ABOUT

My name is Mari Tamburo, aka Mari Mack.

Frankly, I started this blog to rant about a RIDICULOUS four block million dollar urban concrete slab sidewalk project that was eventually forced upon my neighbors in 2012 (using funding that was awarded to a grant application full of lies, no less) - after more than a few of us spent the better part of two years trying to reason with the County of Marin.
I started on one blog, then another blog and then many other places. Long story.

On the bright side, we have raised some awareness about watershed health - and the Roads department seems to be getting more funding to pave roads these days.

It was and still is a bit of a quagmire, since there have been THREE FOUR FIVE accidents on the street since the so called "Safer Route" was built. Odd how supposedly well intentioned ideas like "restore an historic walking path" can become big bureaucratic nightmares like million dollar urban concrete slab sidewalks that pollute local creeks (which contain federally protected species of fish.)

Anyway, I enjoy cooking and baking on occasion so I figured if I threw in some recipes, the rants would be more palatable for people who can't deal with the truth and it would help me focus on something more positive than the County taking money from a neighborhood who really needed and wanted a sidewalk, just so a handful of people can have "a more convenient walk to the yogurt store."

It helped distract me for a while at least. It all comes back whenever I have to dodge a speeding car on my street, which happens a lot more often than it used to. What used to be a very quiet street seems to have become more dangerous in some places since they built the damn concrete slab sidewalk - or as they sold it - "a safer route."

But you can't tell that to the average person without giving them the impression that you are a nut case, because most of us have been brainwashed to believe that streets with sidewalks are safer than those without - and seems the rest of us are too busy to care about anything but what is in our immediate vicinity.

That is, except for people who show up at public meetings in Mill Valley from as far away as Larkspur and San Francisco to lobby for their own convenience - even if it means stomping on someone else's rights to fair process and accepting stolen money to force something on someone who never wanted that something in the first place.

Anyway, I'm the kind of person who is always looking for the bright side of things.
I guess the bright side of all this is I don't have to pretend to like it.

Thanks for stopping by. ;)

- - Mari