Marin City, California

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Marin City, California is an unincorporated area of Marin County. The County of Marin is immediately to the North of the city and county of San Francisco. Driving north on 101, the Marin City exit is only 5.6 km (3.5 miles) from the county line.

1 Geography
2 Government
3 Demographics
4 History
5 Notable residents
6 Education
7 Housing
8 Business
9 Future
10 External links

[edit] Geography

Marin City is located at 37°52'07" North, 122°30'29" West ^GR1.

According to LAFCO, the district has a total area of 2.3 km² (0.9 mi²).

Marin City is located south of both the Tamalpais Community Services District and the City of Mill Valley, northwest of the City of Sausalito, and west of Richardson Bay (an estuary of San Francisco Bay). Marin City is nestled in a valley and up a ridge with its Western boundary bordering on the Marin Headlands, an 8,000 acre Pacific coastal park, which is a notable segment of the 74,000 acre Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA) system of parks.

[edit] Government

The municipal authority for Marin City is the Marin City Community Services District (MCCSD), a multi-purpose California special district that is governed by a publicly-elected five-member board of directors and is administered by a district manager and staff. As of February 2006, the District Manager is Johnathan Logan, Jr. and the Board President is Melvin Atkins.

Chartered in 1958, the MCCSD is responsible for providing services in the areas of parks and recreation, street lighting, recycling and refuse removal, and other powers and responsibilities as activated under LAFCO.

Total operating revenue for MCCSD's fiscal year 2005-2006 was $613,000.

[edit] Demographics

Marin City is unique in the County of Marin for its diverse multi-cultural and mixed-income constituency. For example, according to the 2000 United States Census, the African American population of Marin City as 38.6%, compared to 2.83% in the whole of Marin County.

Other racial statistics from the 2000 Census indicate the remaining population of Marin City as: Asian 9.0%; Latino 7.8%; Native American 1.4%; Pacific Islander 0.8%; some other race 1.5%; two or more races 8.3%; White 32.5%. Marin City's population was measured at 2,560 in the 2000 Census with current population estimated at 3,000.

[edit] History

Prior to World War II, the land that would become Marin City was home to a dairy farm and a handful of families. Soon after war was declared on December 8, 1941, Marin City was rapidly built during 1942 in order to house 6,000 of the 20,000 guest workers who migrated from all over the United States, attracted by the jobs at Marinship, the Sausalito waterfront shipyard. A total of 93 liberty ships and tankers were built and launched from Marinship in less than three years.

Many of the African American shipyard laborers who had migrated from the Southern U.S. chose to live permanently in Marin City. They became the core of the community when most of the other guest laborers departed at the end of the war. During the war, African Americans comprised about 10% of Marin City's population. By the 1970s, African Americans comprised over three quarters of the population of Marin City, most of whom traced their roots to the Marinship laborers.

During the 1980s and 1990s there was considerable residential and commercial development, including several new housing developments, apartment complexes, and a significant commercial area, the Gateway Shopping Center.

[edit] Notable residents

Beat poet Lew Welch lived in Marin City during the 1960s. Jazz historian Grover Sales was his immediate neighbor. [1] Jack Kerouac stayed in Marin City and nearby Mill Valley during his travels in the 1940s and 1950s. (He combined the two citys' names into "Mill City" in On the Road.)

Bola Sete (born Djalma de Andrade) was a black Brazilian guitarist born on July 16, 1923 in Rio de Janeiro and who died on February 14, 1987 in Greenbrae, California. He bought a home on the hillside in Marin City and lived there until his death. His wife, painter Anne Sete still resides in Marin City. His numerous albums are still widely distributed.

Tupac Shakur lived in Marin City for several years during the 1980s. He would occasionally return to the area after becoming well-known, including a notorious 1992 incident in which his entourage became involved in a shootout with a rival group, which resulted in the accidental killing of a six year-old bystander, Qa'id Walker-Teal.

