George Lucas of Star Wars fame has been struggling to build a big movie studio layout in Marin County, north of San Francisco, for decades. Now, 99% of the counties in the U.S. would be happy to have Lucasfilm create hundreds of mostly lavishly-paid jobs, but Marin is very much in the 1%. The Marin Independent-Journal reports:
Lucasfilm pulled the plug on its bid to develop the old Grady Ranch on Tuesday, citing bitter opposition from neighbors and regulatory delays, and said it intends to sell the land for a low-income subdivision development.
"Low-income," huh?
"The level of bitterness and anger expressed by the homeowners in Lucas Valley has convinced us that, even if we were to spend more time and acquire the necessary approvals, we would not be able to maintain a constructive relationship with our neighbors," the firm owned by billionaire filmmaker George Lucas added.
"We love working and living in Marin, but the residents of Lucas Valley have fought this project for 25 years, and enough is enough," ...
"We hope we will be able to find a developer who will be interested in low-income housing since it is scarce in Marin. If everyone feels that housing is less impactful on the land, then we are hoping that people who need it the most will benefit."
Take that NIMBYs! says George. He should check in with the Obama Administration, which says that Marin County is violating the Civil Rights Act by not building enough low-income housing for minorities. Marin County voters gave 78% of their vote to Obama in 2008, so they can hardly complain, right? So, think big, George: not semi-detached houses or condos, but Section 8!
Obviously, the good people of Marin county are not in need of film industry jobs.
ReplyDeleteFor the life of me, I don't know why conservatives and race-realists aren't slamming goofy liberals for their lilly White enclaves. This is obvious low hanging fruit to slow their hypocrisy.
ReplyDeleteThis is funny
ReplyDelete...but Marin is very much in the 1%.
ReplyDeleteIf you'd spent much time in Marin County, you could understand why. George must want it there to shorten his commute.
This is one of those statements that makes me feel that Lefties know exactly what they're doing when they advocate programs like Section 8 - they're just trying to hurt other people. Usually those "other people" are conservative, middle-class families just trying to make ends meet while raising their kids. In this case they're other Lefties from Marin.
ReplyDeleteAt least the rich Lefties do. The middle class Lefties are mostly true believers.
The Force is strong in him.
ReplyDeleteFor the life of me, I don't know why conservatives and race-realists aren't slamming goofy liberals for their lilly White enclaves. This is obvious low hanging fruit to slow their hypocrisy.
ReplyDeleteNo, let them do something that you are in agreement with as future leverage. Once they cry foul under circumstances that aren't in their immediate backyard, then diplomatically level the hypocrisy charge. Do so in a manner that creates a visceral this-could-happen-to-me-too response and doesn't offend their sensibilities (i.e. leave the race issue unspoken). At that point they need only refrain from affirmative rabble rousing.
A Pyrrhic victory over effete liberals does not a utopia make...
All this said, I remain unsure whether further Balkanization of American society/class is in the best interests of the country or myself and family. Lifting all boats seems preferable, but probably not pragmatic.
You guys need to get out more. Marin is just SF suburbia. It doesn't care about has-been Lucas, or film-studio jobs. They already have plenty of venture-capital and social-media multimillionaires around, thank you very much.
ReplyDeleteMarin County already provides housing for low-income minorities:
ReplyDeleteSan Quentin Prison.
To paraphrase Napoleon "Give them a whiff of purple drank."
ReplyDeleteThe construction of the the studio starts June 1.
ReplyDeleteBut Alderaan is a peaceful world...
ReplyDeleteThese Marin County one percenters need to "check their privilege at the door" and welcome their new neighbors.
ReplyDeleteGeorge is still trying to make up for that Jar-Jar Binks incident. First he lost 70 million bucks making Red Tails and now he's purposely destroying his own community. I think his ranch has a large fence and a security detail to protect him from his new friends at the very least.
Return of the Jedi was originally called Revenge of the Jedi until Lucas realized a Jedi was too enlightened to want revenge.
ReplyDeleteGeorge Lucas is clearly no Jedi.
No low income or Section 8 housing in Marin on Lucas' property will be allowed.
ReplyDeleteLucas' leftist Marin neighbors will cry foul over the terrible environmental impact such development would have on their community.
I'm sure they will find some endangered slug or insincere legal obstructionism they can use to block Lucas' plan for another quarter century and beyond.
Environmentalism > Racism in the minds of leftist elites.
This is specially so when they can passively ignore and actively suppress the fact that they are acting in a blatantly racist manner by the standards they use to judge others.
