The federal government packed a bounty of relief in its passage of the $900 billion stimulus package in December, including the long-awaited Save Our Stages Act, which provides $15 billion in the form of "Shuttered Venue Operators Grants" for "live venues, indie movie theaters, and cultural institutions" like the Sweetwater Music Hall, Throckmorton Theatre and Marin Theatre Company, who have been thrashed by their complete inability to gather people in a room to experience live music and performance since mid-March.

It also included an additional $285 billion to revive the Paycheck Protection Program, which Mill Valley businesses took advantage of to the tune of $58 million earlier this year, as well as cash payments of up to $600 a person for households earning up to $75,000 and supplemental federal unemployment benefits at $300 a week for 11 weeks.

What it didn't include got less attention. But one of the key forms of relief for small restaurants like those in Mill Valley, the Restaurants Act, was left out of that prior stimulus but is expected to be in the $1.9 trillion stimulus that House Democrats hope to pass via a budget reconciliation bill on Friday in advance of hearings on the package in the U.S. Senate. 

The Restaurants Act provides $25 billion in relief in the form of grants of up to $10 million to small restaurants will be voted on the week of Feb. 22. Here are some of the eligibility details, according to Restaurant Hospitality:

• The $25 billion would be divided into government-funded grants with a maximum of $10 million per restaurant group or $5 million per individual restaurant location.
• Eligible businesses include foodservice and drinking establishments like restaurants, bars, caterers, breweries, taprooms, and tasting rooms that are not part of an affiliated restaurant group with more than 20 locations. Participants cannot be publicly traded and there are limits on private equity firms. Participants also cannot currently be an applicant for the Shuttered Venues Operators grant program.
• Grants can be spent on payroll and benefits up to $100,000 a year, mortgage, rent, utilities, maintenance, supplies (including PPE and cleaning products), food and beverages, supplier costs, operational expenses, and paid sick leave
• The covered period is from Feb 15, 2020 through Dec. 31, 2021.
• The grants can be taken alongside the two rounds of PPP, EIDL, and the Employee Retention Tax Credits, though any PPP loans already received will be subtracted from the eligible grant total for any individual business.

“We’ve cleared another important hurdle in our long fight to provide local, independent restaurants the help they need,” Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D.-Ore.), who originally proposed the bill, told Restaurant Hospitality.

Grants are calculated differently based on how long a restaurant has been open and the PPP loans they might have already received. For example, for established restaurants that opened in 2018 or earlier, grants are calculated by subtracting a business’ 2020 revenue from their 2019 revenue, and also subtracting first- and second-draw PPP loans received in 2020.

The restaurant relief fund prioritizes socioeconomically disadvantaged businesses, with businesses owned by women, veterans or socially/economically disadvantaged groups prioritized in the first 21 days of grant applications. Additionally, $5 billion of the $25 billion total is reserved for restaurants with less than $500,000 in gross receipts in 2019. Any funds leftover after the first 60 days of grant eligibility will be opened up to larger businesses.

We'll keep you posted.

Questions? Email us.

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When the new San Francisco Museum of Modern Art reopened in 2016 after an extensive renovation, it was teeming with gorgeous new features, not the least of which was the living wall created by David Brenner of Habitat Horticulture. 

Inspired by Brenner's creation, the Outdoor Art Club continues its series of free, virtual, thought-provoking workshops with a talk by Brenner himself on Thursday, March 18 at 1pm via Zoom. 

In addition to discussing his work, Brenner will teach you how you can make this unique, vertical planting option work in your own home or garden.

MORE INFO & REGISTER. 

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Having made significant headway in vaccinating residents above 65 years old and residents and workers in hospitals and acute care facilities, Marin County officials said, effective Feb. 24, they are moving to provide COVID-19 vaccine to educators, food service and agricultural workers, child care providers and those in emergency services. The move complies with the regulations laid out in the California state vaccination plan. 

“We’ve made a lot of progress in vaccinating our health care workers and older residents, and it’s time to move ahead to protect our essential workers,” said Dr. Matt Willis, Marin County’s Public Health Officer. ”Vaccinating teachers, food service workers, and others who have been on the front lines will offer our community another crucial layer of protection as we roll out the vaccine.” 

