What’s happening: Miller Avenue, one of the two main ways out of Mill Valley, closed at high tide every day this week, according to police alerts. Police also closed the west side of Redwood Highway Frontage Road, near the southbound Highway 101 ramp, Monday through Saturday. News helicopters circled Manzanita to show kayakers on the bike path and cars stuck in the water. Residents told the Briefing they felt trapped, canceled appointments and budgeted 45 minutes for an 8-minute drive.
Clockwise from top left: Flooding on Camino Alto in front of The Redwoods, on Sycamore Ave, a flooded Miller Ave next to Tam High’s athletic field, and a road closure sign just south of Miller and Camino Alto. (MVB, Oct. 28)
Why it matters: The closures landed at midday and slid later through the week, into school dismissal and the afternoon commute. The city now tells residents to plan on them around scheduled high tides. The school district called the week a dry run for higher tides and potential heavy rain later this year, and the city called it a reminder to prepare before four months of real storm season.
The data: The county’s Coyote Creek gauge in Tam Valley peaked at 7.9 feet Tuesday and Wednesday and climbed to 7.98 feet on Thursday. For reference, only three days this year topped 8 feet, all in early January, with Jan. 3 posting a high of 8.55. Two nights in June and July both peaked at 7.7, but both peaks happened after 10pm. This week’s peaks from Tuesday through Friday landed in the middle of the day, at school dismissal and the start of the commute.
The impact on drivers: With Miller Ave closed south of Tam High, drivers detoured up Camino Alto to East Blithedale Avenue during school dismissal and the afternoon commute. Traffic backed up about 1.5 miles from before Tam High to the 101 at Tower Drive, and about 1.4 miles on Blithedale from around Le Marais Bakery.
The impact on schools: The Mill Valley School District posted a plan for two pickup areas at Mill Valley Middle School depending on the tide and reported a bike path closure. The district told the Briefing that water reached the retaining wall behind the interim campus and the turning circle at Sycamore Avenue.
The car pickup line ran as normal with very light traffic because many parents made other arrangements, it said, and cars drove through standing water no more than three inches deep. Sections of the bike path flooded in both directions, the district said, and students rode alternate routes. The district said it is prepared to use an alternate pickup point if heavy rain coincides with high tides.
The tides reached the Tam High field too. Wednesday afternoon, players practiced while staff moved water off the field. King tides had partially flooded it before Wednesday’s MCAL women’s field hockey semifinal, which Tam won in a shootout over Marin Catholic. Officials moved Friday’s championship from Mill Valley to Larkspur in case of more flooding. Redwood beat Tam 2-1 in the final.
What residents say: Residents described planning their days around the tide. Laurie Reemsnyder, an Almonte resident, budgeted 45 minutes for an 8-minute drive Thursday and still landed in gridlock, she told the Briefing, with the light cycling again and again and no more than one car getting through.
Emily, a Tam Junction resident, canceled or rescheduled appointments for fear of being stranded. “I felt trapped, or at least lived with the constant fear of being trapped, unable to leave my neighborhood or get back home,” she said.
Mirabai Warkulwiz, a Mill Valley resident, parked at Mike’s Bikes in Sausalito for a houseboat appointment and found the back of the lot underwater within the hour. “I was shocked at how quickly the water was moving,” she told the Briefing. She did her grocery shopping on foot and waited about an hour for it to recede. “It’s helpful to have a tide chart,” she said.
Three readers who replied on the Briefing’s Nextdoor post asked for more traffic adaptation. Sierra, a Boyle Park resident, wants two turn lanes onto Blithedale from Camino Alto at key hours. Others asked for traffic control officers at the Camino Alto and East Blithedale lights, and said signal timing on Miller Ave did not change and drivers were not rerouted before they reached the water.
The city’s response: The city says residents should plan around the tides. In a response to Briefing questions, Kevin Ritchie, the city’s emergency preparedness coordinator, told residents to assume Miller will close “before, during, and after scheduled high tides.” He said Public Works anticipated the high tides and planned for them, and police received no flooding-related calls for service. Traffic control and detours remain a challenge, he said, and crews are prepared to change detour routes quickly as conditions require.
