Marin City, California
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| Marin City, California | |
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| Country | United States |
|---|---|
| State | California |
| Counties | Marin County |
| Government | |
| - County Board | District 3 Charles McGlashan |
| - Senate | Carole Migden (D) |
| - Assembly | Jared Huffman (D) |
| - U. S. Congress | Lynn Woolsey (D) |
| Elevation | 23 ft (7 m) |
| Population (2000) | |
| - Total | 2,560 |
| Time zone | PST (UTC−8) |
| - Summer (DST) | PDT (UTC−7) |
| ZIP code | 94965 |
| Area code(s) | 415 |
Marin City, California, USA, is an unincorporated area of Marin County. Marin City was developed for housing starting in 1942, to accommodate war-time shipyard workers and other immigrants to California. After the war, the area became predominantly African-American, as white residents were able to move freely to private housing elsewhere in Marin. Since the 1980s, additional development has increased diversity again while providing more local jobs. The population in 2000 was 2,560.[1]
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[edit] History
Prior to World War II, the land that would become Marin City was home to a dairy farm and a handful of families. Soon after war was declared on December 8, 1941, Marin City was rapidly built during 1942 in order to house 6,000 of the 20,000 guest workers who migrated from all over the United States, attracted by the jobs at Marinship, the Sausalito waterfront shipyard. A total of 93 liberty ships and tankers were built and launched from Marinship in less than three years.
Many of the African American shipyard laborers who had migrated from the Southern U.S. chose to live permanently in Marin City. They became the core of the community when most of the other guest laborers departed at the end of the war. During the war, African Americans comprised about 10% of Marin City's population. By the 1970s, African Americans comprised over three quarters of the population of Marin City, most of whom traced their roots to the Marinship laborers.
During the 1980s and 1990s there was considerable residential and commercial development, including several new housing developments, apartment complexes, and a significant commercial area, the Gateway Shopping Center.
[edit] Geography
Marin City is located at 37°52'07" North, 122°30'29" West [2].
[edit] Government
The municipal authority for Marin City is the Marin City Community Services District (MCCSD), a multi-purpose California special district that is governed by a publicly-elected five-member board of directors and is administered by a district manager and staff. As of February 2006, the District Manager is Johnathan Logan, Jr. and the Board President is Melvin Atkins.[3]
Chartered in 1958, the MCCSD is responsible for providing services in the areas of parks and recreation, street lighting, recycling and refuse removal.
According to the Marin County Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO), the District has a total area of 0.9 square miles (2.3 km²).
Total operating revenue for MCCSD's fiscal year 2005-2006 was $613,000.
[edit] Demographics
According to the 2000 United States Census, the African American population of Marin City was 38.6%. Other racial statistics from the 2000 Census indicate the remaining population of Marin City as: Asian 9.0%; Latino 7.8%; Native American 1.4%; Pacific Islander 0.8%; some other race 1.5%; two or more races 8.3%; White 32.5%. Marin City's population was measured at 2,560 in the 2000 Census with current population estimated at 3,000.
[edit] Notable residents
Jack Kerouac stayed in Marin City and nearby Mill Valley during his travels in the 1940s and 1950s. (He combined the two cities' names into "Mill City" in On the Road.) Beat poet Lew Welch lived in Marin City during the 1960s. Jazz historian Grover Sales was his immediate neighbor.[4]
Bola Sete (born Djalma de Andrade) was a black Brazilian guitarist born on July 16, 1923, in Rio de Janeiro and who died on February 14, 1987 in Greenbrae, California. He bought a home on the hillside in Marin City and lived there until his death. His wife, painter Anne Sete continued to reside in Marin City. His numerous albums are still widely distributed.
Writer Anne Lamott lived in Marin City during the time she was writing Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son's First Year. Although white, she felt welcomed by a mostly-black community that didn't mind her being a single mother.
Tupac Shakur lived in Marin City for several years during the 1980s, briefly attending Tamalpais High School. He would occasionally return to the area after becoming well-known, including a notorious 1992 incident in which his entourage became involved in a shootout with a rival group, which resulted in the accidental killing of a six year-old bystander, Qa'id Walker-Teal.
[edit] Education
Marin City is served by the Sausalito Marin City School District for primary grades (K-8) and the Tamalpais Union High School District for secondary grades. Grades K-6 attend either Bayside Elementary School in Sausalito or Willow Creek Academy (a public charter school), both in Sausalito. Grades 7-8 attend Martin Luther King Jr. Academy in Marin City, or Willow Creek Academy. Grades 9-12 attend Tamalpais High School in Mill Valley.
[edit] Housing
Homes sold in Marin City are often labeled as being located in Sausalito since Marin City shares the 94965 ZIP Code, the 331 and 332 telephone prefixes, and Sausalito Marin City School District with its close neighbor Sausalito. Most of the housing in Marin City was developed in the 1970s, '80s and '90s after much of the temporary Marinship housing put up in 1942 had been razed.
[edit] Business
Once famous for the Marin City Flea Market which was forcibly closed in the mid-1990s, despite community protest, to make way for the Gateway Shopping Center, the MCCSD had planned to launch the smaller-scale Marin City Market Fest on selected Saturdays in the summer of 2006.
[edit] References
- ^ About, Marin City Community Services District.
- ^ US Gazetteer files: 2000 and 1990. United States Census Bureau (2005-05-03). Retrieved on 2008-01-31.
- ^ Marin City Community Services District official site, accessed June 17, 2007
- ^ Robert Tate, JazzWest.com, "Grover Sales: Agent Provocateur", accessed June 17, 2007 from Google cache
[edit] External links
- Official Marin City website
- Sausalito Marin City School District
- Tamalpais Union High School District
- Search the Marin Independent Journal for local news about Marin City
- Marin City Library
- Marin City, California is at coordinates Coordinates:
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