Just as any place, Marin has many positive aspects as well as negative. While it may not be perfect, it certainly is picturesque. I had lived in Marin for a few years, and while it ultimately turned out to not be for me, I can still remember many of the amazing things that made it unique.
For one, the towns are all so small that people just refer to it as “Marin,” which is the county. If you want to get really fancy, you can separate “West Marin” from the rest; and maybe even “South Marin” if you want. But, nobody there refers to the individual towns they live in. It just doesn’t make sense: you can drive for 10 minutes and you just drove through 5 different towns.
The main reason that Marin did not work out for me as a place to live is that it was an older culture. I was young, and needed to be in a place with more youth and more youth culture. It wasn’t really anything good or bad that drove me out, it just didn’t meet my needs for my age and where I was in my life. The lack of youth culture felt stifling and ultimately isolating.
I also disliked having to drive everywhere, but still – it sure was nice to be able to pop over to West Marin for some surfing on the weekends.
I was reminded by the positive aspects of Marin when I went through some of my old photos and found these. Obviously, not a bad place.
That being said, nothing can quite compare to how San Francisco has suited my personality.