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Sausalito ( Spanish for "small willow grove") is a city 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 ...
, California, United States, located southeast of Marin City, south-southeast of San Rafael, and about north of San Francisco from the
Golden Gate Bridge The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the strait connecting San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean. The structure links the U.S. city of San Francisco, California—the northern tip of the San Francisco Pen ...
. Sausalito's population was 7,269 as of the 2020 census. The community is situated near the northern end of the
Golden Gate Bridge The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the strait connecting San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean. The structure links the U.S. city of San Francisco, California—the northern tip of the San Francisco Pen ...
, and prior to the building of that bridge served as a terminus for rail, car, and ferry traffic. Sausalito developed rapidly as a shipbuilding center in World War II, with its industrial character giving way in postwar years to a reputation as a wealthy and artistic enclave, a picturesque residential community (incorporating large numbers of
houseboat A houseboat is a boat that has been designed or modified to be used primarily as a home. Most houseboats are not motorized as they are usually moored or kept stationary at a fixed point, and often tethered to land to provide utilities. How ...
s), and a tourist destination. The city is adjacent to, and largely bounded by, the protected spaces of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area as well as the San Francisco Bay.


Etymology

The name of Sausalito comes from the Spanish ''sauzalito'', meaning "small willow
grove Grove may refer to: * Grove (nature), a small group of trees Places England *Grove, Buckinghamshire, a village * Grove, Dorset * Grove, Herefordshire * Grove, Kent * Grove, Nottinghamshire, a village * Grove, Oxfordshire, a village and civil ...
", from ''sauce'' " willow" + collective derivative ''-al'' meaning "place of abundance" + diminutive suffix ''-ito''; with orthographic corruption from ''z'' to ''s'' due to '' seseo''. Early variants of the name included Saucelito, San Salita, San Saulito, San Salito, Sancolito, Sancilito, Sousolito, Sousalita, Sousilito, Salcido, Sausilito, and Sauz Saulita. It is sometimes claimed that Sausalito was named for the district in Valparaíso, Chile, where the bandit
Joaquín Murrieta Joaquin Murrieta Carrillo (sometimes spelled Murieta or Murietta) (1829 – July 25, 1853), also called the Robin Hood of the West or the Robin Hood of El Dorado, was a Mexican-American figure of disputed historicity. The novel '' The Life and A ...
was born. Murrieta was the leader of bandits who settled at the northern end of the future Golden Gate Bridge after being banned from San Francisco in the bandit wars. However, this theory cannot be true because Murrieta was from Mexico, not Chile, and because he did not arrive in California until the Gold Rush around 1849. The Rancho Saucelito had already been granted to William Richardson in 1838.


Geography

Located at , Sausalito encompasses both steep, wooded hillside and shoreline tidal flats. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of . Notably, only of it is land. A full 21.54% of the city (0.5 square miles, or 1.3 km2) is under water, and has been so since its founding in 1868. Prominent geographic features associated with Sausalito include Richardson Bay and Pine Point. When Sausalito was formally platted, it was anticipated that future development might extend the shoreline with
landfill A landfill site, also known as a tip, dump, rubbish dump, garbage dump, or dumping ground, is a site for the disposal of waste materials. Landfill is the oldest and most common form of waste disposal, although the systematic burial of the waste ...
, as had been the practice in neighboring San Francisco. As a result, entire streets, demarcated and given names like Pescadero, Eureka and Teutonia, remain beneath the surface of Richardson Bay. The legal, if not actual, presence of these streets has proved a contentious factor in public policy, because some houseboats float directly above them. According to the San Francisco ''Chronicle'', "State agencies say privately owned houseboats can't be located above the underwater streets because the streets are public trust lands intended for public benefit." The California State Lands Commission is reportedly pursuing a compromise which would move not the houseboats, but the theoretical streets instead.


Climate

Sausalito has a Mediterranean climate ( Köppen climate classification ''Csb'') with far lower temperatures than expected because of its adjacency to
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 ...
and the resultant onshore breezes.


History


Indigenous culture

Sausalito was once the site of a Coast Miwok settlement known as Liwanelowa. The branch of the Coast Miwok living in this area were known as the Huimen (or as ''Nación de Uimen'' to the Spanish). Early explorers of the area described them as friendly and hospitable. According to Juan de Ayala, "To all these advantages must be added the best of all, which is that the heathen Indians of the port are so faithful in their friendship and so docile in their disposition that I was greatly pleased to receive them on board." European settlers took advantage of the Huimen's kindness and hospitality, and completely massacred them within the span of a few generations. As historian Jack Tracy has observed, "Their dwellings on the site of Sausalito were explored and mapped in 1907, nearly a century and a half later, by an archaeological survey. By that time, nothing was left of the culture of those who had first enjoyed the natural treasures of the bay. The life of the Coastal Miwoks had been reduced to archaeological remnants, as though thousands of years had passed since their existence."


