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At Long Last, Mill Valley Gets a Public Loo at the Depot

1/20/2021

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The new public bathrooms within the Depot building at 87 Throckmorton Avenue.
PictureThe location of the public bathrooms within the Depot building.
In 1984, then-Mill Valley Mayor Richard “Dick” Jessup, who designed the Depot Plaza, first sketched out a downtown public bathroom location on the plaza. Over the following 37 years, loo seekers had options in downtown Mill Valley, from the bathroom within City Hall and at Mill Valley Market to those at various restaurants and cafes, including an oft-awkward lineup that snaked through the Depot's dining area. and restaurants downtown. 

But as of this week, there are officially a pair of public, ADA-accessible bathrooms located on the north-eastern side of the Depot building. They will be open in the daytime, 7 days a week, city officials say.

Momentum picked up in 2014, when it was regularly discussed and city officials reviewed a range of location options before fully budgeting the project in 2015. In 2018, the City Council approved Depot Bookstore & Cafe owner Paul Lazzareschi's planned renovation of the city-owned building and included the bathroom project within it. 
​
The Depot first closed for the renovation in March 2019, and the fencing that heralded the beginning of construction went up in late December. The delay was largely triggered by expansive negotiations between the City and Lazzareschi over the financial details of the project, i.e., who was going to pay for each of its specific components, as well as turnover among investors. Lazzareschi, who also owns Vasco restaurant across the street from the Depot, first put forward plans soon after he and then-partner Gary Rulli bought the business in 2016 from the family of the late Mary Turnbull, who founded the famed bookstore and cafe with her husband William Turnbull in 1987 and died in September 2015.

In May 2020, when the Depot project was deemed essential construction amidst the COVID-19 crisis, the construction of the bathrooms and overall building renovation resumed.

And now, to the intestinal delight of legions of downtown Mill Valley shoppers, strollers and post-COVID gatherers and lingerers, we have a pair of public bathrooms.

What a relief!

Questions? Email the City's Department of Public Works here or call 415.384.4800

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Larry 'the Hat' Lautzker to Close Famous4, Hosts Going Out of Biz Sale & a Virtual, Star-Studded Concert – Jan. 22

1/19/2021

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Since his arrival in Mill Valley in 1974, Larry "the Hat" Lautzker, purveyor of hip apparel, producer of an array of live concerts (remember those?) as well as some of the 94941's most cherished events, including the Mill Valley Memorial Day Parade and the Community Block Party for more than 15 years, has been a force of nature unto himself.

That's not going to change anytime soon, says the longtime Mill Valley resident. But he is closing his Famous 4 shop at 96 Throckmorton Ave. on Feb. 25. As anyone who knows Lautzker would expect, he's going out with a bang. 

For starters, he's hosting a going out of business sale through his last day. "I have a crazy dream," Lautzker says. "In it, all my friends and clients come shopping at Famous4, you all buy one item and there’s nothing left. Wild, right or crazy, maybe not. You can make it happen, keep my dream alive, you can support me finding a new location in my cherished community." 

Not surprisingly, the longtime live music producer is curating a virtual, free, live "One for the Road Concert," featuring some of the famous Bay Area artists he's worked closely with over they years. Set for Friday, Jan. 22 from 7-9pm on Zoom and Facebook Live, the show features the likes of Tommy Castro,  Bonnie Hayes, Tim Hockenberry and Dan ‘Lebo’ Lebowitz, as well as a few surprises​. Register for the free concert here or RSVP to famous4@Comcast.net to join Larry for the Zoom party.

Lautzker urged the community to continue supporting many of the downtown shops that "have sponsored all events I’ve produced in Mill Valley," including The Store, The Goods, Wink Optics, Seager Gray Gallery, Sofia Jewelry, Margaret O’Leary and Carolina.

As for the going out of business sale, Lautzker says that "all reasonable offers will be accepted. Please support my transition down the road, come (if all my friends bought one item) get something for yourself or loved one, you will really be helping me. Or… you can go to my GoFundMe here to help keep my dream alive and support my business staying in Mill Valley at a hopefully new location (any ideas please let me know). I will survive!"
 
Lautzker adds, "I think it’s important to let y’all who have said, 'What will Mill Valley be without you?' and 'You are the heart and soul of our town,' 'Mill Valley needs you' etc. – what is going on? My heart is full and my head is held high. You have allowed me to be of service in a place that will forever be a part of me and given me so much."

Lautzker says he remains committed to producing the Memorial Day Parade, which he's helped since 1992, as well as the Memorial Day Veterans Ceremony “Honoring all who gave their lives for our freedom,” the KIDDO! “Day on the Green” concert at the MV Community Center after the parade and the Annual (22 years) Mill Valley Community Block Party, Fashion Show and Fashion Police. "Together, our community has raised awareness and over $1 million to support KIDDO! Arts education programs in our schools, as well as NorCal fire victims, breast and prostate cancer research, hurricane relief and much more."

Other events Lautzker has produced over the years include Mill Valley Film Festival events, Tuesday Night Comedy at the Throckmorton Theatre, Milley Awards, Winterfest, the Shop Locally, Think Globally promotion for downtown businesses 

REGISTER FOR THE FREE LIVE, VIRTUAL CONCERT HERE.

FAMOUS4 IS AT 96 THROCKMORTON AVENUE.

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In MV & Beyond, the Arts Are in Crisis. A NY Times' Arts Critic Charts a Bold, New Deal-Inspired Path Forward

1/18/2021

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PictureThe Sweetwater Music Hall crew.
For the first time since, well, March, the Mill Valley arts community – largely unable to function because of their inability to gather people in a room to celebrate art in all its splendor – has gotten a few doses of good news on the relief front.

Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed a $4.5 billion spending plan for 2021, including $25 million dedicated for small cultural institutions, such as art galleries, that have been unable to operate or are otherwise financially challenged by the pandemic. Coupled with the federal Save Our Stages Act, which was approved as part of the $900 billion federal stimulus package in December, provides $15 billion "in dedicated funding for live venues, independent movie theaters, and cultural institutions. That could bolster the 94941 sector most ravaged by the COVID-19 crisis: live music, theater and entertainment venues like the Sweetwater Music Hall, Throckmorton Theatre and Marin Theatre Company, which have been hit the hardest in the 94941 arts community.

