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Marinship Currentz Newsletter: December 2020


In this issue:

  1. SWWC in 2021

  2. Marinship Maritime Legacy

  3. 30 years of Lax Enforcement Continues

  4. Marinship Emergency Medical Manufacturing Honored by Sausalito Chamber

  5. Janelle Kellman becomes Vice Mayor of Sausalito

  6. A Message From Community Venture Partners

 

SWWC is planning for an ambitious year to do its part in moving forward with the Marinship Vision that Sausalito residents called for in 2019 and 2020. Focus will be on:

  • A Marinship Guild to advocate for maritime, industrial and artisan businesses and jobs,

  • Facilitate and promote educational programs including STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math) after school and summer programs and apprenticeships,

  • Promoting an incubation zone to focus on innovation, fabrication and leadership in environmental resiliency, stewardship and sea-level rise adaptation technologies.

Here's an example:

The Sausalito Working Waterfront Coalition has convened a consortium of Marinship businesses that have been collaborating on a proof-of-concept design of a Marinship built mobile microgrid vessel called the Marinship Battery Barge.



 

Marinship Maritime Legacy



November and December have continued to be very busy months in the Marinship. Wooden boats, fishing boats, ferry boats, floating homes and even aluminum jet boats are fabricated and serviced in the Marinship. Even so, the waterfront district is under threat from zoning changes and weak enforcement. New industrial and maritime businesses are seeking space in the Marinship. Will they find it?


 

30 Years of Lax Enforcement Continues

Everywhere you look in the Marinship you see Maritime and Industrial Spaces that have been gentrified away. Why? Because enforcement has been only a theory for 30 years. Many property owners flagrantly ignore our zoning code without consequence. Remember Gary Testa and Engineered Fluids where 45 gallons of hand sanitizer was produced for our community?

His landlord did not renew his lease and he was unable to find another appropriate space with a roll-up door and shop capabilities.

 

Last week the Sausalito Chamber of Commerce Honored

MEMM with their Resilience and Hope Award for 2020.

Marinship Emergency Medical Manufacturing

In early April the Sausalito Working Waterfront Coalition industrial fabricators met to plan a community response to the shortage of PPE. By late April, under the leadership of Janelle Kellman, The Marinship began production of plastic face shields and hand sanitizer. By June, 13,000 face shields and 45 gallons of hand sanitizer were distributed, at no charge, to our residents, police, fire fighters, post office workers and Chamber businesses. Face shields were also sent to medical personnel across the country. All of this was accomplished by several dozen volunteers and was made possible by Marinship industrial companies, a 4000lb roll of plastic donated by Coca Cola and an assembly area donated by Chris Gallagher, Park Manager of the Bay Model.



 

Congratulations to Janelle Kellman,

our new City Council member and Sausalito Vice Mayor!


Janelle received 3003 votes, a record for Sausalito. Janelle has been a tireless advocate for the working waterfront and the Marinship. She believes the Marinship is a resource like no other and will work to protect the interests of our artists, maritime businesses and industrial innovators. Her 3003 votes represent a strong mandate for her Marinship platform.

Congratulations also to our other two new city council members, Melissa Blaustien and Ian Sobieski. We look forward to their advocacy for the welfare of the Marinship as they weigh the desire for property owner profits against a more equitable scenario of providing job opportunities and education to our residents and neighboring communities.


 

A Message from Community Venture Partners


SAVE THE FUTURE OF SAUSALITO’S MARINSHIP

Do you feel like, in 2020, state and local governments had given up on protecting the public from environmental hazards and sold their souls to big developers?

Sausalito is currently teeing up its new “General Plan Update” that opens the door to high-density development in the Marinship, while ignoring negative impacts on the City and its local businesses, and the need to address a long list of public safety hazards that include sea level rise, toxic contamination, sinking land, and failing infrastructure, as required by the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).

The Marinship remains a major economic engine for the City of Sausalito. And although the proposed General Plan Update pays lip service to preservation of the Marinship’s maritime / industrial waterfront community, it is filled with “back doors” that allow developers to gain approval for projects that will drive out local-serving, small businesses.

Throughout the General Plan Update process, the City Council repeatedly ignored or explicitly overruled input from its appointed residents’ advisory groups and from third party advisors community voices, legal counsel, and geological and environmental experts.

Support the working waterfront community’s vision for a Marinship “Innovation Zone” to preserve and enhance Sausalito’s vibrant waterfront heritage and ensure a robust and profitable 21st century industrial / manufacturing / artisan economy for decades to come.

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