The announcement is great news for workers in each of those sectors and the communities that depend on them. But it comes with a significant caveat: While workers in the aforementioned five sectors are now eligible to receive a vaccine anywhere in the Bay Area, vaccine appointments remain in limited supply due to continued limited allocations from state and federal sources. In addition, measures are being taken to reserve doses for those at highest risk, and some health care providers may continue to prioritize vaccine for patients who are 65 and older and have not yet had an opportunity to be vaccinated, county officials said.

Marin County Public Health officials will reach out to employers of the essential workforce groups to connect employees with vaccination options. In addition, essential workers eligible for vaccine will be able to access vaccine through commercial pharmacies such as Walgreens, CVS, and Rite Aid and neighboring vaccine sites offered through the state’s MyTurn appointment system. More pharmacies plan to start offering vaccine to Marin residents in the next two weeks as doses become available. 

A list of Marin-based vaccine providers, including eligibility and appointment information, is listed on Public Health’s vaccine options webpage. 

Marin County Public Health and health care providers began an immunization program for those 75 and older on January 21. Vaccinations for Marin residents age 65-74 opened on February 15. Older adults were prioritized in Marin and across the state because of their vulnerability to, and risk of severe outcomes from, the COVID-19 virus. To date, more than 60% of all Marin County residents above age 65, and 19.3% of all Marin residents – more than 50,000 people – have received at least one dose of vaccine, in addition to thousands more Marin-based health care workers who live in other counties but help care for Marin residents. 

MORE INFO ON VACCINATION OPTIONS.

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Without question, the pandemic has wrought utter devastation across the globe, with more than 5000,000 lives lost in the U.S. alone, and endless, cascading impacts,

But Marin Independent Journal columnist and former Mill Valley Mayor Dick Spotswood took a moment to reflect on the fact that "the epidemic inadvertently ushered in changes and taught lessons which may improve our collective quality of life going forward."

For instance, Spotswood notes that, "during the pandemic, Marinites discovered the wonders of outdoor dining. Due to our mild Mediterranean climate, enjoying meals and beverages on sidewalk tables or newly fashioned parklets became a popular option that will outlast shelter-in-place rules. Surprisingly, even when that practice led to partially closing downtown streets, only minor traffic impacts resulted. Unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles and fees that long limited outdoor dining to proprietor-owned patios ought to evaporate."

​Mill Valley businesses have benefited greatly from a partnership between the Mill Valley Chamber and the City of Mill Valley that has focused on nimbly processing applications for use of both public and private space, including temporary parklets, street closures and converting outdoor spaces like parking lots into safe, convenient dining areas.

Likewise, Spotswood noted, "easing post-prohibition era alcohol rules should continue. Drunken driving and under-21 alcohol use didn’t spike just because cafes were allowed to sell adults 'drink at home' bottles of wine or cocktails," he wrote.

To that end, Sen. Scott Wiener, D-SF, has proposed SB314, which would give more flexibility to bars, restaurants and music venues to help them stay afloat by relaxing some alcohol rules (ABC) and supporting permanent use of parklets, for instance. “As we start to see the light at the end of the tunnel with this vaccine, we need to help these small businesses recover,” Wiener told the SF Chronicle. 

READ DICK SPOTSWOOD'S FULL COLUMN HERE.

MORE INFO ON SB 314 HERE.

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Marin County health officials said Tuesday that Marin is able to move into the less restrictive red Tier 2 within the state's Blueprint for a Safer Economy, effective Feb. 24, due to the continued positive progression of Marin's metrics around new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents and the percentage of positive tests continue to improve.

The red tier allows a broader reopening that includes indoor dining at 25% percent capacity, an expansion for retail shops to 50% capacity and 10% indoor density for gyms and fitness families, among others. Mill Valley restaurants have specifically planned for a small amount of indoor dining by redesigning their indoor spaces to allow for safer distances between employees, and they've deployed commercial air filters to manipulate air flow to avoid aerosol-based disease transmission.

“We’ve focused on our hardest-hit communities, and it seems to be paying off,” said Marin County Public Health Officer Dr. Matt Willis said. “It’s especially encouraging to see this progress as we move toward vaccinating essential workers. Adding the protection of the vaccine will help seal this progress for the whole community.”    

The improvement is bolstered by the county's continued progress, despite recent weeks of a downturn in vaccine supply, via the federal and state governments, of first dose vaccine distribution to nearly 50,000 Marin residents as of Feb. 22, with more than 22,000 having received both doses of the vaccine, according to county data.

