Terra Marin School and the Terra Mandarin Preschool & TK, which opened in late 2018 in the former Ring Mountain Day School space on Lomita Drive in Mill Valley, is ready to celebrate the Chinese New Year with a multi-faceted event on Saturday, Jan. 25 (10am-2pm) featuring an array of food and activities, including authentic dragon dance, martial arts demonstrations and classes, arts and crafts and noodle making, raffle prizes and more.

The community-wide event is open to the public with all ages are welcome. Tix are $5 in advance and $7 at the door. Fee covers entrance and activities. Food and raffle sold separately.

The 411: Terra Marin School and the Terra Mandarin Preschool & TK hosts a Chinese New Year Community Celebration on Saturday, Jan. 25 (10am-2pm) featuring an array of food and activities, including authentic dragon dance, martial arts demonstrations and classes, arts and crafts and noodle making, raffle prizes and more. The event is open to the public with all ages are welcome. Tix are $5 in advance and $7 at the door. Fee covers entrance and activities. Food and raffle sold separately. MORE INFO & BUY TIX.

​Want to know what's happening around town? Click here to subscribe to the Enjoy Mill Valley Blog by Email!

Redwood Credit Union, which opened a full-service branch in the Alto Plaza Shopping Center in late 2016, is celebrating 70 years in business in 2020. The credit union, which was originally formed by seven County of Sonoma employees as an affordable means to make bridge loans to fellow employees between paychecks, has grown to offer full service personal and business banking, as well as financial services beyond banking such as financial planning, insurance, and even an auto sales center.

Founded in 1950 as Sonoma County Employees Credit Union, that entity merged  in 1982 with Santa Rosa Public Employees Credit Union and rebranded as Redwood Credit Union to reflect its growing presence in the Redwood Empire. In 1997, RCU expanded its field of membership to serve anyone living or working in the five North Bay counties of Sonoma, Marin, Mendocino, Lake, and Napa. And in 2000, RCU received approval to serve residents and businesses in the three additional counties of San Francisco, Solano, and Contra Costa.

RCU now has 19 locations throughout the North Bay and San Francisco, and is the 43rd largest credit union in the U.S. and 8th largest in California.

“Though we’ve grown and added many services and locations over the past 70 years, helping people has always been at the heart of what we do,” said Brett Martinez, RCU President & CEO. “We’re thankful for our 353,000 members, and through their loyalty and participation—as well as the dedication of our 700 employees—we have a solid foundation to continue providing affordable financial services and support to our communities for many more decades to come.”

The 411: Redwood Credit Union Is located at 695 East Blithedale Ave. in the Alto Plaza shopping center that contains Whole Foods Market. MORE INFO.

Want to know what's happening around town? Click here to subscribe to the Enjoy Mill Valley Blog by Email!

Mill Valley resident Chelsea Hutchison, owner of the BŌL superfood cafe in the Mill Valley Lumber Yard, is a realist.
​
"With two kids, a partner and a healthy coffee obsession we are far from a 100 percent reusable family, but by golly, we are trying," she says of her desire to make a positive impact on the climate crisis. "Some days I imagine my girls asking me why we didn't do more for the environment when we had the chance. Why a single use container for a coffee, a water, a soup, a salad was more important than their future."

Hutchison says she chats regularly with Molly de Vries’ Ambatalia, the MVLY-based designer and maker of "modern ecological textiles to support a non-disposable life," about the complicated compost and recycling landscape. Those chats helped her arrive at some clarity: "You know what isn't complicated? Reusables," she says.

For the past few months, BŌL has been participating in an international movement called #plasticfreefridays and providing mason jars for all beverages leaving BŌL. No plastic leaves the premises. Everything is either 100 percent compostable in Marin or reusable. BŌL charges a $2 deposit for the glass and have UKonserve stainless steel bowls for purchase, with customers getting a 50-cent discount off a beverage or $1 off a bol if they bring their own reusable container (they must be clean). 

"So far it's been a great success and having Molly's blessing gives us great hope for the future of #zerowastemarin!" Hutchison says. "Small steps. Big impact."

​Want to know what's happening around town? Click here to subscribe to the Enjoy Mill Valley Blog by Email!

Mill Valley Music owner Gary Scheuenstuhl never lets an anniversary for his fabled Miller Avenue record shop go by without gathering his stable of all-star musician friends for a raucous concert at the Throckmorton Theatre to celebrate the occasion. The 2020 edition – for Mill Valley Music's 12th anniversary – is set for Saturday, Feb. 8 and looks to be another star-studded doozy.

