Movie producer George Lucas, frustrated because his rich Marin County neighbors wouldn’t let him expand his studio on acreage he’s owned for years, is aiming at getting some payback.
He has a large amount of acreage in Marin County where he runs his Skywalker Ranch Studio. If he had been allowed to expand his studio he would have created a handful of high-paying jobs for film makers. His ultra-rich neighbors hated the idea claiming, falsely, that it would bring too much additional traffic to the area.
So, Lucas is doing the noble thing. He says, “We already have too many millionaires in the area. What we need is some good affordable housing.”
Now, he’s planning on using his land to build the largest low income housing project in the Bay Area.
A note to all those wealthy Marin County boo-birds: Tweaking a tiger’s tail isn’t always the smart thing to do!
I think I’ve written about this before, so forgive me if this is repetitive. But a friend of mine lives in a tiny HOA of about a dozen houses. Last year he bought a dozen copies of my book and lobbied every member of the association to read it. The neighbors voted unanimously to disband their corporation.
Now, my friend says, there are sounds of kids laughing and playing. Several basketball hoops have gone up. Neighbors are now talking over the back fence and inviting each other over for dinner. He says the difference in the neighborhood is incredible.
If you want to find out for yourself how monstrous HOA legislation can be, you need look no further than Michigan.
This state has just passed a law the shields non-profit boards of directors from all liability and accountability. Whew! All? Homeowners Associations, Condo Associations, Co-ops are all non-profit corporations. They handle all our money, they casually throw around our home equity and our life savings, and they’re now exempt? What hath God wrought?
Read the link below and weep.
And remember the words of Gideon J. Tucker and Samuel Clemens: “No man’s life, liberty or property are safe while the Legislature is in session.”
These stories just get wilder and harder to believe. The video linked below is beyond shocking. The only good news is that newspapers and TV stations are using HOA horror stories as regular features. Yep, it’s going to be a bad, bad time for these HOA board officers.
Really! Ask any promoter of the HOA system about the national epidemic of board members and property managers embezzling from the neighborhood budget, and they’ll swear that it’s rare…so rare, the average homeowner needn’t worry about such a thing.
It’s true that prosecution of HOA embezzlers is rare. Prosecutors know it’s expensive to charge HOA embezzlers. They know that embezzlers get incredibly light sentences from judges. Steal a million bucks and get 18 months in prison? Hey, such a deal! So, prosecutors’ attitudes toward victims is, “Well, if you don’t like it, why don’t you just move?” Where’ve we heard that before?
But with every embezzlement story, property values in HOAs across the country go down. Maybe just a little bit, but how can property values go up when there are so many HOA embezzling and racketeering stories?
Here’s another:
