Thanks, Jim
The Marin Magazine feature I enjoy the most is the historical photo inside the back cover (“Looking Back”). I turn to it first every month. Thanks for that — I love learning more about Marin’s past, and Tiburon/Belvedere in particular. JOAN BERGSUND, VIA EMAIL
Don’t Forget the Duke
In the October edition, I enjoyed your special guide to the Mill Valley Film Festival and especially the “On Location” map. I wanted to point out, however, one glaring omission from that piece — Blood Alley. This movie was partially filmed at China Camp (now a state park) in 1955. It is considered the breakout role for John Wayne. And it co-stared Lauren Bacall. The nice thing is you can still see the location today much the way it was in 1955. LARRY ANDOW, SAN RAFAEL, VIA EMAIL
Icon Love
Thanks for adding the symbols denoting what meals are offered by the local restaurants in your Dine section. I’m sure it will be a time saver for both the customer and the restaurant’s reservation staff. JIM DICKSON, VIA EMAIL
Ingredient Inquiry
I was dismayed while reading “Sustainably Sonoma” (October). The article implies that grapes that are sustainably grown will create wine that is healthy for us to drink. This is simplistic and misleading. While I am delighted that more vineyards are embracing healthy growing practices — organic, sustainable and biodynamic — the author only hinted at what really goes into our mouths when we drink a glass of wine. Sometimes as many as 20 chemical additives in addition to grapes and yeast are present, none of which are required to be mentioned on the label due to the power of the wine lobby. My point is that it is not just farming practices that make wine a sustainable product. It also needs to be sustainable for our bodies, and that means the contents of the bottle should be healthy rather than a chemical cocktail, or at the very least we should be supplied with names of the ingredients so that we can make the choice as to what is included in our glass of “wine.” MARK DARLEY, MILL VALLEY, VIA EMAIL
Housing in Marin
Jim Wood, I completely disagree with your commentary (POV, October). I drive on Tamal Vista multiple times a day and the traffic is horrendous. I can’t imagine what it will be like once the units are occupied. And I seriously don’t believe you’ll be seeing Tam Ridge residents strolling down that busy street to do their grocery shopping at Safeway or even Trader Joe’s. It’s a fantasy that’s not going to happen. The residents of the Twin Cities should not be a part of Victor MacFarlane’s “comeback.” GEMMA PLOCKI, VIA EMAIL
Thank you for pointing out all the (obvious to some) positive elements involved in the building of Tam Ridge Residences. We now have so many people commuting for hours to get to their jobs in Marin. The cars of these people are already clogging our roads. How much better it would be if they were living here and able to walk or take a convenient bus to work? The land the apartments are built on is not in the most desirable part of Marin for anything other than the type of housing being built. MARY CONNORS, VIA EMAIL
Jim, thanks for some of the new information about this building. You are absolutely right that this will create a “walkable community.” When the 230 cars parked at the building hit the already gridlocked street, the best alternative will be to walk. JOHN LEVINSOHN, VIA EMAIL
Jim Wood, you think that WinCup “could blend in here and possibly even enhance the livability of Marin County.” This is incomprehensible to me. How could this horrendously ugly and over-scaled monstrosity enhance the livability of a county known for its splendid beauty? WinCup is a travesty, and it is hated by we the people who live here in Corte Madera and we the people in Marin who will pay the price in more ways than one. For starters, we pay with parking issues and increased traffic, ugly colors, cheap design, outlandish scale for the area, deviation from the renderings on MacFarlane’s website, overcrowded schools, increased water usage in a drought, and an overall decreased quality of life for all of us living here. GLORIA GALLO, VIA EMAIL
So you are at it again, Jim, defending the WinCup monstrosity. Of what relevance is all that information about the developer that is in your latest column? What is relevant is the incredible density, ugliness and inappropriateness of this monstrosity. If you like it so much then I’d like for you to move in there and deal with the unbelievable traffic that is inevitable on Tamal Vista Boulevard. You are in a small minority supporting this development. Who cares about the history of MacFarlane? Is he going to live in that mess? No, he lives in penthouses and hangs around with Willie Brown while the rest of us have to look at his crap every day. JACK LIEBERMAN, SAN ANSELMO, VIA EMAIL
Thanks for the update on the Tam Ridge Residences. Like you, I believe it has the possibility to “enhance the livability” of Marin for the same reasons you cite: its density and location near transportation, schools and shopping. So why all the furor? Massiveness? Colors? Drought? Traffic? We must get creatively bold with real long-range visions to upgrade our transportation system for the 21st century — and that will take money. Or we can piddle away our transportation dollars on a little thing here, another there, with our eyes firmly fixed on the mid–20th century. DWAYNE PRICE, LARKSPUR, VIA EMAIL
Jim Wood, that was the worst thing I’ve seen printed on WinCup. That project should never have happened and I have no sympathy for MacFarlane, who took advantage of the city. MARJIE SHANK, VIA EMAIL
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