Editing Mill Valley, California (section)

===1950s to present===
{{Original research section|date=October 2024}}
[[File:dwtnMillValley.jpg|thumb|left|225px|alt=The corner of Throckmorton Ave. and Corte Madera Ave. c. 1970.|The corner of Throckmorton Ave. and Corte Madera Ave. c. 1970]] With a population just over 7,000 by 1950,<ref name= Spring2000 /> Mill Valley was still relatively rural. Workers commuted to San Francisco on the Greyhound bus when the streets were not flooding in heavy rain,{{citation needed|date=October 2024}} and there still were not any traffic lights. The military built the [[Mill Valley Air Force Station]] to protect the area during the [[Korean War]]. In 1956, a group of Beat poets and writers lived briefly in the Perry house, most notably [[Jack Kerouac]] and [[San Francisco Renaissance]] [[Beat Generation|Beat poet]] [[Gary Snyder]]. The house and its land is now owned by the Marin County Open Space District. By the beginning of the 1960s, however, the population swelled. The Mill Valley Fall Arts Festival became a permanent annual event and the old Carnegie library was replaced with an award-winning library at 375 Throckmorton Ave. Designed by architect Donn Emmons, the new library was formally dedicated on September 18, 1966.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.millvalleylibrary.org/Index.aspx?page=624|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721180620/http://www.millvalleylibrary.org/Index.aspx?page=624|url-status=dead|archive-date=July 21, 2011|publisher= Mill Valley Public Library |title= 1960s|date=July 21, 2011|access-date=December 30, 2019}}</ref>

The 1970s saw a change in attitude and population. Mill Valley became an area associated with great wealth, with many people making their millions{{citation needed|date=October 2024}} in San Francisco and moving north. New schools and neighborhoods cropped up, though the city maintained its defense of redwoods and protected open space. [[File:millerave1990s.jpg|thumb|right|225px|alt=Miller Ave. toward Mt. Tamalpais in the 1990s.|Miller Ave., looking toward Mt. Tamalpais, in the 1990s]]Cascade Dam, built in 1893, was closed in 1972 and drained four years later in an attempt to curb the "hordes"{{citation needed|date=October 2024}} of young people using the [[reservoir]] for nude sunbathing and swimming. Youth subculture would come under attack again in 1974 when the City Council banned live music, first at the Sweetwater and later at the Old Mill Tavern, both now defunct.<ref name= Spring2000 /> In 1977, the Lucretia Hanson Little History Room in the library opened and became the base of operations for the Mill Valley Historical Society. Marin County was hit with one of the worst [[drought]]s on record beginning in 1976 and peaking in 1977, brought on by a combination of several seasons of low rainfall and a refusal to import water from the [[Russian River (California)|Russian River]], instead relying solely on rain water from Mt. Tam and the West Marin watersheds to fill the then-six reservoirs. By June 1977, the County managed to pipe in water from the [[Sacramento River Delta]], staving off disaster. The rainfall during the winter of 1977-78 was one of the heaviest on record.<ref>{{cite web |last=Pyfer |first=Chip |url=http://www.marinmagazine.com/Marin-Magazine/March-2007/When-Marin-Went-Dry/ |title=When Marin Went Dry | date= March 2007 | place= Marin County, California |work= Marin Magazine |access-date=February 27, 2017 |url-status=dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120216230220/http://www.marinmagazine.com/Marin-Magazine/March-2007/When-Marin-Went-Dry/ |archive-date=February 16, 2012  }}</ref> The [[Mill Valley Film Festival]], now part of the [[California Film Institute]], began in 1978 at the Sequoia Theatre.

The 1980s and 1990s saw the decline of small businesses in Mill Valley. Local establishments like Lockwood's Pharmacy closed in 1981 after running almost continuously for 86 years. Old Mill Tavern, O'Leary's, and the Unknown Museum shut their doors, as did Red Cart Market and Tamalpais Hardware. In their places came boutiques, upscale clothing stores, coffee shops, art galleries, and gourmet grocery stores. Downtown Plaza and Lytton Square were remodeled to fit the new attitude. The population in the city alone swelled over 13,000 and many of the old, narrow, winding streets grew clogged with traffic congestion.<ref name=  Spring2000 /> The Public Library expanded with a new Children's Room, a downstairs Fiction Room, and Internet computers.<ref>{{cite web| url= http://www.millvalleylibrary.org/Index.aspx?page=627| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110721180745/http://www.millvalleylibrary.org/Index.aspx?page=627|url-status=dead|archive-date= July 21, 2011| publisher= Mill Valley Public Library |title= 1990s|date=July 21, 2011|access-date=December 30, 2019}}</ref> It also joined MARINet, a consortium of all the public libraries in Marin, to allow patrons greater access to information. MARINet now has an online catalogue of all the materials, both physical and electronic, in the Marin public libraries, which patrons can order, pick up, and drop off materials at any of the participating libraries.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://marinet.lib.ca.us/ |title=MARINet Libraries Catalog |website=Marinet.lib.ca.us |access-date=February 27, 2017}}</ref> The Old Mill also got a facelift; it was rebuilt to the same specifications as the original in 1991. The 1990s also saw another influx of affluence. Many new homeowners gutted homes built in the 19th and early 20th centuries or tore them down altogether.

The dawn of the new millennium brought reflection on the past, as the city celebrated 100 years of incorporation. Soon after Mill Valley got its brand new Community Center at 180 Camino Alto,<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.cityofmillvalley.org/Index.aspx?page=69 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080224204951/http://www.cityofmillvalley.org/Index.aspx?page=69|url-status=dead|archive-date= February 24, 2008| publisher= City of Mill Valley |title= Parks and Recreation|date=February 24, 2008|access-date=December 30, 2019}}</ref> adjacent to [[Mill Valley Middle School]].

On January 31, 2008, Mill Valley's sewage treatment plant spilled 2.45&nbsp;million gallons of [[sewage]] into the San Francisco Bay.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.marinij.com/marin/ci_8182853 |title= Second massive sewage spill in bay revealed |website=Marinij.com |access-date=February 27, 2017 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150201134451/http://www.marinij.com/marin/ci_8182853 |archive-date=February 1, 2015 |url-status= dead  }}</ref> This marked the second such spill in Mill Valley within a week (the previous one spilled 2.7 million gallons), and the most recent of several that occurred in Marin County in early 2008.<ref name="marinij.com">{{cite web |url= http://www.marinij.com/ci_8364890?source=most_viewed |title=6,000-gallon sewage spill in San Rafael |website=Marinij.com |access-date= February 27, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150201131755/http://www.marinij.com/ci_8364890?source=most_viewed |archive-date=February 1, 2015 |url-status=dead  }}</ref> Mill Valley's treatment plant attributed the spills to "human error".<ref name="marinij.com"/> The spills caused distress in Mill Valley's administrative government, which remains outspoken about "dedicating itself to the protection of air quality, waste reduction, water and energy conservation, and the protection of wildlife and habitat" in Mill Valley.<ref>{{cite web| url= http://www.cityofmillvalley.org/Index.aspx?page=675| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080603070950/http://www.cityofmillvalley.org/Index.aspx?page=675|url-status=dead|archive-date=June 3, 2008|title=City of Mill Valley : Mill Valley's Commitment to the Environment|date=June 3, 2008|access-date=December 30, 2019}}</ref>