From the Sun vaults, November 5 - 11, 1965
City by the sea Marin supes rally for shady headlands-razing development scheme... by Jason Walsh
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by Howard Rachelson
1. The San Francisco Giants have been in three World Series, but lost them all—in what years, to what teams? 2. What heavenly body was first photographed at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, in February 1930? 3 Finish these quotations from Yogi Berra: a. “A nickel ain’t worth a _____ anymore.” b. “Always go to other people’s funerals, otherwise ...“ c. “Nobody goes to that restaurant anymore, ...“ 4. Recipients of a medical degree (M.D.) take an oath of ethics named after what fourth-century Greek physician, an important contributor to the science of medicine? 5. Pictured at right: Name the movies and the actors shown. 6. Name four very useful inventions small enough to hold in your hand, each beginning with the letter C. 7. This hereditary blood disease occurs more often among people (or their descendants) who have had malaria; therefore it’s common among people of African origin. What’s the three-word name? 8. The Suez Canal connects what sea with what gulf? 9. Brendan Fraser, Jason Robards, Henry Fonda and Hal Holbrook are some of the actors who have played—on TV and the silver screen—the role of what U.S. president? 10. What animal has been known to travel as far as 900 miles from the Pacific Ocean to the mountains of Idaho, climbing nearly 7,000 feet, once in its lifetime?
5a
5b
5c
BONUS: Hernando de Soto and his expedition occupied the Apalachee town known as Anhaica in 1539. The city grew, and in 1824 was named capital of its state, based on its favorable location. What is it? (Hint: It’s located east of the Mississippi River.) Howard Rachelson, Marin’s Master of Trivia, invites you to a live Team Trivia Contest every Wednesday at 7:30pm at the Broken Drum in San Rafael. We will NOT have Trivia at the Broken Drum this Wednesday, because of the World Series. The Autumn Championship will be on the first available Wednesday (November 3 or 10). Send your best trivia question (with your name and hometown) Answers on page 33 to howard1@triviacafe.com; if your question is used in the ‘Pacific Sun,’ we’ll give you credit!
± Last weekend, with our roads wet from the season’s first storm, Pinar’s car hydroplaned as she headed down White’s Hill in West Marin. Though she lost control of her vehicle, she managed to steer away from the cliff and land off the road next to the hill. Quite shaken, she was relieved to see her Hero and his young son pull up in a white truck. The man offered to tow her car out. When they determined she didn’t need a tow, he checked her tires, made sure she had a cell phone and stayed until she calmed down. Pinar was too upset to get her Hero’s name, so she asked us to thank him for his kindness and willingness to help a stranger in need. Consider it done.
ZERO
moral imperative. “I’ve been threatened with recall if I vote for this plan,” declared Storer. “But if you want a man who’s going to bend under pressure, go ahead.” And one of the two supes who voted against the Marincello years ago plan did so because it wasn’t developmentfriendly enough. “The question is what type of development has the best chance of being Marin didn’t know what it had until it was achieved,” posed Supervisor Byron Leydecker, nearly gone 45 years ago this week. lamenting that the odds of “successfully” turnThe 1960s had reached its midpoint and ing one of the world’s great riparian flyovers Marin was quickly developing into the bedroom community for swingin’ ’60s suburban- into a “light-industry zoned retail center” just weren’t suitably encouraging. ites. The new Frank Lloyd Wright building Even San Francisco Examiner editorialist allowed county residents to complete various Dick Nolan weighed in. He dedicated his colcivic duties in an architectural wonder, and the umn that week, headlined “Unwelcome Mat,” just-opened Northgate shopping center was to the “I got mine” attitude of the “anti-people the latest and greatest in the novel concept of enclosed residential shopping arenas—known conservationist howlers,” while dismissing their “pious talk” about preserving the Headquaintly as “malls.” lands as “hard headed.” But this sleepy community of scenic vacaIt seemed Marincello had the support of tion houses, counterculture communes and Eichler single-family homes was sorely lacking almost every county bigwig—and practically “universal disapproval” from the rest of in one crucial area: Marin, according to Supervisor Peter Behr, Sprawling megalopolises erected upon the only board member who fully opposed pristine headlands of the plan. “I did not natural beauty. assume this office to But happily, for preside over the dedrooling land develstruction of our lovely opers everywhere, county,” said Behr, a the Marin County Republican and deterBoard of Supervisors mined champion of was all set to change the environment. that in November of Fortunately, 1965 when it gave an Marincello’s town enthusiastic thumbsmoniker, “where the up to the planned mountains meet the creation of Marinsea,” would prove precello—a suburban A miniature model of the 1965 Marincello proposal. scient over the years, Mecca of towering as the Headlands link high rises and winding cul de sacs smack-dab in the middle of the between Mt. Tam and the Pacific remained intact, while the Frouge plan bottomed out. Marin Headlands. Bulldozers made quick work of the Tennessee In a 3-to-2 vote at their monthly meeting, the Marin supes officially gave the green light to Valley “gateway” to the town, but developer infighting and successful court victories fought the brainchild of East Coast developer Thomas by conservationists made nearly as quick work Frouge whose proposal, backed by millions of Marincello. In 1969, Thomas Frouge died of dollars from Gulf Oil, was to construct a of a massive cerebral hemorrhage; in 1970, “planned city” of 30,000 people, featuring 50 Gulf Oil withdrew its backing for the project. apartment towers, a mall and a skyscraping By 1972, when President Nixon signed the bill hotel overlooking the Golden Gate. placing the Headlands within the new Golden Hundreds of “conservationists” swarmed Gate National Recreation Area, any dream of the board meeting to cry out against Marincello, but the county’s elected leaders held firm a “planned” city by the sea had, in the words of Marin historian Jane Futcher, “breathed its in their convictions that razing 2,138 acres of last gasp.” deer, bobcat and coyote habitat was the right The first great conservation battle in the thing to do. county had been waged. “If it costs me my office to do this, then I Marincello was dead. say so be it,” Supervisor Ernest Kettenhofen And the Marin environmental movement courageously asserted upon casting his vote was born. ✹ for a project that would see hundreds of townhomes lining boulevards from Tennessee Email Jason at jwalsh@pacificsun.com. Valley to Rodeo Beach. Supervisor Tom Storer positioned his support for bulldozing the Blast into Marin’s past with more historic Coast Miwok stomping grounds as a Behind the Sun at ›› pacificsun.com ‘They paved paradise and put up a parking lot, with a pink hotel, a boutique, and a swinging hot spot’—Joni Mitchell, ‘Big Yellow Taxi’
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²ÊIn Marin, the Haves usually respect the Have Nots, but not always. Sometimes there’s a sense of entitlement that’s downright senseless. Elaine visited a friend in San Rafael who lives at the end of a narrow road. A fire hydrant prohibits parking in front of her friend’s home, so Elaine parked her old Hyundai in the closest legal space—smack-dab in front of a looming McMansion. Returning to her car an hour later, she found a handwritten note: Park in front of the house or driveway you are visiting so we can park our cars here. Rich person, settle down. You live on a publicly maintained street that doesn’t belong to you. Maybe you could contact the city of San Rafael to discuss buying it, but until then stop acting like a Zero.—Nikki Silverstein
Got a Hero or a Zero? Please send submissions to e-mail nikki_silverstein@yahoo.com. Toss roses, hurl stones with more Heroes and Zeros at ›› pacificsun.com OCTOBER 29 - NOVEMBER 4, 2010 PACIFIC SUN 9