European arrival and settlement

The first European known to visit the present-day location of Sausalito was Don José de Cañizares, on August 5, 1775. Cañizares was head of an advance party dispatched by longboat from the ship ''San Carlos'', searching for a suitable anchorage for the larger vessel. The crew of the ''San Carlos'' came ashore soon after, reporting friendly natives and teeming populations of deer, elk, bear, sea lions, seals and otters. More significantly for maritime purposes, they reported an abundance of large, mature timber in the hills, a valuable commodity for shipwrights in need of raw materials for masts, braces and planking. Despite these and later positive reports, the Spanish colonial government of Upper California did little to establish a presence in the area. When a military garrison (now the
Presidio of San Francisco The Presidio of San Francisco (originally, El Presidio Real de San Francisco or The Royal Fortress of Saint Francis) is a park and former U.S. Army post on the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula in San Francisco, California, and is part o ...
) and a Franciscan mission ( Mission Dolores) were founded the following year, they were situated on the opposite, southern shore of the bay, where no portage was necessary for overland traffic to and from Monterey, the regional capitol. As a result, the far shore of the Golden Gate strait would remain largely wilderness for another half-century. The development of the area began at the instigation of
William A. Richardson William Anthony Richardson (August 27, 1795 – April 20, 1856) was an early California entrepreneur, influential in the development of Yerba Buena, the forerunner of the city of San Francisco. Richardson was the first to receive a land gran ...
, who arrived in Upper California in 1822, shortly after Mexico had won its independence from Spain. An English mariner who had picked up a fluency in Spanish during his travels, he quickly became an influential presence in the now-Mexican territory. By 1825, Richardson had assumed
Mexican Mexican may refer to: Mexico and its culture *Being related to, from, or connected to the country of Mexico, in North America ** People *** Mexicans, inhabitants of the country Mexico and their descendants *** Mexica, ancient indigenous people ...
citizenship, converted to Catholicism and married the daughter of Don Ignacio Martínez, commandant of the Presidio and holder of a large land grant. His ambitions now expanding to land holdings of his own, Richardson submitted a petition to Governor Echienda for a
rancho Rancho or Ranchos may refer to: Settlements and communities *Rancho, Aruba, former fishing village and neighbourhood of Oranjestad *Ranchos of California, 19th century land grants in Alta California **List of California Ranchos *Ranchos, Buenos Ai ...
in the
headlands A headland, also known as a head, is a coastal landform, a point of land usually high and often with a sheer drop, that extends into a body of water. It is a type of promontory. A headland of considerable size often is called a cape.Whittow, Joh ...
across the water from the Presidio, to be called " Rancho Saucelito".Robert Ryal Miller, ''Captain Richardson, Mariner, Ranchero, and Founder of San Francisco'' Berkeley: La Loma Press, 1995 all number at SSU: Regional Room F869 .S353 R5461995 ''Sausalito'' is believed to refer to a small cluster of willows, a moist-soil tree, indicating the presence of a freshwater spring.Tracy, Jack. ''Sausalito Moments in Time: A Pictorial History of Sausalito 1850-1950''. Sausalito:
Windgate Press Windgate Press is a small American publisher located in Sausalito, California whose focus is on San Francisco and California photographic history. See also *List of publishers The following are lists of publishing companies. By language *List ...
1983.
Even before filing his claim, Richardson had used the spring as a watering station on the shores of what is now called Richardson Bay (an arm of the larger
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 ...
), selling fresh water to visiting vessels. However, his ownership of the land was legally tenuous: other claims had been submitted for the same region, and at any rate Mexican law reserved headlands for military uses, not private ownership. Richardson temporarily abandoned his claim and settled instead outside the Presidio, building the first permanent civilian home and laying out the street plan for the pueblo of Yerba Buena (present-day San Francisco). After years of lobbying and legal wrangling, Richardson was given clear title to all of Rancho del Sausalito on February 11, 1838.


Fishing village and sybaritic enclave

In the post-Gold Rush era, Sausalito's unusual location became a key factor in its formation as a community. It was San Francisco's nearest neighbor, less than two miles (3 km) away at the nearest point and easily seen from city streets, yet transportation factors rendered it effectively isolated. A boat could sail there in under half an hour, but wagons and carriages required an arduous skirting of the entire bay, a journey that could well exceed a hundred miles. As a result, the region was largely dominated by two disparate classes of people, both with ready access to boats: commercial fishermen and wealthy yachting enthusiasts.


Mining town

In the 1870s, manganese was discovered in the hills west of Old Town that was rich enough to justify small-scale mining. Tunnels were dug near the springs between present-day Prospect Avenue and Sausalito Boulevard. Henry Eames, an opportunistic inventor, built an ore reduction plant at the foot of Main Street to process the manganese ore. This location would become the later site of Sally Stanford’s infamous bordello, Valhalla. However, by 1880 the Saucelito Smelting Works was producing only about fifty tons of black oxide annually, hardly enough to make Sausalito a true mining center.


Transit hub

The first post office opened in 1870 as "Saucelito" and changed its name to the present spelling in 1887. In the 1870s, the North Pacific Coast Railroad (NPC) extended its tracks southward to a new terminus in Sausalito, where a rail yard and
ferry A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water taxi ...
to San Francisco were established. The NPC was acquired by the North Shore Railroad in 1902, which in turn was absorbed in 1907 by the Southern Pacific affiliate, the
Northwestern Pacific The Northwestern Pacific Railroad is a regional shortline railroad utilizing a stretch of the 271 mile mainline between Schellville and Windsor with freight and Sonoma–Marin Area Rail Transit (SMART) commuter trains. Formerly, it was a regi ...
. By 1926, a major auto ferry across the Golden Gate was established from the Sausalito Ferry Terminal, running to the
Hyde Street Pier The Hyde Street Pier, at 2905 Hyde Street, is a historic ferry pier located on the northern waterfront of San Francisco, California. Background Prior to the opening of the Golden Gate Bridge and the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge, it was the ...
in San Francisco. This ferry was an integral part of old
U.S. Highway 101 U.S. Route 101, or U.S. Highway 101 (US 101), is a north–south United States Numbered Highway that runs through the states of California, Oregon, and Washington, on the West Coast of the United States. It is also known as (The Royal Roa ...
, and a large influx of automobile traffic, often parked or idling in long queues, became a dominant characteristic of the town. Northwestern Pacific commuter train service also expanded to serve the increased traffic volume, and Sausalito became known primarily as a transportation hub. This era came to an end in May 1937 with the opening of the
Golden Gate Bridge The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the strait connecting San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean. The structure links the U.S. city of San Francisco, California—the northern tip of the San Francisco Pen ...
. The bridge made large-scale ferry operations redundant, and since the new route of Highway 101 bypassed Sausalito entirely, in-town traffic was quickly reduced to a trickle. Car ferry service ended in March 1941 (passenger ferry service, however, continues to this day, linking downtown Sausalito with both the San Francisco Ferry Building in the Embarcadero, and Pier 39 in at Fisherman's Wharf). Northwestern Pacific also closed its Sausalito terminal in March 1941, although some tracks remained in use as "spur tracks" for freight trains as late as 1971.


