I really wanted to go and hear what they were planning to focus on but a work commitment prevented me from attending.

From the looks of the video, I'm glad I didn't go as it looks like the meeting got sidetracked by activists who want to keep the planning for more stringent greenhouse gas emissions from moving forward. Climate change deniers in Marin - who'da thunk it?

Well...I was there. Where to start...I thought I was going to participate in a community meeting of Marin residents to provide input to MTC on the regional plan...naive boy,nothing of the sort. The entire evening was usurped by a group of about 15 active (yelling, filming, etc) and maybe another 25 passive (knitting, smiling,cheering on the first group) Tea Party activists. While each seemed to have their own particular hobby horse (the evil of govt, taxation, denial of climate change etc) a common theme had something to do with their perception that this planning process was somehow linked to a UN takeover, as in United Nations, of the United states. I'm not kidding. I thought I had stepped into Bizzaro World. I thought at any moment Alan Funt was going to come up to me and let me in on the joke. No such luck. Frankly , the video above doesn't even really capture the disruptive impact of the group. I sat through two sessions that resulted in no meaningful input to the plan, mainly due to the fact that the entire time was spent listening to Tea Party shouted interruptions and demands for explanations. It was ludicrous. A colleague who I know from MTC told me that this group has been showing up at all these local meetings. Few of them were even Marin residents. My public comment to the officials was to urge them to abandon this process because it was pointless, having been taken over by the mob. Bizzaro World in Marin...who knew.

Too bad people were being rude at the event. I hate it when people talk over other people. I would have gone, but the sign up said it was filled. Looked like there were a lot of empty seats.

Sounds like the Vice Mayor of Corte Madera was voicing a concern that local people / governments are not being listened to.

The low info tea party types and other science impaired luddites are trying to return us to the age of the robber barons and earth destruction in the name of their own selfish short sighted ignorance...often egged on by their corporate masters. Why in the world would they want to railroad a democratic gathering for discussion?

One Bay Area plan is a responsible and reasonable approach to comprehensive land and transportation planning for a very densely populated region. Other countries in the world have approached regional planning in a civil and socially just way, the Netherlands for example. Their Green Plan approach is a bottom up approach. The top down planning model being used by ABAG will not succeed in a culturally diverse and economically stratified region like the SF Bay Region.

I attended this meeting because I was curious about the ongoing planning process. I was in attendance at the first meeting, which was held last year at the nearby Embassy Suites, and it was fairly civil.

Unfortunately, a group of about 15 noisy conspiracy theorists (I won't call them Tea Party activists because I'm not sure that's an appropriate label) attempted to disrupt every aspect of the meeting. They shouted over other participants and had a decidedly agitated manner towards workshop staff and anyone else they thought was behind a United Nations plot to overthrow the United States. Not kidding.

In one of the break-out sessions, for example, an older man (I will NOT call him a "gentleman") angrily asked questions of the staff present, and then he proceeded to talk *over* the staff while they answered his questions, proclaiming that they were not answering his questions.

This type of behavior persisted throughout the evening, and a meaningful discussion did not occur because the noisy loonies overshadowed everything. What a mockery of the planning process Tuesday night was!

Valeri...I totally agree that we should not dismiss these folks out of hand. While they are likely on the fringe of the spectrum, they do give voice to a fear/anxiety that seems to permeate many political discussions these days, both from the left and the right. That is, that somehow "outside forces' are conspiring to take over. If it's the extreme Occupy folks, those forces are some manifestation of Capitalism, and for the the Agenda 21 folks , its some socialist agenda...hmmm...this is all starting to sound eerily familiar....

I appreciate all the previous comments. I attended this meeting and came away thinking it's hard to decide who was doing the most railroading: the disruptive members of the audience or the incompetent facilitators/leaders of this meeting who responded like puppets to say "that's a really good question" to every question that was asked, but never answered any of them. Financial expert Suze Orman was on "Meet the Press" on 1/15 and gave government an "F" in financial management and blamed government policies (or lack thereof) and agencies for eliminating the middle class and creating the freeway to poverty. OneBayArea speeds up that freeway. It attempts to reach a stated goal of reducing green house gas emissions by 15% by 2035, but instead of inviting public participation to build understanding and support of this goal, they've jumped to the conclusion that the problem can be solved by building high density housing near transit, without considering the wealth of other options. People are frustrated with undocumented assumptions, unrealistic projections, and an overwhelming feeling of manipulation from both sides of the issue. Planning is good, but SB375 is an example of poor legislation. It ought to be repealed to get a fresh start.

I really wanted to hear the definition of the term "Social Equity" It was used multiple times in reference to housing and land use. Any know what it means ?

Dear Mr. Shaw
Check out UN Agenda 21...it is chock full of the term "social equity" and "social justice". We must be fair as a society, if you have something, I have to have it too. Under Agenda 21 private property is social injustice because not everyone has private property so it is unfair, it it not equal. Under Agenda 21 private property must be abolished. Please don't believe me; please go read it for yourself. Find out if your town is a member of the ICLEI and follow the trail to Agenda 21. It is fairly simple, they do not hide it at all. I guarantee you won't like what you read.
Most Sincerely,

Tammy Tedesco