green shirts vs. storm troopers...George loses...

billc

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Well, the enviro-extremists have defeated George Lucas...

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Hollywood/2012/04/11/lucas-cancels-plans-production-studio

But Lucas couldn't ignore the growing chorus of naysayers about his proposed movie studio in Marin County. Lucas's group announced this week it will withdraw plans to create the massive production facility and will seek a new site for it.
The stunning move cheered project foes who called the ranch site near their homes the wrong place for a film production studio with a footprint the size of two football fields. But county officials and business interests were devastated, noting the project promised to energize the Marin economy, providing millions in revenue and hundreds of jobs.
"We have several opportunities to build the production stages in communities that see us as a creative asset, not as an evil empire, and if we are to stay on schedule we must act on those opportunities," Lucasfilm said it a statement headlined, "Lucasfilm pulls building plans out of Marin."
"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.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/...s-film-production-drops-plans-for-studio.html

But the project generated strong opposition from home owners and environmentalists who said it would increase traffic, noise and environmental damage on the pristine countryside, despite company promises to preserve open space and reduce impacts on the community.
 

shihansmurf

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If this keeps him from tinkering with and "re-imagining" the Star Wars movies then I say,

"Go Green Shirts!"

So a group of homewoners in the area got together and acted to prevent someone from developing an area that they elected to live in because it is quiet and in the country? His neighbors didn't want to have the area industrialized and somehow this is a form of environmental extremism?

Lucas also states that they have the ability to build elsewhere. Somewhere that they are wanted? Sounds awfull. Lucas also gives the impression that he would rather relocate his project than damage his relationships with his neighbors. He sounds like a decent guy, at least on this. That Greedo shooting first thing, on the other hand.


I digress,

I'm not really getting the vast socio-political impact here. Should his neighbors have welcomed this construction project simply to improve the economy irrespective of how it would impact the lifestyle that they, I assume, moved out there to live. Kinda like if some folks wanted to open a porn shop in the middle of a quiet suburb or near a church. The citizens are well within their rights to oppose it and it doesn't make them bad people or extremists to want to maintain the neighborhood as it is. Unless, of course, you are suggesting that any opposition to industrializing this area is a form of extremism.

If you have a point, please share. Right now, it seems as if you are just grasping at a story about a large corporate owner that is willing to consider the impact on the relationships he has in his area and make buisness choices based on that as a way to beat the drum of anti-environmentalism.

Which I understand.After al, if you're not littering, spilling oil, hunting endangered animals to extinction, or paving every meadow into a parking lot then obviously you are some rabid tree hugging hippy.

Reducing an argument to an absurd level to make a point doesn't make it valid. Just like saying this story equates to "Green Shirts" = bad because a group of homeowners elected to excercise those rights of assembly, speech, and public redress.


Just a thought.

Mark
 
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billc

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The story actually seems to be another case of a small activist minority thwarting the will of the majority and using the power of government to get that job done. The elected officials of the county all signed off on the concept, but various obstacles are going to drive the development away. Two football fields in a county and they can't find a way to accomodate it. Go look at a foot ball field and then picture two of them, spread out even, and you can see that this is just crazy. Especially crazy, but karmic in nature, is the allusions to George Lucas being a greenie himself. We have all kinds of industrial parks around where I live and there isn't a problem here. The funny thing is he thinks that these other places offering to let him build will actually let him build. The local governments may want him to come there, where ever that may be, but all it will take is a small, extreme, minority to stop him again. Do the green shirts have a right to do this, of course. Doesn't mean I think it is fair or right.

If a less wealthy person wrongs a wealthy person, it is just as bad as a wealthy person who wrongs a poor person. The heart of this is really a known greenie, George Lucas, gets bit on his behind by the very activists to whom he has probably donated vast sums of money. That is the funny part. Like most of these extremist causes, the "smart" people support them and then become their victims. Think about all those jobs lost as well. Snail darters and all sorts of animals are on the protected lists of these activists while human beings do without the jobs to feed their families. That is another great lesson from this as well.

And to let you know that I'm not a hard hearted man, I have no love of Lucas either. Having Luke "like" his sister in Star Wars is criminal negligence of the most worstest kind ever, ever. The fact that he won't re-release the original version of Star Wars, and that he had Han Solo fire second, well, let's just say there is a special place in a very warm and unpleasant place for him in the afterlife.
 

shihansmurf

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I read the links to the article and I don't see your interpretation of the events being on base.