On the one hand, I deeply appreciate the efforts of the people of Marin to prevent George Lucas from making any more movies.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, screw them. They've got it coming. He should dump half of Oakland on their doorstep.
<<...intends to sell the land for a low-income subdivision development>>
ReplyDeleteIf Lucas can't determine the use of land he owns, how will he decide its use after he sells the land?
And what's with this "Lucas Valley?" Is that just a coincidence?
Lucas could put his studio in Contra Costa County, also suburban Bay Area, not that bad a commute from where he is, less scenic than Marin and there are depressed pockets there and they actually need the jobs.
ReplyDeleteIf Marin had not been developed as a uber-wealthy suburbs, there is a good chance it would have wound up as part of a national park or some sort of other protected area. So its really the one place in the country that has no use for development.
Don't cry for NAMs Marin County,
ReplyDeleteThe truth is you'll never see them.
With all their wild rage
And mad existence,
They hurt the white proles --
You'll keep your distance.
Rich people are weird. If you're rich why would you choose to live in a place so free from the wonders of culturally enriched diversity when you don't have to?
ReplyDeleteMore Section 8 housing in lefty enclaves - Marin, Westchester, the Hapmtons, Martha's Vineyard - sounds like a great cause for the coming Romney Administration. Not that he'll have the balls - unless you can convince him to use it as political leverage.
ReplyDelete"On the one hand, I deeply appreciate the efforts of the people of Marin to prevent George Lucas from making any more movies.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, screw them. They've got it coming. He should dump half of Oakland on their doorstep."
Exactly.
Environmentalism > Racism in the minds of leftist elites.
ReplyDeleteIdeally, yes, but only if it provides the collateral benefit of raising leftist elites' property values.
Practically, no. The US is adding a million people per year thru immigration alone. They need places to live and dump their trash. The welfare state they will likewise demand needs more taxes. The mineral and land resources of the American West will be gobbled up faster than you can say "vote-buying." Environmentalism will be abandoned by the Left like so many other causes. Who's going to win this fight: millions of net tax consumers concentrated in metropolitan areas or a few thousand SWPLs with backpacks?
I used to think about voting Green until I read their website. After all, I'd love a less-crowded, less-polluted, more-white place with universal medical care. But read their website and their plans for importing the Third World and handing out free medical care, education and art grants to everyone. Do they seriously think that co-ops and sole proprietors will generate a tenth of that kind of tax revenue? Do they think all the homegrown and imported welfare dependents won't DEMAND that all that perfectly good land out there be strip-mined, clear-cut and built-out?
Globally the situation is no better. Nobody's reporting it, but I've read a couple of stories that suggest conservationists are beginning to abandon Africa. Who's going to win that fight: the lions, elephants and rhinos, or the African tribesman who could feed his family for a year off one elephant tusk?
Of all the things I wished I had never grown up to see come to fruition, the abandonment of environmental stewardship ranks very high.
If you moved to Minneapolis to be in a good neighborhood, you got screwed--tens of thousands of Somalis were imported, paid for by your tax dollars.
ReplyDeleteGrand Island Nebraska, ditto but with Muslims.
You will not be allowed to live in a crime-free, quiet enclave. If Canadiens can't afford to move in next door, your tax dollars will be used to help them move in across the street.
It's a good time to be a renter. For, like, another 20 years. Bad times coming, and there's no escape hatch. There is no America to escape to.
"Lucas could put his studio in Contra Costa County, also suburban Bay Area"
ReplyDeleteShut your mouth. We are already bearing the burden of those the affluent don't have to take. My community has been ruined by section 8 housing--crime way up and not enough money in city coffers to hire more law enforcement.
The two guys responsible are Bill Clinton and Henry Cisneros, the bastards. They wouldn't live next to any of the trash they've sent into my neighborhood and schools.
The old idea of keep them all in one place was a much better idea. They kill each other and destroy their own neighborhood while not spreading their disease elsewhere.
I say quarantine again.
"Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteFor the life of me, I don't know why conservatives and race-realists aren't slamming goofy liberals for their lilly White enclaves. This is obvious low hanging fruit to slow their hypocrisy."
Because they are not "goofy" at all. They planned this. Unlike the goofy conservatives and race-realists who do not know how to play the game and continue to behave like racist bigots with their words and actions, especially words, which are the far more obvious of the two.
George - this makes up for Jar jar Binks all on its own!
ReplyDeleteYoda is right. The prospect of the Marin County elite being made to walk the walk is pleasing, but it will not happen.
