Segregation casts shadow over Marin

Recently, the Marin IJ published several letters to the editor reacting to an article published Oct. 13 with the headline “Marin segregation worsened in last decade, new UC Berkeley census study finds.” One letter said the study “appears to fan the flames of a problem that doesn’t exist.” The denial of the indisputable facts described in the Berkeley study doesn’t make them go away.

Marinites often describe the county as a liberal community. But actions speak louder than the liberal words many in our county use.

Some homeowners in Marin may not even realize that the deeds to their homes, or at least the deeds held by their previous property owners, may have prohibited sales of their property to certain races and sometimes other groups, prohibitions now illegal but undeniably part of Marin’s history.

More recently, efforts to develop affordable housing in Marin are frequently vehemently opposed. The stated reasons are never racial, but whenever an effort to build such housing fails to win approval, racial and economic segregation is reinforced. The letters blame expensive housing for the segregation described in the Berkeley study, not racism. That’s probably true, at least for the present. But segregation nevertheless sheds a dark shadow over Marin.

There is hope. There are now more groups like the Marin Environmental Housing Collaborative, the Community Land Trust of West Marin and others. There are more residents speaking out for housing justice in Marin. It demands more affordable housing to eliminate the economic and racial segregation that we now experience, as the Berkeley study merely confirms.

— Steven Saxe, Novato