Marin IJ Readers’ Forum for Dec. 31, 2023

Share thoughts on former golf course property now

Decision time for the Marin County Board of Supervisors regarding the former San Geronimo Golf Course property is coming soon.

I saw the IJ published the county’s Environmental Planning Division public notice on Dec. 5. The notice leads to a page on the county website titled “San Geronimo Fire Station Initial Study.” Find it at bit.ly/3vba95e. It includes 419 pages of attachments about the proposal. I think the county is under financial pressure to close a deal bailing out The Trust for Public Land from its involvement dating back to 2016.

Public notice requirements provide for a comment period, but that time ends on Thursday. Considering that the public notice was published just a few weeks ago, it all seems too quick. This is all taking place during the holidays, when few people pay attention to such matters. I believe this was done intentionally.

Time is running out. Go online to add your opinion. I think supervisors should be challenged about the details.

If you don’t personally enjoy the healthy sport of golf, surely people you know do and all will be appreciative of your voice insisting on fair government practices. The county is not making it easy for your voice to be heard. The posting states that objections not filed by 4 p.m. on Thursday will not be allowed at subsequent public hearings. I think this is an attempt to stifle public input.

— Mike McLennan, San Rafael

Spend homeless funds on endangered tent-dwellers

I am writing in regard to the recent article about Marin County’s plan to buy some of the vehicles from the people living in them to reduce the size of the encampment on Binford Road (“Marin supervisors approve vehicle buyback at Novato encampment,” Dec. 16). I don’t think this is the best use of money to address Marin’s homeless problem.

I understand that people selling their RVs must commit to a permanent housing solution, but I still think it would be better to spend the money moving people in other parts of the county from encampment tents into housing and leave the RVs. I think people living in vehicles are safer, dryer and warmer than those living in tents.

The county is doing a good job on Binford Road by offering waste pump-out services, along with wash stations and porta-potties. Compared to the messy “tent homesteads” that spring up in all sorts of places — including sidewalks, parking lots or along creeks — the line of RVs along the road doesn’t seem as problematic. I hope we can focus on supportive housing for unhoused people without a vehicle to sleep in. Even a room in an unused office building would help save lives.

— Virginia Weber, San Rafael

Marin should support a resolution for cease-fire

I urge the Marin County Board of Supervisors to endorse a cease-fire resolution in Gaza. The situation is desperate.

In his Dec. 14 letter to the IJ, Jeff Sapperstein argues such resolutions are divisive and have no place before the board because they “have nothing to do with our community.” He writes, “I respectfully request that the supervisors not be manipulated or feel compelled to satisfy a group that does not intend to advance the Marin values of physical, psychological and emotional safety.”

Are not the people of Gaza entitled to physical, psychological and emotional safety? Are these values reserved for Marin only? Sapperstein bolsters his argument noting that other foreign conflicts involving great suffering were never brought before the supervisors. I think he is suggesting that he believes Israel is being singled out unfairly. I disagree.

Two things distinguish the situation. First, hundreds of international law scholars and attorneys agree that Israel, at the very least, is committing war crimes in Gaza. Some would call it genocide.

Israel’s relentless carpet-bombing of a mostly civilian population is collective punishment. I think it should be recognized as a violation of international law, as should be its denial of adequate food, water, medicine, fuel and electricity.

Second, the U.S. is implicated because we provide Israel with state-of-the-art weapons and intelligence. In all, we give $3.8 billion in foreign aid each year. The U.S. also holds a veto on the United Nations Security Council, which insulates Israel from any resolutions of condemnation.

I believe a resolution approved by Marin supervisors in support of an immediate cease-fire and a lifting of the siege on the bare necessities of life is the very least we can do for the children of Gaza. In a world awash in barbarism, let’s show some humanity.

— David Glick, Fairfax