< 6 House routs Safe Routes < 6 Newsgrams though that proposal was tied more directly to both county and state parks.
Bernice Baeza, 1943-2012 Lark Theater director Bernice Capozzi-Baeza died Saturday after a battle with lung cancer, according to sources at the Lark. She was 69. According to a post on the Lark’s Facebook page, she died peacefully with her family beside her. Baeza had been absent from day-to-day operations at the Lark for several months, according to a source close to the theater, but her illness had been kept private among her family. Baeza’s legacy as a Marin movie presenter won’t fade out anytime soon. After helping to guide the Latino Film Festival when it was based at Dominican University in the early 2000s, Baeza next focused her sights on an even bigger triumph—saving the historic Lark Theater from impending demolition. The ‘30s-era art-deco movie house was in dilapidated condition in 2004 when Baeza, together with Heidi Hillenbrand and other volunteers, refurbished the single-screen facility and launched the Save the Lark campaign—which ultimately raised enough funds from more than 800 donors to purchase the building on behalf of what would become the Lark Theater Group nonprofit. More recently, Baeza has fronted the charge to purchase the Novato Theater from the city of Novato. Baeza’s fundraising group, the Novato Screen Savers, raised more than $800,000 in a little over a year’s time and bought the Grant Avenue single screen theater, shuttered since 1996, for $50,000. In a statement on behalf of the Lark Theater board of directors, Baeza is described as an “innovator” in finding creative ways to keep the single-screen theater alive in an age of multi-million multiplexes. “Her vision was that the Lark should be a ‘community cultural center’ providing entertainment for all ages,” said board members. Lark board president Tina McArthur says that details for a tribute to Baeza will be forthcoming. Symphony hoping new ED will bring music to Marin’s ears... The Marin Symphony is passing its behind-the-scenes baton to a new hand—as Jeff vom Saal has come on board this week as the orchestra’s new executive director. Vom Saal, 33, is coming off a five-year run as executive director of the Quad City Symphony Orchestra in Iowa. Vom Saal, a trumpet major in college, has also enjoyed stints leading symphonies in Minnesota and Massachusetts. The symphony’s previous executive director, Noralee Monestere, resigned in April after 12 years fronting the 61-year-old orchestra. Frances White, president of the Marin Symphony board of trustees, said vom Saal’s time at the Quad City orchestra “distinguished him as a strategic thinker” where he developed “new and larger audiences.” Like many community orchestras, one of the Marin Symphony’s biggest challenges is attracting new and younger audiences in an age of video games, MP3s and cheesy reality TV music contests. The symphony’s $1.4 million budget has depended heavily on donations in recent years. But expectations for vom Saal will no doubt include bringing in more dependable sources of revenue. According to Marin Symphony officials, when vom Saal was in Iowa he increased subscription and single-ticket sales each year and expanded the Quad City youth programs from two to four youth ensembles, as well as overseeing a “significant” growth in financial support from the community. Vom Saal, his wife, Robyn, and their two kids will make their home in Mill Valley. Vom Saal officially begins executive directing at the Marin Symphony on Aug. 6. Nine of 11 towns plug into Marin Clean Energy With last week’s decision by the Larkspur City Council to purchase the town’s energy through Marin Clean Energy’s “light green” program, that brings the count to nine of the county’s 11 municipalities, as well as the county itself, sticking with the community choice aggregator. The Corte Madera and Ross town councils voted earlier this month to purchase energy from MCE through the “light green” option. Corte Madera expected to spend more than $3,000 a year more for clean energy than it had previously with Pacific Gas and Electric, but a PG&E rate hike at the beginning of July likely brought that number into the $1,000 to $2,000 range. Ross originally expected to save $88 a year with clean energy; the PG&E hike will also bring that savings up. Two days before the new rate numbers were released, the Novato City Council voted to “opt out” of Marin Clean Energy under the belief they’d save $7,800 with PG&E’s so-called “brown” energy. But the rate hike cut that “brown” savings to a mere $1,000. The city of Sausalito, an early member of the Marin Energy Authority—with membership granting residents and businesses the choice of clean energy—voted in 2010 to continue purchasing the city’s energy through PG&E. State parks finds $54 million under cushion State parks officials have a mountain of explaining to do—as the park system reportedly had $54 million hidden in its coffers at the same time it was threatening to close down 70 parks due to lack of funds. California parks director Ruth Coleman resigned July 20 when news broke that the parks department had been underreporting tens of millions of dollars over the course of more than a decade. Following Coleman’s departure, acting deputy director Michael Harris was fired. The governor has ordered the state Department of Finance to conduct an investiga9 > 8 PACIFIC SUN JULY 27 - AUGUST 2, 2012
