Will Success Ruin Marin City? - San Francisco Chronicle - Oct 8, 1995 by Jim Doyle

Will Success Ruin Marin City?
Marin County's only predominantly African American community is torn between hopes that a new shopping center, apartments and condos will bring an economic boom and fears that local residents will continue to be left out
Jim Doyle, Chronicle Staff Writer

Sunday, October 8, 1995


Hayden's Market has sat across from Marin City's housing project since 1962. For decades the young and old have met outside the community's only general store to shoot the breeze, play cards and toss back a cool drink.

Dozens of snapshots of residents are tacked behind the counter, and Nita Hayden-Samuels, who manages the store for her ailing mother, greets her customers by their first names.

``I know everybody,'' she said, ``from the babies to the grandmothers.''

Hayden-Samuels' father came here from New Orleans during World War II to work at the Sausalito shipyards. After the war, he and other African Americans settled in this sleepy valley on the edge of Richardson Bay.

Now, this southern Marin town is on the verge of a major overhaul. Developers have broken ground on a $100 million project that could transform this impoverished community into a bustling, middle-class town. And Hayden's Market will be torn down.

Project blueprints call for 186,000 square feet of retail space and hundreds of townhouses and apartments. Developers plan to build condominiums where the market now sits and to construct a shopping center on nearby vacant land that served as the site of Marin City's popular weekend flea market. The flea market was closed recently to make room for the development.

Some townspeople say the 45- acre Marin City USA development is not just a face-lift, but a chance for this community to heal its wounds after decades of isolation and poverty. They say it will bring fresh ideas, capital, jobs, housing -- and integration -- to a community that is now made up predominantly of African Americans.

Marin City is expected to swell by about 1,000 residents, bolstering the population of this valley to near World War II levels, when thousands of shipyard workers of all races lived there in government housing. Today, about 2,500 people live within Marin City's 365 acres -- minutes from the Golden Gate Bridge.

But the development faces a lot of skepticism from residents, some of whom accuse Marin City officials of having sold out the community's interests, land and potential profits to outsiders. Others say the new shopping mall and residential village may create an even greater rift between the haves and have-nots.

``The developers are going to reap the benefits of this project, not the residents of Marin City,'' said Royce McLemore, a board member of Marin City's Community Services District, which oversees the flea market and other local programs. ``We've already been sold down the river.''

Hayden-Samuels has mixed feelings about the project.

``I'm happy that they're going to do something here. I think it's time,'' she said. ``But I'm a little concerned, too. This area is going to be condos. I don't know who's going to be able to buy them. And I wonder about the impact on public housing.''

She also accuses the developers of treating her unfairly.

``I have been sitting here for 34 years, waiting for development,'' she said. ``This was supposed to be a temporary location. I'm still waiting to be part of the new center . . . I am very bitter. (The developers) are evicting me. They are denying me my livelihood.''

The developers, which include the San Francisco-based Martin Group, insist they have no obligation to provide space in the new shopping center to Hayden's Market or other existing businesses. Mami Jammers, a nearby Jamaican hamburger stand, is also slated for demolition to make way for the new mall.

The developers say they stand ready to provide union jobs in the construction trades and hundreds of other retail jobs to qualified local residents. Their shopping center tenants have agreed to turn first to the community to fill jobs. And contracts also may be available to community businesses to provide landscape, maintenance and private security services.

``Out of this development, Marin City residents will have an opportunity that may never come again,'' Melvin Atkins, a community organizer for Marin City Project, said at a recent community meeting. ``You'll either be part of the change, or you'll sit back and let it go by.''

In recent months, social workers have scrambled to reach out to men and women in the public housing projects and persuade them to enroll in job training programs. ``We really want to prepare people for the work site and the work that's coming,'' said Connie Page, an employment training coordinator.

The retail center will be geared toward ``affordable'' shopping. Some 92 percent of the commercial space has been pre-leased -- with major tenants to include Food For Less, Longs Drugs, Ross stores and Blockbuster Video. The first stores are slated to open next summer.

``It's not going to be a sea of concrete,'' said Al Fleming, executive director of the nonprofit Marin City Development Corp., one of the developers. He said the shopping mall will be ``softened'' by archways and kiosks on the wings of some buildings.

