Habit Forming

-
0
Habit Forming

There was a time when Hand Habits was reserved for the bedroom. That’s where guitarist and songwriter Meg Duffy would craft melodic homespun folk songs when not working as a touring musician.

“It started with me just writing songs, and it went through a lot of different outfits,” says Duffy. With a rotating cast of collaborators and a slew of attempts at different sounds, Duffy and Hand Habits first debuted in a self-recorded album, Wildly Idle (Humble Before the Void), in 2017.

Now, Hand Habits has solidified from a solo project into a full band with the release of Placeholder, the excellent new record that the group plays from when performing on March 22 at the Bolinas Community Center with Alex Bleeker and friends.

For the new record, Duffy went into the studio and emerged with 12 songs of guitar-driven melodic indie-rock that continues to establish the bandleader as a premiere guitarist and confident narrative songwriter.

“I always write the songs for a full band,” says Duffy. “I like playing solo now that I can with more confidence, but I much prefer playing with a band.”

Opening with the strong title track, Placeholder is largely an album about relationships. Yet within songs about breakups and heartache, Duffy explores deeper realms of internal struggles with anxiety or confusion, as well as identity and self-discovery, giving the record a welcome gravitas throughout.

“There’s a lot of gray area in human nature,” says Duffy. “When someone doesn’t understand something, I think they can be afraid of it rather than embrace it or hold it against something that they do understand.

“And for music, everybody is so quick to define anything as a genre or in relation to another artist so they can understand it, and that’s a beautiful thing, but it can also be really limiting.”

In terms of songwriting, Duffy excels as a storyteller crafting both the ambiguous and the embellished. “That interests me, living in the in-between areas,” the performer says.

Duffy was also interested in opening the band’s upcoming tour in West Marin, where they’ve played before.

“I really think it’s a beautiful place,” says Duffy. “I thought it was a good way to start the tour, rather than having a big L.A. show. It will more low-key and familial.”

 

Hand Habits play with Alex Bleeker and friends on Friday, March 22, at Bolinas Community Center, 14 Wharf Road, Bolinas. 7pm. $15–$20. handhabits.bandcamp.com.

Kids Camp Guide

-
1
Kids Camp Guide

It’s staying light out longer these days, which means that summer is just around the corner, and the kids of Marin will soon be skipping off to camp. Whether your child is an aspiring artist, actor, scientist, sports star or outdoor adventure guide, we’ve got you covered with our handy directory of local camps. So put the kettle on, snuggle up with your loved ones and dream about all of the fun and exciting things that await.

Academy DeTurk

Performing Arts Workshops;

415/456-4297

Academy-deturk.com

 

Activity Hero

Listings of camps all over Marin County; 800/437-6125

activityhero.com

Aikido Kids of Tamalpais

Corte Madera; 415/264-0157

aiki-kids.com

AndrewsCamps

Corte Madera; 415/891-3185

andrewscamps.com

Audubon Adventure Summer Camp

Tiburon; 415/388-2524

richardsonbay.audubon.org

Avid4Adventure Summer Camps

Mill Valley: 800/977-9873

Avid4.com

Azzi Basketball Camp

Mill Valley; 415/426-9706

azzicamp.com

BandWorks Summer Camp

San Rafael; 510/843.2263

bandworks.com

Bay Area Discovery Museum Summer Camps

Sausalito; 415/339-3927

bayareadiscoverymuseum.org

Bay Club Summer Camps

Kentfield; 415/461-5431

Novato; 415/209-6090

Corte Madera 415/945-3000

bayclubcamps.com

Belvedere Tennis Club Summer Camp

Tiburon 415/435-4792

belvederetennisclub.com

Bike Adventures for Kids

San Anselmo; 415/279-4469

bikeadventuresmarin.com

Cal-Star Gymnastics

Novato; 415/382-7827

calstar.info

Call of the Sea Voyage Seaward Educational Sail

Aboard the Schooner Seaward

Sausalito; 415/331-3214

callofthesea.org

Camp Doodles

Mill Valley; 415/388-4386

campdoodles.com

Camp Edmo

Mill Valley; 415/282-6673

campedmo.org

Camp Enchanted

Mill Valley; 415/519-4255

millvalleyrecreation.org/programs/camps

 

Camp Fairfax

Fairfax; 415/458-2340

fairfaxrec.com

Camp Galileo

Kentfield, Mill Valley; 800/854-3684

galileo-camps.com

Camp Kehillah at the Osher Marin JCC

San Rafael; 415/444-8055

marinjcc.org/camp

 

Caren Horstmeyer Girls Basketball Camp

Larkspur; 415/794-4311

Horstmeyerhoops.com

Challenger Sports British Soccer Summer Camps

Novato and San Rafael; 800/878-2167, ext 280

challengersports.com

Children’s Cottage Cooperative Summer Camps

Larkspur; 415/461-0822

cccmarin.com

College of Marin Volleyball Camp

Kentfield;

collegeofmarinvolleyballcamp.com

Corte Madera Summer Camps

Corte Madera; 415/927-5072

townofcortemadera.org

Craig Breslin’s Champions Soccer Camp

San Rafael; 415/482-8813

championsoccercamp.com

Dave Fromer’s Summer Soccer Camps

Various locations in Marin;415/223-7789; 415/383-0320

davefromersoccer.com

Dickson Ranch Summer Horse Camps

Woodacre; 415/488-0454

dicksonranch.net

Dojo Fit Warrior Boot Camp

San Anselmo; 415/482-8182

Marindojo.com

Dominican Athletic Summer Camps

San Rafael; 415/482-3543

Dominican.edu.

Encore Lacrosse Summer Camps

Larkspur, Mill Valley; 888/501-4999

Encorelacrosse.com

First Friends Montessori

Pre-K Summer Camp

Fairfax; 415/459-7028

first-friends-montessori.com

Funtastic Preschool Adventure Camp

San Anselmo; 415/453-3181

Sananselmopreschool.org

Golden Gate Learning Center Maker Camps and Summer Brush Ups

San Anselmo; 415/383-2283

goldengatelearning.center

Gymnastics Camp at The Cave

Corte Madera; 415/927-1630

Inthecave.com

The Lion King: Musical Theatre Summer Camp (and Half-Day Camps) at the Throckmorton Theatre

Mill Valley; 415/383-9611

throckmortontheatre.org

Katia & Co Performing Arts & Dance Camps

Various locations

katiaandcompany.com

Kids on Camera

TV/Film/Acting Day Camp

Ross

kids-on-camera.com

Kinder Camp at Bacich

Kentfield; 415/927-6746

larkspur.recdesk.com

Legarza Summer Sports Camps

Various locations; 415/334-3333

legarzasports.org

Love2Dance Summer Camps

Novato; 415/898-3933

Love2dance.biz

Luis Quezada Soccer Camp

Fairfax and San Anselmo; 415/302-6779

usasoccercamp.org

Marin Christian Academy Summer Day Camp

Novato; 415/892-5713

Home Page

Marin Dance Theatre

San Rafael; 415/499-8891

mdt.org

Marin Girls Chorus Music Summer Camp

Novato; 415/827-7335

marinchorus.org

Marin GreenPlay Nature and Adventure Camps

Mill Valley; 415/264-2828

maringreenplay.com

Marin Horizon School Summer Camp

Mill Valley; 415/388-8408

marinhorizon.org

Marin Humane Society Humane Summer Camps

Novato; 415/883-4621

marinhumane.org

Marin Primary & Middle School Summer Camp

Larkspur; 415/924-2608

mpms.org

Marin Rowing Association Youth Summer Rowing Camps

Greenbrae; 415/461-1431

marinrowing.org

Marin Shakespeare Company Summer Camps

San Rafael; 415/499-4487

marinshakespeare.org

Marin Theatre Company Summer Camps

Mill Valley; 415/388-5200

marintheatre.org

Marin Treks Summer Camps

Novato; 415/250-0988

marintreks.com

Marin Waldorf School Summer Camp

San Rafael; 415/479-8190

marinwaldorf.org

Marinwood Summer Camps

San Rafael; 415/479-0775

marinwood.org

Mark Day School Camps

San Rafael; 415/472-8000

markdayschool.org

MASTERWORKS Kids’ Art Studio Camps

Corte Madera; 415/945-7945

masterworkskidsart.com

Mathnasium Summer Camp

Mill Valley; 415/384-8272

Mathnasium.com

McInnis Park Golf Course Junior Camp

San Rafael; 415/492-1800

Mcinnisparkgolfcenter.com

Mill Valley Parks & Recreation Summer Program

Mill Valley; 415/383-1370

millvalleyrecreation.org

Mill Valley Potter’s Studio Clay Summer Camps

Mill Valley; 415/888-8906

millvalleypottersstudio.com

 

Miwok Stables Summer Camps

Mill Valley; 415/383-8048

miwokstables.com

Morning Star Farm Summer Horse Camp

Novato; 415/897-1633

morningstarfarm.info

Mt. Tam Adventures Summer Camps

Sausalito; 415/377-9678

Mttamadventures.com

Mt. Tam Bikes Camp

Mill Valley; 415/377-9075

mttambikescamp.com

Multi-Sports Kids Camp at Mt. Tam Racquet Club

Larkspur; 415/924-6226

mttamrc.com

NatureBridge Coastal Camp

Sausalito; 415/331-1548

coastalcamp.org

Nike Sports Camps

Variety of sports and locations; 800/645-3226

ussportscamps.com

 

No Limits Summer Camps

Corte Madera; 415/717-6925

nolimitsdaycamp.com

Novato Parks & Recreation Summer Camps

Novato; 415/899-8279

Novato.org

Novato Theater Company Summer Stars

Novato; 415/883-4498

novatotheatercompany.org

 

Novato Youth Center Summer Program

Novato; 415/892-1643

novatoyouthcenter.org

 

O’Sullivan Soccer Academy Summer Camp

San Geronimo; 415/497-8164

osullivansocceracademy.com

Otis Guy Mountain Bike Camp

Fairfax; 415/250-2585

otisguymountainbikecamp.com

Parkour American Ninja Camp at The Cave

Corte Madera; 415/927-1630

inthecave.com

Pine Point Cooking School

Sausalito; 415/332-4352

pinepointcooking.com

PlanetBravo Techno-tainment Camp

Ross; 310/443-7607

planetbravo.com

Play-Well LEGO-Inspired Engineering Camps

Larkspur, Marinwood, Tiburon,

San Anselmo; 415/578-2746

play-well.org

Point Reyes Nature Science and Adventure Camps

Point Reyes Station; 415/663-1200

ptreyes.org/summer-camp

 

Practical Martial Arts Ninja Camps

Corte Madera; 415/927-0899

practicalmartialarts.net

Pyramid Gymnastics Summer Camp

San Rafael; 415/927-1240

thepyramidgym.com

Rolling Hills Junior Lifeguard Camp

Novato; 415/897-2185

rollinghillsclub.com

Ross Academy Montessori School Summer Mini-Camp

Mill Valley; 415/383-5777

rossacademymontessori.com

Ross Cottage Nursery School Summer Program

Ross; 415/517-7417

rosscottagenurseryschool.com

 

Ross Recreation Summer Camps

Ross; 415/453-6020

rossrecreation.org

Ross Valley Summer School

Corte Madera; 415/927-6746

Ci.larkspur.ca.us

Ross Valley Swim School

Kentfield; 415/461-5431

bayclubs.com/rossvalley

Sage Educators Summer Essential Skills Workshops

Mill Valley; 415/388-7243; Larkspur; 415/461-7243; San Anselmo; 415/594-7243

sageeducators.com/summer/

Sailing Education Adventures Sail Camp

San Rafael; 415/775-8779

Sfsailing.org

San Anselmo Summer Programs

San Anselmo; 415/258-4600

townofsananselmo.org

San Domenico School Summer Camps

San Anselmo; 415/258-1944

sandomenico.org/student-life/summer-camps

San Geronimo Summer Golf Camps

San Geronimo; 415/747-2613

golfcoachwill.com

San Rafael Parks & Recreation Summer Camps

San Rafael; 415/485-3344

cityofsanrafael.org

Sausalito Parks and Recreation Summer Camps

Sausalito; 415/289-4140

ci.sausalito.ca.us

Sea Trek Kayak Summer Camps

Sausalito; 415/332-8494

seatrek.com/camps

Singers Marin Summer Camp

Mill Valley; 415/383-3712

singersmarin.org

Slide Ranch Summer Camp

Muir Beach; 415/381-6155

slideranch.org

Stapleton School of of Ballet

San Anselmo; 415/454-5759

stapletonschool.org

Steve & Kate’s Camp

steveandkatescamp.com

Corte Madera; 415/604-0078

Strawberry Recreation District

Camp Strawberry

Mill Valley; 415/383-6494

Strawberry.marin.org

Studio 4 Art Summer Camp

San Anselmo, Mill Valley, Novato; 415/596-5546

studio4art.net

Summer Odyssey Camp at Dominican

San Rafael; 415/485-3255

domincan.edu

Summer Rock Band Camps at Marin Music Center

Novato; 415/897-4131

marinmusic.com

Summer Spanish Immersion Classes

Sonoma and Marin Counties; 707/782-1084

colorsofspanish.org

SummerCrest Summer Camp

San Rafael; 415/457-6672

Summercrest.org

Super Cool Summer School

Larkspur; 415/927-6746

larkspur.recdesk.com

Super Summer Adventure Camp

San Anselmo; 415/453-3181

supersummeradventurecamp.org

Tamalpais Tutoring Summer Workout

Kentfield; 415/457-7500

tamalpaistutoring.com

TGA Premier Sports Golf Camps

Various locations; 415/599-9478

northbay.playtga.com

The Cave Summer Gymnastic Camps

Corte Madera; 415/927-1630

inthecave.com

The City of Novato Summer Camps

Novato; 415/899-8279

novato.org/government/summer-camps

 

The Culinary Dude’s Kids Cooking Camp

Tiburon; 415/242-4192

theculinarydude.com

 

The National Academy of Summer Camps

Mill Valley, Novato; 707/541-2365

nationalacademyofathletics.com

The Performing Arts Academy of Marin

Mill Valley; 415/380-0887

paamarin.com

The Ranch Summer Camps

Tiburon; 415/435-4355

theranchtoday.org

Tiburon Adventure Camp

Tiburon; 415/435-4366

btccc.org

Totally Tennis Summer Camp

San Rafael; 415/456-5522

rafaelracquetclub.com

Tutu Ballet Camp

Larkspur; 415/419-5610

tutuschool.com

23 Elephants Theatre Company

San Anselmo; 646/241-7734

23elephants.org

 

Twin Cities Children’s Center Summer Camps

Corte Madera; 415/924-6622

twincitieschildrenscenter.com

 

USS Sports Camps

Various sports and locations in Marin; 800/645-3226

ussportscamps.com

Enriching U Summer Camps

Novato; 415/475-7567

vfx4kids.com

Vilda Nature Summer Camps

Fairfax; 415/747-4840

vildanature.org

WildCare Wildlife Camps

San Rafael; 415/456-7283

discoverwildcare.org

 

YMCA Summer Camps Marin

Various locations; 415/446-2178

ymcasf.org/programs/summer-camp-marin

Hero & Zero

-
0

Hero
We heard reports of seismic activity emanating from the Marin City Library, but it wasn’t an earthquake; the preeminent Library Journal had recognized branch manager and senior librarian Diana Lopez as an industry mover and shaker.
Lopez plays an important leadership role in Marin City, the county’s most racially diverse and economically challenged community. “I love our community,” she told the Library Journal. “But there are a lot of equity gaps. My branch works hard to close those gaps—especially when it comes to serving our youth.”
The Marin City branch had kept fewer operational hours than others until 2015, when Lopez successfully led the drive to make it the first location to stay open seven days a week.
She champions science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics (known by the acronym STEAM).
“I’m really into promoting STEAM programs, especially for girls and minorities,” she said. “It’s really important to me that kids in this community know they can be engineers, architects and designers.”
The Library Journal credits Lopez with “enhancing basic services, providing opportunities for local teens to develop their technology skills, and offering specialized support for grade schoolers.”
That makes Diana Lopez a hero in our book. We congratulate her on the prestigious award.
Zero
A resident of unincorporated Novato called the Marin County Sheriff to report that he chased a man and woman carrying backpacks from his neighbor’s house.
A deputy located the hooligans and discovered the man had warrants for his arrest. So he was arrested, and his gal pal got thrown in the pokey, too.
The man’s backpack contained an Apple iPad and four laptops, all bearing Novato Unified School District property stickers. Only the most dishonorable zeroes steal from students.

Hero & Zero

-
0

Hero

We heard reports of seismic activity emanating from the Marin City Library, but it wasn’t an earthquake; the preeminent Library Journal had recognized branch manager and senior librarian Diana Lopez as an industry mover and shaker.

Lopez plays an important leadership role in Marin City, the county’s most racially diverse and economically challenged community. “I love our community,” she told the Library Journal. “But there are a lot of equity gaps. My branch works hard to close those gaps—especially when it comes to serving our youth.”

The Marin City branch had kept fewer operational hours than others until 2015, when Lopez successfully led the drive to make it the first location to stay open seven days a week.

She champions science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics (known by the acronym STEAM).

“I’m really into promoting STEAM programs, especially for girls and minorities,” she said. “It’s really important to me that kids in this community know they can be engineers, architects and designers.”

The Library Journal credits Lopez with “enhancing basic services, providing opportunities for local teens to develop their technology skills, and offering specialized support for grade schoolers.”

That makes Diana Lopez a hero in our book. We congratulate her on the prestigious award.

Zero

A resident of unincorporated Novato called the Marin County Sheriff to report that he chased a man and woman carrying backpacks from his neighbor’s house.

A deputy located the hooligans and discovered the man had warrants for his arrest. So he was arrested, and his gal pal got thrown in the pokey, too.

The man’s backpack contained an Apple iPad and four laptops, all bearing Novato Unified School District property stickers. Only the most dishonorable zeroes steal from students.

Space Force

-
0
Space Force

Expert script-flippage gives texture to the heartfelt female empowerment message in Captain Marvel. It begins as a war-on-terror movie, with an extraterrestrial military gearing up for a mission against the shape-shifting Skrulls, hiding among the locals on a planet that looks like Afghanistan. Later, we arrive at our more current malaise when the film’s true villain starts talking of aliens who “threaten our borders.”

Brie Larson’s brown-eyed and appealing underplaying sells this material, which isn’t the freshest. She is called “Vers,” an amnesiac soldier of the outer space Kree empire, with the ability to blast photon rays from her fists. The power is a gift from the empire’s all-highest, an AI simulation that appears to her in the shape of Annette Bening. Vers has a rep for being too unfocussed and emotional, as her superior officer and sparring partner (Jude Law) always reminds her. After a skirmish, Vers is captured by the pointed-eared Skrulls. Her dormant memories are stirred up during an interrogation by their diabolical leader, the Australian-accented Taros (an amusing Ben Mendelsohn).

Vers falls to earth like a comet into 1990s North Hollywood. The ruckus summons America’s top secret agent Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson, digitized to a younger form and still possessing both eyes). The corpse of a dead Skrull convinces Fury of Vers’ story. As they try to round up the aliens, the jagged bits of Vers’ past keep flashing back: she recalls her former life as an air force fighter pilot and her lifelong friendship with her fellow pilot Marie Rambeau (Lashana Lynch).

It’s a little dismaying to see the great flamboyance of Jackson dimmed down—he’s a younger man, a just-the-facts military officer who hasn’t yet seen the aliens at our door, a soldier from WWII coming back from the dead and the race of Homo superior yet. But he takes to Vers.

Larson and Jackson have a smooth rapport. If Larson brings in a great deal of feeling to the role, she also brings some playfulness. Our heroine can be slightly bratty, pestering Fury at a bar about why he thinks everyone should call him by his last name—an echo of all the raffish word-bandying that went on in Pulp Fiction. “And what will your kids call you?” “Fury.”

Despite some starchy Louisiana heartland sequences, this is an effective fantasy of power used with grace and without arrogance. Captain Marvel isn’t as supermacha as GI Jane or Starship Troopers, however; the movie is not about Vers becoming a good, disciplined soldier. She finds her independence at last.

When Captain Marvel is over, one notes that a conventional romantic lead isn’t here, and also wasn’t missed. Directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, and the five credited writers give this heroine’s journey the same attractive solitude that male heroes—super and otherwise—have enjoyed in the movies forever.

‘Captain Marvel’ is playing in wide release in the North Bay.

Horoscope

-
0
Horoscope

ARIES (March 21–April 19) The coming weeks might be a good time to acquire a flamethrower. It would come in handy if you felt the urge to go to a beach and incinerate mementoes from an ex-ally. It would also be useful if you wanted to burn stuff that reminds you of who you used to be and don’t want to be any more; or if you got in the mood to set ablaze symbols of questionable ideas you used to believe in but can’t afford to believe in any more. If you don’t want to spend $1,600-plus on a flamethrower, just close your eyes for 10 minutes and visualize yourself performing acts of creative destruction like those I mentioned.

TAURUS (April 20–May 20) Taurus aphorist Olivia Dresher writes that she would like to be “a force of nature,” but “not causing any suffering.” The way I interpret her longing is that she wants to be wild, elemental, uninhibited, primal, raw, pure—all the while without inflicting any hurt or damage on herself or anyone else. In accordance with your astrological omens, Taurus, that’s a state I encourage you to embody in the coming weeks. If you’re feeling extra smart—which I suspect you will—you could go even further. You may be able to heal yourself and others with your wild, elemental, uninhibited, primal, raw, pure energy.

