Hero
Two Marin teenage filmmakers are remembering a neglected cemetery in Lucas Valley. Georgia Lee and Mitchell Tanaka learned about the county graveyard from a park ranger and became intrigued with its numbered graves and the long-forgotten stories of the dead laid to rest there. More than 280 indigent people were buried in the plots from 1880 through 1955, mostly residents of a nearby poor farm and patients that passed away in the county hospital.
The site currently contains no signage, and Lee and Tanaka want Marin to recognize and mark the area with an information placard. To promote their cause, they produced an award-winning documentary, A Silent Legacy, about the cemetery. Watch their fascinating film on YouTube by searching for “A Silent Legacy” and sign their petition at Change.org by searching for “Marin County poor farm.” Bravo, Georgia and Mitchell!
Zero
This week we bring you yet another chapter in the ongoing saga between bicyclists and hikers on Marin trails. The setting is Mount Burdell Open Space in Novato, and the players are a woman and her dog and a mean man on a bike. The action begins when the off-leash dog barks at the man and the man yells at the woman and the dog. The man then proceeds to get off his bicycle and kick the dog. The woman attempts to stop the violence by pushing the man away from her dog, and the man knocks her to the ground and chokes her. Scary stuff. Once the attack ceases, the man flees in a van, forgetting his bike and personal items. The Marin County Sheriff’s Department responds to the scene, deputies identify a suspect and they locate him the following day in Novato. Although he accuses the hiker of assaulting him, Jeffrey W. Skelton, 63, a Novato transient, is booked into the Marin County Jail on suspicion of assault likely to produce great bodily injury, cruelty to an animal and violation of probation. Fortunately, the woman and her dog are doing fine.
