Should the Dixie School District change its name?

Should Marin County's Dixie School District change its name?

By Wayne Freedman

Friday, August 31, 2018


SAN RAFAEL, Calif. (KGO) --

You'll see the name "Dixie" thrown around a lot in affluent San Rafael, Calif., on new schools and particularly on an old one. Few who live in liberal, Democratic-voting Marin County would say it's racist. But "woke"? Depends on who you ask.

"It's a reference to slavery," said activist Kerry Pierson of the name "Dixie."

"It is an insult. If you had the Hitler School -- it was named for somebody else named Hitler -- would you keep that? I doubt it," Noah Griffin said.

Both men are referring to the Dixie School District, with 2,000 students on four campuses. They, along with Dixie School Board Member Marnie Glickman, have issues with the name.

"In the 1860's, people in Marin knew what Dixie was. It was the national anthem of the Confederacy. The lyrics were on the front page of the newspaper," Glickman said

The issue traces back to the Old Dixie Schoolhouse, built in 1863 and now a museum in San Rafael. As the story goes, when James Miller donated the land and built it, he used friends from the south for labor. Miller is rumored to have named it Dixie on a dare, as a tribute to the south.

Democratic Marin County voted against the name Abraham Lincoln twice.

Marnie Glickman of the Dixie School Board and others do not oppose Dixie as the name of a museum. That's history. But they say having the district named after it is a different matter. So now they want the district to find a new name, a move similar to the removal of Confederate statues in the south.

"This is important because we are part of government. We are a school district," Glickman said.

A little less than 3 percent of students in the Dixie School District are African-American. That proportion matters little, said Griffin: "We need to be sensitive to all of the students in Marin County."

This issue is now on Superintendent Jason Yamashiro's radar. "Names mean something. History means something different to different people," Yamashiro said.

"Do you see a connotation between the name Dixie and the Confederacy?" we asked.

"I do," he said.

Marinwood Maintenance Compound walking tour

We outlined the proposed Marinwood Maintenance compound (aka "White Elephant") today in chalk to give people a better idea of the size of the project. As we set out the markers, people stopped and were amazed at the size. Not a single person supports the project and every one signed the petition and promised to tell their neighbors. For many of us, Marinwood Park is part of our daily walk in nature and this facility would be a huge obstacle to enjoy it. Everyone wondered why they need so much space for 3 people who work outdoors everyday. We are petitioning the Marinwood CSD to have a real public forum. We need to see alternate designs that have a smaller footprint and we need to know how much they will cost prior to a public vote.

Marinwood CSD Brown Act Violations and Tepid Defense

Residents complain about the secret presentation of the Maintenance Facility at the Park and Recreation meeting in April 2018.  There was no announcement to the general public and only a handful of neighbors were encouraged to attend.  The Maintenance Shed proposal was approved out of view of the publi. Oddly, all of the CSD board members seem very bored and ask few questions.   Eric Dreikosen defends hiding the agenda with the vague language of "update" vs an hour long presentation of the architects plans with details.  It is a clear violation of the Brown Act but no one on the board or staff seems to care. 

Why the Maintenance Compound doesn't have Garage Doors and can't park vehicles

The Marinwood Maintenance compound is a "drive through" facility which wastes 1/3 of the volume for access road.  Support columns inside limit movement making it impractical to store vehicles inside.   The architect ignores the practical need of the facility to create a slick facade in violation of the age old design wisdom " form follows function".  Workman need access, light and ventilation and the Marinwood facility ignores these basic needs. It also means we have a significant larger and more costly facility which will require a large area outside the facility for parking and material storage.  What is the point?

Here is Bill Hansell explaining why he chose to ignore garage doors for our Maintenance garage at the May 2018 Marinwood CSD meeting.

Mid Century style building is cramped for vehicles has poor ventilation and is terrible for the practical needs of a garage, storage and work area. The architect ignores basic design principle that "form follows function" 

The Beat goes On

Next-Level Surveillance: China Embraces Facial Recognition

Once the stuff of science fiction, facial-scanning cameras are becoming a part of daily life in China, where they're used for marketing, surveillance and social control. Video: Paolo Bosonin. Photo: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg

China uses facial recognition software to crack down on toilet paper theft

China uses facial recognition software to crack down on toilet paper theft

By Travis M. AndrewsMarch 21, 2017



7:11 AM - Mar 20, 2017


Many public restrooms in China are not equipped with toilet paper and instead rely on patrons to supply their own. But until recently, the bathrooms of Beijing’s Temple of Heaven, a complex of religious buildings constructed in 1420, carried rolls upon rolls of the white stuff.