That funding bolsters the state's $500 million California Small Business COVID-19 Relief Grant Program, as does the second round of the federal Paycheck Protection Program, which set aside $284 billion in new funding for small businesses forgivable loans to help them retain and pay their workers if they meet certain conditions.

BUT IS IT ENOUGH?

Jason Farago, a critical at large for the New York Times, wrote a fascinating, lengthy piece this weekend that hung on two key points: that we desperately depend on the arts as human beings, never moreso than amidst an horrific pandemic, and that there are road maps available to make sure that the arts not only survive, but that we can make 

You should read the entire piece, but here are some excerpts:

We need the catharsis of the arts
The function of art, Aristotle told us, is catharsis. You go to the theater, you listen to a symphony, you look at a painting, you watch a ballet. You laugh, you cry. You feel pity, fear. You see in others’ lives a reflection of your own. And the catharsis comes: a cleansing, a clarity, a feeling of relief and understanding that you carry with you out of the theater or the concert hall. Art, music, drama — here is a point worth recalling in a pandemic — are instruments of psychic and social health.
Not since 1945 has the United States required catharsis like it does in 2021. The coronavirus pandemic is the most universal trauma to befall the nation since World War II, its ravages compounded by a political nightmare that culminated, last week, in an actual assault on democratic rule. The last year’s mortal toll, its social isolation and its civic disintegration have brought this country to the brink. Yet just when Americans need them most, our artists and arts institutions are confronting a crisis that may endure long after infections abate.
Artists need relief
Professional creative artists are facing unemployment at rates well above the national average — more than 52 percent of actors and 55 percent of dancers were out of work in the third quarter of the year, at a time when the national unemployment rate was 8.5 percent. In California, the arts and entertainment fields generated a greater percentage of unemployment claims than even the hospitality sector. Several hundred independent music venues have closed; art galleries and dance companies have shuttered. And in my own life, I’ve listened to painters and performers weep over canceled shows and tours, salivate over more generous government support in Europe or Asia, and ask themselves whether 2021 is the year to abandon their careers.
Until last month, when the outgoing U.S. president belatedly signed a stimulus package with targeted arts relief bundled within, this government had barely acknowledged the crisis that Covid-19 has posed to culture. Nor have private philanthropists filled the gap; while some large foundations have stepped up their disbursements, total giving to North American arts organizations has slackened by 14 percent on average.
W.P.A. for a New Day
President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. promised that America could “build back better,” and throughout 2020 the president-elect extolled F.D.R.’s New Deal as a blueprint for American renewal. For the administration to show that sort of Rooseveltian resolve — and, with control of the Senate, it just about can — it’s going to have to put millions of Americans on the federal payroll: among them artists, musicians and actors, tasked to restore a battered nation.
The Works Progress Administration was a latecomer to Roosevelt’s economic recovery plans, begun in 1935 as part of the so-called second New Deal. (It) it endures as its most visible legacy, especially in the murals that adorn the country’s post offices, courthouses, school buildings and even prisons. And it should offer the Biden administration a blueprint for a new, federal cultural works project, which treats artists, musicians and writers as essential workers, and sees culture as a linchpin of economic recovery.
Today cultural advocates like to offer a roll call of American artists employed by the W.P.A. as proof of its necessity: Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Lee Krasner, Mark Rothko, Arshile Gorky, Louise Nevelson, Norman Lewis, Alice Neel, Jacob Lawrence, Philip Guston. The programs, notably, offered Black artists more public support than at any time in the 20th century. Charles White’s mural “Five Great American Negroes,” now in the collection of Howard University, was a W.P.A. commission. But the bulk of the 2,500-odd murals the program underwrote, plus piles of sculpture, painting, posters and advertisements, came from artists who never achieved fame.

Such a program might be especially valuable in America’s rural areas and in economically imperiled regions: the parts of the country where Mr. Biden did worst electorally, and whose support for President Trump came in part from a legitimate grievance that cultural elites looked down on them.
Get money into artists' pockets
In the past, unemployment insurance was available only to those “employed” in the first place — and artists rarely were. A violinist furloughed from a full-time orchestra job could get unemployment, but not a gigging saxophonist whose nightclubs were shuttered. A receptionist laid off from a talent agency qualified, but not the actors the agency represents.
That changed in March, when the previous Congress passed the first coronavirus stimulus package. It included a program called Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, which, for the first time expanded unemployment eligibility to independent contractors and freelance workers. In their ranks are millions of actors, writers, artists, musicians and dancers, who are three and a half times more likely than the average American to be self-employed, according to a 2019 report from the National Endowment for the Arts.
A singer who qualified for pandemic assistance didn’t just get unemployment from her home state. She was also eligible for the same $600-a-week federal supplement as others receiving unemployment: a critical lifeline, though one that expired in July. (There have been two smaller supplements since then. The current $300-a-week boost, bundled into the December stimulus package, expires in mid-March, long before stages are expected to reopen.) For all its shortcomings, the program has established a precedent that the Biden administration must build upon: that artists, like other gig workers, are full participants in the national economy — and need to be taken care of as such.
So the most immediate measure the new administration can take to stanch the arts crisis is simply to get money into artists’ pockets — by pushing Congress to expand and improve unemployment benefits for them and other independent contractors and gig workers.
An arts center inside the executive office of the president — led, why not, by a “Dr. Fauci of culture” — could be sharper and swifter than a full department. During last year’s campaign, Mr. Biden had a phrase he invoked with almost musical regularity: the election, he always said, was a “battle for the soul of America.” 
Save Our Stages is a Band-Aid when we need a full-scale tourniquet
Janet Yellen, the Treasury secretary nominee and the new Congress also need to disburse additional funds to keep other arts professionals on the payroll. Bundled into the December stimulus package was the Save Our Stages Act, which earmarked $15 billion for small-business grants to music venues, movie theaters and the like. The grants (initially, 45 percent of a theater or club’s 2019 income) are a fantastic start — but it’s a Band-Aid when we need a full-scale tourniquet. Berlin’s nightclubs and other for-profit cultural venues were eligible for 80 percent grants.
And given both the slow rollout of the vaccine and the continued need for social distancing, venues for the performing arts will be among the last public places to reopen. Congress ought therefore to bundle a second round of Save Our Stages emergency funding with a measure also drawn from the German bailout: cash for pandemic-appropriate infrastructural improvements, from new ventilation systems to digital distribution tools. I used to like a dirty disco; now I want gleaming HVAC.
We need this
I’ve always been wary of arguments about art’s “necessity.” But a soul-sick nation is not likely to recover if it loses fundamental parts of its humanity. Without actors and dancers and musicians and artists, a society will indeed have lost something necessary — for these citizens, these workers, are the technicians of a social catharsis that cannot come soon enough. A respiratory virus and an insurrection have, in their own ways, taken the country’s breath away. Artists, if they are still with us in the years ahead, can teach us to exhale.
READ THE FULL PIECE HERE.
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Planning Commission Backs Marin Conservatory of Dance's Move Into Pair of Vacant Spaces on Miller Ave.

