By Godfrey Lee

Twenty-two members of the Performing Stars youth and staff took a Civil Rights Social Justice trip to visit Montgomery and other parts of Alabama from Aug. 14-18. They returned on Friday, Aug.19.

Performing Stars previously traveled to Montgomery in 2018. On this trip, they met the city’s first Black mayor, Steven Reed. They also visited the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, the National Voting Rights Museum, the Rosa Parks Museum, Tuskegee University, and Alabama State University.

The trip, a part of Performing Star’s Civic Education Program, focuses on leadership development to better understand how former civil rights leaders fought for freedom, voting equality and prepared the next generation to carry on the important work that is needed in the Marin City community.

Fourteen young people in the group were involved with the Social Justice Youth Initiative, formed in 2018 by Performing Stars, and performed various duties and activities for several years, such as community outreach, voter registration, service learning, food distribution, office administration, and archiving Marin City history.

“We want them to come out and be the new social justice leaders,” Performing Stars CEO Felecia Gaston told Giuseppe Ricapito of the Marin IJ. “What better way to do that than where it all began.”

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ABC7 KGO-TV anchor Kumasi Aaron interviewed Gaston before the group went on the trip, and asked about The Performing Stars Social Justice Youth Initiative program, and the Civil Rights Educational Tour.

Gaston said Civil Rights Education has always been important. “In the light of what is going on in our country at this point, we need to educate our young people so they will become the new social activists,” she said.

And going to Alabama is to go where the action took place, where history was made in 1963 when Birmingham firemen hosed down Black protesters and sicced dogs on them.

The Performing Stars, familiar with the real foundation, felt encouraged and excited to now be able to reach more young people in the community about voting and why it is important to vote.

They documented their trip with photographs and videos and will edit their photos and videos and feature them on the local stations here and social media upon their return.

“They will be the up-and-coming journalists,” Gaston said.

This educational tour was sponsored by the TomKat Foundation.  Contributing supporters included the Marin County Board of Supervisors, and the Marin County Probation Department.

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Plans are being made for the 65-year anniversary of the Marin City Community Service District. Photos are needed of all past board members, living or deceased, for the program. If you are a past board member or have any photographs of deceased MCCSD board members, please email a digital copy of the photographs to office@marincitycsd.com.

You can also bring your original photographs to the MCCSD office to be scanned.

Thank you for your help with this important event. Please save the date, Sept. 23, 2023 for the big celebration. Information about additional upcoming 65th anniversary events will be forthcoming.

For more information, please call (415) 332-1441 or email: office@marincitycsd.com

San Rafael, CA – The State of California has approved the County of Marin’s plan to meet housing needs through 2032 and comply with state housing policies.

The California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) notified the County on June 19 that updates to its submitted long-range plan, known as the Housing Element, were in “substantial compliance” with state law.

The Board of Supervisors reviewed and adopted the eight-year plan on January 24, and the County’s Community Development Agency (CDA) subsequently submitted it to HCD for review. In March, HCD sent a request for additional information needed for state final certification.

This spring, CDA responded with more details on affirmatively furthering fair housing measures that were presented in the adopted Housing Element, such as increasing efforts to expand housing options in high-resource neighborhoods and place-based planning and investment in lower-resources areas such as the unincorporated neighborhoods of Santa Venetia, Marin City, and portions of West Marin. For example, the state wanted to see specific information on strategies for community revitalization, improvements to neighborhood infrastructure, and reduction of risks of displacement for low-income renters.

A state-approved Housing Element – part of the Countywide Plan – is required by law by all municipalities. Marin’s Housing Element only affects housing considerations for the county’s unincorporated areas for 2023-2032. Each city and town develops its own Housing Element.

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CDA Director Sarah Jones said that with HCD’s stamp of approval on the Board’s adopted Housing Element, the agency can now turn its attention to implementation.

The Housing Element update addresses the Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA). For 2023-2032, the County was directed to plan for at least 3,569 new units in unincorporated areas. Within that total, at least 1,734 must be designated as affordable to lower-income households, at least 512 for moderate-income households, and at least 1,323 for above-moderate-income households.

The County is devising ways to accommodate housing needs in one of the most expensive housing markets in the United States. Many older adults and Marin’s workforce are struggling to pay rent and mortgage payments, causing a housing affordability and employment recruiting crisis. The response will require a shift from single-family detached homes toward development of attached units and townhomes, a point that was consistent with public outreach feedback. Today, more than 80% of Marin homes are single-family detached buildings, limiting housing options and escalating costs.