City Council resolves to act against racism

The Sausalito City Council has adopted a resolution in support of the Black Lives Matter movement aimed at condemning systemic racism and promoting racial equity.

The resolution, approved in a unanimous vote Tuesday, passed with amendments by Councilman Tom Reilly to include mention of Marin City. The resolution seeks to foster trust between the two communities by calling for affordable housing through a land trust, inviting Marin City residents to join committees and ensuring that the desegregation of the Sausalito Marin City School District is successful.

“This is not a quarterly report. This is a five- to 10-year process,” Mayor Susan Cleveland-Knowles said. “It’s very important to acknowledge these issues that we’re talking about now that have become entrenched over hundreds of years. That will take a deep commitment on many years to begin to address them.

“Overall, I think this is a long-term plan, but we need to take some actions now,” she said.

Sausalito is 92% white, 3.5% Asian, 1.5% Black and 3% other ethnic groups, according to a city staff report that draws on 2010 census data. Marin City is about 40% Black, according to the report.

“Marin County has the highest level of racial and ethnic inequities of all counties in California, according to a 2017 report by the Advancement Project California,” City Clerk Heidi Scoble said during a presentation at the meeting.

Dozens of residents from Sausalito and Marin City called into the council meeting, which was held by teleconference because of the coronavirus outbreak. Some shared their gratitude, while others said they were dissatisfied with the city’s actions, saying city leaders have been apathetic about social justice and diversity.

Critics pointed to an amicus brief that the city filed in support of Willow Creek Academy’s motion challenging the state attorney general’s call for the desegregation in the Sausalito Marin City School District. It asked the court to make the investigation public so stakeholders could weigh in on the allegation that the district board deliberately diverted staff and resources to Willow Creek Academy, a predominately white charter school, while depriving those resources from Bayside Martin Luther King Jr. Academy, which predominantly serves students of color in Marin City.

The district and the Attorney General’s Office reached a settlement last year to unify the schools within five years.

“I must say that I’ve been deeply disappointed by City Council’s response to school

segregation over the past year,” said Kirsten Thomas, a Sausalito resident. “Your amicus brief in December supported setting aside the judgment with the rationale that is rooted in your white property values and white real estate interests.”

Thomas added that diversity training is not enough, and that the city should do a deep introspection on anti-racism, racial justice and the legacy of housing redlining in Marin.

During World War II, many workers moved to Sausalito to work on the shipyards, but Black workers were faced with unfair union practices and housing discrimination, said Christine Durbin, a Sausalito

resident.

“While their white counterparts were given an easy path to job training and home ownership and then went on to rebuild their lives postwar and amass wealth, these opportunities were denied to African Americans,” Durbin said. “The consequences of just this chapter of racism are overtly evident in the stark disparities in income and housing between whites and blacks right here today. There is an indisputable case for reparations.”

She added the city should pressure the county to adopt the residents’ vision of the Golden Gate Village public housing rehabilitation plan. The 293home public housing complex was built in 1960 to house Black residents because housing covenants restricted Black people from buying property anywhere else in Marin. The county has entered into a two-year master planning agreement with New Jersey-based Michaels Development Co. for $75,000.

Jacqueline Kudler, a Sausalito resident, is one of many who suggested the city establish a community land trust in Golden Gate Village.

“The only Black community in Marin County will disappear if it’s turned over to a private developer, because that’s exactly what’s happened in every city where that’s happened all over the country,” Kudler said. “The community that goes back 50 years in Golden Gate Village will lose their homes and have to find homes elsewhere, which in Marin County is pretty impossible.”

Other suggestions included adding more pedestrian walkways to and from Marin City, improving the public transit system, creating more light industry in the Marinship area to hire people in Marin City and finding areas in Sausalito to develop affordable housing.

Speakers also called for the disincorporation of Sausalito and the incorporation of Marin City, defunding the police department, creating a racial justice task force and asking Sausalito to support Marin City at the county level.

Council members said they agreed with many of the suggestions and comments.

“We need to have a specific conversation between the city of Sausalito and Marin County about our ways we can collaborate and support Marin City,” Vice Mayor Ray Withy said.