George Lucas recently embodied the righteousness that his main Star Wars characters usually demonstrate. The movie mogul had been trying for the better part of the last 20 years to build a massive, state-of-the-art movie studio on his gazillion acres property in the North San Francisco Bay area, however his well-off neighbours kept opposing the project, effectively blocking Lucas’ plans despite the projected $300M in business revenue for the area. This forced Lucas to abandon the idea, citing 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.“
Here is where it gets interesting. Upon his decision to abandon the project he had been trying to get done for all these years, George decided to adhere to the local residents’ claims that the area would suffer from non-residential development and went on to build low-income housing instead. As such, a closing statement was released: “If everyone feels that housing is less impactful on the land, then we are hoping that people who need it the most will benefit.” He was courteous enough to even provide the low-income housing developer who bought the land all the pricey technical studies and land surveys Lucasfilm spent years conducting, thus tremendously accelerating the project. Because if there’s one thing rich people will hate more than having movie magic made in their backyard, it’s poor people moving in.
Well played, George.
