THE WILD BOAR AND THE FOX

A WILD BOAR was sharpening his tusks busily against the stump of a tree, when a Fox happened by. Now the Fox was always looking for a chance to make fun of his neighbors. So he made a great show of looking anxiously about, as if in fear of some hidden enemy. But the Boar kept right on with his work.

"Why are you doing that?" asked the Fox at last with a grin. "There isn't any danger that I can see.

"True enough," replied the Boar, "but when danger does come there will not be time for such work as this. My weapons will have to be ready for use then, or I shall suffer for it."

Preparedness for war is the best guarantee of peace.

Near Riot at 2012 Plan Bay Area Workshops in Santa Rosa

Jake McKensie, Rohnert Park Politician and Regional Representative tries to calm the angry crowd at Plan One Bay Area Workshop in Santa Rosa. The workshops received similar reception across the Bay Area as people understood that this was a takeover of local governments and converting our local jurisdictions to an administrative technocracy. Years later, the MTC and ABAG continue to push their agenda. Most of the public has not waken up to the outrageous assault on our freedoms. In 2012, we had our first "One Bay Area" workshops and near riots broke out. The first people to object were a mix of housing activists and Tea Party groups espousing exotic conspiracy theories. Many dismissed them but they did shine a light on the huge injustice about to be imposed upon the people of the Bay Area. Others got involved. In Marin, long a bastion of environmentalism and intentional growth formed Citizen Marin, a non partisan coalition of local citizens. They understood that this "One Bay Area" plan was nothing but a smoke screen for developers and the destruction of communities just like Marincello in the 1960s. While none of the scenes in Marin were nearly this extreme, Plan Bay Area has awaken a sleeping giant and today, "The CASA COMPACT" is the full realization of the dream legislative prescription. If implemented, it will be the biggest takeover of local government in the history of the United States since the Civil War. We expect Marc Levine, Assemblyman, Mike McGuire, State Senator, and our local political leaders to back our sovereignty.  

A second look: Marin Grassroots Protestors outside the Citizen Marin Town Hall Meeting on March 20, 2013

Editor's Note: This video is worth a second look after the "State of Emergency" news conference by Marin Grassroots. Here you will see many of the same participants refusing to interact with their fellow citizens inside the meeting. Notably, John Young of Marin Grassroots won't go in because "he wasn't invited and on the agenda" at the end of the tape.

Brief video with the protestors outside the Citizen Marin Town Hall on March 20, 2013.  The Town Hall event was open to the community to talk about affordable housing solutions.  People from all perspectives were encouraged to speak up about their views on affordable housing.

This group of activists were organized by Cesar Lagleva,  a Marin Profesional Public Employee Union Shop Steward (M.A.P.E.) encouraged others to protest against the public event.  Their cries of Racism, NIMBYism and Classism are meant to intimidate people from speaking openly about housing.  The irony is that most people inside at the event SUPPORT a fair allocation of affordable housing provided it is financially responsible and fits in to existing neighborhood densities.

Cesar was author of the highly offensive Marin Voice article I mentioned in an earlier post here.

Also present was the every present protestor and self proclaimed "Janitor of Political Waste Management", Jimmy Fishbob Geraghty. His daily rants about "racist Marinites" can be found on the San Rafael Patch and Marin IJ online.  You will often see him holding signs and protesting around the Bay Area.  If you can't get enough of him on the public news sites, you can get the full rants on his facebook page.   After this footage was shot, I spoke with him briefly, and came away with a positive impression of him.  He seems earnest but misguided and genuinely a nice guy.  It was one of my personal highpoints of the evening.

Local affordable housing lobbyist,  Dave Coury, also was present wearing his button to end Racism, Nimbyism and Classism.  He had been overheard at the February 2013 planning meeting asking for "affirmative action complaints against the Dixie School district" on his cell phone in the lobby during testimony about the Housing Element and its effects on school funding for Dixie School District.  He also has publicly called on the supervisors to simply zone all land in Marin within 1/2 mile of 101 Freeway as 30 units per acre multifamily housing.  We can only guess his client list funding his activities. In the July 9, 2013 Board of Supervisors meeting,  Dave Coury called the struggle for housing in Marin ""a war" and linked a shooting in Marin City to the housing issue.

Cesar Lagleva, sat next to me at a One Bay Area Plan meeting on April 16th.  I greeted him and offered to shake his hand and he shot back "don't touch me".  Clearly, we have a ways to go on our friendship.

