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How Can We Prepare for Sea Level Rise?

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Sea levels on Marin County’s coast are rising – up by more than eight inches in the past 100 years. The rate is expected to accelerate, and that could affect hundreds of residents in our coastal communities in the future.

 

The C-SMART project (Collaboration: Sea-level Marin Adaptation Response Team) is working to bring West Marin communities together to better understand the challenges and identify possible preparedness solutions. The third set of C-SMART public workshops hosted by the Marin County Community Development Agency is taking place in May and June. The schedule is:

 

Saturday, May 30, 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. at the Point Reyes Station Dance Palace, 503 B Street, Point Reyes Station.

 

Saturday, June 6, 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. at the Stinson Beach Community Center, 32 Belvedere Ave., Stinson Beach.

 

“People have called sea-level rise a ‘slow moving emergency,’” said County Planning Manager Jack Liebster. “While we are already seeing initial impacts such as flooding of more area during the highest tides of the years, changes in sea level and storm patterns are expected to continue in a gradual way. We want to get prepared and develop ways to adapt to these changes so we can avoid suffering serious impacts in the future. Some of the responses we will need to consider have long lead times, and other may be required sooner. The people and communities who could be affected need to understand and consider the choices we all could face and actively participate in how those choices are made.”

 

Rising sea levels are driven by thermal expansion of the ocean and the melting of glaciers and ice sheets. By 2100, climate experts estimate a nearly 70-inch rise in sea levels from what we experience today. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, 500,000 people, one million jobs, and $100 billion in property are threatened by sea-level rise along the California coast over the next century.

 

At the meetings, subject matter experts will present concepts for helping to protect coastal assets from increased sea-level rise and storm impacts. To become familiar with this information, workshop attendees will be invited to participate in the ‘Game of Floods,’ a role-playing activity to educate about sea-level rise adaptation strategies including tradeoffs, impacts, and costs. Participants will be asked to suggest ideas on adaptation strategies that could work for their communities.

 

Get a taste of the science behind the work and the overall project scope by watching this video from a July 2014 meeting. Subscribe to receive e-mailed updates and find a lot more information on www.MarinSLR.org.

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Oakland Post: Week of April 30 – May 6, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of April 30 – May 6, 2025

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Gov. Newsom Approves $170 Million to Fast Track Wildfire Resilience

AB 100 approves major investments in regional conservancies across the state, including over $30 million each for the Sierra Nevada, Santa Monica Mountains, State Coastal, and San Gabriel/Lower LA Rivers and Mountains conservancies. An additional $10 million will support wildfire response and resilience efforts.

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Courtesy of California Governor Gavin Newsom’s Facebook page.
Courtesy of California Governor Gavin Newsom’s Facebook page.

By Bo Tefu
California Black Media

With wildfire season approaching, last week Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill (AB) 100, unlocking $170 million to fast-track wildfire prevention and forest management projects — many of which directly protect communities of color, who are often hardest hit by climate-driven disasters.

“With this latest round of funding, we’re continuing to increase the speed and size of forest and vegetation management essential to protecting communities,” said Newsom when he announced the funding on April 14.

“We are leaving no stone unturned — including cutting red tape — in our mission to ensure our neighborhoods are protected from destructive wildfires,” he said.

AB 100 approves major investments in regional conservancies across the state, including over $30 million each for the Sierra Nevada, Santa Monica Mountains, State Coastal, and San Gabriel/Lower LA Rivers and Mountains conservancies. An additional $10 million will support wildfire response and resilience efforts.

Newsom also signed an executive order suspending certain regulations to allow urgent work to move forward faster.

This funding builds on California’s broader Wildfire and Forest Resilience Action Plan, a $2.7 billion effort to reduce fuel loads, increase prescribed burning, and harden communities. The state has also launched new dashboards to keep the public informed and hold agencies accountable.

California has also committed to continue investing $200 million annually through 2028 to expand this effort, ensuring long-term resilience, particularly in vulnerable communities.

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California Rideshare Drivers and Supporters Step Up Push to Unionize

Today in California, over 600,000 rideshare drivers want the ability to form or join unions for the sole purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid and protection. It’s a right, and recently at the State Capitol, a large number of people, including some rideshare drivers and others working in the gig economy, reaffirmed that they want to exercise it. 

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Shutterstock
Shutterstock

By Antonio‌ ‌Ray‌ ‌Harvey‌
California‌ ‌Black‌ ‌Media‌

On July 5, 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into federal law the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). Also known as the “Wagner Act,” the law paved the way for employees to have “the right to self-organization, to form, join, or assist labor organizations,” and “to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing, according to the legislation’s language.

Today in California, over 600,000 rideshare drivers want the ability to form or join unions for the sole purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid and protection. It’s a right, and recently at the State Capitol, a large number of people, including some rideshare drivers and others working in the gig economy, reaffirmed that they want to exercise it.

On April 8, the rideshare drivers held a rally with lawmakers to garner support for Assembly Bill (AB) 1340, the “Transportation Network Company Drivers (TNC) Labor Relations Act.”

Authored by Assemblymembers Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland) and Marc Berman (D-Menlo Park), AB 1340 would allow drivers to create a union and negotiate contracts with industry leaders like Uber and Lyft.

“All work has dignity, and every worker deserves a voice — especially in these uncertain times,” Wicks said at the rally. “AB 1340 empowers drivers with the choice to join a union and negotiate for better wages, benefits, and protections. When workers stand together, they are one of the most powerful forces for justice in California.”

Wicks and Berman were joined by three members of the California Legislative Black Caucus (CLBC): Assemblymembers Tina McKinnor (D-Inglewood), Sade Elhawary (D-Los Angeles), and Isaac Bryan (D-Ladera Heights).

Yvonne Wheeler, president of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor; April Verrett, President of Service Employees International Union (SEIU); Tia Orr, Executive Director of SEIU; and a host of others participated in the demonstration on the grounds of the state capitol.

“This is not a gig. This is your life. This is your job,” Bryan said at the rally. “When we organize and fight for our collective needs, it pulls from the people who have so much that they don’t know what to do with it and puts it in the hands of people who are struggling every single day.”

Existing law, the “Protect App-Based Drivers and Services Act,” created by Proposition (Prop) 22, a ballot initiative, categorizes app-based drivers for companies such as Uber and Lyft as independent contractors.

Prop 22 was approved by voters in the November 2020 statewide general election. Since then, Prop 22 has been in court facing challenges from groups trying to overturn it.

However, last July, Prop 22 was upheld by the California Supreme Court last July.

In a 2024, statement after the ruling, Lyft stated that 80% of the rideshare drivers they surveyed acknowledged that Prop 22 “was good for them” and  “median hourly earnings of drivers on the Lyft platform in California were 22% higher in 2023 than in 2019.”

Wicks and Berman crafted AB 1340 to circumvent Prop 22.

“With AB 1340, we are putting power in the hands of hundreds of thousands of workers to raise the bar in their industry and create a model for an equitable and innovative partnership in the tech sector,” Berman said.

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