Every weekend, I walk from my house ~ at the top of the Dipsea Stairs
~ to the hiking trails of Mt. Tamalpais and enjoy the quiet beauty all
around me in the redwood and bay forests. Each time, I thank the
environmental leaders who made this happen who saved these lands
from development and gave us these places to enjoy. They are legends
to me: Peter Behr, Phil and John Burton (for saving the Golden Gate
National Recreation Area), Marty Griffin, Katherine Livermore, the
Kent Family, Mrs. Terwilliger, Huey Johnson and countless others.
I ask myself ~ "What will our children and grandchildren thank us
for?" What's our legacy?
~ to the hiking trails of Mt. Tamalpais and enjoy the quiet beauty all
around me in the redwood and bay forests. Each time, I thank the
environmental leaders who made this happen who saved these lands
from development and gave us these places to enjoy. They are legends
to me: Peter Behr, Phil and John Burton (for saving the Golden Gate
National Recreation Area), Marty Griffin, Katherine Livermore, the
Kent Family, Mrs. Terwilliger, Huey Johnson and countless others.
I ask myself ~ "What will our children and grandchildren thank us
for?" What's our legacy?
To fill these shoes, ironically, we must have a lesser footprint. That is our challenge. Mill Valley can be this model.
We need a new model that integrates land use with transportation so that our tradition of environmental
protection evolves to meet today's urgent imperatives of climate change: carbon reduction and a smaller,
sustainable ecological footprint.
What sets me apart is that I can and will connect Mill Valley up to best practices in land use and transportation to
help us create small, infill design on Miller that is beautiful and serves us well. We deserve a walkable, bikable street
and a neighborhood for people who want to live smaller, use transit and own fewer cars.
Saving hillsides from the bulldozer of development has now evolved to living smaller and lighter in every way on
that land. Environmentalism has come home to the neighborhood. Let's put out the welcome mat and figure out
how to meet that challenge and not flinch.
We need a new model that integrates land use with transportation so that our tradition of environmental
protection evolves to meet today's urgent imperatives of climate change: carbon reduction and a smaller,
sustainable ecological footprint.
What sets me apart is that I can and will connect Mill Valley up to best practices in land use and transportation to
help us create small, infill design on Miller that is beautiful and serves us well. We deserve a walkable, bikable street
and a neighborhood for people who want to live smaller, use transit and own fewer cars.
Saving hillsides from the bulldozer of development has now evolved to living smaller and lighter in every way on
that land. Environmentalism has come home to the neighborhood. Let's put out the welcome mat and figure out
how to meet that challenge and not flinch.
| Thoughts on Our Environmental Challenge |