What the Bolinas Poets Built

As someone who grew up there in the 70s and 80s this feels very much like an academic exercise in mental masturbation by someone who has never been there. It was an interesting read, but felt very separated from the reality I experienced.

I was a kid then, but my folks were beatniks. I never felt hippie-enough living there, but now am glad that my folks weren’t strung out as I had a pretty idyllic childhood; riding horses and being free to roam the village until dinner time but not as feral as some of my classmates.

Last time I drove by, they literally installed a wall of virtue signal signs at the entrance of the town. This thing is rather comical.

But, during this pandemic, Bolinas showed its real colors: https://abc7news.com/coronavirus-in-bay-area-cases-corona-vi...

Not exactly 'hippie' in my book.

Meh. I lived in Marin County for 12 years, and visited Bolinas several times. The descriptions of people and the 'culture' in the TFA are really good -- but overall IMHO is a grand romanticizing of the place. It's a genuine "hippie town" that epitomizes a California of another time, for sure. Its sewage issues are real, and represent so much of the overall absurdity of the place. All that, and and the overarching hostility of its residents towards outsiders made them seem to me, ultimately, as being people not above it all, but more washed-out. Lots of hypocrisy there.

For those interested in the history of Bolinas, I recommend reading The Town That Fought To Save Itself.

For a broader history of how Marin is able to uniquely exist as parkland/farmland adjacent to a major metropolitan area, I recommend watching Rebels with a Cause.

For anyone interested in helping to preserve low-cost housing availability in Bolinas, I strongly encourage donating to the Bolinas Community Land Trust.

And as a final note on culture: for anyone considering purchasing in Bolinas, it's important to be mindful that it is important to actually _live_ there. There is a limited supply of housing, and vacation homes/rentals have a serious, negative, cultural impact on the town compared to full-time residents who will participate in the community over time.

https://www.amazon.com/Town-That-Fought-Save-Itself/dp/03944...

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2231578/

https://www.bolinaslandtrust.org/

> and then to oppose a regional sewer system that might have opened the town up to development.

Don’t forget the part where they already took over the Water Department and stopped issuing new water meters after 1971. That also means no new housing, because housing has to have running water to be legal. For your benefit, we promise. I wonder what kind of “development” might have been opposed in the years after 1968?

This is the 2nd time this article appeared on HN front page, and nobody even discusses the literary main theme of the article, they just jump right to the exclusionary politics of modern Bolinas and Marin County generally, which tells me that HN readers are way more concerned by the boomer legacy of housing crises than they are about the boomer legacy of inconsequential literature.

I live in Marin, and have been going to Bolinas since childhood.

What has changed is amount of very wealthy people whom now consider the town their property.

They swoop in with their millions, and then complain? I'm sorry, but I don't get my wealthy Marin neighbors. They consider themselfs Liberal, but my goodness they are anything but tolerant.

What really gets me is why move to Bolinas if you don't like excentric hippy types? I'm not going to pretend to understand them. I try to avoid my wealthy neighbors.

Yes--Bolinas locals do not want outsiders. They tear down signs the county puts up.

That's about as far as they go. They are a friendly bunch. If ever there go to Smiley's Bar. The owner keeps track of overzealous Sheriifs, whom are itching for a marginal dui.

The wealthy threaten to sue, and complain about everything?

You used to be able to spend the night on the beach. That will bring a ticket now.

Surfers used to park overnight while traveling up, and down, the coast in their bus, but no more. Expect a ticket.

Bolinas still has a nice 60's vibe, and I'm glad it's not gone.

You probally know this, but hippies settled in Bolinas years ago. The land was cheap, and they loved the seclusion.

They got involved in politics, and decided if they wanted to keep the small town feel they woukd have to act quick. Developers were eying get all of West Marin for development.

The locals decided to issue only so many water hookups in order to control development.

In their wildest dreams, they never thought the area (all west Marin) would appreciate in value so much. Back then people with money wanted the city, or or within aiming distance to a country club.

That has changed, and they are quietly scooping up property, and bring their litigious uptight ways to a nice little town.

Oh yea, a deceased friend of mine was married to a drug dealer in the 70-80's. They came home from an opulent night of debsuchery, and dining, in San Francisco. Her husband was blotto, and decided he needed to hide his $800,000 at the beach, or in his yard in Mill Valley. He woke up the next day, and forgot where he buried it. He went to every beach, and nothing rang a bell. He dug up his yard, and nothing. Out in west Marin there $800,000 buried somewhere, or floated away with the tide?

Think about this treasure story when at the beach.

We have one other treasure story in West Marin. Something to do with days before the combustion engine. Something about a large amount of old currency buried, or in a tree?

My first treasure story is first hand knowledge. She had no reason you lie to me. Years later she told the new owners of her house the treasure story while in line at Safeway. She said the new owners looked at her like she was crazy.