Dear Neighbors—
In the effort to improve our ferry landing, opposition wasn’t always a straightforward “no.” It often came as “no, and…”, calls for delay, more study, and more process.
The beautiful plaza you see today happened only because some residents kept pushing for years. But delay cost you and me.
Inflation ate away 25% of the purchasing power of our grant. Sausalito got fewer improvements than we could have achieved by acting sooner.
Another example: watch the May 23, 2023 City Council meeting, Item 5B.
I championed a community-driven planning effort for the Marinship. It took a year of pushing and process just to get the proposal on the agenda. Then Councilmembers Janelle Kellman, Joan Cox, and Jill Hoffman killed it.
All we got was a vote for more study.
The study was never done.
Had we moved forward three years ago, we likely could have avoided the 294-unit, eight-story residential tower coming now across the street from Mollie Stone’s.
Delay is a decision. And it has consequences.
Now, I see the same approach being urged against Measure X: wait longer, study more, act later.
November 3 is your vote—and your power to tell your government to get moving.
Or we can delay while the waters rise, our buildings decay, businesses leave and our future tax bills keep growing.
Over the past 15 years, we have conducted numerous studies of economic conditions and sea-level rise. We have a wide menu of options.
We know we need wave attenuators to protect Galilee Harbor and to dredge the channel to maintain maritime access to our boatyards in north Sausalito.
Roughly 30% of the Netherlands is below sea-level. The technical solutions are well known.
But all this costs alot of money.
The sea-level rise study estimates a total cost of $170 million over the next 30 years. That figure appears in Table 16, on page 164.
Waiting carries its own financial risk. Property taxes are the bedrock of our city budget. If properties lose value or are abandoned because of flooding, the cost of providing city services does not disappear. The burden shifts toward the remaining taxpayers; you and me.
Losing our working waterfront would hurt both our pocketbooks and our maritime culture.
Measure X is not the whole answer. It was never meant to be. It is a first step toward a more vibrant local economy that can help pay for the work ahead.
Let’s not confuse delay with protection, or inaction with preservation.
Vote YES on Measure X, and let’s move Sausalito forward together.
PS: If you have the time to dig deeper:
Here are emblematic messages from an artist, marina steward, entrepreneur, maritime organization, fisherman, and maritime leaders who are being suffocated by our current laws.
Here is Heath Ceramics pleading for help. Do we value Heath?
Click to read the endorsements from the Marin Independent Journal here, the Greenbelt Alliance, the Sustainable Waterfront Association.
Here is a link to the SFChronicle polemic on Measure X.
Here is a description of the mind numbing multi-year process that will still exist after Measure X that ensures we can control the appearance of anything actually permitted; regardless of what is proposed.
Watch the whole Measure X debate here.
Here is an FAQ and a Fact vs. Fiction, if you have time to read.
Here is how CAST, and MALT are examples of what is empowered by Measure X. Both these protective mechanisms take money. And Measure X is a pathway to funding things like this.
PPS. We can do better than this:
This is an actual photo of an RV storage yard in today’s Marinship that the current rules will not allow to be developed into anything with higher commercial usage.