Cesar Lagleva, is one of the organizers for Concerned Marinites to End Nimbyism (CMEN ..no jokes please) and their website is http://www.concernedmarinites.org/. where you will find more of their rhetoric.    It is amazing to me that this public employee union official  attacks the taxpayers that support him with such language  I am told he is a clinical social worker or psychologist. Here is a puff piece put out by his union.

Supervisor Steve Kinsey was the keynote speaker.  He thanked M.A.P.E. for organizing and told the crowd that "Marin can be very unwelcoming". Like the rest of the crowd gathered,  he was invited to participate the open town hall inside and share his views.  Supervisor Kinsey did not attend but stopped for a TV news interview, got in his car and sped off.

We think a fruitful discussion about affordable housing will begin with honest, open dialog and not with shouts of RACISM, CLASSISM and NIMBYism. 

We still have time to talk and my offer for a cup of coffee to share with Cesar is still open.

Citizen Marin Lives!

Citizen Marin Lives!  

After a disastrous recent election where our candidates lost (the first time in three years!), our opposition has declared total victory and the death to Citizen Marin.  Nothing can be further from the truth.  

We will Save Marin Again!

How Marin Was Ruined

Video: The Social Engineers Episode 1: Plan Bay Area

Why we must Fight the exploitation of Marinwood-Lucas Valley & Marin

Freedom

Mel Gibson from the movie "Braveheart"

Citizens Speak up and Strawberry Gets out of the PDA

Susan Adams surveys the crowd at the start of the meeting. 

Judy Arnold waits for the citizen's testimony to end.

  

Kate Sears, acting President of the Board speaks to the public

Steve Kinsey looked down on his desk and barely acknowledged the public for the entire 4 hour meeting.

Katie Rice listens and reads documents.

See the citizens testimony against the Strawberry PDA HERE

Never underestimate the power of a small group

Martin Niemöller: "First they came for the Socialists..."

Martin Niemöller, a prominent Protestant pastor who opposed the Nazi regime.
He spent the last seven years of Nazi rule in concentration camps. Germany, 1937.

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me--and there was no one left to speak for me.

Please Sign the Petition to Stop the Strawberry PDA

Strawberry PDA Meeting with Kate Sears August 19, 2013

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

Please Sign the Petition to Stop the Strawberry PDA

NBC newsreport on Plan Bay Area Vote

View more videos at: http://nbcbayarea.com.

Remember Marincello- The City that never was

In 1972 The Board of Supervisors approved a development named "Marincello" in the Marin Headlands.  It would have housed over 30,000 people, making it a major city and ushering in urban growth.  They gave the public just six days to review the application.  Fortunately,  a legal team was able to persuade the courts that the Supervisors were acting illegally and the project was halted.  

Our beautiful Marin County has been the leader for smart, sustainable and livable communities. How ironic that the Board of Supervisors has plans to urbanize Marin in the name of "smart growth". We  already have our walkable, livable, sustainable community.  It is called "home" in Marin.

A film about this episode in Marin's history,  "Rebels with a Cause" is now playing in local theaters.

What Citizen Marin and Occupy Wallstreet have in Common.

Citizen Marin and Occupy Wall Street have similar frustration with the deficiencies in the public process and crony capitalism.  We feel betrayed by the politicians/ bureaucrats  who are allowing money interests to control the democratic process.

We are fighting a 25 year plan called "One Bay Area" which promises to dominate every aspect of our lives through central planning  www.onebayarea.org .  They want to create "urban containment" through rezoning land around freeways and railroad tracks to intensify living spaces so they may preserve land outside of "the urban zone".  Suburbs will be displaced by "densification"  or upzoning to allow apartment building to exist in single family neighborhoods and to create incentives for multifamily dwellings.

We want to "Keep Marin, Marin" and reject attempts of central planners to create "Disneylandia" in our liveable, walkable Marin neighborhoods.

James Madison on Tyranny

The Marin IJ has some great articles today 5/26/2013

I thought I would condense all of the great 'stuff' in today's Marin IJ.

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1.

 

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2.Report: Plan Bay Area would reduce Bay Area's greenhouse gas emissions, but alternative would cut even more -

By Richard Halstead
Marin Independent Journal

The Bay Area will be spewing an additional 1.6 million metric tons of carbon dioxide annually by 2040 if opponents of a new long-range land-use blueprint for the Bay Area get their way. View Full Story

3. Marin Voice: Plan Bay Area means big changes for Marin

marinij.com

MARIN COUNTY is about to embark on the biggest high-density housing explosion in its history. It's called Plan Bay Area.