school kids. The Centers for Disease Control recently recognized Safe Routes as an asset to schoolchildren and the wider community. “House Republicans were trying to force Sen. Boxer to add the Keystone Pipeline and provision for coal to the transportation bill,” says Hubsmith. “She stood strong and said no. But what ended up happening is that we became a casualty. We were the fallout of the hard-core politics.” Federal funding for the new Transportation Alternatives is $800 million a year— which may sound like a large number, but is a substantial cut from the $1.2 billion allocated in fiscal year 2011. All the programs and projects in the Transportation Alternatives must compete for that reduced funding. (In fiscal year 2011, the Safe Routes to School program alone received $202 million.) And competition for funds could get intense with an even more severe reduction of federal money, thanks to a provision of the bill that allows states to opt out of using half of the Transportation Alternatives money for transportation projects and instead, spending it at their discretion. If all states decide to slice off their half for other uses, that would leave only about $400 million for Transportation Alternatives. California, however, may be more protected from the new budget alignment than other states because it enacted legislation that set spending priorities for federal stimulus money. “We can still make things right for people bicycling and walking our state,” says Hubsmith. Using the same spending priorities strategy for the stimulus money, the state could set its own priorities for its 50 percent cut of the federal transportation money. (The other 50 percent will go to the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), which will be responsible for distributing that portion to the Bay Area.) Because the new federal transportation bill takes effect Oct. 1, the Legislature needs to set funding priorities for its share of the federal transportation dollars by Aug. 31. Hubsmith and other alternative transportation advocates are working to persuade Caltrans to maintain current funding priorities for bicycle and pedestrian programs in its proposals to the Legislature, at least at proportional levels. That could lead to state legislation setting those priorities. In other words, if cutting needs to be done, make it proportional cutting, rather than the excision that congressional Republicans sought. If advocates can win their case at the state level for a proportional share of the state’s 50 percent of federal transportation funds, that money—along with a share of the funds MTC will distribute and funds from other sources—could mean Safe Routes and other bike and pedestrian programs would remain alive in the Bay Area. The money from MTC, however, will come with restrictions tied to Plan Bay Area, including an aim to focus funds onto Planned Development Areas, which could mean Marin would receive a relatively reduced chunk. “The bottom line is that there’s
going to be less of the money that went to projects like the Cal Park Hill Tunnel and the Lincoln Pathway and some of our other projects,” says Andy Peri, advocacy director at the Marin County Bicycle Coalition. “We are actively engaged at the regional level to try to ensure that there is good Complete Streets policy coming from the transportation commission,” says Peri. Complete Streets is the state policy that calls for spending funds on bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure along with work on roadways. “We want to make sure Complete Streets is strong, so when road money does come, it ends up benefiting cyclists and pedestrians.” With a legislative commitment to maintain bicycle and pedestrian programs, California could pave the way for other states. Marin already is in the forefront with a longstanding commitment to bicycle and pedestrian programs. And that commitment could be the county’s saving grace. “We’re not happy with the loss of specific program funding for Safe Routes on the federal level,” says Dianne Steinhauser, executive director of the Transportation Authority of Marin (TAM), “but we believe there’s still the opportunity for the state to recognize and dedicate funds to [about] the same level of funding. We’re going to work to try to convince the state to do that.” The loss of some federal transportation-bill funds could be recouped by qualifying projects for money from congestion management and air quality programs, for instance. Marin is insulated from cuts in alternative transportation funds because county voters approved Measure A in 2004. The measure raises the sales tax by a half-cent for 20 years to fund transportation improvements, including alternative transportation. In 2010, Marin voters also approved Measure B, which increased the vehicle registration fees by $10 to support transportation projects. TAM administers the Safe Routes program in Marin. “Our program mostly is funded by our transportation sales tax,” says Steinhauser. “Thank goodness for that.” Over a five-year period, she adds, “federal funds accounted for just 15 percent of the money that we have for Safe Routes.” The cut in federal money “is not good, but it’s not deadly.” That local money will continue to fund Safe Routes programs in the schools, crossing guards and teacher-student-parent projects. But the federal funds play a key role in capital projects. “We won’t be able to do as many,” says Steinhauser. “We’ve done about $17 million in capital projects over 10 years.” The federal money has averaged about $500,000 a year for the last five years. “We won’t have that anymore.” While the local sales-tax money helps insulate Marin from federal budget cuts, and a move in the Legislature that would reinforce Complete Streets and maintain dedication to alternative transportation would put the state in a relatively good position, considering the federal cuts, the same can’t be said for other regions. Jeff Miller is the president and CEO of the Alliance for Biking and Walking, based in