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Events

County’s Deficient SFD “Outreach” Effort to Conclude with June 1 Open House

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By Bill Gleason

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The next county public hearing on the controversial Sir Francis Drake Rehabilitation Project will take place 4 – 8 pm at the Kent Middle School.

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Here’s the notice: CLICK HERE

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Much has been written about this in letters to the Marin Post as well as letters to theMarin IJ. Every comment I’ve seen has been very negative on the proposal, which will, in the end, “calm” traffic, which is simply bureaucratic-speak for “slow” traffic. This is a total boondoggle and a tremendous waste of precious resources.

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“Calming” runs totally counter to the source of most of the funding for the project which comes from a tax we imposed on ourselves to reduce traffic and speed things up!

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The supervisors, notably District 2’s Katie Rice, are all in on this $18 million two-year (they say…) project. The question of who benefits, is very unclear. It’s certainly not those who will be driving Drake during the deconstruction and reconstruction. And it’s certainly not those who use the peripheral roads like Kent, Bon Air, Magnolia, Doherty, Tamalpais, and, of course, Second in San Rafael.

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The supervisors are proud of their “outreach”. But there’s here’s a big difference between outreach and inclusion. Outreach is rehearsed public “hearings”. Inclusion is a process where the supervisors and their high-paid consultants would actually listen carefully to citizens’ concerns and heed their advice.

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Even then, the so-called outreach is seriously flawed. Those of us who live in the Drake corridor from Highway 101 to the Ross-Kentfield line have been made somewhat aware of what’s going on and what meetings to attend. Those who live in the periphery or further out in the Ross Valley have not been afforded this outreach.

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It’s time to start a DON’T BREAK DRAKE” movement and convince the county to start over. You can help by attending the June 1 meeting and strongly voice your concerns.

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Oh yes, did I mention that before the supposed two-year project gets underway the MMWD will dig up Drake from College to 101 to replace a pipe? That’s a nice “warm up” while the Bon Air Bridge project is also underway.

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And I almost forgot. The available funds from our self-tax leaves a gap of $5 million. No one is answering the question where that will come from. But we too well know anything that comes from the alphabet agencies (ABAG/MTC), the state, or the feds will come with serious strings about high-density housing.

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See you June 1! Tell your friends and neighbors.

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