ReplyDeleteCalifornia has a web of regulatory bodies that can stall a project like this forever. I am sure that at least one of them can be persuaded to object to the plan. The Obama administration will not act forcefully to require low income housing in Marin unless it is politically advantageous to do so (I'll admit I do not know which political party dominates local & county government there...I assume the Democrats).
The 'ideology' of new leftism is adjectology, and Lowry is going along:
ReplyDelete"Unbeknowst to us, occasional Phi Beta Cons contributor Robert Weissberg (whose book was published a few years ago by Transaction) participated in an American Renaissance conference where he delivered a NOXIOUS talk about the future of white nationalism. He will no longer be posting here. Thanks to those who brought it to our attention."
And again...
"Unbeknowst to us, occasional Phi Beta Cons contributor Robert Weissberg (whose book was published a few years ago by Transaction) participated in an American Renaissance conference where he delivered a NOXIOUS talk about the future of white nationalism. He will no longer be posting here. Thanks to those who brought it to our attention."
It's no longer a question of "is he right or wrong, true or false". The person must go because he's... "noxious", whatever that means.
You are wrong, and you know why??
ReplyDeleteBecause you're... noxious.
Lucasfilm pulled the plug on its bid to develop the old Grady Ranch on Tuesday, citing bitter opposition from neighbors and regulatory delays, and said it intends to sell the land for a low-income subdivision development.
ReplyDeleteTranslation: When asked to comment, George Lucas said "F--- them."
I wonder, does a new movie studio really create a lot of choice jobs for the locals? The movie biz seems like the sort of thing that would have saturated the labor market a long time ago. I.e., won't the vast majority of skilled hires already have been trained a long time ago? Aren't there already far more people trying to work in every facet of this business than there are jobs available? Wouldn't they just move to the new jobs?
ReplyDeleteCoincidence, yes. Lucas Valley was named after 19th century rancher John Lucas. George is not related to him.
ReplyDelete"It's a blackmail threat in the guise of do-goodery."
ReplyDeleteThat's the first thing I thought.
I used to ride the Golden Gate Transit commute bus with the people who live in the Lucas Valley Area. For a long time one of the assigned drivers was a surly black guy who would frequently abuse the white middle-management types who rode the bus. ("get back behind the white line!") It was funny to watch the groveling by the SWPL's, who never complained.
ReplyDeleteI think Lucas should put up housing for the cast of "Red Tails." He owes it to them.
ReplyDeleteBtw, where in the constitution does it say a community has to build housing to attract the poor?
ReplyDeleteThat's like saying a community is not building enough bathhouses to attract gays and not enough churches to attract religious people.
George is still trying to make up for that Jar-Jar Binks incident.
ReplyDeleteGeorge is one of those pitiable creatures who feels badly about his best work, and makes up for it by ruining his new work.
Han shoots first, no Blacks in Star Wars, only one, token Black in Empire and Jedi, early work doesn't have enough teddy bears, concentrate on action, drama, and editing to make up for primitive effects tech, etc.
Or maybe it's just early-onset senility.
I can't believe Lucas is doing this, but really only have a vague idea that he is liberal and liberals just don't say or do these things.
ReplyDeleteAt best, liberals in the top echelons of intelligence just stick with evolutionary psychology, and not so much hbd, and certainly not conscientiously behaving in accord with hbd beliefs...
Meeoww!
I suspect that Mr. Lucas isn't completely honest with himself about the evil he wishes to inflict upon those people; and they themselves, though upset, will not be prepared for just how bad it will be should it come to pass.
"The Obama administration will not act forcefully to require low income housing in Marin unless it is politically advantageous to do so..."
ReplyDeleteI disagree. He is a true believer and a "Big Man". From the beginning he has constantly done what he thought was right, even if he wasn't always honest with his SWPL supporters. This man truly does not worry about the opposition. He knows there will be outcries, but hopes and assumes he'll always defeat them.
Obama is a "Big Man". Even close to an election, I don't think he would slow down. It wouldn't occur to him.
BTW, curious to see how Intrade treats Rubio over the next couple of days.
The first time I saw Jar Jar and felt the disturbance in Force, I was unable to resist the lure of the Dark Side.
ReplyDeleteIt was clear that he was fated to bring great pain to the Universe.
I reveled in the coming tribulation that would leave not one soul untouched.
goatweed
"Globally the situation is no better. Nobody's reporting it, but I've read a couple of stories that suggest conservationists are beginning to abandon Africa. Who's going to win that fight: the lions, elephants and rhinos, or the African tribesman who could feed his family for a year off one elephant tusk?
ReplyDeleteOf all the things I wished I had never grown up to see come to fruition, the abandonment of environmental stewardship ranks very high."