Bootlegging and rum runners

Sausalito was a center for bootlegging during the era of
Prohibition in the United States In the United States from 1920 to 1933, a Constitution of the United States, nationwide constitutional law prohibition, prohibited the production, importation, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages. The alcohol industry was curtai ...
. Because of its location facing the Golden Gate and isolated from San Francisco by the same waterway, it was also a favorite landing spot for rum runners. The 1942 film '' China Girl'' has some footage of Sally Stanford's Valhalla restaurant on the waterfront. The scene shows the docks and illustrates rum running.


Industrialization during World War II

When the United States entered World War II, Fort Barry on Point Bonita was reoccupied. Fort Baker also hosted large numbers of troops. Barracks and other housing were constructed for soldiers. Few of these buildings remain. A major shipyard of the Bechtel Corporation called Marinship was sited along the shoreline of Sausalito. The thousands of laborers who worked here were largely housed in a nearby community constructed for them called Marin City. The soil which supports this area is
dredging Dredging is the excavation of material from a water environment. Possible reasons for dredging include improving existing water features; reshaping land and water features to alter drainage, navigability, and commercial use; constructing da ...
s from Richardson Bay that were placed during World War II as part of the Marin
shipyard A shipyard, also called a dockyard or boatyard, is a place where ships are built and repaired. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance a ...
s for the United States Navy. A total of were condemned by the government. A portion of this total area was formed in the shape of a peninsula and this peninsula became known as Schoonmaker Point. In honor of the city's contribution to the war effort, a Tacoma-class frigate was christened the in 1943. The ship ''Sausalito'', however, was not built in Sausalito but at one of the Kaiser Shipyards in
Richmond, California Richmond is a city in western Contra Costa County, California, United States. The city was municipal corporation, incorporated on August 7, 1905, and has a Richmond, California City Council, city council.
, also on the San Francisco Bay. The Marinship Shipyards were the site of incidents that provided a key early milestone in the civil rights movement. In 1944 in the case of ''James v. Marinship'' the California Supreme Court held that
African Americans African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
could not be excluded from jobs based on their race, even if the employer took no discriminatory actions. In the case of Joseph James, on whose behalf the suit was brought, the local Boilermakers Union excluded Blacks from membership and had a "closed shop" contract, forbidding the shipbuilder from employing anyone who was not a member of the union. African American workers could join an auxiliary of the union, which offered access to fewer jobs at lower pay. Future US
Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
justice Thurgood Marshall successfully argued the case, winning a ruling that the union be required to offer equal membership to African Americans. The court extended the ruling to apply explicitly to all unions and all workers in California.


Postwar years

Following World War II, a lively waterfront community grew out of the abandoned shipyards. By the late 1960s at least three
houseboat A houseboat is a boat that has been designed or modified to be used primarily as a home. Most houseboats are not motorized as they are usually moored or kept stationary at a fixed point, and often tethered to land to provide utilities. How ...
communities occupied the waterfront along and adjacent to Sausalito's shore. Beginning in the 1970s, an intense struggle erupted between houseboat residents and developers, dubbed the "Houseboat Wars". Forced removals by county authorities and sabotage by some on the waterfront characterized this struggle. This long fight pitted the waterfront against the "Hill People" – the rich on the hill looking down on the waterfront. Today three houseboat communities still exist — Galilee Harbor in Sausalito, Waldo Point Harbor and the Gates Cooperative, just outside the city limit. In 1965, the City of Sausalito sued the
County of Marin 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 ...
and a private developer for illegally zoning of land to build a city named Marincello adjacent to Sausalito. The city won the lawsuit in 1970, and the land was transferred as open space to the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. In 1997, The New York Times compared Sausalito to Devonport in Auckland due to its setting and scenery.


Government


Federal and state

In the United States House of Representatives, Sausalito is in . From 2008 to 2012, Huffman represented Marin County in the
California State Assembly The California State Assembly is the lower house of the California State Legislature, the upper house being the California State Senate. The Assembly convenes, along with the State Senate, at the California State Capitol in Sacramento. The A ...
. In the
California State Legislature The California State Legislature is a bicameral state legislature consisting of a lower house, the California State Assembly, with 80 members; and an upper house, the California State Senate, with 40 members. Both houses of the Legisla ...
, Sausalito is in: * * . According to the
California Secretary of State The secretary of state of California is the chief clerk of the U.S. state of California, overseeing a department of 500 people. The secretary of state is elected for four year terms, like the state's other constitutional officers; the officeho ...
, as of February 10, 2019, Sausalito has 5,430 registered voters. Of those, 2,905 (53.5%) are registered Democrats, 677 (12.5%) are registered
Republicans Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
, and 1,605 (30%) have declined to state a political party.