Public Works engineers are tracking where the water moves to evaluate near-term fixes, Ritchie said. Public Works bought more storm drain plugs that keep bay and creek water from rising through storm drain inlets. The plugs work at only a few locations and cannot go in during or near a storm. Public Works is also exploring a temporary flood wall on Miller across from the high school, but water enters the area from several directions.
What’s next: The city urged residents to sign up for AlertMarin and Nixle (text 94941 to 888-777) and check its El Niño webpage. Ritchie also asked residents to allow extra time, plan alternate school pickup spots and rake leaves instead of blowing them into the gutter.
A tidal forecast exists, so pencil in the next three rounds of potential tidal flooding, per the WET app. Each window lasts roughly 1 to 3 hours and starts later each day:
Nov. 22 to 27: flooding could start at 8:30am Sunday and move to noon by Black Friday
Dec. 21 to 26: flooding could start at 8:15am Monday and move to 1pm Saturday, the day after Christmas.
Jan. 20 to 23: flooding could start at 8:40am Wednesday and move to 11:50am Saturday.
💻 New tool: How close is the nearest creek to your house? High tides closed Mill Valley roads this week under a clear, sunny sky, but rain is a different problem: it runs down the creeks and through the storm pipes. Forecasters say El Niño could be one of the strongest on record this winter and local officials have warned of possible flooding and mudslides. Some of those streams run only in the rain, so they can look like a dry ditch for most of the year. Type your address into our new creek finder, or tap any property on the map, to see the distance in feet to the closest creek or stream. It’s built on federal data, so tell us what we missed: projects.millvalleybriefing.com/creeks
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Mill Valley schools aim to set classroom screen-time limits by February
Mill Valley School District plans to bring a draft screen-time framework to the school board in December, with approval targeted for February, Superintendent Elizabeth Kaufman told trustees at the most recent board meeting. Teachers report no device time in TK and 17 to 39 minutes a week in kindergarten through 2nd grade, according to the district’s presentation. The same slide shows the median parent-recommended maximum for those grades at zero.
The full story, including how teachers and parents answered the district’s surveys, grade by grade, and what trustees said, is in Monday’s Briefing for paid subscribers.
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MILL VALLEY HISTORICAL SOCIETYThis week in Mill Valley history: When the whole town showed up for Halloween
On the last Thursday of October 1940, 550 children packed into Park School for a Halloween party. Police reported the quietest Halloween yet: only ten minor calls, no special officers needed. The man responsible was Carl Hoyle, a park commissioner who had been organizing the event for years.
Children in costume in the Park School Halloween parade, 1940s. (Photographer unknown / Lucretia Little History Room, Mill Valley Public Library)
The next year it fell on a Friday. An entertainer told a ghost story and appeared to cut the head off a small boy. Ice cream was served. The older children boarded Greyhound buses to Old Mill School, where an orchestra played for a dance. Chief of Police James McGowan called it “the quietest Halloween the city has ever known, as far as mischief is concerned.”
It was October 31, 1941. Weeks later, on a Sunday morning in December, everything changed.
The tradition held through the war and kept growing. By 1948, one party wasn’t enough. The city split it in two, children from Park and Alto schools heading one way, children from Old Mill and Homestead the other, the two columns passing each other on the way. The Record had taken to calling Hoyle the “Perpetual Party Chairman.”
In 1949, 900 children were expected. No parents allowed: “This is a ‘for kids only’ show.” Hoyle announced he was stepping down.
The parade had started, he said, about 21 years earlier as a Cub Scout pack Halloween party that got too big for one room.
Sources: Mill Valley Record, Nov. 5, 1940; Nov. 4, 1941; Oct. 22, 1948; Oct. 28, 1949.
This story was sponsored by the Mill Valley Historical Society. Visit their new website at mvhistory.org.
Sponsors pay for placement, not coverage. Our reporting is always produced independently, without sponsor review or editorial input.
