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> But Jenkins vehemently opposed BART’s extension on the “human aspects involved in such a project.” You don’t say? http://radicalcartography.net/bayarea.html

by Lammy 5y ago

> But Jenkins vehemently opposed BART’s extension on the “human aspects involved in such a project.” You don’t say? http://radicalcartography.net/bayarea.html http://radicalcartography.net/bayarea.html That little spot of blue there in Marin County is Marin City, the remnants of the World War 2 ship-building company Marinship’s company town. > In a 1960 letter to a bridge district board member, Jenkins argued that the only hope for BART to succeed was with entirely new housing and business developments along its routes Thirty-thousand people would have lived here — now it’s a ghost town: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marincello https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marincello I particularly “like” this Marincello opposition piece with what I assume is Mt. Tam being encircled by a menacing and dangerous invader whose color-coding is entirely arbitrary, I’m sure: https://99percentinvisible.org/app/uploads/2013/11/marin-snake.png https://99percentinvisible.org/app/uploads/2013/11/marin-sna... As mentioned in the article, here’s a map of the NWP electric interurban rail system that ran passenger service in Marin until 1941: https://i.redd.it/zrvygksiojm51.jpg https://i.redd.it/zrvygksiojm51.jpg One of its electric powerhouses still stands near the junction at Baltimore Park, and it’s in that beautiful Beaux Arts architectural style that was still popular in the 1910s.

teakettle42 5y ago
Imagine if Marin looked like the rest of the areas surrounding SF: endless, endless suburban sprawl. They made the right choice to prioritize open space and minimal development. You can ascribe whatever motives you like, but we know what the result would have looked like, and it was not a winning idea.
- Lammy 5y ago
  False dichotomy imo since the sprawl is a direct result of the same exclusionary mindset that economically disincentivizes (and often outright forbids) upzoning. Remember that the very concept of single-family zoning / minimum parcel sizes was a Californian invention, first codified in 1916 in Berkeley shortly after the state passed a law prohibiting land ownership by nonwhites: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Alien_Land_Law_of_1913 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Alien_Land_Law_of_1...
mvkel 5y ago
Nice history! I ride by that powerhouse regularly. There are old train tracks peppered throughout lower Marin that speak to a different kind of place than it is today.
- Lammy 5y ago
  Sorry for veering off topic but by chance do you mean actual rails and not just visible ROWs like the elevated Center Blvd between San Anselmo and Fairfax? If so I’d love to know where so I can go get some photos of them and especially of their steelmarks showing the foundry name, year, and month they were rolled. I’ve explored a lot of it between Sausalito and the Alto Tunnel and never noticed any, but I also wasn’t looking very hard :)
  - mvkel 5y ago
    https://youtu.be/0c0TzJTs82s https://youtu.be/0c0TzJTs82s This is the best resource I've seen. There are also some tracks halfway up Railroad Grade on Tam. When there are heavy rains, railroad ties wash onto the trail pretty regularly, too! Curious: do you think the Alto tunnel will ever get reopened? :)
    - Lammy 5y ago
      Neat, I’ll have to go check that out again. As for the tunnel I’m not really plugged into the local politics enough to have an informed guess. From what I’ve read SMART seems to be widely hated by these same groups of extreme-anti-growth people, and the other tunnel whose name I forget has already set the precedent of SMART sharing the tunnel with a walking/bike trail. That makes me lean toward “probably not” since it could incentivize southward SMART expansion from the current Larkspur terminus :/ e: I also want to go look for any remnants of the White Hill / Bothin Tunnel if it isn’t on a parcel owned by someone who would mind. There is a trail right there that goes down to the parking area at the SFD Blvd bridge, but the actual portal remains (if there are any) might be on the Girl Scout Camp’s land. Unsure.
      - 5y ago
deleted 5y ago
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by Lammy 5y ago

teakettle42 5y ago

Imagine if Marin looked like the rest of the areas surrounding SF: endless, endless suburban sprawl. They made the right choice to prioritize open space and minimal development. You can ascribe whatever motives you like, but we know what the result would have looked like, and it was not a winning idea.

Lammy 5y ago
False dichotomy imo since the sprawl is a direct result of the same exclusionary mindset that economically disincentivizes (and often outright forbids) upzoning. Remember that the very concept of single-family zoning / minimum parcel sizes was a Californian invention, first codified in 1916 in Berkeley shortly after the state passed a law prohibiting land ownership by nonwhites: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Alien_Land_Law_of_1913 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Alien_Land_Law_of_1...

mvkel 5y ago

Nice history! I ride by that powerhouse regularly. There are old train tracks peppered throughout lower Marin that speak to a different kind of place than it is today.

Lammy 5y ago
Sorry for veering off topic but by chance do you mean actual rails and not just visible ROWs like the elevated Center Blvd between San Anselmo and Fairfax? If so I’d love to know where so I can go get some photos of them and especially of their steelmarks showing the foundry name, year, and month they were rolled. I’ve explored a lot of it between Sausalito and the Alto Tunnel and never noticed any, but I also wasn’t looking very hard :)
- mvkel 5y ago
  https://youtu.be/0c0TzJTs82s https://youtu.be/0c0TzJTs82s This is the best resource I've seen. There are also some tracks halfway up Railroad Grade on Tam. When there are heavy rains, railroad ties wash onto the trail pretty regularly, too! Curious: do you think the Alto tunnel will ever get reopened? :)
  - Lammy 5y ago
    Neat, I’ll have to go check that out again. As for the tunnel I’m not really plugged into the local politics enough to have an informed guess. From what I’ve read SMART seems to be widely hated by these same groups of extreme-anti-growth people, and the other tunnel whose name I forget has already set the precedent of SMART sharing the tunnel with a walking/bike trail. That makes me lean toward “probably not” since it could incentivize southward SMART expansion from the current Larkspur terminus :/ e: I also want to go look for any remnants of the White Hill / Bothin Tunnel if it isn’t on a parcel owned by someone who would mind. There is a trail right there that goes down to the parking area at the SFD Blvd bridge, but the actual portal remains (if there are any) might be on the Girl Scout Camp’s land. Unsure.
    - 5y ago

deleted 5y ago

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