GEMINI (May 21–June 20) In some major cities, the buttons you push at a crosswalk don’t actually work to make the traffic light turn green faster. The same is true about the “Close Door” buttons in many elevators. Pushing them doesn’t have any effect on the door. Harvard psychologist Ellen Langer says these buttons are like placebos that give you “the illusion of control.” I bring this phenomenon to your attention, Gemini, in hope of inspiring you to scout around for comparable things in your life. Is there any situation where you imagine you have power or influence, but probably don’t? If so, now is an excellent time to find out—and remedy that problem.

CANCER (June 21–July 22) Philip Boit was born and raised in Kenya, where it never snows except on the very top of Mount Kenya. Yet he represented his country in the cross-country skiing events at the Winter Olympics in 2002 and 2006. How did he do it? He trained up north in snowy Finland. Meanwhile, Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong competed for Ghana in the slalom in the 2010 Winter Olympics. Since there was no snow in his homeland, he practiced his skills in the French Alps. These two are your role models for the coming months, Cancerian. According to my analysis of the astrological omens, you’ll have the potential to achieve success in tasks and activities that may not seem like a natural fit.

LEO (July 23–August 22) In the process of casting for his movie The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, director David Fincher considered selecting A-list actress Scarlet Johansson to play the heroine. But ultimately he decided she was too sexy and radiant. He wanted a pale, thin, tougher-looking actress, whom he found in Rooney Mara. I suspect that in a somewhat similar way, you may be perceived as being too much something for a role you would actually perform quite well. But in my astrological opinion, you’re not at all too much. In fact, you’re just right. Is there anything you can do—with full integrity—to adjust how people see you and understand you without diluting your brightness and strength?

VIRGO (August 23–September 22) In 1993, an English gardener named Eric Lawes used his metal detector to look for a hammer that his farmer friend had lost in a field. Instead of the hammer, he found the unexpected: a buried box containing 15,234 old Roman silver and gold worth more than $4 million today. I bring this to your attention, Virgo, because I suspect that you, too, will soon discover something different from what you’re searching for. Like the treasure Lawes located, it might even be more valuable than what you thought you wanted.

LIBRA (September 23–October 22) “The role of the artist is exactly the same as the role of the lover,” wrote author James Baldwin. “If I love you, I have to make you conscious of the things you don’t see.” To fully endorse that statement, I’d need to add two adverbs. My version would be, “The role of the artist is exactly the same as the role of the lover. If I love you, I have to kindly and compassionately make you conscious of the things you don’t see.” In accordance with current astrological omens, I recommend that you Libras enthusiastically adopt that mission during the coming weeks. With tenderness and care, help those you care about to become aware of what they’ve been missing—and ask for the same from them toward you.

SCORPIO (October 23–November 21) For thousands of generations, our early ancestors were able to get some of the food they needed through a practice known as persistence hunting. They usually couldn’t run as fast as the animals they chased. But they had a distinct advantage: they could keep moving relentlessly until their prey grew exhausted. In part that’s because they had far less hair than the animals, and thus could cool off better. I propose that we adopt this theme as a metaphor for your life in the coming weeks and months. You won’t need to be extra fast or super ferocious or impossibly clever to get what you want. All you have to do is be persistent and dogged and disciplined.

SAGITTARIUS (November 22–December 21) Wompsi’kuk Skeesucks Brooke is a Native American woman of the Mohegan tribe. According to her description of Mohegan naming traditions, and reported by author Elisabeth Pearson Waugaman, “Children receive names that are descriptive. They may be given new names at adolescence, and again as they go through life according to what their life experiences and accomplishments are.” She concludes that names “change as the individual changes.” If you have been thinking about transforming the way you express and present yourself, you might want to consider such a shift. 2019 will be a favorable time to at least add a new nickname or title. And I suspect you’ll have maximum inspiration to do so in the coming weeks.

CAPRICORN (December 22–January 19) For many of us, smell is our most neglected sense. We see, hear, taste and feel with vividness and eagerness, but allow our olfactory powers to go underused. In accordance with astrological omens, I hope you will compensate for that dearth in the coming weeks. There is subtle information you can obtain—and in my opinion, need quite strongly—that will come your way only with the help of your nose. Trust the guidance provided by scent.

AQUARIUS (January 20–February 18) Essayist Nassim Nicholas Taleb says humans come in three types: fragile, robust or antifragile. Those who are fragile work hard to shield themselves from life’s messiness. The downside? They are deprived of experiences that might spur them to grow smarter. As for robust people, Taleb believes they are firm in the face of messiness. They remain who they are even when they’re disrupted. The potential problem? They may be too strong to surrender to necessary transformations. If you’re the third type, antifragile, you engage with the messiness and use it as motivation to become more creative and resilient. The downside? None. In accordance with the astrological omens, Aquarius, I urge you to adopt the antifragile approach in the coming weeks.

PISCES (February 19–March 20) In 2014, NASA managed to place its MAVEN spacecraft into orbit around Mars. The cost of the mission was $671 million. Soon thereafter, the Indian government put its own vehicle, the Mangalyaan, into orbit around the Red Planet. It spent $74 million. As you plan your own big project, Pisces, I recommend you emulate the Mangalyaan rather than the MAVEN. I suspect you can do great things—maybe even your personal equivalent of sending a spacecraft to Mars—on a relatively modest budget.

Sacred Land

-
1
Sacred Land

In 1998, big-city community organizer Steve Costa and his wife, Kate Levinson, moved to Point Reyes Station, and in 2002 bought the town’s only bookstore. Though neither had retail experience, they knew bookstores could serve as a catalyst to bring community members together, and Point Reyes Books became entrenched in the community by holding lectures and public discussions in addition to author signings.

In 2008, with the help of a few local Marin County residents, Costa and Levinson organized the first Geography of Hope Literary Conference, a weekend-long event with authors and educators from around the world. Since then, Geography of Hope has been producing annual events with different themes, though always with an emphasis on human interactions with the environment.

For Claire Peele, longtime attendee to the events, it’s the combination of accredited speakers and the emphasis on nature that hooked her the first year, and which has brought her back every year since. The conference brings “people from all over the country, influential thought leaders, including some indigenous leaders,” she says. “We are given pathways to think about and discuss our relationships to each other and nature.”

This year, Geography of Hope reexamines the importance of pilgrimage as a way to deepen our relationship to nature, putting on events running throughout 2019. On March 16, the group hosts Pilgrimage Redefined, a conference featuring authors, activists, educators and others who have incorporated pilgrimage into their interaction with nature. One speaker presenting is John Francis, famously nicknamed the Planetwalker for his trek across America.

“I wasn’t really an environmentalist until after the second oil spill in San Francisco in 1971,” Francis says. That year, he decided to give up using any motorized transportation. On his birthday, he took it a step further and decided to not speak for a day. “This continued every day for the next 17 years,” says Francis. “Being silent for me was learning how to listen. It was about how we treat each other.”