Hey, what about Scandinavia? After reading that Denmark is picky about who they let in, I started toying with the idea of moving there, just to amuse myself. I could score the required 100 points on their checklist in a couple of years, for sure, if not already.
They seem to be doing a good job recycling and keeping their forests/waters clean. The country is gorgeous. Good skiing. Roskilde is an awesome indie rock fest. And maybe I could see learning take place in my classroom. Makes one wonder...
"This is one of those statements that makes me feel that Lefties know exactly what they're doing ...
ReplyDeleteAt least the rich Lefties do. The middle class Lefties are mostly true believers."
This.
The elite left is extraordinarily smart. The middle class left is extraordinarily short sighted, which makes them excellent pawns.
Baruch Samuel Blumberg - Nobel in Medicine
ReplyDeleteRichard Feynman - Nobel in Physics
Burton Richter - Nobel is Physics
Nancy Lieberman
Joyce Brothers
Carl Icahn
Bernard Madoff
I was trying to think of a neighborhood that suffered worst from low income housing. I looked up Far Rockaway (my father was doing construction in a bank there, when it was robbed by three men with shotguns) and linked to Far Rockaway High School - It closed last year due to poor performance. Above is a list of some of the Alumni. It is tied for third in the world for most Nobel prize winners.
There is another high school in Far Rockaway, Beach Channel High - it is going to be closed for poor performance also. I remember reading an article in a local newspaper that a psychologist had proposed putting masturbating rooms in the mens rooms because the jerking off in class problem was rampant.
Rock, Rock, Rockaway Beach was probably better known as a blue collar Irish drinking town before the projects moved in. It is basically the eastern section that was destroyed - the area that was touched by the loving hand of government.
I'm sure the residents would prefer a nice movie studio to a little more public housing. Interested George? There's a lot of fine white sand, beach front property available.
Your favorite author: Evelyn Waugh, already used this plot in his short story, 'An Englishman's Home."
ReplyDeleteRight! In Waugh's story, two conmen go around to the most genteel parts of England buying up land for a putative chemical plant, then reselling it to the local gentry at a big markup.
ReplyDeleteFilm industries come and go. But, as in the eponymous song, there will always be a moon over Marin
ReplyDeleteLucas should build low-income housing for stormtroopers instead. After losing the war, they need a place to go.
ReplyDeleteHan shoots first, no Blacks in Star Wars,
ReplyDeleteBlack "rebel commander" type near the end when they're planning the assault on the Death Star.
Mr. Anon (4/11/12 7:17 AM) said...
ReplyDelete"On the one hand, I deeply appreciate the efforts of the people of Marin to prevent George Lucas from making any more movies.
On the other hand, screw them. They've got it coming. He should dump half of Oakland on their doorstep."
iSteve publishes more interesting, challenging & truth-seeking blog posts than most places on the web (whether or not it always arrives at the truth is almost beside the point--it's at least seeking truth, and that sets it apart from most). And even though nobody in polite society will ever admit to reading iSteve, this place has carved out quite a niche for itself by deconstructing the deconstructionists.
One of the true pleasures, though, of reading iSteve is scrolling through the comments. There are always a lot of thoughtful, funny and sometimes challenging comments. Of course, not every comment is good. There are, after all, a few idiots who occasionally post here, and although it's probably not good form to name them, a couple of these numbskulls deserve mention--such as ... oh wait ... according to my moniker ... me!
Anyway, iSteve always has a lot of thoughtful & funny comments. But the comment quoted above from Mr. Anon is probably one of the best comments to run on here in some time. In a few short sentences, it hits on all the strengths of this blog: thoughtful, cynical, funny, challenging, bulls**t-demolishing and serving as a middle finger made of font to the cultural vanguard (left, center-left and establishment conservative).
Steve Sailer said in a comment:
ReplyDeleteRight! In Waugh's story, two conmen go around to the most genteel parts of England buying up land for a putative chemical plant, then reselling it to the local gentry at a big markup.
As in Put Out More Flags, where Bail makes a useful few bob by billeting slum evacuees on arts & crafts liberals, then reallocating them for a moderate fee.
Marlene will be in her 80s by now.
Just love to have Marin County have some of the poverty in Santa Clara County which is about 26 percent hispanic and about 31 percent asian while Marin is only 13 percent hispanic and 12 percent asian at the most. This is what rich liberals get for voting on enviromential issues and social issues instead of their pocket book.
ReplyDeleteThese Marin County one percenters need to "check their privilege at the door" and welcome their new neighbors. I think his ranch has a large fence and a security detail to protect him from his new friends at the very least.
ReplyDeleteMarin Real Estate