A College Town

Over the course of the last few years there has been an insistence by our Mayor that Marina should be a college town.  Although he has had a difficult time expressing just what that means, he defaults to say a fun and energetic town. I think we can all agree that a fun and energetic town is great but what does that really mean? Does that mean a town full of bars, clubs, and small student related stores? Do the demographics even come close to making this possible? Do we give up on who we are in the process?

The Mayor regularly refers to both his alma mater Humbolt State (Arcata) and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (San Luis Obispo) as colleges and towns Marina should emulate. Let’s think about that for a minute.

 Cal Poly SLO has a student and faculty population of some 22,000 in a town of some 45,000 and a small surrounding county of over 269,000. The county itself is very concentrated in the immediate area around the town. Not something that Marina can emulate. As for Humbolt State, they have a student and faculty population of some 9,000 in a town of just over 17,000. Here half of the population of the town is, in fact students. Again something Marina could never emulate.

So what is Marina today and what do we want our City to be in the future? I would argue that a couple of recent events tell us who we are and actually dictate who we want to be in the future. First our recent Labor Day parade, a Marina tradition that was rekindled with community support and a huge effort by the American Legion. It was a nice parade filled with community groups, politicians, schools and a fabulous contingent of our country’s military. There was not one entry from our college communities be it CSUMB, MPC or Hartnell.

The other event was the dedication of the CAPT Gordon R. Nakagawa Memorial Pilot Lounge at the Marina Airport. This event, on a breezy Friday afternoon at the Marina Airport was attended by a hundred family, community and retired military members that represent the best of Marina. This is Marina’s core, the ones that are here for the long run and want to help make Marina thrive.

So what is Marina really? Marina is a family friendly, ethnically diverse, retired military town that is open to all, be they tourists, visitors, shoppers or college students. Marina is a town that continues to pursue a diversified economy that will benefit all, not just one particular demographic. So let’s give up the idea of being something we are not and celebrate who we are and work together to make Marina a community that we are all proud of today and tomorrow.

More later.