As oldtime readers of Marinmaven know, Maven has been covering the great Shakespearean drama that is the fate of Marinwood Plaza. The last we visited this issue the residents were and are left with a blighted property and crime magnet that is the first thing visitors see when they come here. The economic downturn has made retail and residential or even commercial impossible to finance or even contemplate.
Tonight at the Marinwood Community Center at 7:30PM, the Marinwood CSD will meet and discuss bringing a farmer’s market to the Marinwood Plaza. This would be a wonderful way to rehabilitate the property and give services to the community that they will use. We can have locally grown food a stroll away. This is was my wish a long time ago. I would even put up with a little extra traffic and parking for it, but would love to see a shuttle service around it and encourage people to walk or bike to the market. Walking my son to Mary Silviera this morning, parents were abuzz about it.
It is finally refreshing to strongly support a plan regarding Marinwood Plaza for once. I will be there tonight to get more details.
Since Maven had a grandmother who went through the ravages of Alzeimers, it is a cause close to her heart.
Fortunately for Marin there is a local organization called Senior Access. While Senior Access does specialize working with elder adults with memory loss, they also serve elder adults with chronic illnesses and frail adults. The program also helps caregivers with workshops, respite, and support groups. Senior Access offers Day Programs that include Lunch at their San Rafael and West Marin locations. They also offer Outing Club on Tuesdays.
On Wednesday, October 14th, The Alzeimers Association and Senior Access will hold a workshop, “Compassionate Communication and Challenging Behaviors”, at 4pm to 6pm. The program will be held at Senior Access,
Wilfred George Adult Day Center, 70 Skyview Terrace, San Rafael.
“This program proposes that communication is more than the ability to exchange words — it is the capacity to connect with someone on a deep level. We will provide strategies on inproving overall communication skills in connecting with memory-impaired individuals, and help prepare caregivers for pssible behavioral changes and ways to respond should they occur.”
Registration is requested. Please call the Alzheimer’s Association
at 415.472.4340 to reserve.
Maven is now moonlighting as one of the new Directors or Boardmembers of the Marinwood Association, which is a non-partisan organization that takes no opinion on any candidates. So when I post something as Denise Castellucci, Marinwood Association Director I do so without favoring any candidate. When Maven posts as Maven, then candidates beware, I may just endorse you, or double endorse you and another candidate. Check here for future coverage of the Nov. 5th election.
Read my enthralling account of the last Marinwood Association Meeting after the jump.
People wonder why I decided to run and join the Marinwood Association. It is a very simple answer. I live here. My son lives here. My husband and his family has been here since he was as old as our son (1972-73). We are here for a long time and I imagine my grandchildren will grow up here eventually. I see the Marinwood Association as a vehicle to get to know our neighbors and get our neighbors to know each other. Bringing people together and letting people know what resources that are available is what I have done for a good portion of my adult life in the Adoption community and in Marin County with Marin Maven. My role is of the community communicator who keeps the community aware of the issues that face us and encourages them to get involved. Knowledge is Power. The more we know about what is going on, the more we have the power to make our community into something we are proud of.
A new season of Marin Science Seminar at Terra Linda High is here. For those who do not know, Marin Science Seminar is is a one-hour lecture/presentation with a question and answer period targeted at high school students in the San Rafael High School district, but open to all interested Marin teenagers and their families.
The opening Marin Science Seminar session is tonight on September 23rd at Terra Linda High. The seminar will be in room 207 at 7:30pm.
The topic tonight is “Detecting Illicit Nuclear Material” with Dr. Edward C. Morse Ph.D. Prof. Edward Morse is a professor of Nuclear Engineering at UC-Berkeley and has a thirty-year involvement in teaching and research at Berkeley in the areas of applied physics, nuclear technology, electronics, and mathematics.
“Detecting nuclear material at ports of entry into the United States and at other locations is a daunting problem but is an essential element of a counter-terrorism strategy for the country. A major difficulty in detection is the minimization of false-positive signals from a wide variety of cargo containing NORM, or naturally occurring radioactive material. One technique which looks promising is the use of nuclear resonance fluorescence (NRF) for detecting special nuclear material such as U-235. We have embarked on a five year program at UC Berkeley, called DoNuTS (Domestic Nuclear Threat Security), which looks at various aspects of the threat detection problem. This program will be discussed, with emphasis on the physics and technology of NRF as well as other aspects including materials science, computer machine vision, sensor networks, and basic nuclear physics research.”
