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Marin City, California facts for kids

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Marin City
A Marin Transit New Flyer 35-foot low-floor hybrid bus operating as a Route 19 to Tiburon at Marin City. This bus operates using hybrid-electric technology, allowing it to save fuel costs by using electric power when used on city streets.
A Marin Transit New Flyer 35-foot low-floor hybrid bus operating as a Route 19 to Tiburon at Marin City. This bus operates using hybrid-electric technology, allowing it to save fuel costs by using electric power when used on city streets.
Marin City is located in California
Marin City
Marin City
Location in California
Country  United States
State  California
County Marin County
Area
 • census-designated place 0.537 sq mi (1.390 km2)
 • Land 0.537 sq mi (1.390 km2)
 • Water 0 sq mi (0 km2)  0%
Elevation
23 ft (7 m)
Population
 (2010)
 • census-designated place 2,666
 • Density 4,965/sq mi (1,918.0/km2)
 • Metro
7,468,390
Time zone UTC−8 (PST)
 • Summer (DST) UTC−7 (PDT)
ZIP code
94965
Area codes 415/628

Marin City is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Marin County, California, United States. It is located 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometers) northwest of downtown Sausalito, 8 miles (13 km) south-southeast of San Rafael, and about 5 miles (8 km) north of San Francisco from the Golden Gate Bridge, at an elevation of 23 feet (7 meters). Marin City was developed for housing starting in 1942, to accommodate wartime shipyard workers and other migrants to California. Among those were African Americans from the South in the Great Migration, which continued until 1970.

After the war, the area became predominantly African-American, as white residents were able to move freely to private housing elsewhere in Marin County. Since the 1980s, additional development has changed the makeup of the population while providing more local jobs. In 2018, Marin City's socioeconomic and racial makeup (median household income of $40,000, and almost 40 percent Black) contrasts with the mostly wealthy and White population in Marin County overall (greater than $80,000 median income, less than four percent Black).

History

Prior to World War II, the land that would become Marin City was home to a dairy farm and a handful of families. Soon after war was declared on December 8, 1941, Marin City was rapidly built during 1942 in order to house 6,000 of the 20,000 workers who migrated from all over the United States, attracted by the jobs at Marinship, the Sausalito waterfront shipyard. A total of 93 liberty ships and tankers were built and launched from Marinship in less than three years.

Many of the African-American shipyard laborers who had migrated from the Southern U.S. ended up living permanently in Marin City either by choice or because many black families were not allowed to live or buy homes in the towns surrounding Marin City. They became the core of the community when most of the other guest laborers departed at the end of the war. During the war, African-Americans comprised about 10% of Marin City's population. By the 1970s, African Americans comprised over three quarters of the population of Marin City, most of whom traced their roots to the Marinship laborers.

During the 1980s and 1990s there was considerable residential and commercial development, including several new housing developments, apartment complexes, and condo developments. There was also an expansion of commercial area particularly with the building of the Gateway Shopping Center in 1996, that displaced the locally renowned flea market. Marin City has started to think about incorporating into a city.

Geography

Marin City is located at 38°52'07" North, 122°30'33" West, about 5 miles north of San Francisco.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP had an area of 0.537 square miles (1.391 km2)

Demographics

The 2010 United States Census reported that Marin City had a population of 2,666. The population density was 4,967.0 people per square mile (1,917.8/km2). The racial makeup of Marin City was 1,037 (38.9%) White, 1,017 (38.1%) African American, 15 (0.6%) Native American, 287 (10.8%) Asian, 21 (0.8%) Pacific Islander, 120 (4.5%) from other races, and 169 (6.3%) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 365 persons (13.7%).

Among the Asian population, largest ethnic groups were Vietnamese (3.0%), followed by Indians (2.9%), Filipinos (1.7%), Chinese (1.2%), Japanese (0.6%), Koreans (0.3%), and Other Asian (1.3%). Among Hispanics and Latinos, the largest ethnic groups were Mexican (5.7%), followed by Central Americans (3.4%), South Americans (1.8%), Puerto Ricans (0.6%), and Other Hispanics (2.0%).

The Census reported that 100% of the population lived in households.