What we covered this week
🚦 The Transportation Authority of Marin voted unanimously to nominate $453,000 for design work for a Miller Ave roundabout at Montford/La Goma. The Metropolitan Transportation Commission makes the final call. We reported on why Mill Valley has never won money from this grant program, whose project gave up funding to make the award possible and where the city’s construction funding gap sits on the waiting list.
🏠 Mill Valley home values rose between 7.1% and 9.1% year over year in each month of the third quarter, while single-family sales slowed. We reported on what that gain means in dollars for a typical homeowner, how Mill Valley’s median compares with Belvedere, Tiburon and Sausalito and how much longer homes now sit on the market.
🚲 The Marin County Parks and Open Space Commission voted unanimously to recommend allowing Class 1 e-bikes on open space fire roads and trails. We reported on which preserves around Mill Valley are affected, what a county survey found and what a retired mounted police trainer told the commission about a close call with a horse.
🏫 A consultant told the school board that daily dust levels at the middle school construction site stayed under the state limit. We reported on the hourly readings that did not, what happened each time and who oversees the monitoring.
🏡 The Planning Commission denied a neighbor’s appeal and upheld approval of a 1,000-square-foot backyard unit on E Blithedale Avenue. We reported on why state law allows 800 square feet by right, how a city exception let the lot exceed its floor-area cap and what the unit replaces.
If you want to read about any of these stories as they develop, the weekday Briefing lands in your inbox Monday, Wednesday, Friday at 6am. A paid subscription makes this reader-funded, local news operation possible. It’s $12 per month, which you can cancel anytime, and the annual subscription comes out to less than $2.50 a week. Upgrading is only two clicks if you use Apple Pay.
How to still vote
On Friday, Marin voters had returned 36.5% of the ballots issued, per the county.
Have your ballot? Sign and date the return envelope. Drop it off by 8pm Tuesday at:
Mill Valley City Hall, 26 Corte Madera Ave (drop box)
Mill Valley Community Center, 180 Camino Alto (drop box)
Homestead Valley Community Center, 315 Montford Ave (vote center)
Tam Valley Community Center, 203 Marin Ave (vote center)
The vote centers are open 9am to 5pm Sunday and Monday and 7am to 8pm Tuesday. Away from Mill Valley on Tuesday? Any official drop box or voting location in California will take it.
No ballot or not registered? Go to either Homestead or Tam Valley vote centers. You can get a replacement ballot or register and vote the same day. New registrations are verified before the ballot counts.
By mail? It must be postmarked by Nov. 3 and arrive by Nov. 10. A drop box is safer this late.
More information: Marin County Elections.
📅 Today in Mill Valley
🏵️ 5th Annual Día de los Muertos / Day of the Dead Celebration, O'Hanlon Center for the Arts (616 Throckmorton Ave), 3–4:30pm. Community gathering honoring loved ones who have passed, featuring traditional altar installations, remembrance sharing, and light refreshments.
🎭 The Addams Family Musical, Throckmorton Theatre (142 Throckmorton Ave), 5pm. Broadway musical comedy staging. Doors open at 4:30pm.
🕯️ Day of the Dead Sunday Salon, O'Hanlon Center for the Arts (616 Throckmorton Ave), 5–6:30pm. An evening salon featuring music, personal stories, and poetry centered on the themes of memory, death, and remembrance.
🎸 Sunday Plaza Matinee (TBD), The Depot Cafe & Bookstore (87 Throckmorton Ave), 5:30pm. Live music outdoors on the downtown plaza (weather permitting).
👑 Etana with DJ Sep, Sweetwater Music Hall (19 Corte Madera Ave), 8pm. Two-time Grammy-nominated reggae luminary performs live with DJ Sep. All ages; doors open at 7pm.
🔍 Businesses and venues mentioned in this section are covered on editorial merit only. No business has paid for coverage. Promotional content is always labeled.
ℹ️ See the full event calendar for next week and bookmark it as we’ll update that same link each week.
