It's a non-issue now that they've relocated (or are in the process of) in the same vicinity, but personally knowing the family who are the landlords, I feel compelled to defend their actions. The tenants of the Sweetwater were not caring for that space (totally letting the interior run into the ground to the point of sanitation issues) and there were criminal activities taking place...then again, in Marin I guess drug dealing really isn't considered criminal. And they were paying way below market rent. There's two sides to every story--business owners aren't always the ones in the wrong simply because they are business owners. They worked hard to earn the money to buy the property and it's only right they feel a responsibility to see it maintained and used properly, which sometimes means charging more money to get tenants who will want to care for the place they are renting.

I wish people wouldn't be so quick to accept the media's version of everything. Objectivity in journalism is a myth--reporters are just as biased as the public (if not more so, due to their strong convictions which lead them to pursue news stories). It's practically a given here in Marin that if there's a business owner and a starving artist, the latter is always a victim. Just symbolic of the larger cultural mentality...yada yada yada.

-- Edited by jamberry at 04:50, 2007-10-12

No.

In case you had not heard they are closing at the end of Sept., not Aug., if anyone has a good camera.

Jason,
I sincerely appoligize to you, I forgot you were invlolved in Real Estate, and I love your site and didn't mean anything personally. I have a few freinds who are independant agents now and I don't wish any agents misfortune. I think it is more about the private medical insurance companys and developers attempting to bring noisy old trains into Marin, politicians and lobbiests,
and also the big box retail corporations that truly the party is over. They want to change Marin into something they can make a bunch of money out of with no compassion to the people who have chosen to live their entire lives here. They think they can trash Marin just like they have done across the country, but the difference of Marin is there are still a large amount of people who are against ruining Marin. The sad fact is most of them are set up just fine and simply just don't even f***ing care anymore, and I don't blame them at all. There are very few vocal radicals with computers who have time to post, but as long as I'm alive and have an internet connection, I will continue to fight the good fight. The most important thing to me right now is HR616, the only true single payer proposal by any politician, all the others are much too afraid of the powerful insurance companys and consider health care reform " political suicide "

Paul wrote:

---

Well the party is over for the Real Estate and mortgage brokers...It's time for them all to take a long walk off a short pier!"

---

Yikes! ALL Realtors??? Short pier?!? Who's gonna run MarinNostalgia? ;)

I think Marin is no different than anywhere else in the country. We have all the same problems with the government, that is run from the other side of the country, we have the problems with the pressure from the current administration siding with the giant insurance, mortgage, trains, corporations needing cheap imported subsidized labor, the failing housing market, the ripoff of medical/hospital corporations, the scuge of methamphtemine hydrocloride, the federal war against medical marijuana, the intense pressure to add more hispanic labor, that reguires the taxpayers to subsidize their housing, child care, medical care, food stamps and legal support all to provide the giant corporations with cheap labor, and use taxpayers money to pay their benefits. I read each WallMart store opened costs the local taxpayers over a million dollars a year for all the public assistance. And WallMart actually has training sessions to inform their extremely low payed workers how to obtain public assistance, no doubt they qualify because they are payed substandard living wages. And now we have local ( very desperate ) developers needing to continue making big money, so they are paying the politicians and media to advocate for additional senior housing corporations and more subsidized housing for the imported workers, and trains to haul them around the north bay cheap , but expensive to those who will never use them ( 99.9 percent of Marin residents ).
Well the party is over for the Real Estate and mortgage brokers, the rabid rail advocates, the developers asking for welfare to assist them in building a desalinization plant to feed all the new cardboard apartments proposed. It's time for them all to take a long walk off a short pier!

-- Edited by Paul at 03:36, 2007-08-21

-- Edited by Paul at 03:38, 2007-08-21

For me, the Sweetwater and Village Music are institutions that have always been there. It didn't matter that I didn't go as often as I'd like, because they had always been there, and always would be there. I didn't visit either as often as i liked, but when I did, it was always a memorable event. Watching quality live performances in that tiny place with so much history, and browsing the racks at Village Music and finding that unknown gem of a blues Album to give your crazy cousin from France, for his birthday...priceless. I shake my head in wonder about what is happening to my Marin. I feel like I am Dorothy in the eye of the hurricane, sometimes.
I can't even drive up the hill to my old house to visit my mother, without playing chicken with crazed yuppie drivers running the construction truck gauntlet of our narrow roads.....there are 4 houses within a few blocks that have been torn down and are being turned into McMansions.
Ok, I'm going off on a tangent, but it is just all so surreal.

Actually La Gee's makes a great pizza. I remember hanging out at Kimball's house on Washington Park when we were just pups ( freshman in High Schoo- at TAM ). We had a scam going, we would be hanging out up on the mountain and call La Ginestra to order pizzas. They would have the Old Mill Taxi deliver the pizzas, and we would also ask that the driver go to Jolly King Liquors and pick up a case of Tuborg Beer. Since the driver delivered the pizzas and beer all the way up to Washington Park, obviously he wasn't about to ask us 15 year old kids for ID. We always payed in full with a big tip also, so the taxi co. knew when they would get the call for pizza on Friday and Saturday nights up to Washington Park, they would hop to it post haste. And La Gee's is packed to the max every time I go there now, it's actually too noisy because it's a family mainstay restaurant in downtown Mill Valley, and I know Becky personally and she does not condone boycotting La Gee's. That would only force another great business out of downtown.

re: Steve C's reply-

Alright, I've calmed down a bit. Steve, you are so right about 142 Throckmorton. It is cool, It is there, anyone can still go and enjoy a great show. We need to be grateful for that. I am. Still, though, it's hard to accept change. I realize that every story has (at least) two sides, I realize that the building owners actually DO have a really tough bisquit to chew on (no, I'm not talkin' about second-rate pizza), but...still...it about makes me wanna cry.



-- Edited by rob miller at 02:41, 2007-08-10

Update: re. yesterdays post. Article in this mornings Chronicle has a bit more hard facts than last Sundays IJ story.(no surprise there...)

It seems that THIS time, they really mean it. Papers have been served, ect. Personally, I'll NEVER
patronize a certain (second rate, in my opinion) Italian joint, who shall remain nameless.
Just what do you think they're gonna do with the space? Certainly not expand the restaurant. They can barely keep the tables they already have turning over at a profitable rate. Oh, I know...
Another "Day Spa!" for all those horrible yuppie, "my sh*t don't stink" "turn signals? why bother?"
women. ...Or...yup, I got it now...a "Garishly Colored, Skin-Tight Spandex, Serious Cyclist, Clothing
Emporium". Yeah, go for it! Do the town a favor! Everyone will applaud your selfless public spirit,
not to mention your shrewd business savvy.

Sorry-I didn't mean for this to take an ugly turn like that, and I know this really isn't supposed to be an opinion forum, but...my God. Some people have their collective heads SO FAR up their collective asses, ... MONEY IS NOT WHAT IT'S ALL ABOUT! Get a clue! Love your brothers!

Note to host/moderator, Jason: I woudn't blame you one bit if you pulled this post off the site. And, furthermore, banned me from posting in the future. Sorry boss...But sometimes peoples lame short-sightedness, and self centered "me first" attitudes just push me to the boiling point, and I gotta vent. Peace.

Now, take a moment to watch a video clip. Just a few of the local boys. A pick-up band on a Saturday night.






Here's a link to the "Save the Sweetwater" page. Let the voice of the people be heard!



http://savethesweetwater.com/help.html

-- Edited by rob miller at 02:10, 2007-08-10