The Marin Science Seminar is run by Maven’s dear friends and parents Art and Alfia Wallace. You can call them at: 415-479-4106 or email them for more information. You can also check out their calendar.
If you are like Maven and you have lived in San Francisco for much of your adult life, you spend a lot of time missing the restaurant offerings in SF. If you live in Northern Marin, the pickings are even thinner. This is why when Maven heard the owner of Lotus, a tasty Indian restaurant in downtown San Rafael was opening a restaurant in Novato it was major psychage. It lead to Maven stalking the restaurant opening. Once open, Maven has had take-out dinner and and a lunch buffet. This place touches the happy spot. They even serve brown rice with peas in addition to Basmati rice. Love the spinach and chickpea concoction, and the naan is to die for. There is the added bonus that it is on Grant Street, which is turning into such a great place to be.
This weekend I’ll be attending a new type of garden show at Cornerstone Sonoma which says it’s putting issues of climate change, drought, sustainable practices, and renewable resources at the forefront. I hope so. Just as “green” is a golden catch-phrase, many garden shows also now use terms like “climate change” and “gobal warming” to attract those of us who are concerned about the environment and our planet’s future but then pack their booths with wares that don’t match their message. “The Late Show Gardens” promises to be something different, something serious, and I’m excited. The show is the brainchild of Marin residents Robin Parer of Geraniaceae Nursery and Pam Scott, former head of the Marin County Master Gardeners and is thoughtfully planned in early fall, a key planting time for our Mediterranean climate. More than 15 innovative and socially responsible garden designs by local and internationally renowned designers will be featured as well as a panel of internationally prominent speakers, a few of whom are experts on climate change.
It is a National Issue that effects us here. Many of us are uninsured, under-insured, or paying disproportionally huge sums every month for decent coverage. Our current system if nothing is done will bankrupt this country and keep us from being productive and prosperous. Our current health system transfers wealth from working people and is causing an alarming amount of bankruptcies. According to the American Journal of Medicine, 60 % of the bankruptcies in 2007 were due to medical bills and 75% of those bankruptcies were people who had medical insurance.
Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey held a public town hall meeting on health care reform Monday evening, Aug. 31, in Petaluma at Veterans Memorial Hall. After brief introductory remarks, Woolsey spent two hours answering questions and listening to the opinions of her constituents. One operative lamented that there was a lot of yelling.
“We have been talking about health care with voters at numerous public events across the 6th district, in a telephone town hall meeting, and in many of the 5,000 e-mail, letter and phone inquiries our office answers every week,” said Woolsey. “A town hall, which has been requested by some constituents, is another way to continue the dialogue on this important issue.”
It is time to reject the RNC’s lies about the Obama plan and force our representatives to put through meaningful universal health care. Enough of the tin foil hat stories of death panels, denying care by political affiliation, and the vagueries of “socialized medicine.” The private sector has failed us in health care as they have failed us in financial services and energy. The market is broken as it is and does not serve Americans well.
Medical treatment is a human right. No one should go into debt to get medical treatment, but so many Americans do. Contact Woolsey, Senator Boxer, and Senator Fienstein and tell them to pass health care reform and stop listening to those who have fallen for the false appeals to fear and uncertainty.
At the April 23rd Marinwood CSD meeting, boardmember Dandridge reported that Trammel Crow has withdrawn all interest in developing Marinwood Plaza. Supervisor Adams has disbanded the Marinwood Plaza Collaborative and owner Gerald Hoytt might sell a portion of the property to the County. There are no developers interested in the property.
This is a stunning, but inevitable development in a long struggle for a community to have a market close since the closure of Bell Market. The current economic climate makes it hard to get financing for a project. Lower property values and apartment vacancies, doesn’t bode well for the residential portion of the project. The Nave Safeway and the future Paradise Market at Ignacio, makes having a market at Marinwood less of a draw. At Marin Maven, I have written extensively about this project.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/inmarin/detail?blogid=122&entry_id=42023#ixzz0Pb17xZLp
Apologies to all as Maven took off to spend more time with son before he starts kindergarten and we enter the first of many steps toward the empty nest. It has also been a time when Maven has had to step up extra at her day job. In an era where day jobs are as rare as a nugget of truth on Fox News, the day job had to take up all the intellectual, functional energy.
Son is officially off in Kindergarten and Maven is eager to renew her passion for community and the County closest to her heart.