The county recently expanded the pool of people eligible for coronavirus vaccines to Marin's approximately 33,000 residents 65 and older beginning next week. For the most part, the county has limited vaccine to healthcare workers, and is nearly done vaccinating that group, as well as the roughly 25,000 Marin residents 75 and older, in addition to people living in senior care centers.

In addition to the loosening of restrictions on restaurants, retail shops and gym/fitness facilities, the CineArts Sequoia theater is able to open at 25 percent capacity (or 100 people, whichever is fewer), and cultural ceremonies, including weddings and funerals, are allowed indoors at 25% capacity or 100 people, whichever is fewer (churches and houses of worship maintain 25% indoor capacity).

The red tier also delivers some multi-layered benefits to Mill Valley. All Marin schools are eligible to reopen for in-person classes beginning March 1, county officials said, though school officials can decide the scope and pace of reopening campuses individually. For businesses that depend on the foot traffic of students on lunch break, including Juice Girl, Antone's East Coast Sub Shop, Grilly's and Safeway, the return to in-person school at Tam High would provide some relief.

HERE'S A BREAKDOWN ON WHAT'S ALLOWED FOR EACH SECTOR IN THE RED TIER.

HERE'S COMPREHENSIVE DATA ON MARIN'S COVID DATA.

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The Mill Valley Philharmonic continues to host virtual events despite the inability to focus on its bread and butter of putting on live performances. 

On Sunday, Feb. 28 at 5pm, the organization is hosting a free virtual discussion focusing on Maurice Ravel and the art of the ballet. The event features Ming Luke, principal guest conductor of San Francisco Ballet and principal conductor of Nashville Ballet.

Luke will offer an inside look at the world of professional ballet and its beautiful repertoire. The event will include a discussion of Ravel's Daphnis and Chloe and the integration of music and dance.

The 411: Mill Valley Philharmonic hosts a virtual discussion Sunday, Feb. 28 at 5pm focusing on Maurice Ravel and the art of the ballet. The event features Ming Luke, principal guest conductor of San Francisco Ballet and principal conductor of Nashville Ballet. Admission to the event is free but an optional donation is requested. MORE INFO & TIX.
 
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The County of Marin has teamed up with Curative and the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District, which operates the Larkspur Landing ferry terminal, to open a new drive-thru COVID-19 vaccination site specifically for older adults and other Marin residents who cannot navigate other walk-through sites due to mobility issues. 
 
The site is limited to 200 vaccinations per day during its first week of operations, largely due to the impact of the recent severe winter storms. Daily appointments will increase as supplies are delivered and operations develop. Eventually, the site will expand to offer up to 1,500 doses per day. 
 
“Providing a vaccination location that is accessible by personal vehicle, paratransit and public transit options is an important factor in removing barriers to the vaccine ensuring health equity for our most vulnerable residents,” Marin County Public Health Officer Dr. Matt Willis said of the facility at 101 E. Sir Francis Drake Boulevard, just east of Highway 101.

Appointments are required and are limited to Marin residents age 65 and older who can show proof of age and residency. Appointments are now live and will be accessible from Marin County Public Health’s vaccination options webpage.

To help spur use of the drive-thru facility, Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit (SMART) is offering Marin residents free train rides to the Larkspur station for vaccine appointment holders at the ferry terminal POD. If approached by a train conductor, appointment holders can simply mention that are going to the vaccination site when asked for payment. Marin Transit will offer a shuttle to and from the train station to the nearby vaccine site for those with mobility issues, however, those who prefer to walk from the station are permitted to access the site on foot. The new vaccine site can also accommodate paratransit vehicles.

MORE INFO.

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Feel-good stories have been scarce during the pandemic, so we like to celebrate each and every one of them we find out about.  

Mill Valley resident Dr. Haydee Knott, who opened her own Mill Valley Dermatology practice in the Shelter Bay office complex near Piatti Restaurant in 2016, has joined fellow dermatologist Dr. Alison Kang on a second location. 

That practice, called Marin Skin, is located at 619 East Blithedale Ave. at Camino Alto, the former office of Dr. Curtis Robinson, who relocated to Miller Avenue. Marin Skin offers general dermatology services but also offers more aesthetic services such as laser, botox and fillers.

"Best of all, it has a large pink couch (see below right)," Knott says. "I've always wanted a pink velvet couch and with 3 kids, 2 dogs and 1 cat, I finally have my wish."