During Francis’ duration of silence, he undertook a pilgrimage across America, sailed to South America, got his PhD in environmental sciences, and learned how to play the banjo. He began seeing environmental problems as the consequence of social inequalities. “I believe now that environmental problems are based in human rights, gender equality and all the other ways we relate to each other,” he says. “As long as we are exploiting each other for resources, it is not going to get better.”

Speaker Kate Bunny will discuss how a pilgrimage can be used as a tool for social change. Bunny led a pilgrimage from Israel to the West Bank, bringing Israelis into areas they typically would not be allowed. “Pilgrimage is a very simple practice,” she says, “and in that time you are breaking down a lot of barriers between each other that can build particularly during conflicts.

“You get a sense of equitability, because you are all the same, you are all sweating, and you can find ways to relate.”

 

Geography of Hope: Pilgrimage Redefined takes place Saturday, March 16, at the Dance Palace, 503 B St., Point Reyes Station. 9am. $150 general; $25 with scholarship (offered to those between the ages of 18 and 30 upon determination). gohevents.org.

Advice Goddess

-
1
Advice Goddess

Q: I’m a 32-year-old gay man, and my boyfriend of three years sometimes vents to his friends about our relationship. I feel a little betrayed by this—like my privacy’s being violated. Why can’t he figure things out on his own—without bringing in a jury?—Disturbed

A: A few years back, a woman with a grudge against my assistant called me to try to get me to fire her: “She talks trash about you!” Me: “Everybody talks trash about their boss!”

The truth is, we all do a lot of grousing to others about people in our lives—our romantic partner, our business partner, our criminal conspirator. That’s actually a healthy thing, though it runs contrary to what emotion researcher Bernard Rime calls the “Lone Ranger individualist perspective of adult emotional regulation.” This, Rime explains, is the mythic view (held even by many psychologists) that healthy adult processing of emotions involves a sort of “rugged individualism”—meaning being “self-contained, independent and self-reliant.”

In fact, Rime notes, emotion seems to have evolved to be not just an internal, solo process but a “fundamentally interdependent process.” Rime explains that our emotions—especially painful ones—can be overwhelming to us. Experiencing emotion “is a dense and diffuse experience in need of cognitive articulation”; that is, it needs to be hashed out and understood. “By using language and by addressing others, individuals ‘unfold’ the emotional material” so they can understand and manage it and maybe gain objectivity and insight.

Understanding how driven we are to share our experiences might help you stop feeling like your boyfriend’s betraying secrets and instead see it as his seeking a sounding board. There’s a good chance that this serves to improve your relationship—sometimes by confirming that he has a legit issue to discuss with you and try to resolve.

Of course, we’re all prone to latch on to crazy and ride it like a pony. We need someone to talk sense into us—like to convince us that the jail time isn’t worth it, despite our partner’s disgusting, depraved indifference to all that’s good and right. Yes, I’m talking about atrocities like opening food packages from the middle (“Hello, are you a rodent?!”) and vacuuming in weird, random lines (like a serial killer!).

Q: I’m a 66-year-old man. I got married in my mid-20s. I was totally faithful, but my wife left me after 10 years (I think for another woman). I was with the next woman for 20 years. Again, I was faithful, but she left me, too. Is being faithful overrated? I thought it was the way to secure a relationship.—Failed Relationships

A: It isn’t a surprise that you’d go, “Wait, faithful to the first one, faithful to the next one—must’ve been why these relationships tanked!” This leap you’re making probably comes out of how uncomfortable our minds are with uncertainty (stemming from ambiguous situations, unanswered questions and other mental untidiness). According to research by cognitive neuroscientist Michael Gazzaniga, a mechanism in our brain’s left hemisphere that he calls “the interpreter” steps in to fill in the blanks, to save us from the cognitive chaos by coming up with an explanation. Unfortunately, it’s like the world’s sloppiest detective. It quickly scans for any patterns or vaguely plausible meanings and then just goes with them—creating a narrative that seems to make sense of our experience.

A more productive take would be accepting that relationships end and considering whether there’s anything you might have done better, both in picking partners and in being one.

You might also reconsider the notion that you had “failed relationships.” The reality is, partners change and grow apart. They come to want conflicting things (like a wife perhaps wanting a wife of her own). Or they just get bored with each other. As I see it, a 10- or 20-year relationship is a feat to celebrate—not only making a relationship work for a whole lot of years but refraining from bludgeoning your mate for the horrible, psyche-scraping sounds they make when they chew.

San Anselmo’s Fire

-
1
San Anselmo’s Fire

I grew up in Sebastopol, and until recently barely had a sense of where San Anselmo was, much less what it had to offer. A quick Google search offered little information, with the most prominent news popping up concerning the flooding of the creek cutting alongside the downtown of San Anselmo. The search gave me a little PTSD from the Barlow floods earlier in the week. Rather than rely on some Google algorithm, I decided to resort to my sleuthing skills as I made my way to this Marin county town. Sleuthing? Well, OK, I decided to wander around town until I found something (or someone) interesting. It did not take long.

Shakshuka and a Lucky Table

I was optimistic about finding a breakfast place just by driving down San Anselmo’s main street, but my hunger had taken over decision-making by this point, so I pulled over in front of the first bustling restaurant I saw, a bakery and restaurant meld called M.H. Bread and Butter.

It was already crowded at 9:30 in the morning, with people resorting to sitting at the wooden tables outside, even with the cold weather and the intermittent drizzling. I went up to the cashier to place my order, and asked for his favorite item on the menu.

“Well, how hungry are you?” he asked. Always one for theatrics when food is involved, I replied breathily as if I had just ran there instead of sitting in the car for an hour: “I’m, like, starving!” “OK, you should get the shshski,” he answered confidently.

I simply nodded, trusting him like I had never trusted any waiter’s recommendation before, without a clue to the word he had just muttered. Just then out of the corner of my eye I spotted a couple getting up from their table, and like a crazy person, I sped-walked over to the table they were about to abandon, barely signing my name and adding a coffee to my order. With a sigh of relief at not having, God forbid, to sit outside in the cold, drizzling rain, I examined the menu to decipher what exactly I had gotten for breakfast.

The cashier had actually said shakshuka, a Middle Eastern dish of eggs (I ordered mine poached) over a sauce of tomatoes ($13, plus $5 with the chicken apple sausage). It was amazing. The sauce tasted like a hearty tomato vegetable soup, and the eggs on top were a delicious addition. The coffee was strong, the meal was filling, and I was ready to give up my table to the people in line eyeing my progress.

I was about to leave when the elderly man next to me, maybe in his 80s, complimented the Richard Brautigan book I was reading. “I can always come back to his books,” he said, smiling. Recognizing an opportunity when it falls in my lap, I asked if he was a local and had any suggestions for my day. “Well, when I was younger I would run up to the Seminary school on the hill.” I left the table to the next customers and headed outside.

The San Francisco Theological Seminary

The Seminary school he was referring to is a castle-like Presbyterian graduate school located on a hill in the middle of San Anselmo, built in the 1890s. To me, the architecture resembles a style much older than the 1890s, and with all the barren trees it looked almost a little Gothic. Since it was a Sunday, the grounds were completely deserted, giving the school a haunted-mansion atmosphere. Since the school’s on a hill, you have a striking view of San Anselmo, with the Marin Headlands in the distance.