Scheuenstuhl and friends, including local stalwarts Cole Tate, Mikaele Tate, Jesse Lee Kincaid, Neal McDonald, Mari Mack, will perform the Rolling Stones' Beggar's Banquet album in full, plus selections from the Stones' Sticky Fingers” and Let It Bleed albums. 

"Join us this year to celebrate 12 incredible years of business!" Scheuenstuhl says.

The 411: Mill Valley Music owner Gary Scheuenstuhl hosts a concert at the Throckmorton Theatre to celebrate his shops 12th anniversary on Saturday, Feb. 8. 8pm. $25-$35. MORE INFO & TIX.

Want to know what's happening around town? Click here to subscribe to the Enjoy Mill Valley Blog by Email!

Point Reyes artist Charles Eckart has had no shortage of stunning vistas and landscapes from which to draw inspiration in his lifetime. Eckart grew up in Yosemite across a meadow from the Ahwahnee Hotel and in view of Half Dome, his early everyday experience was of breathtaking vistas, drawing influence from the Yose­mite Museum’s col­lection of works by Thomas Hill, Albert Bier­stadt and Thomas Moran, honing his skills in both draftsmanship and painting.  

On February 2, Eckart celebrates his 85th birthday with a reception for his solo exhibition at Seager Gray Gallery in Mill Valley running from February 1 to March 1. The title of the show, “For the Love of Paint,” reflects Eckart’s belief in the expressive powers of pure pigment. The series, “Paintscapes” is a natural evolution of his work in his earlier “Ground Cover Series” incorporating layer upon layer of paint strokes in endlessly satisfying compositions. 

After an arts education at the University of the Pacific and the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles, followed by a stint as an award-winning Art Director at the prestigious advertising firm McCann Erickson, Eckart's early works focused on commuter drawings of his observations in the city and precise rendering of his San Francisco environment. But he became bored.

“All of the creative work was done in the planning up front,” he say, noting that he then surrendered to a more interactive process, resulting in a series of winged figures rising out of amorphous backgrounds of color. Eckart became friendly with Charles Campbell, often visiting him in his North Beach Gallery where he showed such greats as Richard Diebenkorn, Wayne Thiebaud, Nathan Oliveira, Hassell Smith, Elmer Bischoff, Christopher Brown and James Weeks. 

“Charlie had a way of engaging people,” recalls Eckart. “He knew how to get people interested in the paintings and want to own them.” In 1985, Eckart, known to friends as Chuck, moved with his wife Alice to West Marin, where the natural surroundings echoed for him the original visual sensations that had always inspired him. He remembers clearly looking down at an area of ground covered with grass, dirt and leaves with their drying edges curling upward.  

“It was a visual epiphany – an 'aha' moment,” he recalls. 

Eckart began his series of “Ground Cover” paintings, works that were built rather than drawn with layers of paint patiently and deliberately applied. Of these works at Patricia Sweetow Gallery, San Francisco Chronicle art critic Kenneth Baker wrote “for all their honest materialism, Eckart’s paintings feel suffused with soul. They read as true reports of the entanglement of decisions, acts and recognitions that composes any one of us . . . Eckart locates, or brings into being, a focal plane where we can dwell on the pleasure of seeing paint regain the materiality it sacrifices to subject matter in most figuration.”

"Eckart’s virtuosity as a painter stems from an intimate understanding and love of his material," says Seager Gray Gallery co-owner Donna Seager. "He knows how oil paint behaves and is continually finding ways of pushing the boundaries of what he can do with it. In his words, he has learned to 'listen to the paint.'”
​
The 411: Point Reyes artist Charles Eckart celebrates his 85th birthday with a reception and solo exhibition at Seager Gray Gallery in Mill Valley running from February 1 to March 1. The exhibit is titled “For the Love of Paint.” MORE INFO.

​Want to know what's happening around town? Click here to subscribe to the Enjoy Mill Valley Blog by Email!

Panelists from the Marin Environmental Housing Collaborative, the Mill Valley Planning Department and the Marin County Community Development Agency gather at the Outdoor Art Club on Thursday, Feb. 6 to discuss priorities and opportunities for affordable housing in Marin, and identify common values on this important subject.

The Outdoor Art Club Is at 1 West Blithedale. 1pm. Free. MORE INFO.


