Date: August 13, 2010 1:16:42 PM PDT
To: bbeaumont@co.marin.ca.us
Cc: fmansourian@co.marin.ca.us, skinsey@co.marin.ca.us
Subject: A bit of real history behind Marin Horizon's Evergreen Ave. Sidewalk Proposal.
Bob,
bcc: Homestead Valley Concerned Citizens, Madrone Park Circle Group, Save Evergreen Group. Approx. 450 members
Forwarded by request.
To Homestead Residents Concerned About Evergreen Avenue,
At a public meeting held at Marin Horizon School last July we were told of a proposal submitted to County for construction of a sidewalk along Evergreen Avenue. It was implied that the sidewalk was necessary because school children were at risk of being struck by motor vehicles. To give this flimsy implication weight, a claim was made that there had been three “occurrences” on Evergreen since 2005, and that these “occurrences” were on file with “the police.” No one present, including in particular the so-called “Head” of Marin Horizon School, Inc., was either willing or able to say what these “occurrences” were or what law enforcement agency possessed the records referred to.
To seduce those opposed to the project, inducements having nothing to do with child safety were subsequently presented, one of which was that the sidewalk and its new curb would improve drainage of winter rains. Another was that the sidewalk’s smooth, level surface would benefit elderly Homestead residents purported to have difficulty walking the street. Fears about speeding traffic were assuaged with assurances that the project’s unavoidable narrowing of the street would produce a “calming effect” on traffic. Finally, we were told that the project, estimated to cost nearly a million dollars, would come at no cost to the neighborhood because the expense would be covered by a state grant.
Facts to Consider:
1. I have consulted the CHP, Mill Valley Police Department, and the County Sheriff regarding the so-called “occurrences.” While final word is not yet in, neither the County Sheriff nor our Mill Valley P.D. have yet to find on file any report of a child being hit by a car on Evergreen Ave. Sheriff Doyle reports that the term “occurrences” is not in the law enforcement lexicon and that his agency does not keep records of such nebulously defined events. Most interestingly, however, a Homestead resident recently reported that “ . . . 3 pedestrian accidents fraudulently reported by Marin Horizon School occurred in the City of Mill Valley, CA not in Homestead Valley, CA. The pedestrians were afdult [sic] Whole Food Shoppers. Source: City of Mill Valley.”
Given the absence thus far of any police reports of school children hit by cars on Evergreen, the report from our Homestead neighbor appears to be highly credible. My experience with those advocating the sidewalk project (viz. Marin Horizon School, Inc. and its toadies) strongly inclines me to believe that claims of these “occurrences” are but a shameless exercise in duplicity and fear-mongering, meant to deceive and frighten Evergreen Ave. residents into approving the sidewalk proposal. One can safely bet that had any child been so much as lightly brushed by a car while on his the way to school, those promoting the sidewalk would have shown up at the July meeting with black arm bands, picket signs, stuffed animals, glowing votive candles and streaming tears! No child attending Marin Horizon School has EVER been struck by a motor vehicle on Evergreen. “Head” of Marin Horizon School, Rosalind Hammar, who was present at the meeting, fully well knows that and should have said so! That she didn't speaks volumes about the ethics of this person!
2. Any accidents at Whole Foods would have taken place on that part of Evergreen adjacent to the store. This narrow section of the street already enjoys the much-touted “calming effect” (called congestion by those not practiced in the art of doublespeak) on traffic. The street also has a crosswalk, and sidewalks on both sides, but accidents happened there anyway. It is important to note that this part of Evergreen Avenue is narrow, exceptionally short, extremely busy throughout the entire day and is in no way even remotely representative of the remaining part of the street, which is far wider and far less traveled!
3. The proposed project’s significant narrowing of Evergreen Ave. will NOT lessen, but will INCREASE risk of serious accidents to children bicycling through congested traffic. To avoid the increased risk, they will be forced to ride their bikes on the proposed, narrow, six-foot-wide sidewalk, endangering the elderly pedestrians, women with baby buggies, and small children walking there. A sidewalk constructed along this stretch of Evergreen will be a self-fulfilling necessity; because it will narrow the street, people will have to use it.
4. Funding for the proposed sidewalk was not granted to “Americans for Better Storm Drainage” or the “Save the Feeble Old Geezers Foundation.” Ancillary benefits of the project, real or imagined, are irrelevant. That grant was awarded for one purpose only – to provide children with a safe route to school. The route is already safe. Taking grant money for any other purpose is, at the very least, dishonest and deprives others who could justifiably use it to protect their children!
5. Another argument made was that the proposal should be approved because the project wouldn’t cost anything to Evergreen Ave. residents. As one of the school’s toadies said, “The money is on the table. We should take it before somebody else does!” I vehemently disagree! That money didn’t just fall out of a tree. It came from the pockets of those who earned it through the sweat of their brow. Personally, I have no doubt that they would feel a little better about having to give it up if they knew it wasn’t being misused.
6. Worthy of note were numerous complaints voiced at the July meeting by neighborhood residents that they had not been notified about the proposed sidewalk. This “oversight” is reminiscent of a pattern of behavior seen during the months before the Marin Horizon School, Inc. expansion, when the Tamalpais Design Review Board held meetings with representatives of the school without making a genuine effort to notify anyone else. It should be recalled that because of these offenses, members of the Review Board eventually were compelled to attend instruction on the imperative to comply with the Brown Act. That it is now a different agency that has been neglectful leaves but a single, common denominator – THE CORPORATION DOING BUSINESS AT 305 MONTFORD AVENUE!
7. When neighbors presented Marin Horizon School, Incorporated with sound reasons why their campus was too small to accommodate their expansion plans, corporation officials ignored and marginalized them. When Homestead residents raised questions about future expansion plans, school spokesmen refused to give a straight answer. Dissatisfied with the neighborhood into which they have elbowed their way MHS, Inc., with godlike aplomb, now intends to wave its magic wand and remake our community in its own, perfectly manicured image.
Targeted for “improvement” is Evergreen Avenue, a public thoroughfare extending nearly four tenths of a mile from the corporation’s campus. No part of Evergreen is the property of MHS, Inc. Neither are the homes to be impacted along that route. Where do these people get off dictating the construction of sidewalks and the width of our streets? During 24 years of walking that street almost daily, I have neither seen nor heard of anything even remotely resembling a pedestrian/motor vehicle accident. In fact, I’ve been told by one who has lived here much longer that there has NEVER been one.
It is my belief that the real reason for all this is that the school doesn’t much care for the rural look of the neighborhood in which they have built their slick, moderne three-story monument to themselves, and that their privileged clients object to rolling their kids’ wheeled book carriers over Evergreen’s bumpy surface. This view might seem simplistic to some, but knowing those associated with Marin Horizon School, Inc. as I have come to know them – arrogant, condescending, smug, privileged and self-righteous – the expenditure of a million bucks of someone else’s money to pretty up what they view as a shabby neighborhood – hey, that makes perfect sense to me!
Frank Lurz
Todd Way
Homestead
No comments:
Post a Comment