Editorial: Kate Colin, Rachel Kertz best for key seats in San Rafael races

San Rafael is facing a lot of changes and challenges.

It is going to continue to see a lot of growth. Homelessness continues to be a vexing issue and the city has to facilitate changes to protect heavily populated low-lying areas, including businesses there, from sea level rise.

At the same time, the city police department is continuing to work to improve trust with San Rafael’s Latino population in the wake of outcry in reaction to a 2022 arrest that left a Canal man bloodied and injured.

One might expect that on the Nov. 5 ballot any one of these issues might generate challenges to the reelection of incumbent Mayor Kate Colin and one-term Councilmember Rachel Kertz.

Both face challengers, but those challengers have not shown they have the local political experience and knowledge of pressing issues that both Colin and Kertz are providing in leading Marin’s largest city.

Both Colin and Kertz should be reelected.

Colin is a hardworking and enthusiastic champion for San Rafael. She is the city’s first woman mayor and has led with a businesslike, problem-solving approach to issues.

Some have been easier to solve than others.

She supports the push for increased building densities, such as taller buildings, in downtown as San Rafael seeks to meet state housing mandates. Those densities mean more customers for downtown’s restaurants and stores, she says.

Colin, who served two terms on the planning commission and two on the council before being elected mayor in 2020, has been a proponent of the “housing first” strategy of moving homeless into permanent housing.

But when that housing isn’t available or people refuse to leave their tents, that strategy hits a snag – one that’s been experienced in many cities.

In San Rafael, in addition to those hurdles, lawsuits have challenged the city nearly every time it has approved plans to move homeless encampments and tried to limit their size or impose controls to respond to safety concerns.

Colin says she fully understands the public’s complaints and frustration over seeing encampments. She’s hopeful that the establishment of a city-organized and -contained encampment along Mahon Creek will be a step toward effective solutions. Both she and Kertz say the city-county $6 million state grant to organize the camp and provide the support and counseling needed to help campers transition from the streets into permanent housing is a significant step toward an effective response to the crisis.

Colin advocates the construction of a “tiny home” village as transitional housing, but says finding an appropriate location has been a hurdle.

Kertz says the grant will also provide greater security.

Kertz is seeking a second term as the District 4 member of the council. The district covers Terra Linda and most of the northern part of the city.

Before her election to the council in 2020, she served seven years on the San Rafael City Board of Education, experience and perspective that’s valuable to city decision-making.

Maybe the biggest issue facing her district is the redevelopment of the Northgate shopping mall into a large housing and retail complex that would be built in phases. She says the property owner’s plan includes recommendations from the community.

Her challenger is Mark Galperin, a retired nuclear physicist who says he’s running to warn the community that the world is “closer than ever to nuclear war.” He wants the city to start building bomb shelters.

There’s more to running a city.

Colin’s opponent, downtown business owner Mahmoud Shirazi, declined our invitation to be interviewed by the IJ editorial board.

Colin and Kertz are easily the best-qualified candidates in these two races. It’s no surprise they have drawn impressive lists of endorsements from city and county leaders.

Mayor Kate Colin well deserves a second term and keeping Rachel Kertz in the city’s District 4 seat is the right choice.