Demographics


2010

The
2010 United States Census The United States census of 2010 was the twenty-third United States national census. National Census Day, the reference day used for the census, was April 1, 2010. The census was taken via mail-in citizen self-reporting, with enumerators servin ...
reported that Sausalito had a population of 7,061. The population density was . The racial makeup of Sausalito was 6,400 (90.6%) White, 65 (0.9%)
African Americans African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
, 16 (0.2%) Native American, 342 (4.8%) Asian, 10 (0.1%) Pacific Islander, 53 (0.8%) from other races, and 175 (2.5%) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 287 persons (4.1%). The Census reported that 99.8% of the population lived in households and 0.2% lived in non-institutionalized group quarters. There were 4,112 households, out of which 420 (10.2%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 1,443 (35.1%) were opposite-sex married couples living together, 146 (3.6%) had a female householder with no husband present, 64 (1.6%) had a male householder with no wife present. There were 313 (7.6%)
unmarried opposite-sex partnerships POSSLQ ( , plural POSSLQs) is an abbreviation (or acronym) for "Person of Opposite Sex Sharing Living Quarters", a term coined in the late 1970s by the United States Census Bureau as part of an effort to more accurately gauge the prevalence of ...
, and 63 (1.5%) same-sex married couples or partnerships. 1,927 households (46.9%) were made up of individuals, and 524 (12.7%) had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 1.71. There were 1,653 families (40.2% of all households); the average family size was 2.39. The population was spread out, with 615 people (8.7%) under the age of 18, 159 people (2.3%) aged 18 to 24, 1,962 people (27.8%) aged 25 to 44, 2,830 people (40.1%) aged 45 to 64, and 1,495 people (21.2%) who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 51.1 years. For every 100 females, there were 90.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 89.2 males. There were 4,536 housing units at an average density of , of which 2,088 (50.8%) were owner-occupied, and 2,024 (49.2%) were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 2.1%; the rental vacancy rate was 5.8%. 3,783 people (53.6% of the population) lived in owner-occupied housing units and 3,265 people (46.2%) lived in rental housing units.


2000

As of the census of 2000, there were 7,330 people, 4,254 households, and 1,663 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 4,511 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city in 2010 was 87.4% non-Hispanic White, 0.9% non-Hispanic African American, 0.2% Native American, 4.8% Asian, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 0.3% from other races, and 2.2% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 4.1% of the population. There were 4,254 households, out of which 8.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 33.9% were
married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between t ...
living together, 3.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 60.9% were non-families. 45.7% of all households were made up of individuals, and 7.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 1.72 and the average family size was 2.34. In the city, the population was spread out, with 7.4% under the age of 18, 2.4% from 18 to 24, 39.5% from 25 to 44, 38.5% from 45 to 64, and 12.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 45 years. For every 100 females, there were 93.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 93.8 males. The median income for a household in the city was $87,469, and the median income for a family was $123,467. Males had a median income of $90,680 versus $56,576 for females. The per capita income for the city was $81,040. About 2.0% of families and 5.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 5.1% of those under age 18 and 5.5% of those age 65 or over.


Sister cities

*
Viña del Mar Viña del Mar (; meaning "Vineyard of the Sea") is a city and commune on central Chile's Pacific coast. Often referred to as ("The Garden City"), Viña del Mar is located within the Valparaíso Region, and it is Chile's fourth largest city w ...
, Chile * Sakaide, Kagawa, Japan *
Cascais Cascais () is a town and municipality in the Lisbon District of Portugal, located on the Portuguese Riviera. The municipality has a total of 214,158 inhabitants in an area of 97.40 km2. Cascais is an important tourism in Portugal, tourist de ...
, Portugal Sakaide is near the Seto Ohashi Bridge on the north coast of the island of Shikoku in Japan (established in 1988). The primary program is a youth cultural exchange program. Viña del Mar is located on the coast of Chile not far from Santiago (established 1960). The relationship features a Sausalito Stadium and a Sausalito Lagoon. Conversely, Sausalito's main plaza is named Viña del Mar in honor of the Chilean city. The primary program is 777 (7 women, 7 days, 7 dreams), an entrepreneurial training for Chilean Woman in Sausalito. Cascais is the newest sister city. This relationship was established in 2013. The primary program is a youth sailing exchange between Cascais and Sausalito, Clube Naval and the Sausalito Yacht Club.


Service organizations and clubs

Service organizations in Sausalito include the Lions Club,
Rotary Club Rotary International is one of the largest service organizations in the world. Its stated mission is to "provide service to others, promote integrity, and advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace through hefellowship of business, profe ...
, Sausalito Woman's Club, Sausalito Historical Society, the Sausalito Library Foundation, Friends of the Sausalito Library, Sausalito Art Festival Foundation, the Sausalito-on-the-Waterfront Foundation, and Richardson's Bay Maritime Association. Clubs include the
Sausalito Yacht Club The Sausalito Yacht Club (SYC) in the city of Sausalito, California on San Francisco Bay was founded in 1942 to promote yachting, both racing and cruising. History The seven founding members of the Sausalito Yacht Club, all under the age of ...
, Presidio Yacht Club and the Sausalito Cruising Club. The Sausalito-on-the-Waterfront Foundation, incorporated in May 2009, is a non-profit California
public benefit corporation Public-benefit corporation may refer to several types of corporate entity: United Kingdom * public benefit corporation, the legal form of NHS foundation trusts United States * Benefit corporation or public-benefit corporation, for profit but with ...
. Its mission is to educate the public on the history of the Sausalito waterfront and environmental issues related to San Francisco Bay, perpetuate life on San Francisco Bay and waterfront, sponsor boating activities and community events and provide educational scholarships and support to other non-profit organizations. Some activities of the foundation include the Sausalito Lighted Boat Parade and Fireworks, Opening Day on the Bay celebration, Youth Sailing Program, Burning Woman Artists Waterfront Exhibit, Kids Waterfront Day-in-the-Park and Jazz & Blues On-the-Waterfront. The Sausalito Yacht Harbor has slips for 600 vessels and is the southernmost harbor in Sausalito, adjacent to the central downtown area.


Tourism

Due to its location at the north end of the
Golden Gate Bridge The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the strait connecting San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean. The structure links the U.S. city of San Francisco, California—the northern tip of the San Francisco Pen ...
, Sausalito receives a steady stream of visitors via the bridge (auto and bicycle traffic) and a
ferry A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water taxi ...
service from San Francisco. It retains one of the few ungated marinas in the
Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Gov ...
that attracts visitors.


