This issue gets off to—warning, pun ahead—a rocky start with a look at the controversy over the San Rafael Rock Quarry. This nearly 80-year-old big dig on Point San Pedro Road provides the stone that keeps California’s levee system intact, but neighbors say they’ve had enough of the noise and dust. We delve into the quandary.
One local institution over which there is no dispute is the Mill Valley Film Festival, which turns 30 this year. Founder Mark Fishkin talks with Bonnie Monte about how he turned his simple desire to show some good movies to locals into one of the nation’s premier film events.
We were feeling un petit peu français as we put this month’s magazine together, so we have two wonderful stories about France. Pat Woeber journeys to the Loire Valley and in words and images takes us on a tour of the royal châteaux between Orleans and Tours. The French-Marin connection continues as P. J. Bremier introduces us to Matthew Le Merle and Alison Davis, a Tiburon couple whose second home is a 15th-century château an hour north of Paris.
We love bringing you stories about the people of Marin, some well known, others less so. In Conversation, we talk with county Supervisor Charles McGlashan about growth, the environment and other issues. Dialogue converses with Judi Shils, director of Search for the Cause (our FYI Health department focuses on October as breast cancer awareness month). We meet Mill Valley activist Judy Kimmel, who’s pushing for creation of a U.S. Department of Peace. And San Rafael writer Dawn Yun, leader of the Writing Mamas salon, tells us about her frustrating—and scary—search for a doctor who could diagnose and treat her rare disease.
Also in this issue, Erika Lenkert tastes the small and large plates at E&O Trading Co. in Larkspur Landing, Bruce Raskin finds fly-fishing to be a lifelong challenge, we rediscover Olema in Microclimates, and Tim Porter explores the Headlands Institute in Fort Cronkhite.
As always, our wish is for your good reading. Enjoy Marin Magazine, as we continue to celebrate this
extraordinary place!
Lisa Shanower, Publisher
Nikki Wood, Editorial Director
Jim Wood, Executive Editor