SMART needs to satisfy multiuse path promise in Novato

When we start something, our goal should be to finish the job.

Marin County has long planned a multiuse path from North Novato to Sausalito. Called the NorthSouth Greenway, the paved two-way trail will either follow abandoned portions of the old Northwestern Pacific Railroad or is sited adjacent to the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit tracks from Larkspur to Novato.

The vision was boosted in 2008 when Marin and Sonoma voters approved Measure Q, the one-quarter cent sales tax funding the commuter train and a parallel bike/pedestrian trail. Portions of the Greenway are complete, but substantial gaps remain unfilled.

The Mill Valley-to-Sausalito segment near Richardson Bay is hugely popular. Combined with the Tiburon Peninsula’s

bayside path, to which it will soon be linked, this portion of the Greenway is a recreational and mobility amenity of which Southern Marin is justly proud.

Mid-Marin has its own finished Greenway segment from Puerto Suello Hill through Central Rafael and the Cal Park Hill tunnel to the Larkspur Ferry.

Left out in the cold is North Marin. Why southern and middle Marin should benefit from the proposed multiuse pathway without a similar completed segment in Novato is a mystery.

I recently walked and drove the length of the Greenway viewing components finished and those stuck in the “someday” stage. There are two gaps that need to be bridged now. The first links Central Novato to Hamilton. The second, behind Trader Joe’s market in Corte Madera joining the Greenway to the Sandra Marker Trail, will be reviewed in a future column.

An uninterrupted pathway from Hamilton through eastern Novato along the SMART tracks will provide North Marin with an amenity equal to what Southern Marin already enjoys.

It’ll benefit cyclists, walkers and joggers. It’s done by adding links from SMART’s Hamilton Station to Ignacio and from Hannah Ranch Road to Novato Community Hospital.

The rest is built but underutilized as the disjointed segments are virtually paths to nowhere.

Now SMART needs to deliver Measure Q’s promise. It can do so by diverting some of the $57 million it prudently husbanded due to curtailed service during the pandemic. As much of the Hamilton-Central Novato route is part of the Bay Trail envisioned to surround the bay, there’s also regional funding to be tapped.

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If you can’t go to City Hall, sometimes City Hall comes to you. That’s what Kate Colin,

San Rafael’s new mayor, is doing with her Downtown Walkabouts.

I joined Colin last week, the eighth of her jaunts visiting businesses around Irwin and Lincoln.

It’s an industrial area which is a “destination” rather than where folks stroll, like downtown. The neighborhood is loaded with unique shops including one of the Bay Area’s last full-service piano stores complete with an old-world workshop.

As the mayor recalled, “Every time I’ve gone out I get a gem or two that helps inform how San Rafael can support our businesses in the near, medium and long-term.” Here’s her drill: She enters a business, introduces herself and speaks with the owner/manager. Most do a double take when they learn it’s the mayor, not a random city inspector.

Those we met recounted a mixed economic bag during the pandemic though business is finally rebounding. Colin didn’t avoid the occasional jab including a complaint that Mission

City wasn’t sufficiently businessfriendly.

Her walkabouts are a proven strategy to learn what’s happening outside of official channels. It communicates City Hall’s openness to complaints, comments and resident-driven suggestions.

The meet-and-greets have the same intent as Corte Madera Mayor Eli Beckman’s zoomed Community Chats with town department heads and Tiburon Mayor Holli Thier’s weekly “Coffee with the Mayor.”

They represent a small-town benefit where residents regularly meet one-on-one with elected leaders. It’s a practice county supervisors should mimic.