There are multiple picnic tables and places to sit scattered around the campus, so after exploring the buildings that were open (the university has a much more beautiful exterior than interior), I sat for a while watching the fog sink between the trees in the distance. The drizzling had stopped, and if I hadn’t just eaten, this would have been the perfect lunch spot for a picnic. I could have sat there for a few hours, reading among the rain-sparkling greenery, but I was on a mission!

Jonesin’

San Anselmo Avenue is a great street for lazy meandering on a Sunday afternoon, if only to gaze at all the upscale-oriented clothes and cool home decorations. And for lovers of the printed word, Whyte’s Booksmith sells new and used books at affordable prices in a cozy store that has been open for almost four decades. The inside is decorated with chandeliers and string lights offering a warm and quirky atmosphere, and the titles range from the popular to the obscure.

Just down the street from Whyte’s is a spot I have to credit to the Google search, and that’s the Imagination Park situated downtown. Before you let your imagination run wild, this is not a theme park filled with all things fantastical and crafting materials, as perhaps one might think with such a name. It is, almost equally as cool, an unlikely pairing of heroes situated on either side of a fountain: George Lucas’s Indiana Jones and Yoda. (Lucas is a local, don’t you know.) Yoda looks serenely off into the distance while Indiana looks as swoon-worthy as ever, shirt slightly unbuttoned to reveal those steely chest muscles. Pro tip: if you lean in too far while throwing a penny into the fountain and almost trip in it, play it off by pretending to studiously examine the skull embedded between Indiana’s shoes.

Tibet by Way of San Anselmo

Richard Reuther and his Balinese wife have owned the popular Routes Gallery for 15 years, offering sculptural artifacts from Asia as they also support local artists and craftspeople. For more on Richard, see sidebar.

Why Did I Come on a Sunday?

The hunger now at bay from a filling and wholesome breakfast, I parked downtown and walked to Robson-Harrington House Park. This park was one of my favorite places in San Anselmo. It used to be an estate owned successively by two wealthy families from the 1860s up until 1968, when it was bequeathed to the town of San Anselmo.

Now it’s open to the public, and also offers a community garden farmed exclusively through organic methods. Brick walls decorate the paths, and a large deck with a picnic table overlooks the park from the top of a small hill. There are multiple benches, often situated beneath sweet smelling apple blossoms. The house at the top of the park is generally open for the public, but not on Sundays.

I helped myself to an orange from a tree in the garden, and realized I was beginning to get hungry again, so I walked back into town.

Happy Hour

Richard had recommended Creekside Pizza & Taproom for, well, pizza and beer. American staples! I walked over for a late lunch.

Creekside was fairly empty in the late afternoon. The waitress informed me happy hour was from 4pm to 5pm, with all beer and wine priced at $4 and appetizers getting a few bucks shaved off, so I waited 15 minutes before ordering an East Brother Red IPA and the burrata ($13 happy hour price). The burrata was a delicious mess, served with toast to help scoop up the cheesy goo, with uncured salami and a light salad on the side to help me feel I wasn’t just eating a big glob of cheese for a meal.

The waitress was very friendly, offering samples of each of the four IPAs she recommended, and even bringing over a sample when I mentioned I like stouts as well. While I am not the best critic on beer, I can confidently say, given my limited beer knowledge, the Red IPA tasted like a good Red IPA. The taproom does offer 40 beers on tap, with over 30 from craft breweries, so there is a broad selection to choose from for all the beer fanatics out there.

Always Prepared

Last on my list was a small hike on a trail leading to the top of the San Anselmo hills. This was the perfect length of a hike for me, one-third of a mile each way, my Goldilocks distance: not too short that I felt like I got no exercise and not so long I started to question the appeal of hiking. I had even brought my boots, anticipating muddy paths after being doused in rain. I am so prepared, I thought as I looked in the back seat for the boots. Then underneath the seats to see if they had fallen. Then in my trunk to see if they were hiding there. Then returned to scour the backseats once more.

The trail was beautiful, with tall eucalyptus trees lining the path and wild daffodils sprouting up amid the very, very plentiful, very slippery mud. I had foolishly saved this trail for last, scoffing at a hike that was under a mile taking more than a 30 minutes, and while I reached the top of the hill in time to see some pink wisps decorating the sky above the ocean, the walk back down was quickly becoming more treacherous with the fading daylight. So much for being prepared.

Dinner Time

I arrived for dinner around 7:30 at Cucina, and was seated immediately (eating out solo really does have its perks). The hostess led me to a small room with a long L-shaped couch where I nestled in among the almost overwhelming number of cushions. I had worked up an appetite after that grueling two-thirds of a mile hike, so I naturally ordered way more than I could have eaten: arancini risotto cheese balls with prosciutto ($13), butternut squash ravioli with sage and butter ($18), and the special of the night, salmon with vegetables ($26). Everything was delicious, rich and tasted great as leftovers for lunch the next day, as I savored my San Anselmo visit and sat down to write about it.

I thought about how nice it can be to experience a town from local recommendations, rather than formulating an itinerary from Google searches. If I’d relied solely on Google, I probably would have skipped over this small town prone to flooding. There’s a lot we can lose when we have all the information presented as condensed facts: the kindness of strangers, a small beautiful park . . .

Shoot, did I miss the 116 exit back to Sebastopol? Siri, can you reroute me home?

 

Routes Gallery

Richard Reuther’s Buddha nature revealed

Stepping inside this (deceptively) small shop, I immediately recognize the smell of burning sage as wind chimes sing in the breeze: these are smells and sounds of my childhood. Statues of Buddhas and Hindu sculptures crowd the room, with fountains murmuring in the background. A small cat lazily raises his head, eyes me momentarily, and lowers back onto the chair. The owner of the gallery, Richard Reuther, greets me and offers a warm cup of tea.

The concept of Routes Gallery came together following Reuther’s travels around Asia—the more he traveled, the more he became invested in Hinduism and Buddhism. “I was interested in Asian religion and culture before,” he says, “but when I traveled to Asia, you know, seeing all of the temples and doing some meditation over there myself, affected me in a way that only those kind of experiences can.” He started bringing some of the sculptures home with him.

Reuther travels to Asia every year, sometimes three or more times. He’s developed personal relationships with the far-off artisans he buys from, and sees his gallery not only as a way to do something he loves, but also as a way to help support local craftspeople.

“Part of my mission is to help continue these traditions, because some of these artists who can’t find someone to support their work financially will often be obligated to turn to another profession,” Reuther says. His connection with the artists and artisans inspired the name of his shop. “I got the name from anthropologist James Clifford’s book Routes: Travel & Translation in the Late Twentieth Century. It’s meant to be about the trade routes the goods travel, but also about the roots of where the goods are from.”

Reuther opened the gallery in 2001 after moving to San Anselmo because of the town’s long and rich interactions with art, he says. American impressionist Childe Hassan painted here, as did the so-called Painter of San Francisco, Rinaldo Cuneo.

“I just love the history of the area, you know? I fell in love with the area and wanted to make it my home,” Reuther says, “and I thought the community might be receptive to my store.” It was receptive—and then some.

“All the time, I get people who randomly send letters, saying we appreciate seeing the Buddhas every day. We even have locals who come and bring offerings to the Buddhas. I think people are very open to wanting to understand and learn about different cultures,” Reuther says.

