So sad, yet true, thse comments I've been reading about the Marin of today. Sure, there are a lot of really interesting, well educated, forward thinking types in the county these days, but the feeling of "entitlement" among some of our more wealthy, and might I say more recent arrivals, is really sometimes revolting to have to put up with. I was over at the Village the other day for some reason, and I sat down to have a bowl of soup at some little spot over there and ended up listening to these three really obnoxious women in their 30s. Their "chit-chat" was full of banal, petty things, as they spent most of the time "ripping" one of their so called "friends" for her behavior toward them, or talking about what they had just bought at the store. Then they ended up talking about their Mercedes, and their time spent at the spa and the gym. I wondered where these women came from? I guess they were "trophy wives," but my thought was,
"why would any sane man put up with such nonsense!?" On top of that, they spent almost no time supervising several smaller kids, who were running amok and bothering other customers with constant screaming and whining. Finally, one woman sitting across the way went over and literally read them the riot act for not watching out for their kids. I guess they weren't used to taking care of them, as they all probably had Nannies to do the job most of the time. I've never understood the whole "nanny" business anyway. If you're going to have kids, raise them yourself for crying out loud, don't have some other person raise them, unless you have to be at work all the time! I don't think any of these women had worked a day in their lives, and they certainly had the time to watch out for their little ones. That's one of the reasons some kids don't turn out so well! One of the reasons my wife and I love living in Fairfax is that you don't run into too many of these kinds of people. Even the richer folks who have been moving over here in greater numbers in recent years, seem for the most part, pretty down to earth. You wouldn't want to live in a funky, artsy-craftsy town like Fairfax if you needed to impress your friends by taking them to overpriced "chi-chi" or "tony" little shops that seem to be appearing more and more throughout the county, because those kind of places don't seem to exist here in this part of Marin, (thank god!) But I do despair when I see some of the obnoxious, noveau rich who have brought their spoiled attitudes with them to the county and made other people sometimes feel uncomfortable. I saw I guy a few years ago driving a beamer down 101 near Tiburon, and his bumper sticker read: "He who dies with the most toys at the end of the game wins!" That's the kind of selfish, obnoxious person that unfortunately is all too frequently popping up in our county more and more these days. These folks are also the kind of people who that new slick Marin magazine seems catered to. They've got more money than they know what to do with, so a whole bunch of cottage industries have been created to cater to their needs. Everyone has a right to make as much money as they want, but I will just say this: just don't throw your vanity or your entitlement issues in the rest of our faces, please! Anyway, as a longtime and native Marinite, I just hate to see Marin becoming more and more exclusive. But that's the way of our world lately, and I feel for the young people who will be shut out of an opportunity to live in this beautiful place because a "cottage" in Corte Madera costs 800 grand to buy! I guess that's why so many people have moved north to Sonoma County and beyond because they simply can't afford to live here anymore! That's a shame!

I agree with Paula, there are many rude people around Marin now and it does really show by their driving habits. I could go on and on about how some people move up to a big house on a very small road built 100 years ago. They buy the biggest truck possible, a Cadallac Escalade or Ford Expidition, drive it up and down the hill for a year and then figure out that the truck is to big for the area. The main problem is they are sitting so high they can't possibly see what is going on, I meet them on blind turns and they are in the middle of the road, so I am forced to Stop and wait for them to back up and reposition their vehicles so opposing traffic can safely pass. Unfortunately some of these newcommers don't have much sense of where they are, and I have seen them Stop and refuse to get over on their side of the road, requiring others to back up long distances to accomidate their ignorant selves.
Luckily these are tight little roads up in the hills where vehicles can't possibly get up to a high speed, I have lived up here for 27 years and have never been involved in an accident, but I still keep a piece of kiel (lumber crayon) in each vehicle in case someone hits me, I would immediately jump out of the car and mark all the tires of both vehicles and call the police.
Down in town and out on the freeways it's a completely different world, and if you look at the news, there very rude, mean and deadly drivers all over the state. Marin is nothing compared to the shootings and road rage that goes on every day in the greater bay area, people get killed almost every day due to traffic altercations, and Marin is basically immune from all that. The worst thing I have heard about was a Sonoma commuter northbound in Novato road raged and ran another motorist off of 101 and killed him, they were both from Sonoma but the accident happened in the extreme northern end of Marin. I guess the rest of the world has idiots too, even more than Marin does. It's actually not that bad here at all.