Yep, the elected officials signed off on this. The home owners opposed the action. Lucas listened to their concerns and elected to build elsewhere to avoid alienating his neighbors that elected those officials in the first place. Sometimes the guys we put in office don't act in ways we approve of, so we can protest, and pettition them.

I can't see where Lucas was forced not to build in Marin county. He chose to value his reputation among, and relationships with, his neghbors over pushing ahead with the project. He withdrew his plans. He wasn't forced to do so. The vocal minority didn't enforce their will on the silent majority. In fact, had Lucas went ahed and built the facility then that is what would have occured. The minority (Lucas) would have pushed his agenda on the majority irrespective of their wishes.

Don't misunderstand. I have issues with a amall minority enforcing their viewpoints on the majority as well. Unless of course, that small minority is trying to push something like equal rights and protections under the law, civil rights, and abolishing discriminatory practices. This instance, however, doesn't in any way seem to anything to do with that.

The people of the area didn't want Lucas to build that facility there. He chose not to continue with the project. I don't see anyone being forced into anything here. Maybe I am missing something, but isn't respecting the will of the people a good thing?

Mark
 
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billc

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Here is an article that might clear up the use of the government to delay the project which is what made up Lucas's mind...

http://www.northbaybusinessjournal.com/52623/52623/

Grady Ranch crashed because of an eleventh hour regional regulatory assault on the project as it was headed for approval by the Marin County Board of Supervisors.

The California Environmental Quality Act is in control, which means the law can be used by anyone to stop any project for any reason at any time.
Grady Ranch is only the most egregious example of CEQA abuse. The 1970 law is used aggressively every day to stop or delay everything from shopping centers to hospitals to vineyards to mom and pop businesses. There is no way to know how many businesses California has lost due to the costs and delays associated with CEQA. But combined they surely amount to many Grady ranches.

And this article...

http://news.thomasnet.com/green_clean/2012/04/06/stop-or-ill-demand-an-environmental-impact-study/

Works For Movies, Turkeys, Makers of Movie Turkeys.But it’s not just turkey hunts that can be attacked using blackmail tactics. According to the Marin Independent Journal, movie producer George Lucas wants to build a film studio complex on a 52-acre parcel known as the Grady Ranch around Marin, but some locals don’t want him to. So the local homeowners association is citing “impacts to the habitat and residents” under a California Environmental Quality Act filing to stop the project, instead of using the far more compelling grounds that Lucas hasn’t made a good movie since 1983′s Return Of The Jedi.Never mind that local government in 1995 approved a bigger Lucas project on the land, which was never built, and that the currently proposed complex is smaller. The point is that if George Lucas or anybody is building something you don’t want built, you can blackmail them with CEQA filings to, if not stop the project, at least make them pay for opposing your will.

It isn't so much that Lucas is leaving because the neighbors don't want the studio there but that a small number of neighbors are using the government to hold up his ability to build his studio.

Also...

The Crux Of The Issue: CEQAThe crux of the issue is the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), which as a recent report on environmental law noted, ”generally requires a governmental agency to prepare an Environmental Impact Report for any project which may have a significant effect on the environment.”It’s become an effective anti-development blackmail tool, sharpened by a recent court case, Berkeley Hillside Preservation v. City of Berkeley, which found that building a single-family home of about 6,500 square feet didn’t qualify for a CEQA categorical exemption even though homes usually do, since “the existence of evidence that the project in question may have a significant environmental effect” is all anybody needs to blackmail the builder with the threat of CEQA-allowed court filings.Unbelievably, the court explained, “the fact that proposed activity may have an effect on the environment is itself an unusual circumstance” negating the use of a categorical exemption. File away, protesters, it’s open season on building.Anti-development activists can use the law to blackmail other people in a wide range of instances. A local San Diego news station reported in March that a wild turkey hunt organized at the Santa Ysabel East Open Space Preserve to teach young people how to handle firearms safely and get rid of a few of the 20,000 wild turkeys in San Diego County would, in fact, take place, despite the Animal Protection and Rescue League claiming in filings that the event violates the California Environmental Quality Act.

Lucas is just one victim of this tactic...
 
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WC_lun

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So now you've gone from a group of extremist enviromentalist was the reason Lucas didn't build to a small group of nieghbors abusing laws to stop him from building. You just apear to be an attack looking for a target. We all know how much you dislike Lucas, him being a left of center Hollywood type who messes with your beloved Star Wars, so why don't you just blame him for everything and move on?
 

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