Media

For several decades Sausalito had a local newspaper called the ''MarinScope'', owned at times by Paul and Billy Anderson, and Vijay Mallya. However, as of 2018 the newspaper had ceased publication. Sausalito retains a small radio station founded by Jonathan Westerling,
Radio Sausalito Radio Sausalito is a " Part 15" AM radio station broadcasting a Big Band Jazz format on 1610 & 1710 kHz. The station is noncommercial and serves the Southern Marin County, California area. The station has partnerships with the local paper, th ...
1610 AM, which also serves as the city's Emergency Broadcasting System. The city's primary websites are the city's official site ci.Sausalito.ca.us, the Chamber of Commerce sausalito.org, a reference site oursausalito.com and a guide for locals and visitors to the area Sausalito.com.


Education

Sausalito is served by the
Sausalito Marin City School District Sausalito Marin City School District (SMCSD) is a public school district serving Sausalito and the unincorporated area of Marin City in Marin County, California. The school's administrative offices are in the Martin Luther King Jr. Academy faci ...
for primary school and the
Tamalpais Union High School District The Tamalpais Union High School District or TUHSD provides high school education to students residing in ten elementary districts in central and southern Marin County, California and parts of West Marin. The headquarters are on the property of ...
for secondary school.SCHOOLS in the Tamalpais Union High School District and communities served
."
Tamalpais Union High School District The Tamalpais Union High School District or TUHSD provides high school education to students residing in ten elementary districts in central and southern Marin County, California and parts of West Marin. The headquarters are on the property of ...
. Retrieved on April 1, 2010.
Effective 2021 the sole public school for the elementary district is Martin Luther King, Jr. Academy, with preschool and middle school in Marin City and elementary school in Sausalito. Previously residents had two public schools to choose from: the K-8 public school, then known as Bayside Martin Luther King, Jr. Academy, or the K-8 charter school
Willow Creek Academy Willow Creek Academy (WCA) was a K-8 public charter school located in Sausalito, California. It is part of the Sausalito Marin City School District and is located on the former campus of Bayside Elementary School next to its namesake, Willow Cre ...
in Sausalito. Willow Creek occupied ground of the former Bayside School in Sausalito. There are two private elementary schools: The K-12 Waldorf style New Village School, and PreK - 5 campus of the
Lycée Français de San Francisco The ''Lycée Français de San Francisco'' (LFSF), previously known as the ''Lycée Français La Pérouse'', is a private school in the San Francisco Bay Area. It welcomes students from preschool through middle, and High School grades. It has a pri ...
. High schoolers in public school attend Tamalpais High School in Mill Valley. Sausalito City Hall houses the Sausalito Public Library.


Parks and recreation

The public parks in Sausalito include Cazneau Playground, Cloud View Park, Dunphy Park, Gabrielson Park, Harrison Playground, Martin Luther King Park and Dog Park, Langendorf Park, Marinship Park, South View Park, Robin Sweeny Park, Tiffany Park, Vina del Mar Plaza, and
Yee Tock Chee *Yu (Chinese surname) (Chinese: 余) *Yee (surname) ( simp. 叶, trad. 葉) -- variants Yee, Yeh, Yip/Ip, Yap, Yapp Notable people with surname Yee (余) Persons with surname "Yee"(余) include: *Charmaine Yee (born 1987), Singaporean emcee a ...
Park. The public beaches include Schoonmaker Beach, Swede's Beach and Tiffany Beach. Sausalito also has a municipal fishing pier and the Turney Street Boat Ramp. A club house/game room and an exercise room are located in the city hall.


Houseboats

The Sausalito houseboat community consists of more than 400 houseboats of various shapes, sizes, and values, along the north end of town, approximately two miles from downtown. While some of these are technically outside the Sausalito city limits, they are generally acknowledged as forming an integral part of the Sausalito community. The roots of the houseboat community lie in the re-use of abandoned boats and material after the de-commissioning of the Marinship shipyards at the end of World War II. Many anchor-outs came to the area, which created problems with sanitation and other issues. After a series of tense confrontations in the 1970s and 1980s, additional regulations were applied to the area and the great majority of boats were relocated to approved docks. From 77 boats in the water in 1977, there were about 18 boats left in 2019. Several are architect-designed pieces that have been featured in major magazines. The Gates Co-op Houseboat Community remains to this day, although recent action has required them to fit city-standards of sanitation and building codes. The humming toadfish makes mating noises underwater, keeping some residents awake at night.Hum along with male plainfin midshipman fish.
Morning Edition. National Public Radio. July 29, 2009.
Bishop, K

''The New York Times''. June 26, 1989.
Sounds of the Plainfin Midshipman.
Underwater Sound from the RTC Pier. Underwater Acoustics Research Group. San Francisco State University.
Perlman, D
Hormones fine-tune the humming toadfish: High levels of estrogen found in the most responsive females.
''San Francisco Chronicle''. July 19, 2004.


Notable people

The following is a list of notable residents of Sausalito, past and present.