And none of this has happened overnight. Recently, I was scanning through some Independent-Journal microfilms at the Civic Center Library, starting with 1960 (trying to track down the date of a fire in downtown Larkspur - so far, no luck). One interesting front-page article I stumbled across concerned a report from the Marin labor council commenting on the disturbing downward trend of union members living - or being able to afford to live - in the county. I forget the figures, but the conclusion was that if the trend continued, middle-class working folk would soon be finding it impossible to do so. Well, we all know how that turned out, looking back from 47 years later.

Blackie made a point that's occurred to me often while reading this and other "how has Marin changed?" threads. It isn't just that Marin has changed, but that the whole world has - the way of life that those of us growing up in small-towns in the 50s knew is pretty much gone. Certainly the specific circumstances of Marin makes the change more dramatic - a desirable place to live, finite area in which to do so, consequently supply-and-demand pressures make it more expensive - but there's no denying that things just don't work the way they used to, period.

Of course, there's wiggle room here - as has been pointed out, some places haven't changed as dramatically. Nicasio, for example, today still looks closer to its 50s incarnation than most of central Marin does to its. But that's largely the physical aspect, not so much the social or cultural. Take Larkspur - cut down the trees, and downtown still looks remarkably unchanged. But in all other aspects, the town is totally different from the one I grew up in.

Marin is very diverse with it's little areas all with cheifs, inspectors, captains and directors for very small areas, and each juristiction does things differently. Now we have areas in the north (Novato) that were never even really considered as Marin in the old days, they allow rampant tracts, condos and congestion while relying on Sonoma for water, and they have to ration as they continue to approve more developement every day. That is not the Marin I know, it is much more like Sonoma County.
West Marin is still pretty much unspoiled and is the same as when I grew up there in the 60's.
Southern Marin is still beautiful as ever but has been built out down in the flats, so I don't spend much time down in places that I don't like, there are still wonderful areas up in the higher elevations that will never be destryed. In Mill Valley they want to add a bunch of condo/apartments down in the business district. I feel sorry for anyone who would get duped into living down there, but I can easily avoid looking at it by not driving down Miller Ave., the same with the freeway, I say let the Sonoma commuters have at it, I don't need it.
I personally know and have worked on most every house on my street for the last 27 years.It must be much different down the hill but up here, it is a great, quiet, peaceful, healthy and perfect place to live, even though they are now building 2 new houses on the street, we have only allowed 5 in the last 27 years. I really can't complain.

Here's a story that illustrates what Corte Madera has become. My mom lived in East Corte Madera for 40 years. She fell and hurt herself at home and so I recently had to move her to an assisted living facility. I hadn't spent any serious time back in her old neighborhood for many many years. But, in order to clean out her place l, I had the misfortune of having to spend alot of time there this past spring and summer.

I say 'misfortune" because the change in the neighborhood was very distressing. The neighbors living around mom's house are all from the New Marin School of Thought. Otherwise known as me, myself and I. Here's why:

I needed to rent a dumpster to deal with some of mom's stuff. Well, guess what? That's right. Mom's newcomer neighbors, most of whom had spent in the low 1 millions for the surrounding homes, would sneak over under cover of darkness and throw their garbage and construction waste, old carpeting etc in my dumpster.

Here was my mom, an elderly woman living there, it was obvious that there were changes going on in her house and it was obvious she had been in that neighborhood a very long time. Obviously, if these people hadn't had their heads you know where, they would have noticed that possibly something had happened to her. Sometimes one of them would come by while I was working there, but only to try to pry into my intentions for mom's house. --was I selling and how much for? You see, for the new Marin resident, property is never about people, the humans living their lives inside. Naw, it's all about M_0_N_E_Y and making more of it. Yeah, in the olden days, neighbors might have stopped by with a home cooked meal for me, or they'd inquire about my mother, maybe offer to send her a get well card etc...Not these new neighbors. And so dumb these people were --or so cavalier--not sure which--they would go ahead and leave their junk mail in the garbage they were dumping with their full names and house numbers --so I could see exactly which neighbors were responsible.

Translation: I could care less about what has happened to this old woman who has lived in this neighborhood for so long. FREE DUMPSTER SPACE! Yes ! now I can spend more money on my granite, my Toto toilets, my faux paint jobs and my new Mercedes SUV that never leaves the paved road.

