Dick Spotswood

Jan 18, 2025 | marinij.com | Dick Spotswood

What we’ve read about the firestorms that are consuming entire towns and neighborhoods in metropolitan Los Angeles is traumatic for every Californian. The magnitude of the catastrophe is hard to comprehend. Most of us believed that wildfires that enveloped significant parts of Santa Rosa and the town of Paradise in Butte County were as bad as it gets. Wrong. Since the L.A. fires started, when I travel about Marin, I envision the daunting threat that we could face.

Jan 14, 2025 | marinij.com | Dick Spotswood

Upon the death of our 39th president, Jimmy Carter, at age 100, the airwaves and press are full of first-person stories about the Georgian. Here’s my one interaction with Carter. In late 1975, Georgia’s governor was traveling about the county introducing himself in preparation for his ultimately successful 1976 presidential campaign. At the time I was active in San Francisco Democratic politics. I received a call from a friend who made a promise to host an event for Carter if he’d come to the City.

Jan 11, 2025 | marinij.com | Dick Spotswood

Downtown San Rafael may see a 13-story apartment block that will become the Mission City’s dominant feature. It’ll overwhelm St. Raphael Catholic Church’s iconic bell tower and everything else for miles. The plan is to build an inappropriately large apartment building across the street from City Hall at 1230 Fifth Ave. It’s currently the site of a nondescript commercial structure. Clearly, the site is appropriate for housing that’s scaled and designed for the neighborhood.

Jan 7, 2025 | marinij.com | Dick Spotswood

San Rafael Democrat Jared Huffman just got a big promotion. The North Bay/North Coast’s member of the U.S. House of Representatives is on his way to becoming the chair of the powerful House Natural Resources Committee. The Democratic Caucus approved making Huffman the ranking Democrat on the committee. A “ranking member” is the minority party’s leader on every committee. Whenever the Democrats regain control of the House, Huffman will automatically become committee chair. That brings real clout.

Jan 4, 2025 | marinij.com | Dick Spotswood

2024 was a bad year for us pundits. Most thought that Joe Biden would never quit the presidential race. Then, with Biden out, no political prognosticator would have predicted that Vice President Kamala Harris would glide to the Democratic nomination virtually by acclamation. Then there was the presidential election between Harris and Donald Trump. Pundits correctly thought the race would be close. Trump received 49.9%, or 77,297,721 votes, and Harris had 48.4% or 75,090,380.