​Want to know what's happening around town? Click here to subscribe to the Enjoy Mill Valley Blog by Email!

As part of our EMV Films series highlighting some of the myriad creative businesses, organizations and people in Mill Valley, we're spotlighting the amazing network of health and fitness-oriented businesses in Mill Valley, particularly Fitwise Pilates, SF Running Co. and Body Kinetics Health Club. We'll be highlighting more businesses, nonprofits and arts organizations throughout 2020!

Every month offers an chance to get your body right. But the dawn of a new year tends to inject a shot of inspiration to most of us looking to shed a few pounds, recapture the zest for exercise or set a new personal best in your sport of choice. Few Bay Area towns have more businesses per capita equipped to help you do so than Mill Valley, and we're highlighting three of them here. 

Ronda Priestner, founder of Fitwise Pilates in downtown Mill Valley, gets us started off with a quote from Joseph Pilates: "physical fitness is the first prerequisite of happiness." She adds her own belief "that pilates helps you to articulate your spine and when your spine is flexible, you are young."

We then meet Jorge Maravilla, one of the founders of SF Running Co. in Tam Junction and a winner of the San Francisco Marathon, who says he discovered running in his youth "as this huge movement that allowed me to feel free and be a part of something."

Body Kinetics Trainer Lisa Schuller then bursts onto the screen with a bounty of verve, saying that "exercise absolutely will change your life." "I believe in health and wellness, and I believe that the addition of music and the camaraderie of the group is fun and it is magic," she adds. 

Video by Summertime Films, commissioned by the Mill Valley Chamber. Thanks to Norm Hunter and his team. Many more films to come showcasing the boundless innovation, community vitality and entrepreneurial spirit of Mill Valley.

Here are some of the previous videos from our Enjoy Mill Valley Film Series:

Mill Valley's Foundational, Historic Businesses

Inspired Chefs

Want to know what's happening around town? Click here to subscribe to the Enjoy Mill Valley Blog by Email!

Confused by the seemingly never-ending fluidity of the recycling, compost and garbage landscape? Join the club.

The folks at the Outdoor Art Club are hoping they can clear up some of the confusion by hosting a free "Talking About Trash" forum on Thursday, Jan. 30 at 1pm. The event features Jennifer Selvig of Marin Sanitary Service and Jim Iavarone of Mill Valley Refuse on the current state of trash in Marin County, including dual recycling, what can and can no longer be recycled, the growing focus on composting, evolving state laws and regulations, and how you can adapt your product usage and recycling for maximum environmental impact. Small kitchen composting buckets will be available at the event.

The global waste conundrum began when China invoked its “National Sword” policy in 2018, banning the import of most plastics and other materials headed for its recycling processors, which had handled nearly half of the world’s recyclable waste for the past quarter century, the recycling world in particular has been in a tailspin. The move was an effort to halt a deluge of soiled and contaminated materials that was overwhelming Chinese processing facilities and leaving the country with yet another environmental problem — and this one not of its own making.

Since then, the Mill Valley City Council unanimously approved a switch to dual-stream recycling services, backing a proposal by Mill Valley Refuse Service that its officials say has been driven by dwindling options for responsible, cost-effective disposal of paper, cardboard, plastic and glass materials.

"This is the future – we've got to be more responsible with our recyclables," Mayor Jim Wickham said at the time.

"We all need to look at our recyclables as a product to make new stuff, so that the better shape we send it in the better quality of product we'll get back," added Councilwoman Stephanie Moulton-Peters. "The current situation is broken – it doesn't work throughout the country. This is a very good effort to go back to what we were doing years ago. People can change their habits."

In the aftermath of the National Sword policy invocation, China’s plastics imports plummeted by 99 percent, leading to a major global shift in where and how materials tossed in the recycling bin are being processed. That seismic shift has left waste management companies throughout the United States and beyond search for ways to dispose of all that recycling, with some ending up in landfills, incinerators, or likely littering the environment as rising costs to haul away recyclable materials increasingly render the practice unprofitable.

The end result has been skyrocketing costs. According to Mill Valley Refuse Service officials, the company saw recycling revenue shrink to zero in April 2017, and saw its per-ton fees to dispose of it elsewhere go from $4 two years ago to $59 to $72 to $83 today.

"Our efforts to find a better deal at various processing plants in the Bay Area failed," says Iavarone. "Some plants closed their doors, while others refused to take on new customers. MVRS now dumps its single-stream recycling material at a transfer point at the Redwood Landfill in Novato, where it is loaded into semi-trucks and sent to a processing plant in San Jose."