I think Marin has really changed both philosophically and demographically. Families have really changed. In the 60's the average size of the young families was probaby 4-5 kids. I was one of 7 and right around the corner was a family of 11. Today, most families have from one or two kids. Three kids is not unusual but since most Moms work nowadays.. more than that seems nearly impossible.

Almost everyone had two parents living with them. The Moms seemed always to be home when the kids got home from school and Dad was working hard to provide for those big families.

Less families attend religious services today than in the 60's. Growing up the churches were always full... today they are full on Christmas and Easter.

There's a lot more money in Marin these days than when I was a kid. I'm not quite sure the kids today are as happy-go-lucky as when I was a kid. I loved growing up in marin.

Funny, as a kid, my brother and I had friends who lived in East Corte Madera, (even in the house I live in now!), and I was kind of envious of them. I lived on a hill in Larkspur with no sidewalks, so I wasn't allowed to play out on the street. My friends over in ECM could run around the streets all day, and it was FLAT!

Blue collar? Yup, I hear what you're saying. My father was a water meter repairman, and my mom did part time real estate. Everyone we knew were either in retail, retired military, auto mechanics, small, local business owners, etc.
and were homeowners. We didn't have pool people, or housecleaners, or gardeners. The kids pulled weeds and cleaned the pool and did many of the household chores. Imagine that!!

Anonymous wrote:

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I don't think kids growing up here now will say that when they are "our" age..know why? Because they don't have drive-in movie theaters, good burger joints, they don't slide down hills on cardboard or play hide-and-seek on warm summer nights, they don't play ball in the street (probably get run over now), or climb trees - they are all stuffed in their rooms doing hours and hours of homework OR glued to their video games and computers OR hanging on the street corners being "bored".

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I hear what you're saying however it is all relative. I grew up in Marin during the 80s, so we were lacking drive-ins, soda fountains, and all the other good stuff your generation had. I vividly recall people saying the same thing about my group of classmates - that our video games and TV were keeping us from experiencing a real childhood, but in i have such wonderful memories of growing up here.

It's totally changed. I grew up here in San Rafael. I am tired of the snobby adult attitudes, the bratty and entitled Marin kids and teenagers (we were never like that when we grew up - there was respect built into our daily lives at home and at school). I just don't get how this all happened and it's so sad.

I still love a lot of things about Marin but it's not like it used to be. Too much traffic, congestion, higher downtown structures in San Rafael replacing older businesses. Small town feel is pretty much gone. Despite what people say, it's not the most beautiful place on earth either. I sort of get tired of hearing people say "we live in the most beautiful place on earth and we are so privledged, wealthy and educated". Makes me crazy when I hear that or read that in the paper. A beautiful place on earth is anywhere you make it. Go to any other town in the US and most likely the people will say "I live in the most beautiful place in the U.S.". My friends in North Carolina think they live in the most beautiful place and so do my friends in Boston, Maryland, Seattle, Denver, Florida, Virginia and Michigan.

It's all how you look at things but people in Marin are so caught up in something that I don't get and I am frustrated trying to figure out how this place got so snobby. I went away to college and came back 10 years later and it was totally changed. That was between 1975 and 1985. I don't like dwelling on the past but it sure was a lot more fun back in the 60's and 70's here. I have visited other towns in the U.S. that have that old small town (but not hick) feel and attitude so somewhere along the way, Marin got a good dose of snobbery and it's too bad.

So you may ask why I am still stuck here. We are making our way out soon to the foothills of California to buy some land near Nevada City. Closer to what I think is the most beautiful place - Lake Tahoe. Marin doesn't even come close to the beauty and atmosphere of the high country, the Sierra Nevada and Lake Tahoe itself - just a few breaths of that mountain air put you in a different mental space. Plus less taxes, less house payment, less traffic and some peace and quiet for a change.

I think Marin back in the 60's and 70's had more working class people, you know, folks who drove trucks for a living, were teachers, grew up in The City and moved her to raise families, etc. Now, the population seems made up much more of folks with high-paying professions and lots of people from the East Coast.

One thing I find in common with "newcomers", as you say, is that they seem to love Marin as much as I do and as much as we did growing up. I do find a special bond with others who have grown up here, though they are few and far between!