The layout of the Routes Gallery is like a Russian doll, each room opening up to reveal yet another one, except instead of getting smaller the rooms grow and eventually open to a backyard.

“The design of the place is sort of a labyrinth; I wanted to make it a park-like experience,” Reuther says. It is also meant to be representative of the sacred space a temple offers—a “meditation oasis for people to check in with themselves,” as Reuther puts it, while playing a Tibetan singing bowl.

“The peaceful nature of this art reflects the beauty in balance, and I try to create a whole experience when people visit here.” Tibetan prayer flags decorate the deck in the backyard, and bamboo lines the perimeter of the yard, while the sound of huge fountains play surprisingly loudly in the background . . . oh wait, that’s actually the thunderous and very full San Anselmo creek that runs by the store. Enlightenment!—Aiyana Moya

 

 

Whyte’s Booksmith

615 San Anselmo Ave., 415.459.7323

Imagination Park

541 San Anselmo Ave., 415.766.8438

M.H. Bread and Butter

101 San Anselmo Ave., 415.755.4575

Routes Gallery

1508 San Anselmo Ave., 415.482.6199

San Francisco Theological Seminary

105 Seminary Road

Robson-Harrington House

237 Crescent Road, 415.453.1602

Creekside Pizza & Taproom

638 San Anselmo Ave., 415.785.4450

Cucina

510 San Anselmo Ave., 415.454.2942

Dirty Business

-
1
Dirty Business

Two contracting companies that cleared fire debris in the North Bay last year have been defrauding the federal government on contracts across the country since at least 2015, a lawsuit filed in January alleges.

AshBritt Environmental, one of the two companies named in the suit, recently hired local media magnate Darius Anderson to lobby for its interests in Sacramento. Sonoma County recently hired a former employee of the other company, Tetra Tech, to oversee the county’s emergency-management services.

Disaster-recovery players such as Anderson have highlighted, in public statements, the necessity of public-private partnerships to fully recover from the 2017 wildfires. The emphasis on public-private schemes is demonstrable when it comes to Tetra Tech and AshBritt. Both firms have contracts and ongoing business in Sonoma and Marin counties. The new Sonoma emergency-services director, Christopher Godley, held similar posts in Marin County and in San Jose—and, according to his LinkedIn account, still works for Tetra Tech, at a post he’s held since 2014.

Setting that apparent revolving-door riddle aside for the moment, the class-action lawsuit, filed by San Francisco’s Arns Law Firm on behalf of North Bay residents impacted by the companies’ work after the fires, claims the firms intentionally overbilled the federal government on contracts. During the North Bay cleanup, the companies allegedly removed far more soil than necessary and told government agencies that burnt parcels were fully cleared of ash and other toxic materials when they were not.

“The fundamental goal of the enterprise was to maximize the profits of AshBritt and Tetra Tech by over-excavating on subject properties and unnecessarily removing non-debris material without testing for contamination,” the lawsuit states.

The class action lawsuit states that victims of the alleged scheme are “presumed to be in the thousands.”

Sam Singer, a spokesperson for Tetra Tech, recently told the San Francisco Examiner that the lawsuit “has no merit whatsoever.”

A recent press release from AshBritt states that the company only performed work for one of the three North Bay residents named in the lawsuit. ECC Constructors, another debris-removal company working in the area, performed the work on the properties of the other two named North Bay residents, according to the statement.

“This suit is parallel to an earlier, currently active lawsuit in federal court brought by the same law firm and making the same allegations against ECC Constructors and Tetra Tech for the cleanup work in Napa County. AshBritt has already been dismissed from that suit,” the press release states.

In another lawsuit filed in Sonoma County Superior Court last year, the Arns Law Firm alleges that AshBritt and one of its subcontractors committed a number of labor and wage violations during its time working in the North Bay.

 

Previous Criticisms

AshBritt and the other federal contractors were criticized by local officials and residents for their role in the cleanup last year.

The federal government’s 2017 North Bay cleanup cost an average of $280,000 per house compared with $77,000 during the state-managed 2015 Valley fire cleanup, according to an analysis by KQED. AshBritt invoiced the Army Corps for $320 million for its work in California from October 2017 through June of 2018, according to federal records.

“There’s no doubt that this company was following the money,” Sonoma County Supervisor Shirlee Zane said of the company, noting that AshBritt was among other contractors who had re-traumatized fire victims with their on-the-ground activities.

AshBritt invested in California politics late last year in an apparent effort to win more work following the 2018 fire season. It also hired a firm controlled by Anderson, Platinum Advisors, to lobby for its interests in Sacramento. Anderson is the founder of the Rebuild NorthBay Foundation, which has placed itself squarely between the public and the private when it comes to new North Bay disaster-services partnerships.

As it turns out, AshBritt was not among the companies selected to work on the Camp fire in Butte County or the Woolsey dire in Southern California. The company responded to the denial of its proposal by filing complaints that contested both contract awards. AshBritt’s Camp fire complaint was dismissed on March 1, and the Woolsey fire complaint is still under consideration, according to a spokesperson for CalRecycle, the agency managing the debris-removal process.

Tetra Tech, a Pasadena-based consulting and engineering-services company with hundreds of offices around the United States, is a less familiar presence in the North Bay, but its environmental testing subsidiary, Tetra Tech EC, has become known in San Francisco because of allegations of malfeasance during the company’s work at Hunters Point Shipyard, a former Navy base slated for housing development.

Whistleblowers from the company claim the company faked tests of the contaminated soil since the early aughts. Two employees of the company who worked at Hunters Point pled guilty to swapping contaminated dirt for clean dirt and allegedly falsifying test results in 2017.

Both men were sentenced to eight months in jail. On Jan. 14, the DOJ filed a complaint alleging that Tetra Tech submitted at least $58.5 million in false invoices while working at Hunters Point.

In response to a San Francisco Chronicle article about the Department of Justice claims, Singer, Tetra Tech’s spokesperson, said that the misconduct at Hunters Point was isolated to a small number of rogue employees.

“Tetra Tech EC will vigorously defend its record and is confident it will prevail following an impartial and transparent legal and scientific review of the facts,” Singer told the Chronicle.

On Jan. 11, a few days before the Department of Justice’s complaint was filed, Tetra Tech was awarded a $250 million contract for work in Butte County.

 

Toxic Cloud

In the North Bay, Tetra Tech was hired by the county to oversee AshBritt’s work during the environmental cleanup process after the 2017 wildfires, according to the lawsuit.

The suit alleges that the companies marked toxic sites safe prematurely and removed far more soil than was necessary—sometimes digging six-foot deep holes on burned properties—in an effort to increase their profits, the suit charges.

The California Office of Emergency Services (OES) later discovered the mistake, according to a letter the agency’s director, Mark Ghilarducci, sent to the Army Corps of Engineers in August 2018. After reviewing the work of Army contractors, the OES identified 282 over-excavated properties eligible for backfilling in 2018, according to numbers confirmed by the county Office of Recovery and Resiliency.

“After extensive on-site inspections, the issues we have discovered thus far include, but are not limited to, obvious over-scraping of properties, severe damage to driveway and sidewalks, and damage to wells and septic tanks,” the OES letter states. “Additionally, more than a dozen sites that were deemed cleared by the Army Corps of Engineers have recently been discovered to contain contaminated ash and fire debris.”