Born in Mexico, Knott was raised in San Diego and later Los Angeles, where her extended family remains. She went to UCSD and then medical school at the University of Vermont. It was during her senior rotations back at UCSD that she met her husband Daniel Knott, now the director of Facial Plastic, Aesthetic and Reconstructive Surgery in Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at UCSF Medical Center, in 1998. The couple’s journey took them both to the Cleveland Clinic in their respective fields for many years, and eventually to the Bay Area in 2011.

Knott says her practice is driven by her desire to get back to basics and the entire reason she chose medicine and dermatology in particular: spending time with patients.

“I just got fed up with assembly-line style dermatology and dreamed of opening my ideal clinic,” Knott says. “I decided to go back to patient care as it was practiced during my residency training, when the mantra of ‘putting patients first’ was the rule instead of the exception.”

In the midst of all that, Haydee Knott pursued her passion in music and learned to play cello while studying at the Cleveland Institute of Music, and the couple began having children. When Knott garnered a fellowship in Cosmetic and Laser Surgery at University of California-San Francisco, she encouraged her husband to follow suit. He did just that, now specializing in head, neck and facial plastic reconstruction, particularly for cancer patients.

"Life is so crazy and exciting right now,” she says.
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The 411: Marin Skin is at at 619 East Blithedale Ave. at Camino Alto. MORE INFO.

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When word began to spread in recent months that Marin Theatre Company Playwright in Residence Lauren Gunderson had penned a play largely about Nathan Wolfe, her husband and a virologist whose biggest fear was a global pandemic, a "100-year thing," as Wolfe put it to Wired magazine.

Naturally, given the fact that we are nearly a year into said global pandemic, much of the attention the play received focused on Gunderson's realization that was "waking up every day next to someone who specializes in pandemics when we’re in the middle of a pandemic.”

The virology is certainly central to the play, dubbed The Catastrophist, Gunderson's new solo play, directed by MTC Artistic Director Jasson Minadakis, that was filmed on the MTC stage and premiered Jan. 26 and runs through Feb. 28, co-produced by MTC and Round House Theatre in Maryland.

But what shines through even more acutely is the death of the couple's relationship, and the care Gunderson took in portraying her husband in a multi-faceted way. "At its fiercely beating heart," writes theater critic Sam Hurwitt in the Marin Independent Journal, The Catastrophist is a nakedly, deeply personal play that viewers can’t help but get swept up in, feeling its ache almost as if it were their own."

Gunderson said as much to the Marin IJ last month: “Every play is about people, and this is a person I know very, very well and love very much, so I can translate that kind of intimate knowledge into a play.”

Gunderson, Minadakis and William DeMeritt, who plays Wolfe, created a theatrical production that avoided being dominated by the pandemic that we're all living through every day. "A lot of the real gut punches in the play have nothing to do with that and everything to do with all-too-relatable expressions of familiar grief and personal health worries," Hurwitt writes. 

Fortuitous timing aided that effort, as the play is set in 2016, so while some of its talk of massive loss of life exacerbated by loss of livelihoods speaks very much to present concerns, it’s written not so much speaking to the present moment as predicting it. That is, after all, what Wolfe set out to do, Hurwitt writes.

​That effort is also aided by William Demeritt, whose performance as Wolfe "is smart and sexy enough to make the character’s snark compelling and his enthusiasm for science contagious," writes New York Times theatre critic Jesse Green. 

Marin Theatre Company's production of The Catastrophist, runs digitally through Feb. 28. TIX $30. MORE INFO.

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​Throughout the summer and fall of 2020, the Miller and Throckmorton Ave. street closures were an undisputed success, with the "rising tide lifts all boats" mantra drawing rave reviews from neighboring businesses and infusing the community with an appropriate degree of vitality amidst the COVID-19 crisis. 

We're continuing the Miller closure and the partial closure of Bernard St. outside Vasco restaurant this weekend, and we're also mindful of maintaining traffic flow and access and working with the City of Mill Valley on strategies to ensure ease and enjoyment of downtown for everyone. Stay tuned for details on an edited version of the closure that pleases everyone involved.

In the meantime, Equator Coffee, Piazza D'Angelo and Gravity Tavern are taking advantage of the closure this weekend, and downtown retail stalwarts like The Goods, Margaret O'Leary  and Terrestra are joining in, placing racks and products outside with mostly good weather on the way. To make shopping as convenient as possible, the City is exploring a slight reconfiguration of the Miller closure to free up additional parking and add a lane for outbound traffic.