1/18/2021

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The future home of the Marin Conservatory of Dance at 365-367 Miller Avenue.
PictureMarin Conservatory of Dance founder Melinda Neal, at top right, with her daughter Leilani, along with scenes from classes at the current studio at 448 Miller Avenue. Courtesy images.
While there has been plenty of innovation, pivoting and amazing feats of resiliency by Mill Valley businesses and nonprofits during the Covid-19 crisis, there hasn't been a plethora of unconditional, feel-good stories.

​Melinda Neal, however, is on the brink of one.

​The longtime professional ballet dancer and revered Bay Area ballet instructor opened the Marin Conservatory of Dance on Miller Ave. in 2018, filling a void for a solely classical ballet-focused conservatory in southern Marin. The program grew steadily and organically within its small space at 448 Miller Avenue over the next year-plus, and then Covid hit, halting the ability to gather, safely, inside a dance studio. 

Sensing the long-term nature of the crisis, particularly its unpredictability, Neal bought a stage so her students could dance, safely, outside. She also expanded upon her already strict drop-offs and pick-up protocols, prohibiting parents from parking or lingering, having submitted all required paperwork in advance of their child's classes.

"That's the ballerina in me," Neal says. "In our world, everything is always done with strict protocols, and the parents have totally bought into it."

That policy has additional benefits beyond keeping logistics simple, Neal says. "We get their full focus and attention, especially the younger ones," she says.

Along with a much-lauded curriculum, those protocols have driven growth for the dance school, and Neal and her daughter Leilani, who runs the school with her, have decided to take the next leap: nearly tripling the square footage of their school, from approximately 1,100-square feet at 448 Miller between Red Dragon Yoga and the 24-7 Fuel station to nearly 3,000 square feet in a pair of spaces at 365-367 Miller Avenue between Tea Fountain and Kitty Charm School.

In December, the Mill Valley Planning Commission unanimously approved Neal's request for a conditional use permit to move into those two spaces, and she plans to fully do so by March. 

Neal, a fourth generation San Franciscan, was the ballet director at Roco Dance’s studios in Tam Junction and Fairfax for more than seven years. In 2017, She decided to retire after 16 years as a professional dancer and get her real estate license. The plan was to teach two days a week and focus on being a real estate agent.

“But the idea of creating my own space – I just couldn’t get it out of my head,” she says, putting real estate on hold and opening Marin Conservatory of Dance. “I made the leap,” she says. “I feel like this is my calling.”

At the Dec. 8 hearing, commissioners made it clear that they wanted to minimize the constraints on the dance school, allowing Neal to work within standard hours of 8am to 9pm and expanding Neal's proposed class size from 10 to 15. The spaces met parking requirements and also have permission to use the parking at 55 La Goma St. behind the building during non-peak hours, when the school mostly operates. The property also has bike racks for students, and parents will be required to proceed into the one-way driveway between Tam Bikes and Tea Fountain, drop off their kids, and move along. Ditto for pick up.

"We want to move into a bigger space to give our dancers a little more room and allow us to maintain social distancing," Neal told the commission. "We want to think about everyone's health and safety safety moving forward. I plan to grow this program in an efficient way that maintains our goal of quality instruction."

"I'm thrilled to see kids have the opportunity to participate in greater numbers here than in your current location," Commissioner Jon Yolles said.  

"This is clearly an excellent addition to the Miller Ave streetfront," added Commissioner Alan Linch added. 

"We're definitely planning on making the school a staple here in Mill Valley," Neal said. 

MORE INFO ON MARIN CONSERVATORY OF DANCE.

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Covia's 'House Mill Valley' Connects Homeowners With Extra Rooms to People Seeking Affordable Housing

1/16/2021

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PictureDon & Anne.
In September 2020, the Mill Valley City Council approved a collaboration with ​Covia, a Walnut Creek-based nonprofit organization whose "House Mill Valley," a program that matches residents with more house than they need with people looking for more affordable housing opportunities than Mill Valley currently offers.

Four months in, the program has produced some success stories. Take the story of Carlyce and Nick. Carlyce opened his home when COVID-19 restrictions were lifted in September. Nick had to return to in-person work and needed an affordable place with a reasonable commute. They bonded over outdoor cooking, barbecue and Nick's Jack Russell Terrier. 

Covia Home Match helps our communities meet three important goals: empowering community members to stay in their chosen homes, combating social isolation and creating affordable places to live by utilizing existing housing stock. 

For decades, home-sharing programs across California have been connecting compatible people to improve their quality of life through shared living. People opening their homes gain income and companionship while people seeking shared homes are able to live affordably in the community where they work or attend school. Most programs are run by nonprofits, and are free or very low cost.

How Home Match Works:
  • Covia's personalized process and local staff help find the right match for you!
  • They conduct background checks on all participants
  • They connect people based on compatibility
  • They offer on-going support, even after move-in
  • They do not charge a fee for our services

The program is part of a patchwork of city efforts stemming from 2017, when the City Council hosted an affordable housing summit and backed an affordable housing ordinance that includes a 1 percent City fee to be applied to all new housing projects and remodels costing $100,000 or more. City officials say the fee could generate approximately $375,000 annually, with revenue going into an affordable housing trust fund. The options on how to deploy that funding include acquiring properties, building multi-unit projects, renovating existing developments or finding ways to subsidize rental rates for workforce housing.

"It's almost like a dating service but for housing, not for romance," says Karen Coppick, who directs the Home Match program for Covia. "The main thing that we do is connect people seeking affordable housing with people who have more house than they need."

Home Match has been serving Marin County since 2012. Covia is a nonprofit organization that has been providing housing and services for over 50 years. To learn more call Lita Acosta at (415) 456-9068 or e-mail lacosta@covia.org.