Unfortunately, toilet paper thieves, who had long frustrated Beijing authorities, ruined the complex’s bounty for everyone else. The unassuming thieves stole the tissue paper using backpacks and shopping bags, an investigative report by the Beijing Evening News showed.

Beijing authorities are now turning to a new technology designed to slow the shoplifters. Temple of Heaven’s bathrooms were outfitted with toilet paper dispensers that utilize facial recognition software, the BBC reported.

Six dispensers, designed by the Shoulian Zhineng company, were recently placed at the entrance to the restrooms. Those seeking relief must first stare into a computer attached to the machine for three seconds. It records their image before spitting out a two-foot long sheet of tissue paper.

“The sheets are too short,” Wang Jianquan, a 63-year-old retiree, told the New York Times.

And the machines are slow, too. They take 30 seconds to dispense the paper, according to a China Radio International report (though a GIF created by the New York Times makes it seem much faster). If you need more paper, let’s hope you’re not in a rush. The computer won’t dispense a second round of paper to the same person for nine — potentially excruciating — minutes.

“If we encounter guests who have diarrhea or any other situation in which they urgently require toilet paper, then our staff on the ground will directly provide the toilet paper,” a park spokesman told the Beijing Wanbao newspaper.

“We brainstormed many options: fingerprints, infrared and facial recognition,” Lei Zhenshan, marketing director for Shoulian Zhineng, told the New York Times. “We went with facial recognition, because it’s the most hygienic way.’’


Many people seem pleased that the Temple of Heaven has cracked down on toilet paper theft.

“They should have done this decades ago,” Zhang Shaomin, a local retiree who often visits the site, told CNN.

Others thought such technology denigrated the complex, which has religious significance in China and is a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization World Heritage Site.

“Is there not a solution somewhere between ‘put up a sign’ and ‘install the sort of thing Bond villains use to secure their secret vaults’?’’ Jeremiah Jenne, an American historian, told the New York Times.

Purchasing six machines at the price of $720 apiece to protect toilet paper might strike many Americans as odd, but the Chinese share a much different relationship with their country’s public facilities. As Wu Qingqi, a park visitor, told CNN, locals often leave their own homes to use a public bathroom, further increasing the usefulness of these electronic guardians of toilet paper.


“I think it’s necessary,” Wu said. “There are many people wasting public resources.”

As Peter S. Goodman wrote for The Post in 2005 of China’s public bathrooms:


In a public toilet — be it at the park, on a main thoroughfare, at the airport or in a train station — the air is often so foul that you limit your breathing. The smell wafts out into the surrounding neighborhood. You keep your eyes turned upward, to avoid fixing on the squalid floor. Most toilets have no toilet paper. Many lack running water. Everywhere, flushing seems optional. People with major business to attend to must typically execute it in full view of everyone else over a big gulley without privacy walls. Sit-down toilets? Rare.

That’s why the country announced a “toilet revolution” in 2015, a plan to bring both its facilities and the general etiquette of their patrons up to “the standards of the international traveler.”

More than 12.5 billion yuan ($1.9 billion) was expected to be spent constructing tens of thousands of new public toilets and renovating older ones to include not just “Western-style toilets and deodorization technology” but also potentially big screen televisions, ATMs, WiFi and sofas.

[China’s ‘toilet revolution’ could see unruly users blacklisted from public bathrooms]

Meanwhile, authorities planned to dole out punishments — such as blacklisting locals from certain facilities — for poor lavatory decorum.


“Many people spend a lot of time dressing themselves, but they do not spare a second to flush the toilet,” Li Shihong, deputy chief of the China National Tourism Administration, told China Daily. “Toilet civilization has a long way to go in China.”

The toilets have long caused some in the Chinese government anxiety.

In 2005, Gu Chenghua, then-secretary general of the Toilet Association — which Goodman described as “a super-grouping of 41 government bodies, plus companies that make toilet paper, bathroom deodorizer, soap and the toilets themselves” — told The Post: “When people are not at home, a public toilet is an indispensable public facility. Through the public toilet, you can see the degree to which the city is developed and civilized. We need to ensure that people have a comfortable experience as they relieve themselves.”

Perhaps facial recognition software is another step toward achieving that goal.

