Dick Spotswood: There are positive projects throughout Marin’s civil society

Those who follow government and politics on the national scene are now used to a “new normal” of discouraging developments. Let’s change course and look at positive happenings in Marin’s civil society.

• One of Marin’s treasures is Dominican University and its Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. As we all get older, the trick to maintaining good health, both physical and mental, is exercise. OLLI provides intellectual stimulation needed to keep the brain active.

Its classes in liberal arts, history, political science, religion, art and science are taught both online and in person. I’ve found the in-person experience ideal. My latest OLLI six-session class, “Middle East Update” is now concluding. It’s taught by Farhad Mansourian, past Marin County Public Works director, ex-general manager of the Sonoma-Marein Area Rail Transit District and a true expert in that troubled region.

Mansourian, fluent in Farsi, was born and educated in Iran. In his youth he was an anti-terror officer in the Imperial Army. With the ouster of the shah, Farhad escaped to the United States, where he became a noted civil engineer. An example of OLLI’s roster of outstanding instructors, he’s in constant contact with credible sources across the Middle East.

• There’s good news on the government side. Novato leaders finally have a “clean” annual audited financial statement. As the Marin County Civil Grand Jury 2023 report, “Novato’s Chronic Fiscal Deficits: A Call to Action” indicated, those state-mandated statements haven’t been “clean” or timely for the past five years.

Amy Cunningham, Novato’s permanent city manager since 2024, deserves credit for putting the city’s finances in order. Cunningham is proving to be a fine nut-and-bolts manager, a trait lacking in her recent predecessors.

• Marin is a wonderful place to raise a family, but it’s said by parents and teachers that teenagers often become adrift, lacking safe places to gather with their contemporaries. With kids in Marin, “safe places” refer to drug-free zones.

I visited Karma Club for teens at San Rafael’s Northgate mall community space last week at 3:30 p.m. just after middle and high school classes concluded for the day. It’s strictly drug free and ideologically neutral. The nonprofit was founded by and partially funded by Belvedere’s Sally Newson.

It was inspiring to see its 5,000-square-foot space filled with almost 50 girls and boys 13 to 19 years of age from Terra Linda High School, Middle Creek Middle School, San Rafael High and other central Marin institutions mostly without cell phones in hand.

Karma Club has spaces to sit and read, play games, crochet, attend tutoring sessions, paint and create crafts, finish homework and enjoy healthy snacks while interacting. There’s no charge for any aspect of what Marin Magazine describes as “An after-school oasis.”

Many of Karma Klub’s attendees come from underserved communities. They can access free racks of new and used clean clothes and a “free food store” where kids may take home donated groceries.

• On Fridays, the SOUPer Food Kitchen, a project of Chef Heidi Krahling of San Anselmo’s Insalata’s Restaurant, distributes superb homemade soup to Marin institutions, including Karma Club. It does so in conjunction with a raft of volunteers.

• Many churches, synagogues and temples are religious centers that aim to address the needs of the whole person. They do it by engaging in free or low-cost community building. Westminster Presbyterian Church at 240 Tiburon Blvd. does it with Westminster Forum, a series of “conversations” free and open to all.

The next one, jointly sponsored by Mill Valley’s Outdoor Art Club, is March 8 from 3 to 5 p.m. The topic is “The Future of Public Health.” Dr. Lisa Santora, Marin County’s public health officer, will be in dialogue with Ross Councilmember Teri Dowling, a longtime San Francisco Department of Health executive. Vaccines, climate-related health risks and emergency preparedness will be discussed front-and-center.

Columnist Dick Spotswood of Mill Valley writes on local issues Sundays and Wednesdays. Email him at spotswood@comcast.net.