Waterfront News Part III: Conclusion

By Steefenie Wicks

In 1983, the Gates Co-Op would produce ‘SCUTTLEBUTT’.  Later, ‘ THE SCUTTLEBUTT BULLETIN’ was edited by Thomas Hoover -- a longtime and current member of the Sausalito Historical Society.  The staff of this venture included Chris Tellis (of Yellow Ferry Harbor) as news reporter and local musician Joe Tate as columnist with Phil Frank’s mother listed as the photographer.

The newspaper was printed at the office of local Night Fire Theater Company which was founded by artist Laura Farabough and was funded in part by a grant to Art Zone and the Art Zone Board: Steward Brand, Mary Crowley, Jack Van der Mulien, Chris Tellis, Chris Hardman, Phil Frank and Annette Rose.  This grant from the San Francisco Foundation allowed the group Art Zone to become a subsidiary of the Garlic Press Productions.

Many of the articles in the GARLIC PRESS dealt with clearing up rumors about the political side of the waterfront issues.   A good example is the article by Chris Tellis titled;

YET ANOTHER BCDC REPORT ……

“Throughout 1983, a series of reports have been generated by the staff of BCDC to aid the development of a Richardson Bay Special Area Plan (SAP).  The purpose of the plan is to develop a unified set of planning policies and regulatory controls that can be adapted by BCDC and the 5 local governments that have jurisdiction over Richardson Bay.  Nevertheless, many jaded observers of this process feel its primary target is the anchor-outs and the secondary target is the low-income

waterfront community.   The reports often detail legitimate grievances.  They also often get it wrong.

“Detailed written rebuttals of these reports are very important before unfounded theory becomes accepted as fact.   The reports are very interesting as they are detailed explanations of a variety of normal and abnormal Richardson Bay environment activities. For instance did you know that the Bay is actually getting deeper?

‘The Water Quality Report covers everything from dredge disposal to parking lot runoff, but of course, the major impacts are due to ‘untreated wastewater.’  Richardson Bay does not get the same circulation that areas further down the Bay and in Raccoon Straights do.  Richardson Bay is a shallow, semi-backwater and does not get the maximum ebb and flow.  This complete tidal flush does impact the areas following the shorelines.

“Unfortunately, while the reports strongly insist that all live aboard structures connect to shore facilities it does not detail how frustrating it is to attempt to do so.

“Positive and creative solutions for waste disposal are more than timely in the present political climate.  If these issues are not addressed, and copasetic outcomes resolved, they would definitely cloud any negotiation we may want to have with a government agency.  Besides, we also believe in clean.”

Chris Tellis

It has been said that history repeats itself and after reading and reprinting excerpts from the articles printed in the waterfront newspapers that statement has truth because many of the same issues (from the 1980’s) are still current issues on the waterfront (in 2011).  Today’s need for a waterfront newspaper is no longer as important as it was because of the new fast media that exist today.  With the advent of email, the iPhone, Facebook and Twitter, the news today is instant. Rumors and facts are readily available and can be seen as fact or fiction long before they become a political waterfront campaign.