Yet most residents remain in the dark.

Plan Bay Area sounds good on paper. It aims to reduce Greenhouse Gases (GHG) by building high-density housing near mass transit, claiming it doesn't usurp local zoning control. But the facts tell a different story.

Local city Housing Elements must comply with the Association of Bay Area Government Regional Housing Needs Allocation.

SB375 requires RHNA be consistent with Plan Bay Area's Sustainable Communities Strategy (SCS).

So local governments are compelled to select RHNA sites near mass transit and allow for compact, high-density, mixed-use development at state-mandated housing sites.

Residents need look no further than the high density housing policies being crafted locally to see Plan Bay Area's influence over local control. Add SB375's streamlining of environmental protection regulations, and Plan Bay Area could give the keys to your neighborhood's open space to big development.

Plan Bay Area also promises to reduce GHGs.

Unfortunately, the plan is based on questionable assumptions regarding job and population growth, and environmental impacts.

For example, the plan's draft EIR doesn't consider California's new "Pavley" higher miles-per-gallon standards or the new federal environmental standards (e.g. 54.5 mpg for cars and light trucks), which will reduce car and light truck emissions more than any of Plan Bay Area's alternatives, even if we do nothing.

The DEIR also uses outdated 2005 GHG emissions data.

Plan Bay Area fails to assess water supply and waste treatment systems required for the thousands of new homes planned.

Further, it fails to assess the risks to endangered and protected habitats, such as creek, bay, and wetlands damage from water diversions and drawdowns needed to accommodate the massive development.

The plan's high-density Priority Development Areas border sensitive eco-habitats near neighborhoods with antiquated storm drain, road and sewer infrastructure, high traffic congestion and rising sea levels.

What cumulative impact will water diversions have on wildlife? How will existing water resources supply proposed development? Without considering Marin's water constraints, how can anyone predict the magnitude of adverse impacts of Plan Bay Area?

Plan Bay Area says high density housing projects will have individual EIRs, providing sufficient environmental impact analyses. But EIRs are not required for individual city housing elements, despite constraints like traffic congestion, threatened species, sea level rise and crumbling infrastructure.

And the plan "streamlines" state environmental requirements for PDA developments, so by the time we know the impacts it will be too late.

The plan's projected growth rates for Marin County are unrealistic.

The state Department of Finance projects much lower job and population growth. And the Pitkin-Myers University of Southern California report notes, —... much lower population growth is foreseen" than state population projections.

The plan's GHG projections are flawed.

Research by the Australian Conservation Foundation indicates that the type of development proposed by Plan Bay Area will increase, not decrease. Plan Bay Area's proposed "solutions" for Marin County could produce 2.5 times the GHG emissions of single family home development and three times the GHG emissions of attached, townhouse development.

The plan's conclusion that Transit Oriented Development (TOD) reduces GHG emissions is questionable.

The methodologies used in the draft EIR should be reviewed independently. What primary research on real-world TOD projects, as opposed to simulated scenarios and computer models based on assumptions, were used to assess the accuracy, reliability, and validity of the draft EIR conclusions?

As presented, Plan Bay Area and its environmental review fail to inform the public, elected leaders and key decisions-makers as to Plan Bay Area's true economic, social, and environmental impacts.

Residents have been bombarded with pro-Plan Bay Area material. I encourage residents to read the "other side" at www.CitizenMarin.org

Linda Pfeifer is a member of the Sausalito City Council.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

4. Good reason for questions

It is interesting that the city of San Rafael is questioning past decisions made regarding their two Priority Development Areas.

At the May 6 City Council meeting, Mayor Gary Phillips asked city planning chief Paul Jensen how the PDAs were selected in 2008 because he (Phillips) and three of the council members were not in office at that time.

Jensen said he didn't know either because he wasn't the planner, but he did state that the city saw an opportunity to obtain grant money and so designated those two sites as PDAs.

The mayor directed staff to form an ad hoc committee to revisit these PDAs, particularly the one at the Civic Center to make sure they still make sense.

Perhaps the county needs to do the same and revisit the "potential" PDAs, particularly for Marinwood, before they are moved into final "planned" status, especially due to the recent concerns of the residents regarding the potential negative impacts on the schools and traffic from the future Marinwood Village high-density housing project.

