The new year is a time of promise and hope. Some of it is possible while other items are long shots. Here’s this column’s 2022 wish list for Marin County governments.
The wish for the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit District is that its new general manager Eddie Cummings and his board boost ridership to pre-pandemic levels, promote train-riding tourists to Wine Country destinations and make SMART’s new freight business a paying proposition. In a word, the task is “marketing.” The only way SMART will see its one-quarter cent sales tax funding extended is convincing the public it’s providing a well-patronized and efficiently managed service.
The expectation for 2022 is that Larkspur’s two-lane bridge over Corte Madera Creek is finished. City staff promise that after four years of work the span will be completed by summer. Given the “under construction” look of the span today, that promise might depend on how the word “completed” is defined.
Motorists at Tamalpais Junction can dream traffic congestion at the Highway 1/Almonte Boulevard merge is vastly improved. New county Supervisor Stephanie Moulton-Peters should make that task one of her top five priorities. Since her predecessor, Kate Sears, did nothing about the congestion, Moulton-Peters deserves a little slack. Progress will be determined if a safe and efficient plan for Tam Junction is delivered in 2022.
The hope is that the Marin Municipal Water District accesses additional water sources. The goal is to deliver adequate water for residential use, landscaping, agriculture and business. If progress isn’t accomplished by mid-summer, then when a majority of the district’s five-member board is up for reelection in November, it’ll be time for out with the old and in with the new.
The promise for 2022 should be that homeless encampments be removed from Sausalito’s bayfront, Novato’s Lee Gerner Park and San Rafael’s fire-prone hillsides. The law is clear. Those unhoused folks suffering from a double diagnosis of mental illness and substance abuse can’t and shouldn’t be ejected unless they’re provided with alternative safe shelter. Local government now needs to create sufficient short-term transitional housing. Once those transitional shelters are open, cities and the county must enforce the law. No exceptions.
Climate change is a reality. It’s happening faster than most climatologists predicted. Yes, it’s often essential to take economically disruptive steps to slow the rate of change. It’s also urgent to promptly adapt to the inevitable. For the Marin peninsula, that includes raising streets and public utilities, restoring wetlands and erecting sea walls. We already have documentation exhibiting the threat’s depth. In 2022, the hope is the county and affected municipalities will produce practical sea-level rise adaptability projects for public hearings.
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North Bay voters bemoan the death of bipartisanship in Congress. It’s a timely concern but there remain a few courageous patriots committed to country above party. When we spot one, they deserve recognition and respect even if they come from a party different from ours.
If Marinites — including Democrats, democracy-supporting Republicans and independents — want to take meaningful action backing bipartisanship, they’ll do what they can to help re-elect Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming.
She‘s an old school rock-ribbed conservative with a spine of steel. Unlike most congressional Republicans, Cheney is a true conservative. She stands tall on the most important issue our nation has faced since 1860: the survival of American democracy.
Policy issues come and go but the risk that our country falls into authoritarianism or even fascism accompanied by widespread civil disorder surpasses everything else. Cheney’s role on the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 failed coup against the U.S. Constitution makes it clear she understands what the small “r” word “republican” means in a democratic republic.