Before and after your beverage and/or meal, we encourage you to visit the amazing array of retails shops throughout downtown!

QUESTIONS? LET US KNOW.

We're posting these signs around town to highlight ample available parking:

In what seems like a lifetime ago, the Mill Valley City Council unanimously rejected a 2018 appeal from a group that didn't believe that Depot Cafe & Bookstore owner Paul Lazzareschi's renovation plans for his business, located within the City-owned Depot building, reflected his actual intentions, specifically with regard to maintaining its bookstore.

At the time, then-Councilmember Jessica Jackson made it clear that the bookstore must remain a vital component to the business that resides with the proverbial heart of downtown Mill Valley.

"It's important that we maintain the current size of the bookstore," Jackson said. "It's symbolic. In 1974, the council voted to convert the bus station into a bookstore and cafe and since then it's really operated as that. It is really a reflection of our values that we value literacy and that we value coming together around books."

With the reopening of the Depot Cafe & Bookstore last month, specifically with book shelves spanning an array of categories and a fantastic children's section – Mill Valley, home to one of the best public libraries in the country, as well as oodles of Little Free Libraries all over town – once again has a viable, community-minded bookstore in the heart of its downtown.

​Through the long haul of the renovation that began in 2019, Lazzareschi worked to find investors that would propel him to see the project through to his fully realized vision. He found a number of local residents who felt deeply connected to their community and to the landmark building at its heart.

Two of those residents were Dan and Katy Leese, who have been regular customers at Lazzareschi's Vasco restaurant across the street for years. “He’s just such a great person,” Katy Leese says, noting that he'd made their Lucinda and Millie wine Vasco's house wine for a while. “He’s so friendly and makes sure everyone is comfortable.” Having sold their wine business in 2018, the couple was thinking about their next chapter, and decided to invest and become partners in the Depot.

Additional investors also joined the effort, including Mark Martini, Richard Patterson and Pam Carlomagno, Ridge Sampson and Andreas Weinberger. Longtime Marin bakery owner Gary Rulli was already on board. “Everyone seems to add some individual talent to the mix,” Leese says, noting that Patterson rebuilt and beautified many of the bookstore’s old book shelves and chairs and Carlomagno helps with the bookkeeping. Mill Valley resident Mark Winn designed the Depot Cafe + Bookstore's new logo, branding and signage.

During that time, Leese started thinking about how to reinvigorate the bookstore and make it something that met the community's needs and honored the Depot's literary history Jackson had celebrated. In doing so, she had plenty of family literary history to draw upon. 

Leese majored in English in college, her father worked at Reader’s Digest, and many of her siblings are writers, including her sister Samantha Hunt, an author who recently penned an opinion piece in the New York Times about what it means to be her teenage daughters in the aftermath of the election of Vice President Kamala Harris.

“I’ve always loved bookstores,” Leese says. “At one point, I was going to do a children’s bookstore and that didn’t happen, and I’m so glad to be doing this now.”

Leese decided to take on operations of the bookstore, joined by children's book expert Leanne Townsend and fiction/non-fiction specialist Marianne.

​Leese says the response has been overwhelmingly positive, partly because of misinformation that spread around town in the intervening years spanning the time Lazzareschi took over the business and the lengthy renovation of the building.

“Fifty percent of the people that came by thought that the bookstore was not coming back,” she says. “Everyone has been so happy to see it and they are so thankful that there is a bookstore back in town. And I promise that I can have just as many books as were in the original bookstore.”

Leese says she and her team are focused on how to manage the complexities of carrying newspapers and magazines, But she says they’re committed to responding nimbly to special orders and requests. “We are special ordering books a few times a week, and we get them in for pickup within 3-4 days,” she says, noting that customers don’t have to pay for special orders in advance. 

“We are very open to what the community wants to see in the shop,” Leese says, noting that they’re constantly filling up a spiral notebook with suggestions from customers. “We are really here for the community. That’s the whole concept for the Depot Cafe & Bookstore.”

​Despite opening in the final days of the statewide stay-at-home order amidst the COVID-19 crisis, the Depot Cafe & Bookstore has been abuzz with activity since its return on Jan. 25. The magnetism of the space, the quality of the products and the gorgeous design – striking the balance between honoring its history and making it feel brand new all at once – seeks to welcome both longtime lovers of the building and newfound friends.