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MV's Dr. Melanie Ott, Among Chronicle's Top 10 Bay Area Scientists Fighting Coronavirus, Speaks to OAC – Feb. 11

1/16/2021

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PictureDr. Melanie Ott. Courtesy image.
The fight against the novel coronavirus has been the monumental medical challenge of a lifetime, and few know that fight better than one of our neighbors.

Mill Valley resident Dr. Melanie Ott, M.D., Ph.D., is the Director of the Gladstone Institute of Virology and a professor of medicine at UC San Francisco. She was recently recognized by the San Francisco Chronicle as one of ten top Bay Area scientists collaborating in the race to stop the novel coronavirus.

On Thursday, Feb. 11 at 1pm via Zoom, Dr. Ott will speak virtually to the Outdoor Art Club and the public to discuss the work she and her colleagues are doing to develop one drug to treat multiple viruses, including new and emerging viruses. This event will be held on Zoom. To register, click here: http://bit.ly/3ouqPMP.

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Dive Into the Brilliant Mind of James Baldwin at the MV Public Library's City-Wide MV Read – Begins January 18

1/16/2021

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There's no institution in Mill Valley better equipped at sparking conversation and learning amidst a long-overdue racial equitiy reckoning than the Mill Valley Public Library.

To that end, the library is hosting its first-ever city-wide read that looks at what it takes "to think openly and independently – to question our assumptions? We invite you to join us as we grapple with the complicated issues of race in America through two books: Eddie S. Glaude, Jr.’s Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own, and James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time.

Register below and read along starting Monday, January 18, and dig deeper by immersing yourself into the local history, music, literature, and politics of the time through a curated selection of material library staff will make available each week. Participate in the library's book discussions or invite us to facilitate the discussion at your own book club. Library staff will monitor waitlists and schedule additional discussions if needed. 

REGISTER HERE FOR FULL DETAILS 7 HOW TO PICK UP A COPY OF THE BOOK.

The book discussion for Begin Again is Feb. 16th, 6:30pm. Register here.
The book discussion for Fire Next Time is Mar. 15th, 6:30pm. Register here.

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PAAM Debuts Fine Arts Club Program for Kids Ages 3-6

1/16/2021

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Performing Arts Academy of Marin (PAAM), Mill Valley residents Annie and DJ Thistle's multi-faceted artistic juggernaut that also includes tumbling and gymnastics hub Tumblespot, is launching on January 18 a new Studio Fine Arts Club Program for students ages 3-6.

"This fun and active curriculum allows children to develop social skills and talents at a young age," the Thistles say. "Children will participate in dance, yoga and fitness classes while enjoying music, art and drama. Students have five classes each day filled with imagination and creativity. The goal of the program is to enhance each child's overall development including gross and fine motor skills and improve social, cognitive and emotional awareness. 

The move marks the latest chapter in the nearly 12 years since Annie Thistle launched her Performing Arts Academy of Marin (PAAM) in her living room, a journey that took her from the Community Church of Mill Valley in 2009, then in the Alto Plaza shopping center in early 2010, and then to the 2,800-square-foot storefront space above Balboa Cafe at Mill Creek Plaza that is now home to The Hivery.

In late 2015, as they juggled multiple venues to accommodate their growth, they moved PAAM to a 6,000-square-foot space at 60 Belvedere Drive in Strawberry, just behind the Strawberry Village shopping center. TumbleSpot is within the shopping center.

​MORE INFO ON THE STUDIO FINE ARTS CLUB FOR STUDENTS AGES 3-6.


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Health Officials: 'We're Underselling' the 'Ridiculously Encouraging Vaccine' – 'It's Going to Save Your Life'

1/16/2021

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PictureSenior Enlisted Advisor to the Chairman (SEAC) Ramon "CZ" Colon-Lopez receives a COVID-19 vaccine at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Bethesda, Md., Dec. 21, 2020. (DOD Photo by Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Carlos M. Vazquez II).
With Marin County's COVID-19 case counts dipping a bit since the horrific post-holiday surge that triggered an indefinite extension of the state's economically ravaging stay-at-home order for Marin and most of California, it's become clear that there's still a long slog ahead. And we know we need to continue be more aggressive about mask-wearing and social distancing, particularly because of the new virus variants.

But the one, dim light at the end of the tunnel in Marin and beyond – Moderna and Pfizer vaccines that are “essentially 100 percent effective against serious disease,” says Dr. Paul Offit, the director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia – shouldn't feel so dim, say many health experts, according to an uplifting report in Monday's New York Times. 

According to the Times report, much of the current public discussion of the vaccines is full of warnings about their limitations: "They’re not 100 percent effective. Even vaccinated people may be able to spread the virus. And people shouldn’t change their behavior once they get their shots. These warnings have a basis in truth, just as it’s true that masks are imperfect. But the sum total of the warnings is misleading, as I heard from multiple doctors and epidemiologists last week."

“It’s driving me a little bit crazy,” Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown School of Public Health, told the Times. “We’re underselling the vaccine,” said Dr. Aaron Richterman, an infectious-disease specialist at the University of Pennsylvania, added. “It’s going to save your life — that’s where the emphasis has to be right now,” added Dr. Peter Hotez of the Baylor College of Medicine said.

The reason the vaccine is being undersold at the moment is that many health experts — just as they did early in the pandemic when they decided that the public could not be trusted to hear the truth about masks in the U.S. and around the world — don’t seem to trust the public to hear the full truth.

That truth, according to the report, is that the "Moderna and Pfizer vaccines — the only two approved in the U.S. — are among the best vaccines ever created, with effectiveness rates of about 95 percent after two doses. That’s on par with the vaccines for chickenpox and measles. And a vaccine doesn’t even need to be so effective to reduce cases sharply and crush a pandemic. If anything, health experts say, the 95 percent number understates the effectiveness, because it counts anyone who came down with a mild case of Covid-19 as a failure. But turning Covid into a typical flu — as the vaccines evidently did for most of the remaining 5 percent — is actually a success. Of the 32,000 people who received the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine in a research trial, just one contracted a severe Covid case.

Some Bay Area Bumps in the Road

As has been reported, the risks for vaccinated people are still not zero. A small percentage of people may have allergic reactions. That includes a scare over the weekend here in the Bay Area, when Dr. Erica Pan, the state epidemiologist, warned health departments across the state to stop dispensing a single lot of the Moderna vaccine "out of an extreme abundance of caution" after fewer than 10 people at one vaccine distribution site experienced a possible allergic reaction. On Tuesday morning, however, it was reported that Contra Costa, Santa Clara and Marin counties all received the doses. Marin, however, is the only county to have distributed all of them. It has not reported any adverse effect, though Marin's three hospitals had not used all of the Modern doses they'd been allocated. 