However, the county will tell everyone not to worry because: no developer has submitted an application for a project at Marinwood Plaza, and because there isn't a PDA in this area.

County officials can try to hide behind their technicalities but everyone knows that non-profit Bridge Housing is on the verge of submitting an application for a high-density — 100 units — housing project and if you look at the websites for the Association of Bay Area Governments and the county, you will clearly see the outlined PDA for Marinwood.

As soon as this PDA is moved to "planned" status, then the carrot of the grant money will kick in to further urbanize a once quiet suburban community.

Carol Brandt, San Rafael

5. Second halfof 5/26 column by Dick Spotswood


LAST WEEK, I reported about the ongoing war between New York's Westchester County and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. It's centered on a voluntary compliance agreement that Westchester's prior and now-defeated county executive inked after

HUD filed suit, claiming the county's zoning practices were racially discriminatory.


The column referenced concerns that Marin could be the "next Westchester" to face a similar "enforcement" action. Some claim that HUD's strategy is an attempt to effectively federalize local zoning to meet its social goals.

To understand the linkage, go back to Nov. 29, 2010. On that afternoon, Judy Arnold, in her capacity as president of Marin's Board of Supervisors, appeared at the IJ editorial board to first inform the paper that within 24 hours county supervisors intended to sign their own voluntary compliance agreement with HUD.

It's likely that Marin brought HUD's attention on itself for failure to adhere to HUD's then-reasonable guidelines to "affirmatively promote fair housing."

Eager to get the issue behind them, Marin supervisors, with the bare minimum legal notice, unanimously approved the settlement agreement with HUD.

Officially, HUD's San Francisco regional office says such concerns over mandated zoning changes are premature.

Like Westchester, the county is currently working with HUD to complete an "Analysis of Impediments" of those issues, including residential zoning that might obstruct HUD's demands that Marin and its 11 cities "affirmatively" pursue the agency's new and far more aggressive definition of "fair housing."

Readers should form their own conclusions by reading details of the Marin-HUD compliance agreement.


Columnist Dick Spotswood of Mill Valley now shares his views on local politics twice weekly in the IJ. His email address is spotswood@comcast.net. Read his musings at http://blogs.marinij.com/spotswood

Marin Voice: One Bay Area plan is Bad Planning

 

from Marin IJ 4/21/2013: Marin Voice: One Bay Area plan is bad planning

By Susan Kirsch
Guest op-ed columnmarinij.com

Posted:   04/21/2013 05:42:00 AM PDT

IN MARCH, the Citizen Marin Town Hall meeting offered our community a rare opportunity to come together to examine planning and affordable housing challenges — a key element of One Bay Area plan.

 

The event coincided with the Association of Bay Area Governments and Metropolitan Transportation Commission's release of Plan Bay Area, with its focus on building high-density housing and its draft environmental impact report.

 

Back in May 2011, ABAG/MTC held public "hearings" that promoted pre-determined solutions to the challenge of reducing greenhouse gas emissions 15 percent by 2035, as required by AB32/SB375. Their simplistic, one-size-fits-all "solution" is to build high-density housing along transportation corridors.

 

During the public workshops, it was clear that no other visions were considered, but their own.

Then, as now with the newly released plan and draft EIR, ABAG/MTC will consider five alternative scenarios, with their decision scheduled for mid-summer. The project is rapidly moving toward adoption with compliant head-nodding among elected officials, reminiscent of the Marincello project of the 1960s (housing and shopping centers for 30,000 people in the Marin Headlands).

That scheme had support from county supervisors, until it was stopped by community activists.

To comply with CEQA, the EIR must "inform members of the public as to the range of environmental impacts of the proposed plan." But since officials who will vote on the plan have not engaged the public on the scope and the changes to our local zoning, the public is not informed.

Controversy surrounds this plan, even as it is being fast-tracked through the approval process. Issues include the accuracy of the population growth and jobs projections; the proposal to weaken environmental enforcements; the impacts on public services, schools, infrastructure and water supply; rising sea level; and the irretrievable loss of local control.

 

While many groups promote the plan, believing it will provide much-needed affordable housing near jobs, the DEIR concludes that income needed to cover transportation and housing costs are projected to increase for low-income households, and travel time to jobs will also increase.

 

The first of the five alternative scenarios calls for "No Project," which honors the long-standing tradition for communities to set the framework for city planning, zoning and growth in their general plans. It is based on the belief that local problems are best solved with local solutions, in collaboration with regional planners, not heavy-handed threats of not getting state or federal transportation funds if our cities don't follow bureaucratic dictates. 

