All hands on deck

“Matthew Turner”, a beautiful sailing vessel that was recently built here in the Marinship, and is now docked right here. This ship is entirely hand made out of wood by retired and young mariners. This ship was built to teach people about the sea © Caitlin Maynard

Ahoy to the Mariners of the world!
Please save your land!

The City Counsel of Sausalito, California (USA) has launched a massive campaign and attack on prime waterfront real estate that has been protected through strict zoning laws in this country since WWII to preserve it for mariners from around the world to live and work on their boats. These zoning laws only allow the maritime community (you!) and fine artists to live, work, and run their businesses here in a small section along the shores of the magnificent San Francisco Bay. This property is now worth billions, and billions of dollars. It was preserved for you, please protect it.

This little known area is called, "The Marinship".

This land was placed into the hands of the mariners to honor the men and women who came to this area during WWII to build the Liberty Ships. The firm that built them was called the Marinship Corporation, part of the family owned, Bechtel Corporation.

Thus, this area was preserved under the name Marinship. This took a monumental effort by some very generous people who did not want developers to seize this property.

This land is priceless because it one of the most beautiful places on earth, mostly undeveloped, and ten minutes from San Francisco.

This area has been inhabited by seafaring people for thousands of years. The Native Americans fished here, the Portuguese Sailors settled here, and then the Liberty Ships (WWII) were built here. Now yachts and sailboats are built and maintained here by local craftsmen and women. The Army Corp of engineers is also here with their ships, and they keep the San Francisco Bay clean and safe.

The Marinship is one of the last remaining stretches of waterfront in the United States, where the men, women and children of the sea are allowed to work on their boats, left in peace with the wildlife, and can afford to live here. This is because it is heavily restricted and generally not available to people outside of the maritime industry or the arts. The big tech firms and their executives who have used their gazillion dollars in profits to seize much of the land, have been barred from working and building here through zoning restrictions.

The mariners are also protected here from city regulations that have virtually destroyed the maritime communities everywhere else in this country.

This area must remain protected for you and our children! This attempt to rezone must be halted by a court order immediately. Letters to the City Counsel of Sausalito will do nothing to stop these aggressive developers. No amount of talking will convince developers to give up their chance to steal your land on the San Francisco Bay and then make billions and billions of dollars. If one inch of the Marinship is rezoned, it will set a precedent and create a domino effect—and all the land will be lost.

These aggressive efforts to steal this land from the mariners and the wildlife have always failed in the past because the zoning laws have held up to these attacks. This has caused some complacency in the community. They simply do not realize how serious this current threat to rezone actually is.

The maritime community has kept the Marinship crime free while crime and homelessness has skyrocketed every where else. There have been no homeless camps here in the past, and it has thriving parks, wildlife, mariners, and artists. There are many military veterans living here. There are also festivals and events hosted here. Woman and children come here to relax on the sunny shores every day. Athletes come to play tennis and do sports... at least they did until the City of Sausalito recently seized the tennis courts and turned them into a slum. Yes, the City of Sausalito has already trashed the Tennis Courts, Parking Lot, and the once beautiful Marinship Park when they dumped their City homeless camp that had been living in downtown Sausalito (far from the Marinship) onto our land.

The City of Sausalito used attorneys to force this camp into our thriving community park and tennis courts. Then they posted a giant sign on that camp that states, "MARINSHIP COMMUNITY". Visitors are totally confused, and have been misled into thinking that those city homeless people are Marinship mariners. This was done by the City Counsel to mislead the public into thinking that the Marinship is a slum and mariners are bums who do not deserve this land and should be kicked out.

This letter is a plea for every single Maritime organization, every sailor, every one who loves the sea and hates injustice—to file a court order demanding that this rezone be halted imediately naming: the City of Sausalito, The City Counsel, and the City Manager "Zapata" as the opposing parties.

I am a certified California paralegal who will work for free to help you compile all of the evidence and paperwork that you need to make a simple court filing that will halt this rezoning attempt. This land is yours. You may live far away and perhaps you have not visited, but you are welcome here, it was preserved for you.

Sound the alarms!

Have a wonderful day!