Past

*
Leon Adams Leon David Adams (February 1, 1905 – September 14, 1995) was an American journalist, publicist, historian and co-founder of the Wine Institute. In 1958, Adams book ''Commonsense Book of Wine'' was published, which sought to bring table wi ...
, wine writer and author of ''Wines of America'', lived in Sausalito until his death. * Etel Adnan, Arab-American visual artist, poet, and writer (Also partner
Simone Fattal Simone Fattal (Arabic: سيمون فتال ; born 1942) is a Lebanese-American artist. She was born in Damascus and was educated in Beirut and Paris, studying philosophy at the Sorbonne. She returned to Beirut in 1969, where she began a career as ...
) * Enid Foster, artist, sculptor, playwright, art community leader * Phil Frank, cartoonist of "Farley" comic strip in the ''San Francisco Chronicle''. Headed up placing the Marinship exhibit in the Bay Model and setting up the exhibits in the Ice House Visitor Center. * Sterling Hayden, film actor and sailor * William Randolph Hearst, newspaper publisher *
Janis Joplin Janis Lyn Joplin (January 19, 1943 – October 4, 1970) was an American singer and musician. One of the most successful and widely known Rock music, rock stars of her era, she was noted for her powerful mezzo-soprano vocals and "electric" stage ...
, singer (lived in house on 501 Bridgeway) * Tim Lincecum, San Francisco Giants pitcher * Baby Face Nelson, gangster of the 1920s * Frederick O'Brien, writer of travel books about Pacific islands * Frank Oppenheimer, particle physicist and founder of the
Exploratorium The Exploratorium is a museum of science, technology, and arts in San Francisco, California. Characterized as "a mad scientist's penny arcade, a scientific funhouse, and an experimental laboratory all rolled into one", the participatory natur ...
in San Francisco * Harry Partch, composer and creator of musical instruments; set up a studio in an abandoned Sausalito shipyard in 1953 * Otis Redding, musician, wrote "
(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" is a song co-written by soul singer Otis Redding and guitarist Steve Cropper. It was recorded by Redding twice in 1967, including once just three days before his death in a plane crash on December 10, 1967. Th ...
" while staying on a houseboat at Waldo Point in Sausalito in 1967. * Shel Silverstein, poet * Sally Stanford, former Sausalito City Council member and mayor, founder of the restaurant Valhalla; ran a well-known brothel at 1144 Pine Street in San Francisco * Alan Watts, 20th-century philosopher (The
Sausalito Library The Sausalito Library is a public library serving the City of Sausalito and environs in Marin County, California. The library opened in 1974 at its present location of 420 Litho Street in Sausalito (inside City Hall). The library collection consis ...
owns permanent collections of audio recordings of Watts' spoken words and other material.)


Present-day

* Isabelle Allende, author * Dave Eggers, author and philanthropist *
Neal Gottlieb ''Survivor'' is an American reality television show, based on the Swedish program, ''Expedition Robinson''. Contestants are referred to as "castaways" and they compete against one another to become the "Sole Survivor" and win one million U.S. dol ...
, ice cream entrepreneur and '' Survivor: Kaoh Rong'' contestant *
Joanie Greggains Joanie Greggains (1944–2022) was an American fitness instructor. Greggains was the radio host of ''The Joanie Greggains Show'', a weekend health and fitness program on KSRO Radio, Santa Rosa, California. She was also known for her long-running ...
, fitness influence and media figure, former KGO radio host * Vijay Mallya, Indian liquor magnate * Jason Roberts, author and technologist * Amy Tan, author * Chase Utley, Major League Baseball player


Industry

*Heath Ceramics, founded by mid-century modern ceramicist
Edith Heath Edith Kiertzner Heath (May 24, 1911 – December 27, 2005) was an American studio potter and founder of Heath Ceramics. The company, well known for its mid-century modern Ceramic art, ceramic tableware, including "Heathware," and architectura ...
, has been operating in Sausalito since 1948. *From 1972 to 2008, the
Record Plant The Record Plant is a recording studio established in New York City in 1968 and currently operating in Los Angeles, California. Known for innovations in the recording artists' workspace, it has produced highly influential albums, including Blon ...
recording studio operated from a 10,000 square foot complex on the Sausalito waterfront. The hundreds of albums recorded there include
Fleetwood Mac Fleetwood Mac are a British-American rock band, formed in London in 1967. Fleetwood Mac were founded by guitarist Peter Green, drummer Mick Fleetwood and guitarist Jeremy Spencer, before bassist John McVie joined the line-up for their epony ...
's '' Rumours'',
Stevie Wonder Stevland Hardaway Morris ( Judkins; May 13, 1950), known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, who is credited as a pioneer and influence by musicians across a range of genres that include rhythm and blues, Pop musi ...
's '' Songs in the Key of Life'', and Heart's eponymous debut. *In addition to Marinship, which built ships during World War II, Sausalito has a long history of boatbuilding. These boatyards specialized in a variety of vessels, including fishing and other work boats, government-contract vessels and recreational yachts. Many boatyards came and went in Sausalito in the late 19th century and early 20th century, including G. Smith, Brixen and Manfrey, the California Launch Building Company, the Reliance Boat Company, Nunes Brothers (Manuel and Antonio), Atlantic Boatbuilding Plant, Crichton and Arques, Sausalito Shipbuilding,
Madden and Lewis Company Madden, Lewis or Madden and Lewis Company or Madden and Lewis Corp. was a wooden shipbuilding company in Sausalito, California. To support the World War 2 demand for ships Madden, Lewis shipyard switched over to military construction and built: U ...
, Menotti Pasquinucci and Bob's Boatyard. After World War II, the best known yards are, or were, Spaulding Boatworks, Bob's Boatyard, Easom Boatworks, Sausalito Marine, Bayside Boatworks, Richardson Bay Boat, the Boatbuilders Co-op and Anderson's Boat Yard. *The Spaulding Boatworks was founded in 1951 by Myron Spaulding and has been in continuous operation since then. It is one of the last remaining wooden boat yards on the West Coast. Today, the Spaulding Wooden Boat Center is a working and living museum, with a mission to restore and return to active use significant, historic wooden sailing vessels; preserve and enhance its working boatyard; create a place where people can gather to use, enjoy, and learn about wooden boats; and educate others about wooden boat building skills, traditions and values. *Mason's Distillery, acquired by the American Distilling Company in 1933, manufactured and distributed various brands of whiskey, including "Bourbon Supreme". The distillery was destroyed by fire on May 4, 1963; the site is now the location of "Whiskey Springs" condominiums. *The Southern Pacific ferryboat '' Berkeley'' was docked in Sausalito for several years during the 1960s after being taken out of service. It was subsequently towed to San Diego where it was restored and is a tourist attraction. *The bakery Pepperidge Farm, which markets The American Collection line of cookies named after various notable locales (Chesapeake, Nantucket, Tahoe), has given the name Sausalito to their milk chocolate/macadamia-nut combo. It is not manufactured in the city. As of 2011, the company maintains a registered trademark on the name Sausalito.


