I love U2. And I dream about Malibu real estate. So it’s regrettable that this news story is making me choose between the two:
Multi-millionaire U2 guitarist The Edge’s plans to build five new mountainside homes in Malibu have got a star-studded enclave seething with anger.
The guitarist — real name David Evans — claims that the homes will be “environmentally friendly” but locals at the exclusive Serra Retreat neighborhood like Kelsey Grammer, Dick Van Dyke and James Cameron, are opposed to the development.
Evans – who lives in Malibu – said: “My family and I love Malibu, having maintained a residence here for more than a decade. These homes will be some of the most environmentally sensitive ever designed in Malibu – or anywhere in the world. I’m disappointed that certain critics either don’t have the facts or have ulterior motives.”
But residents worry that the project would be an environmental disaster as it would require extending a hillside road, run new water lines plus grade masses of earth for the site.
Malibu council member Jefferson Wagner said: “The downside of this is a permanently scarred mountainside for the benefit of a very few that for many years all will view. For somebody so revered even to be orchestrating this kind of development in such a sensitive area is hypocritical.”
The main problem here is that the most environmentally friendly home you can buy is one that is already built. Trick it out with solar power panels, double pane windows, or what have you, but it’s far more costly in terms of natural materials and energy to build a new house from scratch than it is to move into an existing home and update it. Not to mention he wants to build into the side of a mountain, displacing tons of rock and soil.
Also: Who knew that Dick Van Dyke was still alive?
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Yes, but look at the people who are complaining – the people who already live in Malibu. Those houses had to be built at some point too, requiring the exact same earth moving, water-line running and road extending that The Edge’s houses will require. Why should they get a free pass just because they did their environmental damage 20 years ago?
Toby, maybe because now U2 is soooo into how environmentally friendly they are. And, until Al Gore came along, nobody knew we were gonna die!
Learn to swim…….
(HT: Tool)
I love when ecologists preachers are called on over their own crap. I think this post made my monday!
It’s nice to know that people with a nine digit net worth have problems too. I wonder if it’s ever anything other than where someone else is building a multi-million dollar house.
Damn I did it again.
I love this part: “Evans – who lives in Malibu – said: “My family and I love Malibu, having maintained a residence here for more than a decade.”
I’m pretty sure that when you have to say that you “maintain a residence” somewhere, it’s because you DON’T actually live there.
Why would ANYBODY want to build a home in the Malibu hills? The place gets torched every five years or so with wildfires and when the rains come the next winter, your house slides across PCH. That’s how I would want to live.
Of course, the real issue is is the counsel man stating: “The downside of this is a permanently scarred mountainside for the benefit of a very few that for many years all will view. For somebody so revered even to be orchestrating this kind of development in such a sensitive area is hypocritical”. Dude, drive down PCH and look at the hills, the place has been scarred for more that 30 years.
The difference between a developer and a conservationist is that the conservationist already HAS his scenic home.
I knew Dick Van Dyke was still alive. He was in the first Night at the Museum and will be in the second. Plus, it’s impossible for him to die, as he has magical dancing powers.
So if it comes down to teams, I’m with him. Though I wouldn’t get a tshirt saying that…
Confucious say……….just because you can doesn’t mean you should….or he said something similar to that anyways.
I don’t understand why Caliphony continues to let people build in fire/mudslide areas. Isn’t that a bit of a no-brainer? Your house may eventually become either a charcoal briquette or a several ton lumber tobaggan taking you on the ride of your life. Like Holly says….Why not put your energy, and money, into remodeling an older house into a more eco friendly living space? Al Gore did it, and by golly since he knows we are all going to be bumped off this plane of existance by our own folly then what’s good for him is great for the rest of us!
Time for another cup of coffee……..
“I don’t understand why Caliphony continues to let people build in fire/mudslide areas. Isn’t that a bit of a no-brainer? Your house may eventually become either a charcoal briquette or a several ton lumber tobaggan taking you on the ride of your life. Like Holly says….Why not put your energy, and money, into remodeling an older house into a more eco friendly living space?”
Because when–not IF, WHEN–your multimillion-dollar home is destroyed, the taxpayers will always get shaken down to pay for rebuilding it. So why not?
Isn’t there a line in Clueless about something being “a bigger disaster than Malibu”?
The three R’s that environmentalists live by are reduce, reuse and recycle and they are to be adhered to in that order. This project embraces none of those.
Dick Van Dyke can only be killed if you remove his head from his body. I looked up on Wikipedia.
Also: Who knew that James Cameron was still relevant to anything?
Shades of U2 Tower.
Glad to live in a state where I can build what I want (within reason of course) on property that I own and is properly zoned. Must suck to live in a “country” like California that does not allow you to do what you want with your property.
I thought the three R’s the greenies stood for was RESIST, RESIST, RESIST.
“Also: Who knew that James Cameron was still relevant to anything?”
If he never makes another movie, he STILL made Terminator and Aliens. That’s enough to forgive about anything, including Titanic.
Evans ought to take scenic drive through Malibu (check out those little roads that snake off of Malibu Canyon), there are plenty of homes in need of repair and upgrading he could purchase.
I still like “The Terminator”, but after watching “Aliens” again after not seeing it for a long time it seemed kinda… stupid. And I liked it when I first saw it.
“Why would ANYBODY want to build a home in the Malibu hills? The place gets torched every five years or so with wildfires and when the rains come the next winter, your house slides across PCH. That’s how I would want to live.”
My thoughts exactly, Swede. Probably why only ridiculously rich people live there — they can afford to go “Oops!” and build and again or move to Florida for real reitrement.
Menace, your comment made my day. Thanks. ‘Magical dancing powers.’ Heh heh.
Except that now I’ve got “Chim-Chim Cherie” stuck in my head. I take it back.
I don’t see the problem. After all, nobody asked what the Edge was making his houses out of, and he did say it would be one of the most environmentally friendly domiciles in the world; obviously he’s just going to dig a hole under a rock, climb under it, and call it good.
…Wait, no, he said “environmentally sensitive.” Doesn’t that mean that horrible things will happen the moment a tree sneezes? Is he designing houses that blow up on rainy days?
HA! My first thought when I read that Dick Van Dyke was among those opposed to the construction was, “Wow, Dick Van Dyke is still alive?” It made my day to read the last line of this post.