Despite the optimism at the federal level, local health officials are seeing some concerning data, as some staffers at Marin County’s three hospitals have decided not to get the shots, according to the Marin IJ. The report indicates that roughly 30% of the employees at at MarinHealth Medical Center in Greenbrae have declined the vaccination as of Jan. 13, with “a fair number of women of childbearing age who have the misconception that it could cause some amount of infertility or early pregnancy loss,” Karin Shavelson, chief medical officer at MarinHealth Medical Center in Greenbrae, told the IJ. At Novato Community Hospital, about 25% of the employees had declined to be vaccinated, while a spokesperson for Kaiser Permanente’s San Rafael Medical Center declined to say what percentage of the employees chose to be vaccinated.

As of Jan. 14, Marin's vaccination distribution remains focused on Tier 1A, which distributes vaccines only to only health care workers, including hospital employees, paramedics and emergency medical technicians (EMTs), skilled nursing and long-term care facility employees, home health care workers, mental health providers, dentists, specialty clinics workers, outpatient/private practice workers, etc. Health care workers who are eligible for a vaccine can register for an appointment here.

In the coming days, Marin will move into the first tier of Phase 1B, which includes individuals 65 and older as well as individuals working in the following fields: education, childcare, food service and agriculture workers and emergency services.

MORE INFO.

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With Support from MV City Council, MV Chamber Calls for Restoration of Outdoor Dining ASAP as Eateries Prioritize Measures to Keep Customers, Employees Safe

1/14/2021

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Scenes from the Miller Takeover, summer 2020.
For Marin restaurants, late 2020 presented a puzzling predicament: with outdoor dining banned as part of the state's stay at home order, they were forced to rely entirely on takeout and delivery throughout the holiday season and to operate at a tiny fraction of their usual operations. The nearly bare cupboard forced restaurant owners to vastly cut back on staff, again, and many employees had to turn to unemployment insurance – if they qualified.

Amidst it all, Marin restaurateurs created a petition, calling on Gov. Gavin Newsom and state Public Health Director Mark Ghaly to reconsider the ban on outdoor dining during the stay at home order, and asking Marin County Public Health Officer Dr. Matt Willis to allow outdoor dining once able to do so under state's order.

The heartfelt petition spearheaded by Guesthouse owner Dustin Sullivan appealed to decision makers to consider the impact on working families suffering through the holiday season without the ability to earn a living or, in many cases, qualify for unemployment insurance. The petition, which has garnered nearly 6,300 signatures to date, also pointed out that COVID-19 case counts spiked dramatically in Marin in December despite outdoor dining being shut down for most of the month. 

So here we are in mid-January. COVID-19 case counts remain high but are trending downward from an pandemic high of 172 on Jan. 6, and the Bay Area region's ICU capacity, the key trigger for getting out from under the stay at home order, is at 4.7%, far below the 15% minimum requirement.

Doesn't seem like the best time to ask for an exemption to an outdoor dining ban during a stay at home order, does it? 

The Mill Valley Chamber and its restaurant members aren't at all ignorant or insensitive of the horror of coronavirus. But they want to move the conversation forward, now, so that the outdoor dining ban can be reversed, quickly, when the time is right.
 
"We fully acknowledge that the metrics around COVID-19 case counts and ICU capacity make this a tough conversation right now, but we hope that state and county officials will be ready to allow outdoor dining as those metrics improve and the Bay Area region emerges from the Stay at Home Order. Our local restaurants are deeply committed to the health and safety of our customers, our employees and the entire Mill Valley community," says Felicia Ferguson, chair of the Mill Valley Chamber's board of directors and co-owner of Piazza D'Angelo, which is closed during the stay at home order. "We want this decision to be about hard data, and we just haven't seen data to support an outdoor dining ban." 

The Mill Valley City Council and City Manager Alan Piombo agreed, sending letters to Newsom and Ghaly, as well as Willis,
asking then "to exempt outdoor dining in any further extension of the current Stay Home Order, to lessen the harmful economic impact of the current restrictions. We also request that any further restrictions on outdoor dining are based on empirical data/science that directly indicates that the activity is a potent contributor to the spread of coronavirus. We have seen case counts continue to spike while outdoor dining has been shut down, leading us to believe that the elimination of outdoor dining from permitted activities during the Stay Home Order is excessively restrictive."

The letter noted that "if you do decide that restrictions on outdoor dining must continue, we ask you consider allowing the activity with additional modifications, such as a density reduction requirement, as has been in place for indoor retail shops. Restaurants could be required to reduce table size, limit customers permitted in the service area, and/or increase spacing between tables."

The hunt for hard data on outdoor dining has been largely unsuccessful. Los Angeles County officials suffered a legal setback in November when a Superior Court judge found that county officials “acted arbitrarily” when deciding to close outdoor dining back in late November and that officials have a specific duty to “perform the required risk-benefit analysis” when making decisions about restaurant closures. The judge noted that County officials “could be expected to consider the economic cost of closing 30,000 restaurants, the impact to restaurant owners and their employees, and the psychological and emotional cost to a public tired of the pandemic.”

Marin Independent Journal columnist Dick Spotswood also called on government agencies to rely more on science to justify shutdowns and bans on specific sectors. "While indoor actives are a proven virus spreader, the science supporting elimination of commercial outdoor activities is lacking," he wrote. 

In a mid-December letter to Bay Area region public health officers, including Willis, eight professors at the University of California, San Francisco Division of Prevention Science, drew on their 30 years of behavior change research "to reduce the harm that HIV has caused in our communities," they wrote: "Some of the current restrictions are not evidence-based and little effort seems to have been made to justify them. This erodes trust."

"​There appears to be little or no research showing that outdoor dining with 1) adequate ventilation, 2) distancing, and 3) using masks when not eating is associated with outbreaks," they added, noting that "there also has been no evidence presented showing that keeping hair salons open with multiple precautions in place increases risk. "For the most part, Bay Area residents have tried hard to stay informed and comply with COVID-related restrictions to date, which makes the heavy-handedness of this latest order all the more puzzling."

In its letter to Dr. Willis, the City requested "that if and when Governor Newsom removes the Stay Home Order, Marin County does not impose additional restrictions banning outdoor dining and limiting restaurants to take-out only. We also request that any further restrictions on outdoor dining are based on empirical data/science that directly indicates that the activity is a potent contributor to the spread of coronavirus." The letter added the aforementioned possibility of outdoor dining density restriction if  necessary.

The City's letters sparked a flurry of media coverage throughout the Bay Area, including the Marin IJ, KRON4, KTVU, SFGate, NBC Bay Area and Eater. 

Marin Public Health responded to the flurry of media coverage by saying, “We are not in favor of encouraging an activity that promotes mixing households where masks must be removed to eat or drink. We are experiencing unprecedented numbers of new cases daily and support the regional stay at home order as a means to protect our community.”

The UCSF doctors had retort for that claim: "We are already seeing posts on social media from people who were previously hosting outdoor gatherings ... or only visiting hair salons that took careful precautions, now prioritize doing these activities in ways that allow them to evade detection. In addition to inviting relatives to stay with them, people are contacting their hair dressers to make house calls and moving their outdoor gatherings indoors."

"In the case of COVID, the failure of the current shelter-in-place restrictions to make a distinction between low and moderate risk activities may thus be placing people at greater risk," they wrote. "It is clear that we need a more nuanced approach, based on principles of harm reduction and with justification for the specific behaviors prohibited."

That nuance is lost, says Sullivan, particularly because the loss of outdoor dining "eliminates a safe, monitored, outdoor gathering spot and forces people indoors and likely leads to more transmission, more illness, and more death."
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Wedding & Event Planner Khadija Hansia-Gibson Awaits Normalcy in 2021, Loving Family Time in the Meantime

1/13/2021

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At center, Limelight Productions' founder Khadija Hansia-Gibson, with husband Rondell Gibson and son Eesa. Clockwise from top right, photos by Wedding Documentary, Burgundy Visuals, From SF With Love, Usman B Photograph, Greer Rivera Photography and Vivian Chen. Courtesy images.
As real estate agent Karron Martin laid the groundwork for her wedding four years ago, she knew she could lean on her organizational skills to create a great wedding.

"I thought I could do it all, no problem," she says. 

But somewhere along the way, it became clear to Martin that she needed help, and she connected with lifelong Mill Valley resident Khadija Hansia-Gibson, who had just chose passion over profession, halting her career in marketing and launching her Limelight Productions event planning business and specializing in weddings, specifically multi-cultural and interfaith weddings that celebrate diversity.

"Khadija was a major, major life saver," Martin says. "I don’t know how I would've done it without her. I needed her in my life. She is so personable and went so far above and beyond," including taking Martin's 80-something mother-in-law home as the party continued.

Hansia-Gibson was born and raised on Seaver Drive, attending Edna Maguire Elementary, Mill Valley Middle and Tam High before going to College of Marin and San Francisco State. She began her career at NanaWall, the family business founded in 1986 built around innovative, stackable, folding glass walls.

All the while, Hansia-Gibson was among the many in her family who loved helping create and support her Muslim Indian family's weddings – lavish events that overflowed with creativity, design and multi-faceted planning. "It's always been a fun hobby," she says.

That hobby eventually became much more than that, as Hansia-Gibson decided four years ago to make the leap of a lifetime and leave the family business in favor of launching her own. "I decided I was way too comfortable – same job, same everything," she says. "I decided to give myself six months to start something."

She got a call out of the blue from a friend of a friend. It was Martin. "I want to take a chance on you," she told Hansia-Gibson.

Within two months, Hansia-Gibson had hit a home run with Martin's wedding and had booked nearly a dozen more. Business picked up quickly, as she became a go-to planner for an array of multicultural, creative weddings and events. She produced between 35 and 45 weddings per year over the past few years, including her own to Rondell Gibson in 2019. Hansia-Gibson has produced weddings all over Marin and beyond, from Old Mill Park and Mill Valley Community Center to the Community Congregational Church in Tiburon, Cavallo Point, Peacock Gap and Slide Ranch.

And then the COVID-19 crisis hit. A raging waterfall of business turned into a trickle. The hardest part of running an event production business when there aren't any events to produce, Hansia-Gibson says, is that each event requires three times the work "because everything is constantly changing," she says. 

But the pandemic has also produced a huge silver lining for Hansia-Gibson's family. Their son Eesa turned one in December, and the pandemic has allowed their young family to spend a ton of time together. And they're expecting another child very soon, all while remodeling their house.

Given her lifelong roots in Mill Valley, Hansia-Gibson is expanding her footprint here. She joined the board of the Mill Valley Library Foundation seven months ago, as well as the Mill Valley Chamber.

"She’s bright, she’s smart and she knows exactly what she doing doing," Martin says. "She sat with us during the tasting with  the caterer – I didn't ask for that. She's just phenomenal."

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City Council: DEI Task Force Report's a 'Diamond in the Rough,' Vows to Dig Into Recommendations in February

1/13/2021

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Scenes from a peaceful protest in Mill Valley, June 2020.
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Since the killing of George Floyd in May 2020, sparking a movement to enact impactful change on systemic racial inequality throughout the U.S. and beyond, those efforts in Mill Valley have largely centered around one thing: patience.

The series of peaceful protests that took place in Mill Valley and all over Marin in the spring and summer made one thing clear to local elected officials: they were on the clock. The Mill Valley City Council responded, pledging their commitment to make impactful change on inequity, creating a Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Task Force, selecting Dr. Patricia Patton to facilitate it and letting the task force drive the process without direct council or city staff involvement.

The task force selection process yielded 22 task force members, led by residents Naima Dean and Elspeth Mathau, and that group unveiled its full report and recommendations in early December in the form of a 93-page, 28-recommendation, multiple ”wow”-inducing document that spanned affordable housing, cultural and recreational engagement, economic opportunity, education and policing, the latter of which was the focus of 13 of the 28 recommendations.

Now the ball's in the city's court, and council members say they are asking for the same degree of patience they showed to the task force in producing its massive document.
City staff is organizing the recommendations into a series of categories, including those that have already been implemented, those in progress, those requiring additional consideration, those beyond direct city control but where the city can still influence the process and those the city is not likely to pursue. They hope to hold a public hearing on the recommendations at the council's Feb. 1st or Feb. 18th meeting.

Noting that the council didn't have the opportunity to provide input on the task force's recommendations, Vice Mayor John McCauley pointed to Mathau's comment in December that the task force's process worked because it gave the group space to work. "Now the city is taking space to work," McCauley said. "We can't comment until we have staff reports before us. The council has been very supportive. The council is not being pulled along here. Your councilmembers are very interested in moving things forward within the confines of what the city can do."

Councilmember Urban Carmel agreed. "Change is necessary, for so many reasons," he said. "This is a necessary cultural shift that the city needs to make. I want to make sure that we accomplish something. Change is not making list of 65 things you want to done. You pick two, three, four or five things – that’s how you get things done. That’s how you really make change."

Task force members have kept up the pressure on the council to move forward with their two tentpole recommendations: that the city create a permanent equity commission built in the mode of the city’s subject-specific panels like the Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Committee (BPAC) and Emergency Preparedness Commission, and that it develop a citywide equity plan led by professionals.

"Despite repeated explicit requests from the task force that were echoed in over 100 written and oral comments from the public, council members managed to evade these two most important issues," Dean and Mathau wrote.

​READ THE FULL REPORT HERE. 

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County: 'Unprecedented' Spike in COVID-19 Cases Means State's Stay-at-Home Order Likely to Be Extended, Leaving 'No Margin' For Reversing Outdoor Dining Ban

1/12/2021

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PictureMarin County Public Health Officer Dr. Matt Willis. Courtesy image.
[UPDATE 1.12.21: Marin County Public Health Officer Dr. Matt Willis said this week that the state will be increasing the frequency of its evaluations of the ICU capacity metric that serves as the trigger remaining under the stay at home order. That allows the Bay Area region, which includes Marin, to get out from under the order more quickly than it could have under the previous three-week increments the state had previously been doing its evaluations.]

​With the exception of retail shops, which are operating at a fraction of its usual customer density, just about every major, consumer-facing business sector in Mill Valley is stuck in a crippling holding pattern during the stay-at-home order imposed by the state. Restaurants must rely entirely on takeout and delivery in what is traditionally one of their slowest months of the year, hair and nail salons are shut down and fitness facilities must operate outside only during a wet January.

The stay-at-home order, triggered by a region's available ICU capacity falling below 15%, officially kicked
for the Bay Area region that includes Marin on Dec. 8. According to Marin County Public Health Officer Dr. Matt Willis, it will almost certainly be extended further, as the Bay Area region's ICU capacity currently sits at around 4%, well below the minimum target. Marin's ICU capacity is around 10% but is subject to the Bay Area region-wide capacity.

​
"We are right now in a crisis of ever-increasing number of cases," Willis said, pointing to a post-holiday surge that saw an alarming amount of new cases, including 145 on Dec. 30, the highest one-day tally to date. "It's not surprising but it is disappointing given all of our communication around indoor avoiding indoor. This is unprecedented and the measures we are taking are also unprecedented. Unfortunately that is the reality that we inherit."

Those unprecedented measures mean that Marin restaurant owners' Change.org petition, which has garnered more than 6,100 signatures to date, won't likely achieve the reversal on outdoor dining anytime soon. 

READ THE PETITION HERE. 

The state is expected to examine the Bay Area region's ICU capacity data on Jan. 7, Willis said. With the region's current ICU capacity well below the minimum 15%, "we will not likely be coming out of the state stay-at-home order on January 8."

State and county officials examine case count data to determine the potential impact on hospitalizations and ICU capacity four weeks out, "and right now the lines are going downward," Willis said. A region's stay-at-home order had been subject to a three-week minimum under the order, but will now be analyzed more frequently, meaning that it could be reversed more quickly than three weeks if ICU capacity improves quickly.

The stay-at-home order "is the best policy for reducing a surge in cases," and "we do not have any margin for increased cases that would occur, even in settings like outdoor dining," Willis told the Marin County Board of Supervisors. "We encourage residents to support your local restaurants and have that dine-out experience but do so in the safety and  comfort of your household by getting takeout or delivery."

"There's lot of energy being directed at the state on this," Willis said. "Ultimately, it’s up to the state. (The County) would be in violation of state law if we allowed outdoor dining. It is about the fractional contribution of any activity in terms of increasing mobility and thus transmission, and outdoor dining increases the frequency of people moving outside their home and increasing transmission."

"Reduced transmission in the community is ultimately what we’ll need," he added.

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From Paid Family Leave & Police Reform to More COVID Data, Here Are Some of the New Laws in Effect as of Jan. 1

1/9/2021

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PictureCalifornia State Assembly room. Photo Copyright © 2005 David Monniaux via Wikimedia Commons.
As happens at the beginning of every new calendar year, a slate of new laws went into effect in California on Jan. 1, and many of the new legislative arrivals reflect the tumult of 2020, when wildfires, the pandemic and criminal justice reform were front and center for so many of us.

Here’s a look at some of the laws that went into effect at the dawn of 2021, from CalMatters and the New York Times.

Minimum wage
Employers must pay a minimum wage of $14 per hour, a $1 increase from last year’s hourly minimum. Businesses with fewer than 26 workers must increase their hourly wage to at least $13. Some cities, like Palo Alto, Sonoma and Mountain View have already increased their minimum wages to $15 or more this year. Marin County's minimum wage is $15.40. 

Expansion of paid family-leave benefits
A new law that went into effect this year expands family-leave benefits for nearly six million residents. It also ensures that Californians who work for an employer with at least five employees are included in job protection benefits. Previously, 40 percent of residents were at risk of losing their jobs if taking leave simply because their employer was too small. The new law also expands on the potential reasons for taking leave, making it possible for workers affected by Covid-19 to take time off to care for a parent, sibling or grandchild.

Increased consumer financial protections
The California Consumer Financial Protection Law gives the revamped Department of Financial Protection and Innovation, which is modeled after the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a broad set of new powers and restores certain financial protections. Pandemic-inspired scams that promise Covid-19 cures or aim to cheat people out of stimulus checks are on the rise throughout the state.

Workplace Covid-19 protections
The new law requires employers to take specific actions, like written notifications to employees, within one business day of a potential exposure to Covid-19 in the workplace. The notification must be written in English and another language, if applicable.

Inmate firefighters
A longstanding program that relies on incarcerated individuals to fight wildfires will now allow nonviolent offenders to petition to get their records expunged and to use their training to gain employment as firefighters. Inmates were previously barred from becoming professional firefighters after release because of their criminal records. After a devastating fire season, when many inmate firefighters were released early because of the pandemic, prisoner firefighting crews served a crucial role. However, critics of the program compare it to slave labor, since prisoners flighting blazes on the front lines make just $1 an hour while working in treacherous conditions.

