Tucked away between San Anselmo and the San Geronimo Valley along winding Sir Francis Drake Boulevard is a (sometimes) quiet little town of just over 7,300 people with a rich history, passionate citizenry and a unique mix of small-town feel and big-town rebelliousness.
Maybe rebelliousness isn’t quite fair, but Fairfax and its citizens like to do things their own way and in the process have formed a unique community that is unlike many you would typically find in Marin. And most wouldn’t have it any other way.
“We have a cornucopia of riches. We have an active nightlife with music—good music—in multiple venues, for example,” says vice mayor David Weinsoff. “Where else can you raise a child in a place with schools so remarkable and still be only 16 miles from San Francisco and 18 miles from Point Reyes? If that isn’t heaven on earth, I don’t know what is.”
Indeed, music and art seem to play large rolls in the town iconic singer and songwriter Van Morrison called home in the ’70s—his parents even owned a record store in town for many years—and where the psychedelic bands Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead played a famous softball game in the 1960s and groups of young people still hang out and play guitar in the afternoon sun. The town supports its artists as well with an artist-in-residence program that began in 1992 and is now served by Shoshana and Sam Parry. If you are looking for well-known local artists look no further than painter Tim Horn, nationally known novelist Anne Lamott or United States poet laureate Kay Ryan—all of whom call Fairfax home.
Although Fairfaxians such as these have reached out and touched the world with their art, the typical resident seems happiest strolling down Broadway Boulevard—running parallel to Sir Francis Drake Boulevard, Broadway forms the heart of the downtown area—and chatting with other locals.
“If I can work it out in my day to not leave Fairfax, that is a perfect day,” confirms Weinsoff, who works from home. “I don’t even like to go past San Anselmo.”
An environmental lawyer, Weinsoff moved to Fairfax in the mid-’90s after his wife was hired at Ross Elementary School and before prices climbed too high. “At that time, an environmental lawyer and a public school teacher could afford to buy here,” says Weinsoff, adding that the issue of affordable housing is a big one facing Fairfax in the future. “Shouldn’t police, teachers, firefighters and city staff be able to afford to live in town?”
Weinsoff spends a great deal of time working right on his front porch, which borders the undeveloped 99-acre Wall Property, a favorite spot for hikers, and says people are always stopping by to offer opinions on city issues.
“They are not shy about sharing their concerns,” he says with a laugh, adding that citizens attend city council meetings eager to participate. “We have very robust meetings; the council and staff are always very well prepared because the citizens are so well prepared and so involved.”
Many of these opinions likely brew and percolate from discussions held at local coffee shops, bars, eateries and markets, including the Coffee Roastery, Perry’s Delicatessen, Nave’s, 19 Broadway, Peri’s Silver Dollar, Good Earth Natural Foods, the soon-to-reopen Sleeping Lady and BookBeat.
“My store is focused on community. I like it to feel like patrons are coming home to books, coffee and music,” says BookBeat owner and Fairfax resident Gary Kleiman. To that end, Kleiman made the decision early on to change what started out as traditional bookstore into a coffeehouse within a bookstore. That meant fewer books (he reduced shelf space even more by facing all the book covers outward) and more room for people. “It’s a real central place for Fairfax and for community,” Kleiman adds. “And if we don’t have the book you want, I’ll order it; I order books every day here.”
The focus on community, art and music, the small-town feel and the politically focused and engaged citizenry recall an America from a not-too-distant past.
“It’s approximately the same place I moved to in 1975,” says real estate agent and resident Ryan Murphy. “Fairfax is like a ’60s time warp; it’s safe, no parking meters, and it is protected from development.”
Murphy, who currently works for Bradley Real Estate and has the distinction of having represented numerous sellers and buyers in Fairfax over the years, says the market in Fairfax is pretty stable.
“We are fortunate to have not been pummeled too badly; we’ve had little or no foreclosures,” he says, chalking some of that up to the residents themselves. “People here seem to have less of a tendency to own a lot of stuff and get in debt.”
So what is it going to take to get into Fairfax? Buyers can look at one of the 30 to 40 houses usually on the market costing an average of $724,000. On the upper end of the scale expect to find some homes in the million-dollar range and a handful at about $2 million or more.
If you do buy here, be sure to bring a guitar, paints or that novel you have been working on—Fairfax just might be the perfect place to help those creative seeds grow.
