
Lucas and Rich Neighbors Agree to Disagree: Part II (2012) - jaytaylor
https://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/22/us/george-lucas-retreats-from-battle-with-neighbors.html
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inferiorhuman
Marin is full of the worst kind of NIMBYs (even by Bay Area standards). That
said I support the idea of building more low-income housing in San Rafael
(even in Lucas Valley) but I doubt Lucas' intentions were an earnest attempt
at providing meaningful low income housing to Marin County.

One of the biggest problems, IMO, with densifying that area is that there's
essentially zero public transit beyond the bus pads (one in each direction) on
CA-101. The "SMART" train runs about a mile east of 101, but there's no Lucas
Valley / Smith Ranch Rd stop. If there's anything that Marin is worse about
than housing it's transit. And if there's anything worse than suburban sprawl
it's suburban sprawl without any infrastructure to support it. Marin ought to
charge for access to the park and ride lot and use the money to fund both a
SMART "station" and a shuttle bus to run down Lucas Valley Road to the
station. And then build the spite housing.

Oh well, at least he's not freaking James Hetfield.

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nafey
Although it makes me feel a bit petty to say this, I have to admit that I am
feeling a lot of schadenfreude. The terror of extremely privileged people on
being "assailed" by "low lifes" has a touch of dark humour to it I think.

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TaylorAlexander
“Carl Fricke, a board member of the Lucas Valley Estates Homeowners
Association, which represents houses nearest to the Lucas property, said: ‘We
got letters saying, “You guys are going to get what you deserve. You’re going
to bring drug dealers, all this crime and lowlife in here.”’”

It’s amazing how grotesquely uninformed their ideas are about low income
people. Oh, you live in Marin and you think people who live in low income
housing are “drug dealers” and “low lifes”? We have to take Carl Fricke at his
word about these letters, but if true shows just how ignorant and even racist
people can be even in so-called “progressive” areas.

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duado
Obviously, not all low income people are alike. But in nearby San Francisco,
they built a low income housing complex near my house, and now there are
people outside the entryway smoking marijuana in public at least 1 in 10 times
I pass it. I push my kid’s stroller through the smoke.

Call me ignorant, call me racist, call me heartless, call me whatever you
want. If another one of these housing complexes is proposed here, I will do my
part to stop it. These individuals are currently smoking marijuana on the
street somewhere, and that’s where they can continue to do it.

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inferiorhuman
_Obviously, not all low income people are alike. But in nearby San Francisco,
they built a low income housing complex near my house, and now there are
people outside the entryway smoking marijuana in public at least 1 in 10 times
I pass it. I push my kid’s stroller through the smoke._

I call bullshit. People smoke pot out in the open in San Francisco all the
fucking time, in nearly every neighborhood, and have done so for many, many
years regardless of their income level. For example: the Financial District at
lunch. OTOH if "low income housing complex" is a euphemism for Eatsa then I'm
with you.

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duado
They didn’t in my neighborhood before the introduction of this complex. I
assume that the neighborhoods you’re referencing may be where they moved in
from, and it’s there that I prefer they stay.

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arijdadjira
This article is from 2012. Title should be marked accordingly.

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dang
Good catch! Added.

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burlesona
Charitable or spiteful? Why not both? This seems like a great outcome
considering how sorely affordable housing is needed in the Bay Area.

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inferiorhuman
¿Porque no los dos? Because it's a _terrible_ area to plop down dense housing
in that location and leave it at that. Lucas Valley is just that disconnected.
The challenges aren't insurmountable but there are much better places (such as
near the Civic Center SMART 'station'), but even those places run into the
legendary Marin NIMBYs.

Were Lucas to also propose requisite biking and transit improvements it would
be another story (and increase the scope of the fight by a hilarious
magnitude).