The company has identified disposing its recycled materials at Marin Sanitary Service in San Rafael, but that facility primarily processes dual-stream material, with paper put into one cart and all other recyclables into a separate cart. To test the willingness of customers to adapt to a dual-stream system, MVRS conducted a pilot project from September 2018 to December 2018. It released the results of that project in this report.

The 411: Outdoor Art Club hosts a free "Talking About Trash" forum on Thursday, Jan. 30 at 1pm. The event features Jennifer Selvig of Marin Sanitary Service and Jim Iavarone of Mill Valley Refuse on the current state of refuse in Marin. One West Blithedale Ave. MORE INFO.

And check out this New York Times video about what is and is not recycled after we toss it in the blue bin:

Want to know what's happening around town? Click here to subscribe to the Enjoy Mill Valley Blog by Email!

A trio of sibling businesses in Tam Junction are teaming up on a creative, multi-faceted event to benefit Kiddo!, the Mill Valley Schools Community Foundation, in its efforts to reach its obligation to fund art, music, dance, drama and poetry programs at Mill Valley’s public elementary schools and middle school.

The event, set for Jan. 16, kicks off with a Kiddo! Art show, where students from across the Mill Valley School District will be showcasing their latest artwork, from 5-6pm at Equator Coffees at Proof Lab. From 5-8pm, attendees have an opportunity to shop at Proof Lab and know that 20 percent of all purchases (excluding surf boards) will go toward Kiddo. And if shoppers get hungry or thirsty, they can hit the new Hook Fish Co. and the Proof Lab Beer Garden for fish tacos and drinks. For every taco order purchased (2 tacos in order), $1 will be given to Kiddo!, and 50 percent of proceeds from any drinks purchased (alcoholic or non-alcoholic) will also go to Kiddo.

Kiddo!'s 2019-20 goal for the approximately 2,850 students across the Mill Valley School District's five elementary schools and Mill Valley Middle School is $3.1 million, and the organization has received $2.85 million to date from parents and local businesses. In addition to the aforementioned programs, Kiddo! also funds classroom and library aides, elementary physical education programs, technology support, teacher grant funding and more. Funds are raised through Kiddo!’s Annual Campaign, Business Partnerships, Endowment, and special events.

The 411: Equator Coffees at Proof Lab, Proof Lab and Hook Fish Co. and the Proof Lab Beer Garden host an event to raise money for Kiddo! on Jan. 16, 5-8pm. MORE INFO ON KIDDO.

Want to know what's happening around town? Click here to subscribe to the Enjoy Mill Valley Blog by Email!

Over the span of the next six weeks, the O’Hanlon Center for the Arts Gallery & Loft will be as chock full of fantastic art as any space in town.

The nonprofit organization, which turned 50 in 2019, is set to unveil its Annual Members' Show on Jan. 16, with many of O'Hanlon's 250 members sharing at least one work of art during this extended show, which runs through Feb. 20. That includes the gorgeous "Muir Beach Sunset" photo above by Daniel Patrick. 

The 411: O’Hanlon Center for the Arts Gallery & Loft's Annual Members' Show opens Jan. 16 and runs through Feb. 20. Receptions are set for Saturday, January 18 (5-7pm) and Tuesday, February 4 (5:30-7:30pm). An Artist Roundtable Dialogue is on Tuesday, February 4 at 4pm. O’Hanlon Gallery hours are Tuesday-Friday, 11am-3pm. and Saturday, 10am-2pm. MORE INFO.

Want to know what's happening around town? Click here to subscribe to the Enjoy Mill Valley Blog by Email!

George Lawson Gallery, one of a pair of acclaimed galleries that moved from San Francisco to Mill Valley in 2019, garnering inclusion in the acclaimed ArtForum magazine last month for its exhibit of the paintings of Ira Watkins, is set to debut its latest exhibit this month, this time featuring a pair of artists with Bay Area ties.

The exhibit is structured as a "Conversation" between painters Jenny Bloomfield, originally from London and currently working in West Oakland, and Marie Van Elder, who is from Brussels and currently works in Mill Valley and Sea Ranch.

Bloomfield’s subject is an abstracted synthesis of portraiture, architecture and biomorphic structure that engages through shifting associations, according to Lawson, while Van Elder’s motif, from a series of studies of tree stumps and the wooded environment around her studio on the Northern California coast, verges on symbolic augury.

