Marin IJ Readers’ Forum for Dec. 10, 2025

Bilingual preschool shares thanks for grant from county

As executive director of the Papermill Creek Children’s Center, and on behalf of the Board of Directors, I would like to share a heartfelt thank you to Marin County District 4 Supervisor Dennis Rodoni and his fellow supervisors for approving the recent, vital grant (“Marin supervisors approve $1.65M in grants to nonprofits,” Nov. 13).

The center is the only bilingual preschool in West Marin. This funding will be used to replace our aging roof and install solar panels. Those critical infrastructure projects will allow our center to continue providing a nurturing, bilingual environment where young children learn, grow and thrive while being deeply connected to nature and community.

This investment strengthens our ability to remain a cornerstone for West Marin’s youngest learners, today and for the next 50 years. Continued investment in organizations like ours is an investment in our county’s future and the well-being of our West Marin families.

We are incredibly thankful for the supervisors’ support and dedication to our community.

— Lourdes Romo, Point Reyes Station

Supervisors not taking care with their spending decisions

Every time I read about Marin County hiring consultants, I think, “Egad, another half-million dollars for consultants from our pockets to theirs?”

I think the Marin County Board of Supervisors is awash in our tax dollars. It appears to me that they have never met a consulting company they didn’t want to throw money at. From my perspective, it happens because supervisors can’t do their jobs. So they construct a multi-million-dollar bureaucracy for insulation. I think it leads to a lack of understanding and care their constituents need.

It seemed to take decades to get approval before roads were repaved in West Marin, but not a minute to propose a hefty pay raise for themselves. I think it is time for Elon Musk to reconstruct his Department of Government Efficiency and take a close look at Marin County.

— Alex Easton-Brown, Lagunitas

Register all e-bikes with transponders

In the article published Dec. 1 with the headline “Marin police detail challenges of e-bike enforcement,” Central Marin police Lt. Alberto Duenas is quoted as saying, “They’re going to places where cars can’t get into. And quite frankly, we’re not going to pursue these riders just because the risk of injury is so much higher when anybody’s on a motorcycle or a bicycle or e-bike or e-motorcycle.”

Hearing that many riders violate traffic regulations with impunity because they are so hard and dangerous to catch makes me wonder: Would it be practical to have them all registered and have the plate broadcast its registration number electronically (similar to FasTrak systems on toll roads and bridges)? The system used by shipping companies to identify containers also seems to work well.

Mopeds have always been required to be registered. These new electric two-wheelers do not seem a lot different from that.

— John Bischoff, San Rafael

Putting focus on parents in e-bike enforcement is key

The best news of the day was that local police are trying different methods to enforce the new rules around e-bikes (“Marin police detail challenges of e-bike enforcement,” Dec. 1), particularly against those throttle “e-motorcycles” that some consider a terror on our multi-use pathways.

I think clueless irresponsible parents are the real problem here, so it was music to my ears to hear that some parents have been cited for supplying dangerous vehicles to their kids.

— Michael Sillman, Larkspur

Issues caused by SMART near transit center must be fixed

I am writing in response to the article published Nov. 26 with the headline “SMART supporters submit petition for tax renewal measure.”

The likely new tax bill to fund the operation of the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit District will probably go to voters in June. As a voter living in the area of San Rafael and the Ross Valley, I am frustrated by the traffic and disruption that SMART trains cause during my drive to and from the freeway at the Highway 101 connections near the transit center in San Rafael.

I think the traffic lights around the rail crossing are a mess. They are confusing. They need to be fixed and timed properly. The five train intersections with busy surface streets all quickly become messy when trains roll through. The whole area seems susceptible to gridlock.

I call on officials from SMART, the city, Caltrans and the Transportation Authority of Marin to get together to fix this mess. I won’t be voting in favor of more funding before that happens. I suspect I am not the only one.

— John Berg, Fairfax

Convenient SMART train needs more time to grow

In a letter published Dec. 3, Jeffory Morshead recommended that the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit tracks be “paved over” to be used by buses and trucks. By making that suggestion, I think Morshead aligns with those who disappointedly jettisoned useful rail systems back when cars first came into universal use.

Many have tried to restore continental train travel with little success since then. Additionally, I think Morshead should remember the effective ferry system we had in the Bay Area before ditching it, only to rebuild it at great expense.

SMART is underused now, but so was BART in the East Bay when it started. SMART is convenient and comfortable. What a joy it is to look out at the jammed highway as the train whizzes along.

Let’s not jettison our rail system. Instead, let’s jettison the blinkered and short-sighted attitudes that resulted in destroying so much that was useful.

— Elaine C. Johnson, Greenbrae

Novato officials need to listen to mobile-park residents

The Novato City Council professes to support low-income housing. But when residents of the Marin Valley Mobile Country Club (which is a low-income community) tried to buy it from the city for $21 million, city officials countered with what appears to be a demand for $26 million.

At that price, I think a purchase would only be possible if rents were raised throughout the park. Raising rents would mean some residents could no longer afford to stay in their homes.

I think some city officials are willfully ignoring the spirit of the original documents, which I interpret to mean that residents were meant to be the ultimate owners of the park.

— Julie Manson, Novato

‘Big block’ apartment towers are wrong choice

Based on my research, it appears Marin has enough market-rate homes. It just needs to house ordinary workers who can no longer afford to live here. However, there is an understandable resistance to allowing massive “building blocks” for high-rise housing that doesn’t fit into its environment, simply because they “pencil out.”

I suspect residents who move into these blocks will have little or no contact with the outdoors. Is it architecturally possible to provide affordable housing with gardens? They could beautify neighborhoods. We could artfully develop it.

Shopping centers everywhere can become little villages, with airy garden studios rising over their seas of parking. The transformation of Northgate mall is in the works, and Mill Valley’s Alto Shopping Center has long been envisioned as such.

Merchants gain customers, residents gain convenience, the public gains community and the Earth gains calm. There’s nothing to lose.

— Dart Cherk, Mill Valley

Concerned about frequency of fascist rhetoric in world

Many political science experts view fascism as a mass political movement centered around extreme nationalism, militarism and the elevation of national interests above those of the individual.

Fascist regimes often promote the overthrow of institutions that they view as “liberal decay” while simultaneously promoting traditional values. They believe in the supremacy of certain people and use it to justify the persecution of other groups. Racism was a key feature of German fascism, for which the Holocaust was a high priority.

Common factors of fascism have included the “cleansing” of all those deemed not to belong — foreigners, ethnic minorities and “undesirables” — and the belief in its own nation’s superiority. I worry that recent global events, including the COVID-19 pandemic and racial unrest in the U.S., will lead to more fascist rhetoric in politics and policies around the world.

— Dennis Kostecki, Sausalito