drake High's name go to something better? Notably hiring a more diverse staff, English second language programs, or hiring back librarians (who were recently laid off due to budget cuts)? Ultimately I think we should defer to POC's in our community's views on this, but these were just some thoughts I had after learning more about him.

EDUCATE YOURSELF BEFORE IMPRUDENT, KNEE JERK REACTIONS