The Canal Area comprises two neighborhoods of San Rafael, California

San Rafael, California

San Rafael is a city and the county seat of Marin County, California, United States. The city is located in the North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area...

, designated by the city as the "Canal Waterfront" and the "Canal." The Canal Area is bounded on the east by San Francisco Bay

San Francisco Bay

San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...

, on the north by the San Rafael Canal and on the south and west by Highways 101 and I-580

Interstate 580 (California)

Interstate 580 is an 80-mile east–west Interstate Highway in Northern California. The heavily traveled spur route of Interstate 80 runs from San Rafael in the San Francisco Bay Area to Interstate 5 near Tracy in the Central Valley...

 and by San Quentin Ridge. Land use is split almost evenly between residential and non-residential (commercial/industrial) uses. The Canal Area provides a substantial portion of the low-income housing in Marin County

Marin County, California

Marin County is a county located in the North San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco. As of 2010, the population was 252,409. The county seat is San Rafael and the largest employer is the county government. Marin County is well...

, one of the most affluent counties in the United States. It is also the location of transportation and waste management facilities serving Marin County and the North Bay.

Demographics and housing

Most of San Rafael's low-income residents live in the Canal Area, along with many affluent residents. There is at least one concern (on Harbor Way) that rents slips for boats that people can live aboard legally. The more affluent residents live in the houses constructed in the 1960s right on the Canal and in two housing developments in the eastern part of the Canal's residential area: Baypoint Lagoons (constructed in the late 1990s) and Spinnaker Point (constructed earlier). Some real-estate agents refer to these two developments as being in "East San Rafael", to avoid the stigma of the name "Canal Area". The low-income homes (almost all of which are apartments) are inhabited mainly by immigrants (documented and undocumented), from a variety of countries. Seventy percent are Hispanic, 11 percent Asian, 10 percent Caucasian, 5 percent African-American and 4 percent are of other ethnic groups. This area provides a location for workers who hold low-income jobs that are essential to the functioning of the community to live close to their place of employment. Although the majority of residents in this area are low-income workers, most of the apartments in which they live are neither subsidized nor less expensive than comparable apartments elsewhare in San Rafael. In order to pay the relatively high rents, the residents resort to sharing their dwellings with many roommates, typically at least two persons per bedroom, plus one person in the living room. Often as many as eight or more persons, including children, will occupy a two-bedroom apartment.

Parks and public facilities

Between the newer housing developments and the Bay is a paved path called Shoreline Park, which is a scenic place to take a walk or a bike ride. Along with a bike path owned by the Spinnaker Point Homeowner's Association (which forms the West side of the square), Shoreline Park forms a square 0.25 miles (400 m) long and 0.25 miles (400 m) wide. The easiest way to visit Shoreline Park is to visit Pickleweed Park, then to walk east along the north side of the square. Pickleweed Park is home to a large community center and to soccer fields and a playground.

There are many dozen, perhaps hundreds, of stores, shops, offices and other commercial operations in the West and the South of the area (including most of San Rafael's auto-body shops). Country Club Bowl, Marin County's only surviving bowling center, is located here. In addition, according to the Marin Independent Journal, around 14 of the areas most wanted criminals reside here. Large meth rings have also been uncovered recently by the bar, Pier 15. (Marin Independent Journal Oct. 15)

Large land users

Industrial Light and Magic

Industrial Light and Magic

Industrial Light & Magic is an Academy Award-winning motion picture visual effects company that was founded in May 1975 by George Lucas and is owned by Lucasfilm. Lucas created the company when he discovered that the special effects department at 20th Century Fox was shut down after he was given...

 occupied many tens of thousands of square feet of office space here and in 1997 built a "main stage" here for the production of movie special effects. The main stage is still in use, but most of the office space was moved to San Francisco in 2005.

Transportation and waste processing facilities

The southeastern portion of the Canal Area, between I-580 and San Quentin Ridge, is the base for several transportation and waste processing facilities serving large portions of Marin County. They include:

• Central Marin Sanitation Agency, 1301 Anderson Drive
• Golden Gate Transit
  Golden Gate Transit
  Golden Gate Transit is a public transportation system serving the North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in California, United States. It mainly serves Marin and Sonoma Counties, and also provides limited service to San Francisco and Contra Costa County.Golden Gate Transit is one of three...
  
   bus yard and maintenance facility
• Marin Recycling Center
• Marin Resource Recovery Center
• Marin Sanitary Service and its transfer station
  Transfer station
  A transfer station is a building or processing site for the temporary deposition of waste. Transfer stations are often used as places where local waste collection vehicles will deposit their waste cargo prior to loading into larger vehicles...
  
  
• United Parcel Service
  United Parcel Service
  United Parcel Service, Inc. , typically referred to by the acronym UPS, is a package delivery company. Headquartered in Sandy Springs, Georgia, United States, UPS delivers more than 15 million packages a day to 6.1 million customers in more than 220 countries and territories around the...
  
  

Closed landfills

The "East San Rafael" area (the eastern portion of the Canal Area between the Bay and San Quentin Ridge), was home to most of the garbage disposal sites in central Marin County, including the following (links are to the California Integrated Waste Management Board, Solid Waste Information System, which is continuously updated):

• Ghilotti Brothers Disposal Site, Morphew Street, closed
• San Quentin Disposal Site, 1615 Francisco Boulevard, closed 1988
• Horst Hanf Landfill/Bayview Park, Francisco Boulevard, closed
• Bellam Blvd Landfill AKA San Rafael Landfill, closed 1988
• Francisco Landfill, Pelican Way at Kerner Boulevard, unpermitted

External links

• Canal Alliance, a local community organization