In March of 2018, the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors awarded Tetra Tech a contract. Under the agreement, Christopher Godley, Tetra Tech’s director of emergency services, was expected to help “assess and redefine the county’s emergency management program” in his role as the county’s interim emergency service manager. Other Tetra Tech employees would help as needed, according to the contract. The contract cost the county $9,560 per week.

In December 2018, the supervisors then hired Godley as the county’s on-staff emergency services manager. Godley previously worked in Marin County in a similar role, and in San Jose. Marin and San Jose have both utilized Tetra Tech services in the past. Marin County’s Department of Public Works signed a $46,767 contract with Tetra Tech in 2016, according to county records. According to a county-by-county 2015 review of Bay Area emergency-preparedness services by the Bay Area Urban Areas Security Initiative, Marin’s emergency services offices have prepositioned emergency-services contracts in place to utilize AshBritt in the event of a local disaster in Marin.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Godley is still employed at Tetra Tech in addition to his job in Sonoma County. But according to County spokeswoman Jennifer Larocque, Godley “is no longer under contract at Tetra Tech,” and adds that when he was employed there, he didn’t work in the company’s debris-removal division. Godley is also a former U.S. Army Major with the Army Corps of Engineers, according to his LinkedIn profile. He did a previous turn as a deputy emergency manager in Sonoma from 1995-2001, when he left for Marin County and became its emergency services manager for about 10 years.

“His 25 years of residence in Sonoma County and prior emergency-management experience make him a valuable asset to our emergency management team,” says Larocque.

Tetra Tech did not respond to requests for comment for this story. Anderson did not respond to an email sent via Platinum Associates, his lobbying firm.

 

Treasure Island

In addition to working on Hunters Point, Tetra Tech EC also tested for radiation on Treasure Island, another former naval base, according to a February report by the San Francisco Chronicle.

Three Tetra Tech EC managers named in the Department of Justice’s fraud accusation about the company’s work on Hunters Point also worked on Treasure Island, according to the Chronicle. Singer told the paper that the Department of Justice’s January filing does not mention Treasure Island.

Anderson has connections to Treasure Island that date back 20 years. Anderson’s development company, Kenwood Investments, has partnered with housing-development giant Lennar Corporation to complete the $5 billion development.

In a statement provided to to the Chronicle, the Treasure Island Development Group (the partnership Anderson is part of) said the group “relies on the public agencies responsible for the cleanup of Treasure Island—including state and federal environmental regulators and the U.S. Navy. Tetra Tech’s work at Treasure Island has been thoroughly reviewed by multiple public agencies and our own experts,” the development group stated. “No corners are being cut at Treasure Island.”

By Will Carruthers. Tom Gogola contributed reporting to this article.

 

Habit Forming

There was a time when Hand Habits was reserved for the bedroom. That’s where guitarist and songwriter Meg Duffy would craft melodic homespun folk songs when not working as a touring musician. “It started with me just writing songs, and it went through a lot of different outfits,” says Duffy. With a rotating cast of collaborators and a slew of...
Read more

Kids Camp Guide

It’s staying light out longer these days, which means that summer is just around the corner, and the kids of Marin will soon be skipping off to camp. Whether your child is an aspiring artist, actor, scientist, sports star or outdoor adventure guide, we’ve got you covered with our handy directory of local camps. So put the kettle on,...
Read more

Hero & Zero

Hero We heard reports of seismic activity emanating from the Marin City Library, but it wasn’t an earthquake; the preeminent Library Journal had recognized branch manager and senior librarian Diana Lopez as an industry mover and shaker. Lopez plays an important leadership role in Marin City, the county’s most racially diverse and economically challenged community. “I love our community,” she told...
Read more

Hero & Zero

Hero We heard reports of seismic activity emanating from the Marin City Library, but it wasn’t an earthquake; the preeminent Library Journal had recognized branch manager and senior librarian Diana Lopez as an industry mover and shaker. Lopez plays an important leadership role in Marin City, the county’s most racially diverse and economically challenged community. “I love our community,” she told...
Read more

Space Force

Expert script-flippage gives texture to the heartfelt female empowerment message in Captain Marvel. It begins as a war-on-terror movie, with an extraterrestrial military gearing up for a mission against the shape-shifting Skrulls, hiding among the locals on a planet that looks like Afghanistan. Later, we arrive at our more current malaise when the film’s true villain starts talking of...
Read more

Horoscope

ARIES (March 21–April 19) The coming weeks might be a good time to acquire a flamethrower. It would come in handy if you felt the urge to go to a beach and incinerate mementoes from an ex-ally. It would also be useful if you wanted to burn stuff that reminds you of who you used to be and don’t...
Read more

Sacred Land

In 1998, big-city community organizer Steve Costa and his wife, Kate Levinson, moved to Point Reyes Station, and in 2002 bought the town’s only bookstore. Though neither had retail experience, they knew bookstores could serve as a catalyst to bring community members together, and Point Reyes Books became entrenched in the community by holding lectures and public discussions in...
Read more

Advice Goddess

Q: I’m a 32-year-old gay man, and my boyfriend of three years sometimes vents to his friends about our relationship. I feel a little betrayed by this—like my privacy’s being violated. Why can’t he figure things out on his own—without bringing in a jury?—Disturbed A: A few years back, a woman with a grudge against my assistant called me to...
Read more

San Anselmo’s Fire

I grew up in Sebastopol, and until recently barely had a sense of where San Anselmo was, much less what it had to offer. A quick Google search offered little information, with the most prominent news popping up concerning the flooding of the creek cutting alongside the downtown of San Anselmo. The search gave me a little PTSD from...
Read more

Dirty Business

Two contracting companies that cleared fire debris in the North Bay last year have been defrauding the federal government on contracts across the country since at least 2015, a lawsuit filed in January alleges. AshBritt Environmental, one of the two companies named in the suit, recently hired local media magnate Darius Anderson to lobby for its interests in Sacramento. Sonoma...
Read more
1...376377378...639Page 377 of 639
3,002FansLike
3,850FollowersFollow
Pacific Sun cover
CURRENT ISSUE & ARCHIVES
Pacific Sun cover
Pacific Sun cover
CURRENT ISSUE & ARCHIVES
Newsletters Subscribe Advertise Contact Us Letter to the Editor Press Release Obituaries Find a Paper Distribute Pacific Sun Vote for Best Of
win free stuff
Features Local News News Upfront
Arts Culture Food & Drink Movies Music Theater
Astrology Columns Editor's Note Letters Opinion Spirit
Arts & Culture Beauty, Health & Wellness Cannabis Everyday Services Family & Pets Home Improvement Recreation Restaurants Romance Shopping
All Upcoming Events Today's Events Submit an Event Promote Your Event

FOLLOW US

Copyright © Weeklys All rights reserved.

OUR PUBLICATIONS

ADVERTISING Advertise Legal Submit an Obituary Legal Notices Fictitious Business Name (FBN) Statements Doing Business As (DBA) Notices Trustee Sale Notices Order to Show Cause for Change of Name

COMPANY INFO Job Opportunities Journalism Awards Privacy Policy

Support Local Journalism