"Bloomfield works in a mode that incorporates subtractive techniques and pouring, etching into prepared under-layments and then inverting her canvases, whereas Van Elder uses alla prima techniques, building up her imagery wet on wet," adds Lawson. "The two artists’ methodology could be viewed as antithetical, except both rely on culling their results from fresh grounds before the paint has set."

The exhibit opens with a preview at the gallery at 18 East Blithedale, #12, on Tuesday, Jan. 7 (5:30-7:30pm), and a full opening Jan. 8 through Feb. 9. A reception with the artists is set for Thursday, Jan. 9 (5:30-7:30pm). Lawson himself will deliver a talk on the exhibit on Saturday, Jan. 11 (4-5pm). The exhibit will also be part of the Mill Valley Arts Commission's monthly First Tuesday Artwalk on Tuesday, Feb. 3 (5:30-7:30).

The 411: From Jan. 7-Feb. 9, the George Lawson Gallery features an exhibit structured as a "Conversation" between painters Jenny Bloomfield and Marie Van Elder. MORE INFO.

Want to know what's happening around town? Click here to subscribe to the Enjoy Mill Valley Blog by Email!

The Mill Valley Chamber Music Society, the non-profit, all-volunteer organization founded in 1973 to present exceptional classical musicians in Mill Valley at affordable ticket prices, hits the midway point of its 47th season later this month with a performance by the award-winning Gould Piano Trio featuring clarinetist Robert Plane. The concert is set for 5pm on Sunday, Jan. 26, at Mt. Tamalpais United Methodist Church.

The Gould Piano Trio features Lucy Gould on violin, Richard Lester on cello and Benjamin Frith on piano) and has been lauded for their "musical fire" and "dedication to the genre" by the Washington Post, and have remained at the forefront of the international chamber music scene for a quarter of a century. Commissioning and performing new works is an important part of the UK-based trio’s philosophy of staying creative and freshly inspired. Renowned British composer and pianist Huw Watkins composed a new work for the Gould Piano Trio and Robert Plane and they gave the premiere of "Four Fables" at the Three Choirs Festival in 2018. 

Plane's Gramophone Award-winning account of Finzi’s Concerto and Gramophone Award-shortlisted Bax Sonatas are just two of a large collection of recordings of works by the great English Romantics. Plane has performed at the Mozart Clarinet Concerto in Madrid with the City of London Sinfonia, Beijing with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, and in the U.S. with the Virginia Symphony.

The program for the Jan. 26 concert includes: Carl Frühling: Clarinet Trio, op. 40; Huw Watkins: Four Fables for clarinet and piano trio; and Dvorak: Piano Trio #3 in f minor, op. 65.

The MVCMS concert series also features Alexei Sitkovetsky, violin and Wu Qian, piano on February 23; and Aizuri Quartet, March 8. Two months later, MVCMS showcases the talents of five emerging classical musicians at the annual Marin Music Chest “Young Artists' Concert,” on May 17.

MVCMS concerts are held at 5 p.m. Sundays at the Mt. Tamalpais United Methodist Church, 410 Sycamore Avenue, Mill Valley, an intimate concert venue featuring superb acoustics and free parking.

Season subscriptions are $145 per person for five concerts or $105 for three concerts. All subscribers receive complimentary tickets to the annual Marin Music Chest Young Artists Concert. Tickets are sold at the door at $40 per person. Free admission for youth age 18 and under. Subscriptions or single tickets can be ordered online here.

​The 411: The Mill Valley Chamber Music Society's 47th season continues Sunday, January 26 with a performance by the award-winning Gould Piano Trio featuring clarinetist Robert Plane. Mt. Tamalpais United Methodist Church, 410 Sycamore Avenue. Free parking. Concerts are at 5 p.m. Single tickets are $40 general and free for youth ages 18 and under. Season subscriptions options include $145 per person for all five concerts or a mini-subscription for $105 for three concerts. All subscribers receive a complimentary ticket to the annual Marin Music Chest Young Artists Concert on May 17, 2020. MORE INFO & TIX.

​Want to know what's happening around town? Click here to subscribe to the Enjoy Mill Valley Blog by Email!

New Years Eve on a Tuesday? If that has you thinking about staying in town for the big night, there's no shortage of great options in the 94941.

