The jobs/housing imbalance in Marin needs to be addressed on
the transportation and housing fronts. Better local transit
and affordable housing will add to Marin's quality of life
Marin has become a high income County with an extensive
service sector, much of which resides outside of Marin. This
puts pressure on our transportation network and creates an
imbalance in the composition of our communities. Better
local transit would ease the pressure on our crowded local
roads, but we also need to address the 101 chokepoint
through San Rafael and the increasing problems related to
the 580 interchange and the Richmond Bridge. Finally, we
should be promoting safe opportunities for children to walk
or bicycle to school. This is why I advocate a 1/2 cent
sales tax measure for transportation improvements that would
focus exclusively on these three areas: Financing for the
101 gap closure project, for the implementaion of a local
transit system in Marin run independently of Golden Gate
Transit, and for Safe Routes to Schools programs in our
local communities. Affordable housing is another part of the
equation because it allows some employees, particularly
teachers, a chance to live closer to where they work, and
provides a valuable opportunity for firefighters and police
to get to know the communities which employ them. However,
we cannot expect to meet affordable housing needs solely
through infill projects. Infill means increasing density in
already developed areas. For this reason, while infill
projects are worthwhile, they are expensive, frequently
contentious, and typically small in scale. This is why we
need to look at the type of larger scale opportunities for
housing in re-use situations such as the closing of San
Quentine prison would represent. The prison is a major
consumer of water and energy, and could be replaced with
housing which would actually reduce the current level of
environmental impact.
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