Busy Bodies
When Supervisor Rodoni’s gang of wealthy environmental extremists got Drakes Bay Oyster Farm shut down, we were left with the Tomales Bay shellfish, with all their disadvantages, as our only local alternative. Whereas the Drakes oysters were large, plump and actually tasted of the ocean, the Tomales Bay substitutes are small and overpriced, and, as we now see, susceptible to disease organisms washing down from the dairy farms and waterfront homes built along that narrow estuary.
Now these well-heeled busy-bodies want to take the San Geronimo Golf Course away from us and dig it up in the vain hope of encouraging more fish to breed in the creeks. How many fish are we realistically looking at? Fifty, a hundred? Sure. Grant money is what these folks really hope to raise from these futile efforts. Grant money, government money for bike parks, garden plots, a little bit of housing vainly trying to compete with market forces which make Marin the most expensive garden spot in the country.
With tens of thousands of acres of less than superbly managed open space already on top of us, why take the exquisite beauty of the golf course and let it become a weed patch? Most of us do not play golf, yet the golf course is a central feature of where we live, giving us joy and a sense of place here in the valley. Notice only that most of the mail that rabidly supports tearing it down comes from outside the valley and from a lot of newcomers who just don’t get it.
Alex Easton-Brown
Lagunitas
