What makes Mill Valley, Mill Valley?
Nearly 50 people filled Sweetwater Music Hall on Tuesday evening for Mill Valley Briefing's launch event, a panel conversation about what makes this town what it is, and what it risks losing.
The four panelists were invited by the Briefing to represent different perspectives on the community. Historian and author Joyce Kleiner opened with a simple question: what made Mill Valley yours. The answers set the tone for everything that followed.
The four panelists brought different angles to the same town.
Community artist Tim Ryan, who has lived in Mill Valley for 29 years, was direct about what kept him here.
"Mill Valley is special for me because it's a bunch of people that want to do. And when we do things, we run parcel taxes, we run bonds, we have elections that are contentious and that have meaning and outcome."
Erma Murphy, executive director of the O'Hanlon Center for the Arts, was more direct about the pressures and said most working artists in Mill Valley can't survive on their art alone.
"They have to do other things as well to be here."
An audience member put it plainly in a written comment: Rita Abrams, who wrote and performed the Mill Valley song, has since moved away, saying publicly she could no longer afford to stay.
Raven Twilling, a policy advocate who graduated from Tam High in 2018, said she only understood what Mill Valley meant to her once she left for college in Los Angeles. Coming back gave her a clearer view of what she had taken for granted. She mentioned the Depot as a hub where teenagers could hang out and feel part of the community.
"You could be a middle school student and know that people around you care about you. That is such a unique thing."
Veery Maxwell, a founding partner at Galvanize Climate Solutions, moved to Mill Valley from San Francisco during COVID looking for something warmer and closer to nature.
"The neighbors that have been there for 30 years kind of embracing all of the new families that have come in. Everyone here has been unbelievably welcoming. It's not just neighborhood by neighborhood. It's just part of the DNA of the community."
The four panelists agreed that Mill Valley has built something exceptional, but also said the town needs new sparks. Miller Nights, a series of summer Friday gatherings planned for Miller Avenue, came up as an example of the kind of initiative that brings the town together.
