Marin IJ Readers’ Forum for Jan. 14, 2026

It’s time to devote more to aging public infrastructure

As the saying goes, “For want of a nail, the shoe was lost.” I think Marin County has a huge backlog of deferred maintenance that echoes this adage.

It works like this: A small crack in the pavement fills with rain and grows into a pothole. The unfilled pothole becomes a crater requiring drivers to do the “pothole slalom” to avoid it. When it is ignored for a long enough period of time, instead of less costly regular pothole repair, the entire street would be best served by a full scale grind down and repaving.

Considering that, it was heartening to read that the Transportation Authority of Marin is finally planning to allocate some funds for paving (“Marin transportation agency might tweak spending mix,” Dec. 26). Too often, it seems that funds are spent on more extravagant (often underused) bicycle amenities.

For years, basic maintenance on the public housing complex at Golden Gate Village in Marin City has been neglected with the vague excuse that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development didn’t give the county enough money. Now the complex is facing upward of $6 million in repairs. The cost continues to escalate. Surely more effort going forward to secure other funds could keep this vital housing resource in good condition.

There is an urgent need to assess and prioritize the needed repairs to our aging infrastructure. The time for excuses and delay is over.

— Elaine Reichert, Santa Venetia

Transparent decisions about Pt. Reyes National Seashore

Marin residents don’t have to agree on ranching, tule elk or restoration to recognize what went wrong when ranchers were paid off to leave the Point Reyes National Seashore in 2025: The public was excluded from major decisions about public land.

For decades, Point Reyes was governed by law and long-term 20-year leases that supported historic working ranches. In 2025, that structure was effectively abandoned through private settlement agreements reportedly backed by the Nature Conservancy, involving roughly $30 million and nondisclosure agreements, without open public forums where residents could weigh in on the future of their national park.

Now the contradiction is plain. After cattle were removed, seemingly in the name of expanding the tule elk range, the Nature Conservancy is now proposing to bring cattle back under short-term contractor grazing. If cattle are acceptable as a vegetation tool when controlled by outside contracts, the public deserves an explanation for why local families and local food production had to be displaced first. I think the Nature Conservancy owes their local donors an explanation as to why they are bringing back the cattle, apparently at the expense of the tule elk range (with yet another donor expense to hire outside contractors).

The removal of 12 local food producers also has consequences: more imported food, higher costs and more transportation emissions, all while Marin faces climate-driven storm and flood risks. This isn’t a “ranchers vs. environmentalists” fight. It’s a transparency issue. Public lands require public process, not closed-door governance.

— Gregory Burgess, San Rafael

All bikes need visible licenses for identification purposes

I have read that e-bikes and e-motos need more oversight for safety, but I think all bikes should be licensed. A cyclist on a traditional pedal-powered bike recently took out the passenger-side mirror on my car. I had no recourse as the anonymous perpetrator cycled away.

— Mallory Gabriel, San Rafael

Challenging all to remain present, show spirit in 2026

As a new year emerges, there is a natural pause — a moment to reflect on what has endured and to look forward with intention. It is a time to measure not only what was gained or lost, but how we carried ourselves through uncertainty. None of us is tasked with fixing the entire world. Our responsibility is more attainable: to mend the portion within our reach. Any small act that helps another — relieving suffering, restoring dignity, steadying fear — matters immediately. In a turbulent world, one of the most powerful choices available to us is to remain present, do the right thing and show our spirit.

This distinction matters as 2026 begins. Optimism is the belief that the future will be better. Hope is harder: the belief that we have a role in making it so. Optimism waits. Hope acts.

One of hope’s greatest adversaries is cynicism. Cynicism assumes bad faith and inevitable failure. It can feel sophisticated, even protective, but it quietly erodes engagement. A healthier posture is skepticism: the willingness to question without surrendering to despair. Skepticism keeps us alert; cynicism shuts us down.

We were reminded of that truth this past year through widely shared footage from Australia’s Bondi Beach, where a bystander ran toward danger during a violent attack rather than away from it. There was no plan and no guarantee of success — only courage that was improvised and deeply human.

Moments like this clarify something essential: hope does not originate in institutions alone. It emerges when individuals decide that disengagement is not an option their conscience will accept. Acts of unscripted courage are not anomalies. They echo an enduring truth: Meaning survives when people stay engaged. Hope does not deny hardship. It accepts it and insists that effort still matters.

Hope is not the belief that the future will be kinder; it is the decision to remain responsible for it, even when the outcome is uncertain. As a new year begins, that choice to stay engaged may be the most consequential one we make.

— Igor Sill, Belvedere

Marin must create a strategy for high tides

It appears Marin County has made little progress over the course of the last 25 years in regard to flooding in low-lying areas (“Marin tidal flooding prompts renewed push for fortification,” Jan. 6). From my perspective, politicians do little if anything to address this issue. Others in office that support these politicians do little as well.

I think this comes down to Gov. Gavin Newsom and what he has not managed well over the years. I spent three hours in my car during the tidal flooding of our roads during the storm. I witnessed numerous near accidents and related emergency situations due to the horrific traffic conditions I encountered. I am not sure what the answer is here, but it certainly is not what we have in place.

Have we no access to equipment? Have we no access to the necessary means by which we need to address the issues of traffic safety when flooding is an issue and has been an issue in this county for a very long time?

Should a serious issue occur, I think Marin County residents are in real danger. I hope consideration is given at a higher level to alleviate this once and for all.

— Mary M. Grogan, Larkspur

Hard to understand why Trump acted in Venezuela

After reading the article by the Associated Press published in the IJ on Jan. 4 with the headline “US plans to ‘run’ Venezuela, tap its oil reserves,” it is clear to me that President Donald Trump kicked off 2026 by invading a foreign country and abducting its head of state, in violation of what he told his voters he wouldn’t do.

There is no apparent legal basis for these actions, nor does there seem to be congressional approval, an international coalition or significant public support. One rationale for this escapade – that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is a “narco-terrorist” flooding the U.S. and Europe with drugs – is bizarre considering that Trump has pardoned multiple convicted drug kingpins. Another rationale – that he’s “taking back” Venezuela’s massive petroleum reserves to exploit for commercial profit – is piracy.

More importantly, the process of rebuilding the production infrastructure will reportedly take years and billions of dollars, which may help explain why American oil companies haven’t clamored for Venezuela’s reserves.

Lastly, Trump claims that his team will “run” the country indefinitely, but I consider it a team with a history of organizational failures that can barely run its own country. Given the track record of corruption, chaos and incompetence we’ve come to expect, I think it’s doubtful that this team has thought through any of this. It is setting us up for “Iraq 2.0.” The taking of Iraq in 2003 was a fiasco from which Trump’s team has apparently learned nothing.

— John Redfield Brooks, Fairfax