Marin City is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Marin County, California, United States. south-southeast of San Rafael, and about north of San Francisco from the Golden Gate Bridge, at an elevation of .

History

Prior to World War II, this area was occupied by 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 defense jobs at Marinship, the Sausalito waterfront shipyard. A total of 93 liberty ships and tankers were built and launched from Marinship in fewer than three years.

Many of the African-American shipyard laborers who had migrated to the Bay Area from the South during the second phase of the Great Migration continued to live in Marin City after the war, either by choice or because many black families were restricted by local zoning from living in or buying homes in the towns surrounding Marin City.

Geography

Marin City is located in southern Marin County at 38°52'07" North, 122°30'33" West,

Chartered in 1958, the MCCSD is responsible for providing services in the areas of parks and recreation, street lighting, recycling and refuse removal. Total operating revenue for MCCSD's fiscal year 2016–2017 was $1,300,000.

According to the Marin County Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO), the District has a total area of 0.9&nbsp;square miles (2.3&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup>).

Demographics

Marin City first appeared as a census-designated place in the 2010 United States census.

!style="background-color: #ffffb3;" |Pop 2020

!% 2010

!style="background-color: #ffffb3;" |% 2020

|-

|White alone (NH)

|843

|style='background: #ffffe6; |1,017

|31.62%

|style='background: #ffffe6; |33.98%

|-

|Black or African American alone (NH)

|995

|style='background: #ffffe6; |794

|37.32%

|style='background: #ffffe6; |26.53%

|-

|Native American or Alaska Native alone (NH)

|7

|style='background: #ffffe6; |1

|0.26%

|style='background: #ffffe6; |0.03%

|-

|Asian alone (NH)

|285

|style='background: #ffffe6; |404

|10.69%

|style='background: #ffffe6; |13.50%

|-

|Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander alone (NH)

|21

|style='background: #ffffe6; |13

|0.79%

|style='background: #ffffe6; |0.43%

|-

|Other race alone (NH)

|24

|style='background: #ffffe6; |27

|0.90%

|style='background: #ffffe6; |0.90%

|-

|Mixed race or Multiracial (NH)

|126

|style='background: #ffffe6; |215

|4.73%

|style='background: #ffffe6; |7.18%

|-

|Hispanic or Latino (any race)

|365

|style='background: #ffffe6; |522

|13.69%

|style='background: #ffffe6; |17.44%

|-

|Total

|2,666

|style='background: #ffffe6; |2,993

|100.00%

|style='background: #ffffe6; |100.00%

|}

2020 census

As of the 2020 census, Marin City had a population of 2,993. The population density was .

There were 1,303 households, out of which 29.2% included children under the age of 18, 30.9% were married-couple households, 8.1% were cohabiting couple households, 43.7% had a female householder with no partner present, and 17.3% had a male householder with no partner present. 33.3% of households were one person, and 13.5% were one person aged 65 or older. The average household size was 2.28.

There were 1,337 housing units at an average density of , of which 1,303 (97.5%) were occupied. Of these, 27.8% were owner-occupied, and 72.2% were occupied by renters. Of all housing units, 2.5% were vacant; the homeowner vacancy rate was 0.0%, and the rental vacancy rate was 1.3%.

Notable people

  • Harry Bowden, artist and photographer; lived in Marin City 1949–65.
  • George Duke, keyboardist, composer, singer-songwriter; born in San Rafael and raised in Marin City. His 2000 album Cool includes the song "Marin City" about the town.
  • 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.)
  • Anne Lamott, novelist and teacher; long time parishioner at Marin City's St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, which she credits for her spiritual awakening.
  • Hugh Romney, better known as Wavy Gravy, entertainer and peace activist; owned a home in Marin City in the mid-1960s.
  • Bola Sete, Brazilian jazz and bossa nova guitarist; lived in Marin City, where he owned a home.
  • Tupac Shakur (1971–1996), rapper and actor; 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. In 1992, following a performance at the Marin City Festival, an altercation broke out between Shakur's entourage and local youths that resulted in a 6-year old boy being killed by a stray bullet from a gun registered to Shakur.
  • Lew Welch (August 1924-May 1971), Beat poet; lived in Marin City during the 1960s.

<!-- Please write article first:

  • Grover Sales Jr. (October 26, 1919-February 14, 2004), jazz historian, was Welch's immediate neighbor.

Please write article first:

  • The subjects of the 2021 Channel 5 (web channel) documentary The Hoff Twins are residents of Marin City. ...end comment-->

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 Martin Luther King Jr. Academy (Formerly Bayside-Martin Luther King Jr. Academy), a K-8 school with preschool and middle school in Marin City and elementary school in Sausalito.

There was formerly Willow Creek Academy, a public charter school in Sausalito which is affiliated with the district. 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. In 2021 Willow Creek consolidated into the Martin Luther King School in Marin City.

Students in grades 9–12 attend Tamalpais High School in Mill Valley, of the Tamalpais Union High School District.

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

Housing

Homes sold in Marin City are often labeled as being located in Sausalito since Marin City shares the 94965 ZIP Code, the 331 and 332 telephone prefixes, and Sausalito Marin City School District with its close neighbor Sausalito. Most of the housing in Marin City was developed in the 1970s, '80s and '90s after much of the temporary Marinship housing put up in 1942 had been razed.

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.

References

Further reading

  • Marguerita C. Johnson Senior Center
  • Sausalito Marin City School District
  • Tamalpais Union High School District
  • Search the Marin Independent Journal for local news about Marin City
  • Marin City Library