The plans call for 85 townhouses and 255 apartments, with about 40 percent to be sold or rented at below-market rates. The developers also have agreed to build a child-care facility. And they have promised to provide rent-free space to a few African American- owned enterprises in the new retail mall's ``Business Incubator Center'' -- shops that are currently operating in Marin City's enterprise zone.

Some people say Marin City has suffered from decades of benign neglect. Others simply call it racism. While much of the county along the Highway 101 corridor mushroomed with new homes and shopping centers, Marin City withered.

``For decades, we have had no input, nothing coming in to this community,'' said Rev. Fred Small of the Church of God. ``And that has permitted the community to die to a certain extent. And people have gotten complacent. . . . We don't want to be isolated but to be part of the flow, with our community having something to contribute, like Corte Madera or Sausalito.''

Marin City was originally built in the early 1940s to house the welders, fitters and others who churned out liberty and transport ships. After the war, Marin City became an enclave of African Americans -- a homey place blessed with views of Richardson Bay.

``I was a kid when they built Marin City,'' said Betty Times, a project administrator for Marin City Project, which runs job training and other social programs. ``My family moved here from Louisiana in 1944. This is a great place to grow up. We had lots of trees where we lived and treehouses. We used to hike up in the hills and slide down the hills in cardboard boxes.''

Marin City today is an unincorporated town with 28 apartment buildings run by the Marin County Housing Authority. About 700 people live in the public housing projects, roughly 95 percent of whom are African American. Homeowners and apartment dwellers also reside on Marin City's nearby lowlands, as well as on surrounding ridgetops.

``We've had a couple of generations of people grow up here without any amenities,'' Times said. There's no gas station, no sports bar and no retail chains. Many residents go to Sausalito or elsewhere to shop.

``I think the community will change with this development because it will become more integrated,'' she said. ``I think it's healthy. It's a healthier community when we have differences.'' In recent years, a building boom has transformed Marin City's surrounding ridges into clusters of condos and apartments. The new hill-dwellers are predominantly white, with a sprinkling of minorities.

``I think (the development) will improve the looks of the area, and there's always a need for affordable housing,'' said Helga Caughey, who lives in a ridgetop condo. ``The shopping will be great. There's a lot of shopping (nearby) at the high end, but not affordable shopping. And it should improve property values.''

A group of Marin City senior citizens also said they look forward to the new shopping center, especially those who can no longer drive. ``I've got glaucoma and I hope I don't go blind before it happens,'' said Mary DeWitty. ``I want to see it in my lifetime and maybe shop in some of the stores.''

Crack cocaine overtook Marin City in the 1980s, and these days there's plenty of heroin, too. Many families in this community have been hurt by drugs. Many young people have been sent to prison, and grandparents have had to step in and raise their grandchildren.

Day and night, young men and women hang out on the street in front of what is called ``the 200 Building'' on Drake Avenue in the public housing complex.

``These kids have nothing to do,'' said drug counselor Tommy Wright. ``So a lot of them turn to illegal drugs. A lot of kids give up. They say, `I'm black. What's the use?' ''

But social workers say Marin City is not as distressed as the worst housing projects in San Francisco or Oakland. They say there is hope. The community isn't overrun with graffiti, vandalism or violence.

There are, however, occasional outbursts.

In mid-July, in broad daylight, a fight broke out between two teenagers on Drake Avenue. A 16- year-old brandished a revolver, but accidently shot himself in the knee and foot. Some residents said that was justice. But they also voiced concern that the incident took place in front of young children.

At a subsequent community meeting, a group of residents asked Marin County sheriff's deputies to drive out people who loiter and deal drugs near their homes; others accused deputies of harassing them and demanded that the police abandon their neighborhood patrols.

``I grew up in this community. I used drugs in this community,'' said Ron Cook, a counselor and former drug addict. ``The whole community is in recovery . . . We have second-generation drug dealers in this community. So we have to wake up this community.''

A few residents have taken a get-tough attitude, using weapons to threaten dealers away from their doorsteps. In 1993, the police formed a drug enforcement squad that works full-time in the public housing complex. The Housing Authority also has cracked down: If you're caught with drugs in your home, you get kicked out of public housing.