First up is Playa, which has a DJ from 10pm-1am, a Cava Toast at midnight and a special NYE Menu featuring items like Barbacoa Tamal, Duck Leg Confit w/ Mole Negro, Yucatan Style Spare Ribs, and Huitlacoche Empanada (Corn Truffle), all from new Playa executive chef Aaron Sabido. “We hope this news excites the town and its locals,” says Manfred Méndez, Playa’s general manager. “We are truly excited, and look forward to the creativity and dishes chef Sabido will come up with.”

Real Restaurant sister spot Bungalow 44 around the corner will also have a DJ from 10pm-1am, as well as an early seating special, 3 courses/$45 (includes dishes like Kumamoto oysters with compressed cucumber, tobiko hamachi avocado, crispy rice cake and Fresno chili peppers, among others) or late seating (features a fourth course ($85) and additional options, such as crab cake with Cajun remoulade; lobster linguine with white wine, garlic and red pepper flakes; and grilled duck breast with burnt onion and hen of the woods mushrooms), 4 courses/$85, the latter of which includes the music/DJ.

If you're looking for additional options, Piazza D'Angelo serves up its Mezzanote with live entertainment from Michael White & Friends, Famous4 and Murphy Productions are hosting a NYE Dance Party at the Community Center, the Green Leaf Rustlers rock in the New Year at the Sweetwater Music Hall and the Throckmorton Theatre serves up "Comedy, Soup and Tibetan Bells" featuring comedian Rick Overton. 

​Want to know what's happening around town? Click here to subscribe to the Enjoy Mill Valley Blog by Email!

On the heels of the Mill Valley Chamber's efforts this summer and fall to #ActivateThePlaza by getting gracious restaurants like Piazza D'Angelo, Prabh Indian Kitchen, Sweetwater Music Hall & Cafe and BŌL to offer discounts to attendees of the Concerts on the Plaza, the Chamber is back it, this time with a huge assist from the City of Mill Valley's Department of Public Works.

Given the longstanding inactivity on Depot Plaza due to the long-delayed building renovation, which appears to be moving forward in the coming days(!), DPW offered to temporarily relocated a trio of redwood picnic benches to the Plaza, giving people another opportunity to relax, have a conversation, enjoy a lunch, whatever it might be. They've also strung some additional lighting around the plaza to add to the already festival holiday atmosphere.

Tell us what you think in the comments below!

Want to know what's happening around town? Click here to subscribe to the Enjoy Mill Valley Blog by Email!

Since it closed on March 31, customers and fans of the heralded Depot Bookstore & Cafe have been looking for a sign that the renovation of the longtime City-owned building at 87 Throckmorton Avenue was imminent.

That sign arrived in late December, as fencing went up around the Depot building, indicating Paul Lazzareschi, who owns the bookstore and cafe business that occupies the building, and his team of investors have officially pulled the project's permit. IN the coming days, they begin an extensive project that largely has two components: an overhaul of the Depot space, bringing the historic building, particularly its bathroom and kitchen, up to code, as well as the construction of a long-sought, much-needed public restroom adjacent to the Depot.

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 be for each of its specific details, 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.

The Depot pays the City a base rent plus a percentage of total sales. The depot building was built by the Northwestern Pacific Railroad in 1928. It served as the terminal for electric and oil trains that between Mill Valley to the Sausalito ferry docks. The railroad shut down in the 1940s and morphed into a bus depot, used first by Greyhound and later by Golden Gate Transit. In the 1970s, the building was re-invented as Ganey’s Bookstore and Cafe, which it remained until the Turnbull family took over the lease in 1987.

In April 2018, the Mill Valley City Council unanimously rejected an effort to stop plans to renovate the space and allow the construction of a long-delayed downtown public bathroom to proceed. City officials and Lazzareschi reached an agreement to incorporate the public bathroom construction into the Depot project to save costs and time. The public bathroom project was regularly discussed in 2014 and was fully budgeted in 2015 and conceptually dates back to 1984, when then-Mayor Richard “Dick” Jessup, who designed the Depot Plaza, first sketched out a downtown bathroom location.

To accommodate the construction, the Mill Valley Chamber, whose Visitor Center and office has also been in the City-owned building for decades, relocated to a temporary mobile office a few hundred feet away, in a pair of parking spaces on Miller Avenue across from Piazza D’Angelo, as indicated in the illustration at left. The project is expected to take 4-6 months.

​​Want to know what's happening around town? Click here to subscribe to the Enjoy Mill Valley Blog by Email!