Where’s the Mellow?
So it’s finally happened. The newly-minted Marinites with their imperious, pretentious, self-centered, self-important bad attitudes and worse manners have managed to drive away Peter Coyote, one of our local treasures. I can’t say I blame him, though. I have lived here since 1975 when Mill Valley was laid-back and cool, [with] rock stars and artists and hippies and people from all economic backgrounds. I have only recently felt ashamed to be from here, suffering from the black eye the newer demographic of “southern” Marin has given the county. (“Southern” Marin? Who started saying that anyway? I never heard that growing up and I’ll bet it wasn’t someone who has lived here more than 15 years.)
I never thought I would ever want to leave Marin but it has started crossing my mind. We aren’t able to move because we own the buildings our business is in and we have quite a few employees, so I have decided to wage a war of attrition, called Take Back Mellow Marin, where I counter a random act of rudeness with a deliberate act of kindness. I invite others who care to join me. And to those of you who think it’s okay to scream and throw your car keys at someone who works at a very nice high-end car dealership that shall be unnamed, please leave and take your friends with you. You are not a Marinite.
Leslie Maendl, “Northern” Marin (Thank God!)
Yes it’s true. A loud, tacky class of people have taken over Marin. You see them at townhall meetings wearing red t-shirts yelling doomsday Tea Party rhetoric. They fill up the comment sections of almost any article about Marin and they have even taken over newly formed, neighbourhood web-sites. They are all or nothing, black and white thinkers. A nouveau-rich (or not so rich) group who want everyone in Marin to look like them and no one that reminds them of where they came from or who they really are. As my grandfather used to say “they think a shiny new Cadillac (insert BMW) and mortgage they can barely pay is what they need to enter the club and they never realize it takes much more than that. Something money will never buy them and they will never have”
I am a native “southern marinite”. I have lived here for all of my 57 years. I cannot agree more with Peter Coyote’s take on the changes in attitude of so much of the present day residents of “southern Marin”. For example: a while ago a new client of my office actually expected special treatment by saying they were “of Belvedere” -REALLY?!! I grew up in Belvedere and Tiburon when it was just a quaint UNPRETENTIOUS community that happens to be in, what is now, an extremely desireable location. Another example refers to a letter to the editor in the IJ a couple of years ago from a new homeowner in Tam Valley expressing her desire to get rid of “eyesores” like Martin Brothers be replaced by more attractive businesses!! How sad that people choosing to migrate here have no concept of the unique, eclectic place it once was and seem to want it to be just another homogenous upper middle class suburb with no character or sense of community. Although I will miss it, I see my retirement as seeking out a place like “Southern Marin” used to be.
Coming in late to the reply section, but feeling the need to vent.
Today at the Marin Farmer’s Market in San Rafael, I had a lady of a certain age tell me to get out of the way, you’re blocking the path. I had my back to her and couldn’t see her coming. When I turned to make room, she passed me by quickly with a huff. Mind you, it’s 9am on a Sunday morning.
I grew up in SF at a time when my mother would wear gloves to go into “The City” and you dressed up if you were flying. Yes, I know those times are gone; but really??? You can’t even back out of a parking space in strip mall in Marin without encountering “the bird”. At a Whole Foods in MV I had a lady run over my foot with her shopping cart. “Excuse me”, I said sarcastically. She said, “yeah, excuse you”. Lady, you obviously didn’t grow up in a big city or with any sense of decorum. You’re better suited for a zoo.