The Canal Area comprises two neighborhoods of
San Rafael, California
San Rafael ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for "Raphael (archangel), St. Raphael", ) is a city and the county seat of Marin County, California, Marin County, California, United States. The city is located in the North Bay (San Francisco Bay Area), ...
, designated by the city as the "Canal Waterfront" and the "Canal." The Canal Area is bounded on the east by
San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a large tidal estuary in the U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the big cities of San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland.
San Francisco Bay drains water from a ...
, on the north by the San Rafael Canal and on the south and west by Highways
101 101 may refer to:
* 101 (number), the number
* AD 101, a year in the 2nd century AD
* 101 BC, a year in the 2nd century BC
It may also refer to:
Entertainment
* ''101'' (album), a live album and documentary by Depeche Mode
* "101" (song), a ...
and
I-580 and by San Quentin Ridge. Land use is split almost evenly between residential and non-residential (commercial/industrial) uses. The Canal Area provides a substantial portion of the low-income housing in
Marin County
Marin County is a county located in the northwestern part of the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 262,231. Its county seat and largest city is San Rafael. Marin County is acros ...
, one of the most affluent counties in the United States, along with
Marin City
Marin City is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Marin County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 2,993, up from 2,666 in 2010. It is located northwest of downtown Sausalito, ...
. It is also the location of transportation and waste management facilities serving Marin County and the
North Bay.
Demographics and housing
Most of San Rafael's low-income residents live in the Canal Area, along with many affluent residents. There is at least one concern (on Harbor Way) that rents slips for boats that people can live aboard legally. The more affluent residents live in the houses constructed in the 1960s right on the Canal and in two housing developments in the eastern part of the Canal's residential area: Baypoint Lagoons (constructed in the late 1990s) and Spinnaker Point (constructed earlier). Some real-estate agents refer to these two developments as being in "East San Rafael", to avoid the stigma of the name "Canal Area". This area provides a location for workers who hold low-income jobs that are essential to the functioning of the community to live close to their place of employment. Although the majority of residents in this area are low-income workers, most of the apartments in which they live are neither subsidized nor less expensive than comparable apartments elsewhere in San Rafael.
Parks and public facilities
Between the newer housing developments and the Bay is a paved path called Shoreline Park, which is a scenic place to take a walk or a bike ride. Along with a bike path owned by the Spinnaker Point Homeowner's Association (which forms the West side of the square), Shoreline Park forms a square 0.25 miles (400 m) long and 0.25 miles (400 m) wide. The easiest way to visit Shoreline Park is to visit
Pickleweed Park, then to walk east along the north side of the square. Pickleweed Park is home to a large community center and to soccer fields and a playground.
There are many dozen, perhaps hundreds, of stores, shops, offices and other commercial operations in the West and the South of the area (including most of San Rafael's auto-body shops). Country Club Bowl, Marin County's only surviving bowling center, is located here.
Large land users
Industrial Light and Magic
Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) is an American motion picture visual effects company that was founded on May 26, 1975 by George Lucas. It is a division of the film production company Lucasfilm, which Lucas founded, and was created when he began pro ...
occupied many tens of thousands of square feet of office space here and in 1997 built a "main stage" here for the production of movie
special effects
Special effects (often abbreviated as SFX, F/X or simply FX) are illusions or visual tricks used in the theatre, film, television, video game, amusement park and simulator industries to simulate the imagined events in a story or virtual wor ...
. The main stage is still in use, but most of the office space was moved to
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
in 2005.
Transportation and waste processing facilities
The southeastern portion of the Canal Area, between I-580 and San Quentin Ridge, is the base for several transportation and waste processing facilities serving large portions of Marin County. They include:
Central Marin Sanitation Agency 1301 Anderson Drive
*
Golden Gate Transit
Golden Gate Transit (GGT) is a public transportation system serving the North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in California, United States. It primarily serves Marin County, Sonoma County, and San Francisco, and also provides limited ser ...
bus yard and maintenance facility
Golden Gate Transit official site
accessed December 30, 2006
* Marin Recycling Center
Marin Resource Recovery Center
* Marin Sanitary Service and its transfer station
* United Parcel Service
United Parcel Service (UPS, stylized as ups) is an American multinational corporation, multinational package delivery, shipping & receiving and supply chain management company founded in 1907. Originally known as the American Messenger Company ...
Closed landfills
The "East San Rafael" area (the eastern portion of the Canal Area between the Bay and San Quentin Ridge), was home to most of the garbage disposal sites in central Marin County, including the following (links are to the California Integrated Waste Management Board, Solid Waste Information System, which is continuously updated):
Ghilotti Brothers Disposal Site
Morphew Street, closed
San Quentin Disposal Site
1615 Francisco Boulevard, closed 1988
Horst Hanf Landfill/Bayview Park
Francisco Boulevard, closed
Bellam Blvd Landfill AKA San Rafael Landfill
closed 1988
Francisco Landfill
Pelican Way at Kerner Boulevard, unpermitted
See also
*Landfill in the United States
Municipal solid waste (MSW) – more commonly known as Waste, trash or garbage – consists of everyday items people use and then throw away, such as product packaging, grass clippings, furniture, clothing, bottles, food scraps and papers. In ...
References
External links
www.cwcenter.org
Community based nonprofit organization managed by Canal residents.
Canal Alliance
a local community organization
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Chicano and Mexican neighborhoods in California
Neighborhoods in San Rafael, California
Guatemalan American
History of Marin County, California
Former landfills in California