In popular culture


Film, television, and video games

*The 1978 film '' Invasion of the Body Snatchers'' by Philip Kaufman has a scene in front of the Health Department of San Francisco where alien pods are distributed. A speaker says: "You are in the right place for Sausalito. Please keep moving right along. Sausalito only, please." *The 1978 film '' The Manitou'' by William Girdler mentions doctor of anthropology, Dr. Snow played by Burgess Meredith as living in Sausalito, where main characters meet him. *A section of the 1892 novel '' The Wrecker'', by Robert Louis Stevenson and Lloyd Osborn, is set in Sausalito. *The opening of '' The Sea-Wolf'' by Jack London is set on a ferryboat travelling from Sausalito to San Francisco. It is believed that London stayed for a time in Sausalito while he was writing the novel. *Scenes in the 1947 film '' The Lady from Shanghai'', directed by Orson Welles, take place on the Sausalito waterfront with Rita Hayworth. *The 1949 film '' Impact'', directed by Arthur Lubin, features downtown Sausalito in its opening scenes. *In
Jack Kerouac Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac (; March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969), known as Jack Kerouac, was an American novelist and poet who, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, was a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Of French-Canadian a ...
's ''
On the Road ''On the Road'' is a 1957 novel by American writer Jack Kerouac, based on the travels of Kerouac and his friends across the United States. It is considered a defining work of the postwar Beat and Counterculture generations, with its protagonis ...
'', Sausalito is mentioned as "a little fishing village" and a joke is made about it being "filled with Italians". *Many scenes in the 1965 film ''
Dear Brigitte ''Dear Brigitte'' is a 1965 American DeLuxe Color family–comedy in CinemaScope starring James Stewart and directed by Henry Koster. Plot Robert Leaf ( James Stewart) is an American college professor, who won a Pulitzer for poetry and pr ...
'' with
James Stewart James Maitland Stewart (May 20, 1908 – July 2, 1997) was an American actor and military pilot. Known for his distinctive drawl and everyman screen persona, Stewart's film career spanned 80 films from 1935 to 1991. With the strong morality h ...
, Glynis Johns, Ed Wynn, Bill Mumy, and Fabian Forte were filmed on the Sausalito shores of Richardson Bay. *The 1968 film '' Petulia'' has Richard Chamberlain fishing Julie Christie out of the water at the foot of Johnson Street. Potted trees and other shrubbery, situated as set decorations on the adjacent docks, were left in place after filming had ended. *'' M*A*S*H'' fictional character
B. J. Hunnicutt This is a list of characters from the ''M*A*S*H'' franchise, covering the various fictional characters appearing in the novel '' MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors'' and its sequels, the 1970 film adaptation of the novel, and the televis ...
was portrayed as having completed his medical residency in Sausalito (an impossibility, as the town has never had a hospital). His peacetime address is in Mill Valley, the town adjacent to Sausalito. He also mentions several times going to "a nice restaurant in Sausalito with his wife, Peg". *A scene from the 1972 movie '' Play It Again, Sam'' was shot using interiors of the Trident restaurant and exteriors of the Spinnaker restaurant in Sausalito. In the film, actors Woody Allen and Tony Roberts are seen entering the Spinnaker restaurant with the ferryboat '' Berkeley'', then tied up in Sausalito with the retail emporium Trade Fair in the background. The scene then cuts to the interior of the Trident. *In the 1978 comic farce mystery detective thriller '' Foul Play'', Gloria Mundy (played by Goldie Hawn) comes under the protection of San Francisco detective Lt. Tony Carlson (played by Chevy Chase), who brings her to his houseboat in Sausalito. *In the 1978 novel ''
The House of God ''The House of God'' is a satirical novel by Samuel Shem (a pseudonym used by psychiatrist Stephen Bergman), published in 1978. The novel follows a group of medical interns at a fictionalized version of Beth Israel Hospital over the course o ...
'', the intern Hooper hails from Sausalito. *In '' Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home'', the fictional Cetacean Institute is in Sausalito. Although several scenes took place there, no filming was done in Sausalito itself. The actual filming location for the fictional institute was the Monterey Bay Aquarium in
Monterey, California Monterey (; es, Monterrey; Ohlone: ) is a city located in Monterey County on the southern edge of Monterey Bay on the U.S. state of California's Central Coast. Founded on June 3, 1770, it functioned as the capital of Alta California under bo ...
. * Craig Thomas set the home of Alan Aubrey in Sausalito in his 1990 thriller ''The Last Raven''. *
Albert Brooks Albert Brooks (born Albert Lawrence Einstein ; July 22, 1947) is an American actor and filmmaker. He received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for 1987's '' Broadcast News'' and was widely praised for his performance as a ...
' '' Mother'' (
1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...
) employs the town as the setting for its story, which features several shots of Sausalito throughout. *In
David Fincher David Andrew Leo Fincher (born August 28, 1962) is an American film director. His films, mostly psychological thrillers and biographical dramas, have received 40 nominations at the Academy Awards, including three for him as Best Director. Fin ...
's 1997 film ''
The Game The Game or The Games may refer to: Sports and games * The Game (dice game) (German: ''Das Spiel''), a dice game designed by Reinhold Wittig * The Game (mind game), a mind game, the objective of which is to avoid thinking about The Game itself * ...
'', set in San Francisco, Nicholas Van Orton's ( Michael Douglas) ex-wife lives in Sausalito. *'' Sausalito'' is the English title of a 2000 Hong Kong film directed by Lau Wai Keung, starring
Maggie Cheung Maggie Cheung Man-yuk (; born 20 September 1964) is a Hong Kong former actress. Raised in Hong Kong and Britain, she started her career after placing second in 1983's Miss Hong Kong Pageant. She achieved critical success in the late 1980s and in ...
. *In the television series '' Star Trek: Enterprise'', a Vulcan "compound" is based in Sausalito, although it is not depicted; Fort Baker, which borders Sausalito is shown, and has become the site of
Starfleet Headquarters Starfleet is a fictional organization in the ''Star Trek'' media franchise. Within this fictional universe, Starfleet is a uniformed space force maintained by the United Federation of Planets ("the Federation") as the principal means for conduc ...
. In ''Rise of the Federation - Uncertain Logic'', set in 2165, Admiral Jonathan Archer lives in a
houseboat A houseboat is a boat that has been designed or modified to be used primarily as a home. Most houseboats are not motorized as they are usually moored or kept stationary at a fixed point, and often tethered to land to provide utilities. How ...
in Sausalito. *In Sofia Coppola's 2003 film '' Lost in Translation'', a jazz band called Sausalito performs at the Park Hyatt Bar. * In the 2005 video game '' Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas'', there is a town based on Sausalito, named Bayside. * Judd Apatow's 2009 dramedy '' Funny People'' uses Sausalito as the backdrop for the film's third act where Leslie Mann and Eric Bana's characters live with their family. * 2010 racing video game '' Blur'' featured a track ostensibly set in Sausalito, although the game track does not resemble the actual landscape. * The 2012 ABC series '' Red Widow'' was based in Sausalito. However, it was actually filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The series' main stars were Radha Mitchell and Goran Visnjic. * The 2014-2016 TNT series, '' Murder in the First'', the main detective character lives on a Sausalito houseboat. * Sausalito is one of the districts in the 2016 video game '' Watch Dogs 2''. * In the 2021 film "The Addams Family 2", the family visits Sausalito.