[edit] Education

Marin City is served by the Sausalito Marin City School District for primary grades (K-8) and the Tamalpais Union High School District for secondary grades. Grades K-6 attend either Bayside Elementary School in Sausalito or Willow Creek Academy (a public charter school), both in Sausalito. Grades 7-8 attend Martin Luther King Jr. Academy in Marin City, or Willow Creek Academy. Grades 9-12 attend Tamalpais High School in Mill Valley.

[edit] Housing

Marin City remains one of the most affordable places to purchase real estate in Marin. Homes sold in Marin City are often labeled as being located in Sausalito since Marin City shares the 94965 ZIP Code, the 331 and 332 telephone prefixes, and Sausalito Marin City School District with its close neighbor Sausalito.

Many hillside residences in Marin City offer sweeping views of Richardson Bay, the Tiburon peninsula, and Mount Tamalpais. With its central location close to parks and services, easy access to Highway 101, its Golden Gate Transit (bus line) transfer hub, and being only a five minute drive to the Golden Gate Bridge, Marin City is a desirable home for commuters working both in San Francisco and Northern Marin.

Most of the housing in Marin City was developed in the 1970s, '80s and '90s after much of the temporary Marinship housing put up in 1942 had been razed.

Several homeowners associations are actively managing their respective properties to enhance property values for their homeowner-members. These include: The Headlands HOA, Headlands II HOA, Braun Court HOA, Marin City Townhomes Association, and the Polehouses Association.

Apartment complexes include: Archstone Apartments, Ridgeway Apartments, and Village Odudua.

Marin City is home to Golden Gate Village, the only public housing development in Marin County. As a result, a large number of Marin County's low-income and very-low-income residents are concentrated in this Southeastern neighborhood of Marin City. This rental-housing community for low-income families is funded by the federal government Department of Housing and Urban Development) and is owned by Marin Housing. This public housing complex has 292 apartments for residents and includes eight community spaces. Each family pays 30% of its income for rent. Golden Gate Village pays no property taxes and therefore contributes no direct funding to the budget of the MCCSD. Notably, the MCCSD dedicates a significant portion of its annual budget to serving the residents of Golden Gate Village. This long-standing arrangement is one of the keys to understanding the economics of municipal management in Marin City.

Managed by the Marin Housing Authority, Golden Gate Village plays a valuable role within Marin County. It is one of the few housing options for the working poor in a county where the median price of a single-family home was $920,000 as of November 2005. As a community within a community, Golden Gate Village continues to play a significant role in shaping the culture and history of Marin City.

While Golden Gate Village consists of about 1/4 of all the households in Marin City, the other 3/4 of the households are comprised of single-family homes, townhouses, condominiums, and apartments.

[edit] Business

The Gateway Shopping Center is conveniently located within sight of the Highway 101 interchange. The Gateway Center draws customers from all over Marin and San Francisco counties with a variety of locally-owned and corporate chain businesses, restaurants, and retail outlets.

The Gateway Center serves as the central business district for Marin City. Some of the anchor tenants include: Best Buy, Babies R Us, Ross Dress for Less, Little Gym, Longs Drugs, Boat U.S., Butterfly Life, Outback Steakhouse, Panda Express, Burger King and Starbucks. Small businesses include Stars BBQ, Post n Plus, Gateway Cleaners, Gateway Beauty Supply, and Nails #1 Salon. It also is the home of the Marin City Library.

Once famous for the Marin City Flea Market which was forcibly closed in the mid-1990s, despite community protest, to make way for the Gateway Shopping Center, the MCCSD is currently planning to launch the smaller-scale Marin City Market Fest on selected Saturdays in the summer of 2006.

[edit] Future

Marin City is a unique and motivated community that is focused on transforming its future. Community leaders and residents work together to build the community from within. Current projects being developed by the MCCSD include a planned community center dubbed the Marin City Center and a Marin City Health & Wellness Clinic. The Martin Luther King, Jr. Academy middle school is being rebuilt from the ground-up by the Sausalito Marin City School District as part of a $15.9 million bond measure. Additionally, new shopping center tenants and a host of other educational, recreational, and human development initiatives are being cultivated by various government agencies, nonprofits and foundations.