Residents are bitter about Marin City's negative image.

``We can't get our pizza delivered here, day or night,'' said James Teal. ``If we order pizza, we have to go to either the bus stop or police station to pick it up. They don't want to come here, because it's Marin City.''

Teal and others contend that people have a bad impression of Marin City because there's rarely anything positive about the community in the media.

Police statistics show a higher crime rate in Marin City than most other parts of the county. ``Most of the arrests we do make are for drug-related crimes, primarily for being under the influence,'' said Lieutenant Jim Riddell of the sheriff's department substation in Marin City.

``It's not all drugs and violence here,'' said Ida Times, who owns a local music shop. ``This is a family community where people look out for each other's children. There are all kinds of positive things going on in this community.''

A senior center offers a full slate of activities, ranging from field trips to support groups for grandparents. A community garden boasts zucchini and tomatoes. The local elementary school runs a summer camp for kids. A group called Women Helping All People provides clothing and household goods to needy residents. And the local recreation hall features Wednesday night basketball games for young men.

More than 1,000 flyers were sent this summer to Marin City homes, inviting residents to attend town meetings about the development project. Only a few dozen people showed up. But community organizers have vowed to step up their recruiting efforts.

``We're going to be dealing with people door-to-door,'' said Donald Jones, a tenant coordinator. ``We are taking that extra step for them.''

Still, many residents remain skeptical, having endured previous disappointments about various Marin City development projects, including a 300-room hotel complex that fell through in the 1980s.

``It's like the little boy who cried wolf all the time. Now that it's real, (people) don't want to believe,'' said Derek Morgan, who works at Marin City's recreation center.

CSD board member McLemore and others say that only a few Marin City residents will find good jobs at the shopping mall and that the new housing units are not being built for locals, but for outsiders. They also lament the closing of Marin City's flea market, which has put hundreds of thousands of dollars each year into Marin City's coffers. They say the flea market's demise will result in insufficient funds to pay for community recreation and maintenance programs and that it would have been wiser, and less expensive, to have spruced up the flea market and added shops to its perimeter. Residents fear that the development revenues will not match their previous flea market earnings.

Critics also say the new shopping mall and housing units may create problems for Marin City. They foresee confrontations between drug dealers and retail stores as well as between residents with a steady paycheck and those without one.

Fleming, the black executive who orchestrated the Marin City USA development project, said that local social workers have been ``busting their necks'' to sign people up for job-training programs.

``Over the next few months, we'll probably get 20 to 40 people hired. And then, when framing and carpentry starts, we'll get more,'' he said, adding that jobs in retail stores will become available once the shopping mall opens next year.

Fleming insists that the new town houses will be affordable: a three-bedroom town house will cost between $95,000 and $123,000. He also says that renters' low rates will remain affordable: a new 3-bedroom apartment will go for as low as $544 a month.

The Marin City Community Development Corp. will decide who is qualified for the units priced at below-market rates, with preferences to be given to community residents. A lottery will be held to choose among the final candidates.

Fleming says the development project would be ``unfeasible'' if the developers tried to replace all the revenue that was previously generated by the flea market. He argues that it is the job of the Community Services District to do ``better planning and budgeting'' to maintain local programs.

He insists that the development profits will be equitably divided. Fifty percent of project revenues will go to the developers; 50 percent to the nonprofit Marin Land Company; and $200,000 a year is earmarked for community programs.

According to the plans, the Martin Group -- a private developer -- will build the retail mall; the Bridge Housing Corp. of San Francisco, a nonprofit development agency, will construct the housing units. The Martin Group has a 99- year land lease for the site on which the shopping center and apartment units will be situated.

The developers have already spent $8 million to improve the Sausalito/Marin City interchange off Highway 101, and they plan to spend $400,000 to remodel the fire and police substations in Marin City.

Fleming chalks up all the criticism to fear of change.

``A lot of people fear it because, for the past 40 years, nothing has happened,'' he said. ``There's a fear that we're going to come in and bulldoze public housing and bus the people in public housing away. And that is not going to happen.''


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