Music

*"
(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" is a song co-written by soul singer Otis Redding and guitarist Steve Cropper. It was recorded by Redding twice in 1967, including once just three days before his death in a plane crash on December 10, 1967. Th ...
" by Otis Redding was written by the R&B singer in 1967 as he sat on a rented houseboat docked at Commodore Seaplane Base in Sausalito. Though it may be the most famous musical reference to Sausalito's geography, it remains an oblique one as the city is not specifically named. *" Sausilito", a top ten hit for Netherlands duo Rosy & Andres in 1975 *"Sausalito", Dead Fish (band), ''Vitória'', 2015 *"Head Like a Rock", Ian McNabb, 1994 *"Postcard", Roddy Frame, ''Seven Dials'', 2014 *"Jack Kerouac", Brooke Fraser, Flags, 2010 *"Sausalito",
George Duke George M. Duke (January 12, 1946 – August 5, 2013) was an American keyboardist, composer, singer-songwriter and record producer. He worked with numerous artists as arranger, music director, writer and co-writer, record producer and as a pr ...
, ''Duke'', 2005 *"Sausalito (The Governor's Song)", Bobby Darin, 1969 *" Sausalito Summernight", Diesel, 1980-1981 (#25 - Billboard, #1 in Canada) *"Samba de Sausalito", Santana, '' Welcome'', 1973 album *"
Mr. Don ''Mister'', usually written in its contracted form ''Mr.'' or ''Mr'', is a commonly used English honorific for men without a higher honorific, or professional title, or any of various designations of office. The title 'Mr' derived from earlier ...
", The Disco Biscuits *"Sausalito", Grover Washington, Jr., ''Grover Washington Live in Concert'', 1977 *"Sausalito (is the Place to Go)", Ohio Express "Best of Ohio Express" *"Sausalito", Conor Oberst, "Conor Oberst" 2008 *"One Way Ticket" by Mimi and Richard Farina in Celebrations for a Grey Day *"Sausalito", Los Abatidos, ''Los Abatidos'', 1999. *"Let It Flow (Sausalito Calling)", Camelle Hinds, "Soul Degrees", 1996 * "Sausalito in the Summertime" Benita Hill *"Real Emotional Trash",
Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks is an American rock band consisting of Stephen Malkmus, Mike Clark, Joanna Bolme, and Jake Morris. Malkmus was the main singer and songwriter behind the influential 1990s indie rock band Pavement. History The Ji ...
, ''Real Emotional Trash'', 2008. *"Don't Let Up", Night Ranger, ''Don't Let Up'', 2017 *”Sausalito”, Larry June, Very Peaceful, 2017 *”6am in Sausalito”, Larry June, Orange Print, 2021


See also

* List of cities and towns in California * List of cities and towns in the San Francisco Bay Area


References


Further reading

* Tracy, Jack. ''Sausalito Moments in Time: A Pictorial History of Sausalito 1850–1950''. Sausalito:
Windgate Press Windgate Press is a small American publisher located in Sausalito, California whose focus is on San Francisco and California photographic history. See also *List of publishers The following are lists of publishing companies. By language *List ...
1983. . * Sausalito Historical Society. ''Sausalito (Images of America)''. San Francisco: Arcadia Publishing, 2005. .


External links

*
Sausalito Chamber of Commerce
{{authority control Artist colonies Cities in Marin County, California Cities in the San Francisco Bay Area Incorporated cities and towns in California Tourist attractions in the San Francisco Bay Area Populated coastal places in California