 

However, not only did ABAG/MTC fail to analyze the "No Project" alternative, but in a peculiar circular logic, removed it as an option our representatives are allowed to choose. Marin's vote to adopt the Plan Bay Area EIR is in the hands of Supervisor Steve Kinsey, Marin's representative on MTC and Supervisor Katie Rice and Novato Mayor Pat Eklund, who represent Marin on ABAG..

Plan Bay Area is a 25-year plan that would change the face of Marin and the Bay Area forever, yet ABAG/MTC has just one last Marin public meeting, on April 29 from 6-9 p.m. at the Marin Civic Center.

 

So what can you do? 

1. Attend the public hearing. 
2. Submit comments on the EIR to info@onebayarea.org. 
3. Contact your representatives and ask how they have fulfilled the CEQA requirement to "inform the public."
4. Press for their support for Alternative 1: No Project.

 

Democracy is not a game played from the sidelines, but ABAG/MTC is dominating the field.

 

It's time to get into the game and reclaim home field advantage.

 

Susan Kirsch of Mill Valley is co-founder of Citizen Marin

VIDEO: Citizen Marin Meeting on March 20th

This is the March 20, 2013 presentation by Bob Silvestri, author of "The Best Laid Plans" presented his views and solutions for affordable housing in Marin County before an audience of 300.

VIDEO: The plan for Affordable Housing in the Bay Area and EIR presentation 4/16/2012

Good overview of ABAG housing mandates that will literally change the Bay Area forever.

Despite some of the hot rhetoric,  there is some important information here to provide you with some perspective on the One Bay Area Plan.

--- On Wed, 4/3/13, MTC Public Information <info@mtc.ca.gov> wrote: From: MTC Public Information <info@mtc.ca.gov> Subject: Draft Plan Bay Area EIR Released To: lizdale@ymail.com Date: Wednesday, April 3, 2013, 12:53 AM April 2, 2013 Release of Draft Plan Bay Area Environmental Impact Report (EIR)   The Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) today released for public review and comment a Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) as a companion environmental analysis to the Draft Plan Bay Area, which is also out for public review.   Three public hearings are scheduled as an opportunity to provide oral comments specifically on the EIR. Oral comments on the Draft EIR also can be made at one of nine public hearings scheduled for the Draft Plan Bay Area.     Tuesday April 16, 2013	Tuesday April 16, 2013	Wednesday April 17, 2013
10 a.m. to 12 p.m.	7 p.m. to 9 p.m.	1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
Embassy Suites Hotel, Novato/Larkspur Room	Joseph P. Bort MetroCenter Auditorium	Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library, Rooms 225/229
101 McInnis Parkway San Rafael	101 8th Street Oakland	150 E. San Fernando St. San Jose

 

Written comments may be mailed to: 

MTC-ABAG Public Comment 

Draft EIR - Plan Bay Area 

101 8th Street, Oakland, CA  94607

Or email your comments to: 

eircomments@mtc.ca.gov

The Draft Plan Bay Area is the region's long-range transportation and land-use/housing blueprint, which charts a course for accommodating needed housing growth within our nine counties while at the same time decreasing greenhouse gas emissions from cars and light trucks. 

The public comment period for both the Draft EIR and Draft Plan Bay Area extends until 4 p.m., Thursday, May 16, 2013. The Draft EIR and Draft Plan Bay Area are slated for adoption by MTC and ABAG in summer 2013.

An errata sheet for the Draft Plan Bay Area has been posted on the Plan's website. 

 
For more information on the Draft EIR or Draft Plan Bay Area, please visit onebayarea.org.

News coverage of the Citizen Marin meeting.

Supervisor Steve Kinsey added to the chorus of voices denouncing us as "unwelcoming" to affordable housing and promised to lead the fight for more housing opportunities for the disadvantaged. He did not bother to find out what was being said or to speak in the open public forum. He left shortly after his TV interview.  We wished he would engage ordinary citizens who gathered to talk about the issues. Other politicians attended, listened and greeted the folks.

If Supervisor Kinsey wants more affordable housing he can start in his own district. His district includes the greatest geographic territory of all supervisors for unincorporated Marin and has a greater total population than Marinwood-Lucas Valley. Doesn't his district have a need for affordable housing  too?

Also see the story in today's Marin IJ

And on the San Rafael Patch