“We love the Depot and it’s such a great Mill Valley icon and so meaningful to so many people – it’s the heart of Mill Valley,” Leese says of a building that began as a train station, built by the Northwestern Pacific Railroad in 1928. It served as the terminal for trains that ran between Mill Valley and the Sausalito ferry. Shut down in the 1940s, it morphed into a bus depot, used first by Greyhound and later by Golden Gate Transit.

In his 2019 tome Edges: Mountains, Forests and Creeks, acclaimed Mill Valley landscape architect Eldon Beck wrote that the Depot Plaza “functions as a meadow, an ecotonal clearing in a forest” where “parents, grandparents and others retreat to the edges to watch the performers, “mostly kids, adventure into the plaza.” The dominant feature of that “meadow” is a building that, as Beck notes, is in the midst of ​“its third life.”

That third life is steeped in the building's history. "We have this former train station building that sits at the end of this historic rail line," Leese says, noting Martini's work with the Mill Valley Historical Society to place historic photos on metal to connect the dots. 

"We are absolutely celebrating that wonderful history of this place," Leese says.

MORE INFO ON THE DEPOT CAFE & BOOKSTORE.

As Famous 4 owner Larry "the Hat" Lautzker nears the final week of business for his vaunted retail shop at 96 Throckmorton Ave. in downtown Mill Valley, he's got a lot to say about the rollercoaster ride of the past several weeks, during which he's held a blockbuster going-out-of-business sale and hosted a virtual, free, live "One for the Road Concert," featuring some of the Bay Area artists he's worked closely with over they years.

Here are his thoughts:

Is that sustained progress on the horizon?

It sure looks like it. 

Marin County health officials said this week that new cases per 100,000 residents and the percentage of positive tests continue to put Marin on target to move into the less restrictive red Tier 2 within the state's Blueprint for a Safer Economy by Feb. 24. By Tuesday, Feb. 23, the county expects to have two weeks worth of data that places Marin within the “red” tier, setting up the state to move Marin into red by Feb. 24.

The red tier would allow a broader reopening that includes indoor dining at 25% percent capacity, an expansion for retails shops to 50% capacity and 10% indoor density for gyms and fitness families, among others. Mill Valley restaurants have specifically planned for a small amount of indoor dining by redesigning their indoor spaces to allow for safer distances between employees, and they've deployed commercial air filters to manipulate air flow to avoid aerosol-based disease transmission.

That expected progress is bolstered by the county's continued progress, despite a meager supply of vaccine via the federal and state governments, of vaccine distribution to more than more than 48,000 vaccines to date as of Feb. 11. Approximately 63,000 residents, or nearly 18%, have received their first dose of the vaccine, according to county data.

The county recently expanded the pool of people eligible for coronavirus vaccines to Marin's approximately 33,000 residents 65 and older beginning next week. For the most part, the county has limited vaccine to healthcare workers, and is nearly done vaccinating that group, as well as the roughly 25,000 Marin residents 75 and older, in addition to people living in senior care centers.

HERE'S COMPREHENSIVE DATA ON MARIN'S COVID DATA.

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Nearly three years into his life in Mill Valley, Denzel Allen, owner of the Strength Den MV training facility at 360 Miller Avenue, continues to exhibit the, well, strength that has made him a central figure in the Miller Avenue business community. In the past year, Allen has persevered through the COVID-19 crisis with aplomb, and also welcomed a long overdue global conversation around racial equity.

NBC Bay Area took notice this week, visiting Allen at his facility and sitting down for a conversation. Check it out below or GO HERE TO VIEW IT DIRECTLY.

Strength Den MV is at 360 Miller Ave. MORE INFO.

One of the few benefits of the COVID-19 crisis is that parking, if needed, has been widely available. And let's be honest: parking enforcement officers have taken it easy on us.

As we re-emerge from the latest stay-at-home order – hopefully the last – outdoor dining is back, increased activity around town abounds and we want to remind you of the various ways to avoid getting a parking ticket:

–Don't park at a metered space for more than the allowed time on the meter.

–If you don't want to deal with paying at the meter, buy an RSVP parking sticker – the cost of a sticker for the whole year is on par with two parking tickets.

–If you're an employee of a local business, you can buy an Employee Parking Permit from the Mill Valley Chamber. Details here.

The Mill Valley Chamber has placed banners around downtown reminding you of the array of parking options!
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