S
ince the birth of San Francisco, thousands of people have made their home aboard boats on Richardson Bay. The patchwork community is a mix of seasoned sailors and liveaboards, retirees, veterans, Bohemians, or people seeking an alternative lifestyle, and people living off the grid and on the fringes. Located in the nexus of several Marin municipalities, Richardson Bay is one of the few protected anchorages in the Bay Area. The longstanding community anchored off Southern Marin occupies what is by far the most controversial and complicated piece of water on the West Coast. Advocates of the anchor-outs say that artsy, salty sailors are both vital to the character of an increasingly gentrified, touristy, and expensive Sausalito, and one of the byproducts of the an overly expensive but culturally rooted place like the Bay Area (another byproduct being an increasing number of working poor and homeless). Critics of the anchorouts cite unsafe and unseaworthy boats, drugs and crime, while environmentalists have expressed concern that the ground tackle from the boats poses a threat to a delicate marine ecosystem, namely eelgrass.
In the last year, there has been slow, steady progress toward removing derelict vessels. The theory is to bring the anchorage closer toward a managed entity similar to the many mooring fields found around the country and world — though most of those ar eas are for transient boats; the fate of longterm residents on Richardson Bay has long been, and remains, in question. Some stakeholders, who've dealt with the issue for decades, say they've seen these types of steps taken before, only to have the status quo ultimately prevail. Other parties are reluctant to see a dramatic change — such as a well-managed mooring field — that they believe resembles the same kind of inevitable, expensive and gentrified wave overtaking the rest of the Bay Area. And other parties still would rather see no boats anchored out at all. Like we said, it's complicated, even taboo at times. We will always support sailing and sailors, marine business and unique, salty, non-homogenized communities, and we'll always advocate for safety and sound environmental protection. These are all goals championed by many of the competing stakeholders, but in the debate over the anchor-outs, some of these positions seem, at times, mutually exclusive. "To make Latitude's position clear: We think there's room on Richardson Bay for everyone — if everyone were
"We think there's room for everyone, if everyone is willing to compromise."
When talking about Richardson Bay, there are several jurisdictions to consider. The yellow lines represent city boundaries, the red line is federal, and the black line (from the tip of Angel Island) is the county border.
willing to compromise a little," wrote Latitude founder Richard Spindler in 2001, stating a belief that we still advocate. Every stakeholder needs to get at least a little of what they want, but in so doing, will have to give something up. "The thing that's holding the anchorage back are the polar extremes," said anchor-out Chad Carvey, who's been on the hook in Richardson Bay for three years. "There are the extreme people who say there should be no boats on the bay, and then people who say there should be no rules at all. If everyone clings to their extreme, we'll never fix it." Who's in Charge, and What Are the Rules? The Richardson Bay Regional Agency (RBRA) — which is responsible for the intersection of waters off Tiburon, Belvedere, Marin County and Mill Valley — is under new management. "The board is really working toward the goal of being safe, healthy and well managed," said Beth Pollard, the first-ever executive director of the RBRA, who was a city manager for over 20 years, and was hired to help turn Richardson Bay into a more
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LATITUDE / JOHN
RICHARDSON BAY —
Latitude 38
• September, 2018