Today Maven is braving the heat to pass out fliers for the Marinwood Association General Meeting “Progress Marinwood” on Wednesday, September 9th, 2009 at 7:30-9:30 pm. Maven is also passing out fliers for Bruce A. Anderson for Director for Marinwood Community Services District. Bruce will be on the local ballot on November 3rd. There are at least 3 candidates for two seats. Maven will be reaching out to the others and give them a chance to let you know why they should be on the CSD. Maven is supporting Bruce because as long as she has been active in Marinwood local issues, Bruce more than demonstrated his commitment to the neighborhood even when we may not have seen eye-to-eye. I have supported him in the past, and will continue to do so.
Well, back outside to pass out fliers. Will return soon it becomes necessary to huddle around the A/C.
Thanks to rtlbeaton, for snapping a pic of a quintessential Marin county sign even though Marin County recently admitted that it violated its own rules in using pesticides in our parks — where our children play.
Marin Maven has joined the “Sea of Green” Twitter movement, turning the profile picture green and turning the Twitter time settings to Tehran time.
Next Monday, June 22nd, Marin Peace and Justice Coalition will be hosting a potluck and meeting, “Marin Clean Energy: Bringing Green Power to Our Towns.” The potluck dinner starts at 6:00pm at the First United Methodist Church (in the basement) on 9 Ross Valley Drive in San Rafael. The featured speaker is Tracy Shepard of the San Francisco Bay Sierra Club.
Marin Clean Energy is an innovative program that can provide Marin County with 50% clean, renewable power while meeting or beating current utility rates. Most cities and towns in Marin have voted to pursue MCE, but only tentatively. A great deal of public support and pressure will be required in the next few months to assure that the final contract is approved.
You will only have access to Marin Clean Energy if your city or town votes YES.
So come to connect with other activists and to hear Tracy explain the program
and the small but vital things you can do to help make it a reality!
Maven is now moonlighting over at SF Gate in their “In Marin” section of local blogs. I am joining Pam Gould, over at More Marin to provide a larger public news from Marin. It just went live now! eek. Getting busier, my life is.
This weekend we will be doing some work on this blog and website, trying to gussy it up for when Maven starts blogging for the SF Gate’s “In Marin” page along with Pam at More Marin. We will be upgrading the Wordpress up to the latest and that means we will be changing the theme as well to take advantage of its groovy features. This means things will almost certainly go awry – not because we wish it to, but because the universe commands it. In order to get fancy-dancy, one must pay the bitter price of seeing various error messages. Be patient.This happened before, and we survived stronger and better…
Would you like to contribute to Marin Maven and blog about Marin here? All you need to do is email me or call me at 415-203-6965. What we need are people willing to write about living in Marin, Marin events and Politics, and post pictures of Marin. In return, you will get featured in the About page with a pic and a bio as a contributor. Plus, you get to share whatever we get in revenue. Now it is shells and shiny objects, with this SF Gate thing happening real currency in change.
Join our Culture Maven, Geneva Anderson in being part of this craziness and take advantage of the exposure. Perhaps, you will find fame and great from this modest of launch pads and Maven can say she knew you when.
We all gathered at the Clear Center of Health Marin meet Marinites who twitter on Wednesday Night. Sally Kuhlman of Sally by the Bay (read her post on this event here) and Lissa Rankin of Owning Pink co-hosted this “Tweetup” last night in Mill Valley.Shock! We are not bots, but really diverse and quite awesome people.
Celia Graterol or @MamaMtnBike who does Mountain Bike Tours, Training & Corporate Team Building events. Marjanne Pearson or @Nextmoon, who is a “Talent strategist for a constellation of design firm clients. Finds joy in language, ideas + culture, great food + wine, + living in Sonoma.” or a Design Maven for Commercial Architecture, who knows how to live (Yay, redheads!). Anastasia Schuster from Petaluma or @Accessinspirati describes herself as a bridge between travel suppliers and agents. If you ask nicely she will let you know about all the nice restaurants in Petaluma.
Tricia Barrett of Clear Center makes this very interesting green juice which is highly nutritious, beneficial, and absolutely cleansing. Maven thinks everyone should try it. If I were to have it again I would add apple juice or maybe blueberry to add sweetness. The green juice would also go great with vodka, as it sort of has the taste signature of a bloody mary. Yet, I suspect that Tricia would not approve as it would redefine the whole idea of cleansing.
Got to meet Peggy Butler (@pobutler), Diane Fischler (@dianefischler), and Doug Levy (@SFDoug) with Wine & Food World. There were many more, but yesterday’s migrane has Maven drawing a blank right now.
Marin Maven is addicted to Twitter, the newfangled killer application that all the kids are using.