Yes, there will be Muddy tracks in the Meadow

Deep rutted tire tracks in the mud behind the modular building.

The site plan submitted to Marin County Community Development is deeply flawed and understates the actual impact on Marinwood Park.  The unusual "drive through" design will require vehicles to drive 450' into the park to make a 180 degree turn.  It won't matter if it is raining or muddy, our Ford F250 is 22' long and there isn't any other place to turn around.  Backing out of the facility will be very difficult. Imagine backing up 300' around blind curves, support columns, fellow workers and pedestrians to Miller Creek Rd. The current "White Elephant" design is expensive and impractical.

The current Marinwood CSD "drive through" design wastes 1/3 of its interior space for an access road.

Approximate size of the proposed Maintenance Compound Facility

Looking West: Proposed Maintenance Building Compound (40' x 150') will block the current walking path and have an adjacent outdoor parking area for vehicles and material storage that is not identified in the site plan.

Approximate size of the maintenance shed facing West as you walk into the maintenance area.  The Maintenance Compound stretches from the edge of the current facility to the picnic tables next to the horse shoe pit. 

Looking North:The main building is 15' tall by 80' long. A 40' fence is not seen in the outline.

A central 3200 square foot building is flanked with two large outdoor storage areas with an eight foot fence. The Maintenance Building compound is 40' x 150' is the approximate size of a old fashioned car wash.  The Central building has a wall 15' tall by 80' long.   

Looking East from edge of building: Parking, materials and debris storage will be outside the Compound

The "drive through" design cannot fit our vehicles inside and there will be a parking lot outside with material and landscaping debris storage.  

This design is about DOUBLE the existing footprint and will require vehicles to turn around in the meadow 450' to the East.

We believe only a narrow walk path along the stream bank and drainage canal and the horse shoe pit will remain open to public access.  The CSD has not articulated boundaries.

Why not?

No one is more hated than he who speaks the truth

Take 12 minutes to stop the SB828 bill in Sacramento

Hi Marin Activists -  Thanks again to those of you who took action a few weeks ago to oppose SB 828 in Assembly Appropriations.  Now there's another need to act to urge a dozen key Senators to vote No.DB828

NOW-today - please make calls to a select number of Senators (list and phone numbers below). Leave a message urging them to vote No on SB 828, which changes the process to determine regional housing needs allocation (RHNA). The full Senate vote will be in the next day or two. Even if you called or emailed before, this is a new vote and your call is important before the bill gets to the Governor's desk.


Q: How much time will it take?   A: 15 minutes or less.
Q: Why bother?  A:  Your call shores up local control and collaborative problem solving against the top-down, power grab of corporations, regional agencies, profit-driven developers, and career politicians.
Q: What else can I do?  Forward this email to your other lists and family and friends throughout California. Urge them to follow your example.

Please call the following Senators: 

Ben Allen, D; Redondo Beach - (916) 651-4026

Jim Beall - D; San Jose - (916) 651-4015

Steve Bradford, D; Ingelwood - (916) 651-4035

Kevin de Leon, D; Los Angeles - (916) 651-4024

Steve Glazer - D; Orinda - (916) 651-4007

Hannah-Beth Jackson, D; Santa Barbara - (916) 651-4019

Ricardo Lara - D; LA - (916) 651-4033

Mike McGuire - D; Marin/Sonoma counties - (916) 651-4002 

John Moorlach - R; Costa Mesa - (916) 651-4037

Henry Stern, D; Calabasas. -  (916) 651-4027

Jeff Stone - R; Riverside County - (916) 651-4028

Andy Vidak - R; Fresno and Kings counties - (916) 651-4014

Your Senator if not on this list. https://www.senate.ca.gov/senators

When you call, the staff person will ask for your name, zip, and the bill #; sometimes more. If staff resist your input because you don't live in their district, remind them you're impacted by every Senator's vote on this statewide bill.  Keep it as simple as saying, "Please register my request the Senator vote "NO" on SB 828.  

Summary of Opposition, if you want to elaborate: (See attached notes for more details)

• Deepens antagonism between local governments and Sacramento around housing. 
• Mandates a one-size-fits-all methodology that doesn't respect or account for geographic differences.
• Disregards years of community planning on General Plans, Housing Elements, and Design Review.
• Increases financial burdens on local governments, already reeling from unfunded pension liability.
• Building a preponderance of market rate housing will not solve the housing problem.

Act as if our communities' futures depends on your call.  It does!

Malaguena