Criminal justice reform
The California Racial Justice Act expands opportunities for defendants to challenge a charge or conviction by demonstrating that there was racial bias present in their case. For judgments issued on or after Jan. 1, challenges can be made if racially coded language is used in court or if there were displays of intentional discrimination by a lawyer, judge or juror. In addition, convictions or sentences can be challenged if there is evidence that people of one race are disproportionately charged or convicted of a specific crime or if one race is singled out to receive longer or more severe sentences.

Some new laws won't go into effect until later this year. In February, Proposition 19, which requires people who inherit property to use it as their primary residence or have its tax value reassessed, goes into effect. In July, Californians will be prohibited from buying more than one semiautomatic rifle in a 30-day period. And a flavored-tobacco ban that was set to go into effect at the end of 2020 won’t be adopted until at least 2022.
​
MORE INFO, INCLUDING ONE-MINUTE EXPLAINER VIDEOS, FROM CALMATTERS.

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Takeout Shakeout: Without Indoor or Outdoor Dining, Takeout & Delivery Are Seamless & Safe – Here's the 411

1/8/2021

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As of the first week of January, Marin remain's under the state's Stay-at-Home order, halting both indoor and outdoor dining as COVID-19 cases continue to spike and ICU capacity, the primary metric under the order, remains below the 15% minimum in the Bay Area region.  ​

Despite the continued massive setback, Mill Valley's restaurants have innovated their way through the COVID-19 crisis in a variety of ways, particularly by making takeout and delivery a seamless experience. The below list contains each of the known options for restaurants and food shops in town.

Here's a guide to takeout (available at all of the restaurants and stores listed below) and delivery available here in Mill Valley:

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Antone's East Coast Subs
558 Miller Ave.
415.888.3585
DoorDash
​Caviar
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Boo Koo
25 Miller Ave.
415.888.8303
​Caviar
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Bootjack Wood Fired
17 Madrona Street
415.383.4200
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Buckeye Roadhouse
15 Shoreline Highway
415.331.2600
Dine-In Marin
​Buckeye
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Bungalow 44
44 E. Blithedale Avenue
415.381.2500
Dine-In Marin
​Caviar
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The Cantina 
651 E. Blithedale Avenue
415.381.1070
Dine-In Marin
​DoorDash
​UberEats
​Caviar
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Depot Bookstore & Cafe
(temporarily closed)
​87 Throckmorton Avenue 415.383.7012
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Equator Coffees & Teas
244 Shoreline Highway
415.209.3733
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Equator Coffees & Teas
2 Miller Avenue
415.209.3733
DoorDash

Floodwater
152 Shoreline Hwy.
415.843.4545
Dine-In Marin
​DoorDash
​
UberEats
​Caviar
Flour Craft Bakery
129 Miller Ave., Ste. 300
415.384.8244
Good Earth Natural Foods
201 Flamingo Road
415.383.0123
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Gravity Tavern
38 Miller Ave.
415.888.2108
DoorDash
​Caviar
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Grilly's 
493 Miller Avenue
415.381.3278
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Juice Girl
45 Camino Alto, Suite 104
415.322.6160
DoorDash
​Grubhub
​Caviar
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Jolly King Liquors
393 Miller Ave.
415.389.8559
UberEats

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Kitchen Sunnyside
31 Sunnyside Avenue
415.326.5159
Caviar
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La Ginestra 
127 Throckmorton Avenue
415.388.0224
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Lam's Kitchen
89 East Blithedale Ave.
​415.383.6368
Grubhub

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Lighthouse Bar & Grill
475 E Strawberry Dr.
415.381.4400
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Mill Valley Coffee Shop
4 Locust Avenue
415.388.6958
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Mill Valley Market
12 Corte Madera Avenue
415.388.3222
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Mountain Home Inn
810 Panoramic Hwy
415.381.9000
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Parranga
800 Redwood Hwy., #801
415.569.5009
Dine-In Marin
​UberEats
Grubhub
​Caviar
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Pelican Inn
10 Pacific Way, Muir Beach
415.383.6000
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Piatti 
625 Redwood Highway
415.380.2525
Dine-In Marin
​DoorDash
​UberEats
​Grubhub
​Caviar
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Piazza D'Angelo 
22 Miller Avenue
415.388.2000
Dine-In Marin
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Pizza Antica
800 Redwood Highway
415.383.0600
Dine-In Marin
Caviar
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Playa 
41 Throckmorton Avenue
415.382.8871
Dine-In Marin
DoorDash
​UberEats
​Grubhub
​Caviar
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Prabh Indian Kitchen 
24 Sunnyside Avenue
415.384.8241
Dine-In Marin
​DoorDash
​UberEats
Caviar
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Rocco's Pizza
711 E. Blithedale Avenue
415.388.4444
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Safeway Camino Alto
1 Camino Alto
415.388.6216
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Safeway Strawberry
110 Strawberry Village 
415-360-9016
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Samurai
425 Miller Avenue
415.381.3680
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Shelter Bay Cafe
Shelter Bay Cafe
655 Redwood Hwy., #103
DoorDash
​UberEats
Grubhub
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Shoreline Coffee Shop 
221 Shoreline Highway
415.388.9085
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Sol Food 
401 Miller Avenue
415.380.1986
Caviar

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Stefano's Pizza
11 East Blithedale Avenue
415.383.9666
In-House Delivery
​DoorDash
​UberEats
Grubhub
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Super Duper Burger
430 Miller Avenue
415.380.8555
DoorDash
​Caviar
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Sweetwater Cafe 
(temporarily closed)
​19 Corte Madera Avenue

415.388.1700
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Tamalpie Pizza 
475 Miller Avenue
415.388.7437
Dine-In Marin
​Caviar
​
DoorDash
​
UberEats
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Vasco
106 Throckmorton Ave.
415.381.3343
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Vitality Bowls
765 East Blithedale Ave.
415-381-1700
DoorDash
​
UberEats
Vitality Bowls
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Watershed
129 Miller Ave.
415.888.2406
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West Coast Wine • Cheese
(temporarily closed)
​31 Sunnyside Ave.

415.758.3408
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Whole Foods Market
731 E. Blithedale Avenue
415.381.3900
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Whole Foods Market
414 Miller Avenue
415.389.7348
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