This 16 y.o. girl from Marin has been missing since 5/29. If you know anything that will help, please alert the authorities. As a mother, Maven can only imagine what having a missing child feels like.
Vote for @marinmommies Nick’s Parents’ Picks 2009. They are ahead at 64%, but less than 40 days to go we have plenty of time to make it even more lopsided. Wee! Speaking of Marinmimmies, they have feature information on the Memorial fund for Novato DUI victim Melody Osheroff’s family. Donate @ any Wells Fargo in Marin.
Shock! Marooned In Marin conservative blogger calls Obama, the “Fourth Dixie Chick” Maven predicted when listening to Obama’s speech in Egypt this week,that conservatives would react by saying, “Look, Obama is a muslin!” Why are conservatives so predictable? Why can’t they surprise us with a rare instance of fair-mindedness? Well, actually, there is one notable case, Ted Olson, who fought on the wrong side of Bush v. Gore is joining David Boies, who represented Gore are teaming up to challenge the ban on same sex marriage on the federal level.
“The constitution protects individuals’ basic rights that cannot be taken away by a vote. If the people of California had voted to ban interracial marriage, it would have been the responsibility of the courts to say that they cannot do that under the constitution. We believe that denying individuals in this category the right to lasting, loving relationships through marriage is a denial to them, on an impermissible basis, of the rights that the rest of us enjoy…I also personally believe that it is wrong for us to continue to deny rights to individuals on the basis of their sexual orientation.” – Ted Olson
Despite how eloquently he speaks about gay rights, many groups are questioning his motives believing that it is far premature to bring gay marriage to the federal courts. The danger is that if you bring the issue to the Supreme court too early, you may lose and wipe out same sex marriage laws on the state level.
@marinij: Man sues over SMART tax, saying Marin didn’t provide two-thirds approval. The man is Dennis Fishwick, a former Novato councilman. While Sonoma approved of the Measure with 73.5, Marin voters only supported it at 62.5%. With both counties together the vote was tallied at 69.5%. Fishwick charges that SMART’s intent was to water down the Marin vote to push SMART through.
@MoreMarin wrote about ‘Water Report Claims Marin Does Not Need A Desal Plant’. Personally, Maven believes the money that would be spent to create a desalinization plant would be better spent encouraging both commercial and residential customers to convert lawns into water gardens and use rain barrels and gray water systems. Maven wrote about this here. The desalinization plant will also be in-taking water in an area of the bay that has had oil and waste spills, so I am not sure about the quality of water the plant would be starting with.
Needing a rooster like a fish needs a bicycle…@jessicapirie Except Tiburon, every city in Marin allows each home to raise up to 8 chickens, but no roosters are allowed. It would be cool to have backyard source of fresh eggs and chicken manure for the garden wouldn’t it?
@marinij_opin, or the MarinIJ Opinion page featured a letter by Adam Davis, “Why Marin Clean Energy is vital.” Now Maven has heard that the California legislature is threatening to undermine Community Choice power via SB695. Check out our post about Marin Clean Energy here.
@KevinGongHiking let us know about an updated SF/Marin hikes map with thumbnails, ratings, and summaries. Once you have burnt a lot of calories hiking, you can join @rusticbakery or Rustic Bakery who will be a part of new eco-cafe re-opening in Muir Woods next Tuesday, all local and organic foods will be sourced from Marin! @whywine suggests a great way to wash down those eco-goodies — a Marin County Pinot Noir Tasting on June 13th, in Larkspur.
Speaking of wine, Stubbs Winery in Petaluma, one of the first organic wineries will be hosting a benefit for educational development programs in Afghanistan on next Saturday, June 20th, 5:30 to 8:30 at Stubbs Vineyard – 1000 Marshall Petaluma Road, Petaluma, California 94952. The tickets are $60 each.
@Reelpolitik via @nprpolitics reminds some of us how old we are when on Thursday they marked Jerry Brown’s 35 year anniversary of his winning the California Democratic Gubnatorial Primary.
The Tiburon Film Society will present the Bolivian/Japanese film, Pachamama, at the Bay Model located at 2100 Bridgeway in Sausalito [Phone: (415) 332.3871] on Tuesday, July 7, 2009 @ 6 PM.
@LibLarge reports that Marin County rock history may get new chapter if legendary Sweetwater reopens as nonprofit nightclub. An old friend of Maven points out that Sweetwater has always been a non-profit.
Sign of the times from @Ash_Craigslist: Unemployed in Marin – A networking group is forming at Aromas in San Rafael on this Wednesday, June 10th at 4pm.
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