There were 1,197 households, out of which 380 (31.7%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 298 (24.9%) were opposite-sex married couples living together, 300 (25.1%) had a female householder with no husband present, 57 (4.8%) had a male householder with no wife present. There were 85 (7.1%) unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 18 (1.5%) same-sex married couples or partnerships. 427 households (35.7%) were made up of individuals, and 94 (7.9%) had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.23. There were 655 families (54.7% of all households); the average family size was 2.91.

The population was spread out, with 633 people (23.7%) under the age of 18, 261 people (9.8%) aged 18 to 24, 820 people (30.8%) aged 25 to 44, 703 people (26.4%) aged 45 to 64, and 249 people (9.3%) who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35.6 years. For every 100 females, there were 83.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 75.4 males.

There were 1,309 housing units at an average density of 2,438.8 per square mile (941.6/km2), of which 30.7% were owner-occupied and 69.3% were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 2.1%; the rental vacancy rate was 8.6%. 27.2% of the population lived in owner-occupied housing units and 72.8% lived in rental housing units.

Business

Once famous for the Marin City Flea Market which was forcibly closed in the mid-1990s, despite community protest, to make way for the Gateway Shopping Center, the MCCSD had planned to launch the smaller-scale Marin City Market Fest on selected Saturdays in the summer of 2006.


Education

Marin City is served by the Sausalito Marin City School District for primary grades (K-8) and the Tamalpais Union High School District for secondary grades. The K-8 district operates Bayside-Martin Luther King Jr. Academy, a K-8 school in Marin City. There is also Willow Creek Academy, a public charter school in Sausalito which is affiliated with the district. As of 2016 about 150 students in Marin City attended Willow Creek, while Bayside King had a total student enrollment of 143. As of the 2018-2019 school year Willow Creek Academy has 407 students enrolled. Being that Willow Creek is a charter school they welcome anyone who lives in California, although most of the students live within the school district, which is Sausalito and Marin City and other communities in Marin County. Several parents outside of the county also found that Willow Creek was a good fit for their children, most of them being from Fairfield and Vallejo.

In previous eras Grades K-6 were allowed to attended either Bayside Elementary School in Sausalito or Willow Creek Academy (a public charter school), both in Sausalito. Grades 7–8 attended Martin Luther King Jr. Academy in Marin City, or Willow Creek Academy. Residents may attend Willow Creek Academy, a K-8 school in Sausalito. Beginning in the fall of 2013, Bayside was scheduled to close, with Willow Creek taking the former Bayside campus, making MLK a K-8. The consolidation of Bayside into MLK will be in effect in the fall of 2013. In 2014 Bayside moved to Marin City joining MLK, now being known as Bayside MLK Academy. During this time they had no stable principal and not enough teachers for each class. As of now the principal of the school is David Finnane. The new motto of the school is “Panther Pride”. Pride standing for, Pride, Respect, Integrity, Determination, Excellence.

Students in grades 9–12 attend Tamalpais High School in Mill Valley and Redwood High School.

Marin City is also served by the Marin City Library, a branch of the Marin County Free Library that is within the Gateway Shopping Center.

Notable residents

  • George Duke was born in San Rafael and raised in Marin City.
  • Harry Bowden, artist and photographer, lived in Marin City from 1949-1965.
  • Lew Welch (August 1924-May 1971), Beat poet, lived in Marin City during the 1960s.
  • Jack Kerouac stayed in Marin City and nearby Mill Valley during his travels in the 1940s and 1950s. (He combined the two cities' names into "Mill City" in On the Road.)
  • Grover Sales Jr. (October 26, 1919-February 14, 2004), jazz historian, was Welch's immediate neighbor.
  • Tupac Shakur (June 16, 1971 – September 13, 1996), moved to Marin City with his family in 1988. He attended nearby Tamalpais High School, before moving to Oakland after graduation to pursue his music career.
  • William Del Monte, (1905-2016), was the last living survivor of the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 after the death of Ruth Newman at 113, in 2015.
  • Anne Lamott, the novelist, political activist, and teacher, is a former resident of Marin City.
  • The subjects of the 2021 Channel 5 (web channel) documentary The Hoff Twins are residents of Marin City.

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Marin City para niños

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