In the wake of the Florida school shooting, gun-control advocates are pointing to the success of Connecticut in addressing the spiraling toll of gun violence https://t.co/hFeZnBzkUs
— The New York Times (@nytimes) February 18, 2018
We are all sickened by what happened in FL last week, but we cannot ignore these tragedies any longer. I am so inspired to see the students of Parkland & kids all over this country standing up to the status quo. On March 24, we march. Join us. #MarchForOurLives @MarchForOurLives pic.twitter.com/2v3yABKYn3
— Josh Gad (@joshgad) February 18, 2018
Watch these kids from Parkland speak to politicians- “At this point you are either with us or against us”. https://t.co/6hO6SJhYGe
— Julianne Moore (@_juliannemoore) February 18, 2018
Wow. Boston Globe front today is something else. pic.twitter.com/oxCdXqN9YO
— Ali Watkins (@AliWatkins) February 16, 2018
SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — After George Lucas abandoned plans to build a movie studio along a woodsy road in Marin County, he complained about the permitting process in a place so environmentally friendly that hybrid-car ownership is four times the state average.We see story after story of leftist hypocrisy and moral bankruptcy. It's ridiculous. Extremely affluent and cloistered in environmental smugness, these people couldn't care less about immigrant workers or clean air, if ameliorating such would impair their lavish lifestyles.
His next move, some here say, was payback for what Lucas described in a written statement as the "bitterness and anger" expressed by his neighbors.
The creator of "Star Wars" and "Indiana Jones" is working with a local foundation that hopes to build hundreds of units of affordable housing on a former dairy farm called Grady Ranch, where his studio would have risen.
Now Marin County is squirming at that prospect — and it is not a pretty sight.
The issue of affordable housing in California's wealthiest county has always brought its "green" lifestyle and liberal social leanings into conflict. No Bay Area county has more protected open space — or fewer workers who can afford to live anywhere near their jobs.
At a recent planning commission hearing, where possible sites for subsidized housing were discussed, nearly all the heated testimony had some version of: "I'm all for affordable housing, but …"
Nine days later, protesters wearing "End Apartheid in Marin County" buttons demanded that officials do something to help low-income workers find housing in a place where the median home price is $650,000 and 60% of the workforce lives somewhere else.
The irony is not lost on Thomas Peters, president of the Marin Community Foundation, the philanthropy that is collaborating with the filmmaker to build along Lucas Valley Road. The region's environmentally conscious lifestyle, he said, is built on the long commutes of low-paid workers whose cars choke Highway 101 to the point that "you can literally see the CO2 rising."
"The community, to some degree, has been lulled by success in its 40-year-old determination to really protect the open spaces," Peters said. But "it is not sustainable to hold that kind of misperception that this is all beautiful and everything can stay as it is."
With the Golden Gate Bridge as its front door and Point Reyes National Seashore in the backyard, Marin County is blessed with some of California's most breathtaking vistas. Indeed, 84% of its land is protected as tideland, open space, parkland, agricultural preserves and watershed.
In an effort to address climate change and cut greenhouse gas emissions, the county in 2010 launched California's first so-called community choice energy program. Marin Clean Energy purchases power for its customers from renewable sources such as wind, solar and hydroelectric projects.
But Marin is near the back of the pack in the nine-county Bay Area region when it comes to absorbing predicted population growth — and is the most unwilling, said Ezra Rapport, executive director of the Assn. of Bay Area Governments.
Ten years after Orange County residents voted to turn a shuttered military base into one of America's most ambitious municipal parks, most of the land remains fenced off, looking very much like the airfield the Marines left behind.Continue reading.
The city of Irvine has spent at least $203 million on the project, but only 200 acres of the promised 1,347-acre Great Park has been built, and half of that is leased out for commercial farming.
Most of the money has paid for plans, designs and consultants, with less than a fifth of it going toward actual park construction, according to a Times analysis of the spending.
Now, the money to build "the first great metropolitan park of the 21st century" — as the city calls it — has just about run out, leaving Irvine leaders to contemplate radical measures: Selling off public land to raise funds or asking private business to step in and build the park for them.
The park, by now, was supposed to be filled with scores of sports fields and eventually museums, cultural centers, botanical gardens, and maybe even a university — all tucked into a bucolic landscape of forests, lawns, a lake and 60-foot-deep canyon that would be scooped from the earth once the barracks and runways were demolished.
But there are no baseball diamonds or regulation soccer fields. No canyon, no forest, no sprawling museum complex.
As much as anything, the lofty plans for the park — an expanse intended to rival San Diego's Balboa Park or even Central Park in New York — collapsed under the weight of the sagging economy...
Some city leaders said the spending on plans, public relations and events was necessary to secure a world-class design, build support for the project and entice visitors.Wonderful.
"We had to invest a lot to let people know there's a park coming," Irvine Mayor Sukhee Kang said.
Others, including Councilman Jeffrey Lalloway, have called the spending on plans and no-bid contracts reckless and suggested the money could have been put to better use by building ball fields and opening up more parkland.
Lalloway said he was "saddened by a potentially wonderful project that has been financially mismanaged."
He doubts whether some of master design's showpiece amenities, such as the 2.5-mile-long canyon that was to be created in the middle of the park, will ever be built.
The project's fiscal decay has left some to consider a smaller, scaled-back park or one that will be built with the help of private business.
The Anaheim Ducks, for instance, are in talks with the city to build ice skating facilities there. Another firm could build a concert venue to replace the nearby Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre.
Others, including Larry Agran — a 26-year veteran of the Irvine council and a park booster — say Irvine could raise money by selling off parkland for up to $4 million an acre, perhaps for a hotel, resort or high school.
"We own close to 1,500 acres of land free and clear and we can develop it in any way we see fit," Agran said.
Agran predicts the Great Park could be completed in 15 to 20 years, if the city can get its hands on more money.
