The voters of Marin County, the exquisite exurban region north of the Golden Gate Bridge with a population density of only about 500 per square mile, voted for Obama over Romney 74%-23%. But they really aren’t into Hope and Change, since they like things just the way they are in Marin County.

Proposed but blocked studio (artist’s rendition)

So, for 20 years neighbors stymied George Lucas’s plans to build a movie studio on his huge estate in Marin. Now you might think that this would represent Good Jobs, but people who live in Marin have good jobs already (or trust funds). So, eventually, even the extremely stubborn Star Wars creator had to drop his plans.

But he went away threatening to build low-income housing on his property. That seemed like amusing threat, but the billionaire has announced he’s serious. From the Daily Mail:

Lucas strikes back – against his neighbors! Film director to build hundreds of affordable homes in millionaire neighborhood after they blocked him from building a studio Neighbors blocked Lucas’ plans to build a film studio in 2012 Now he plans to erect a housing complex on land off Lucas Valley Road The community would provide housing to 224 low-income families With huge support from low-income community, his neighbors will be hard-pressed to block the proposal By MIA DE GRAAF FOR DAILYMAIL.COM PUBLISHED: 14:04 EST, 16 April 2015 | UPDATED: 16:53 EST, 16 April 2015 His neighbors wouldn’t let him build a film studio. So George Lucas is retaliating in a way that only the cream of Hollywood could – by building the largest affordable housing development in the area. The complex of affordable housing, funded and designed by the Star Wars director, would provide homes to 224 low-income families. And there’s very little his fellow Bay Area residents can do about it.

We’ll see, but I wouldn’t count on that.

My general contrarianism has a lot to do with being a Californian of a certain age. From 1969 onward in California, “progressivism” has chiefly been about preserving privilege, especially the privilege of living in an uncrowded bucolic manner in the finest landscapes (typically, the coast in Southern California, the first valley in from the coast in Northern California) by blocking on environmentalist grounds developments that would make these regions more affordable to more people.

The other main push of Marin and Malibu progressives has been to demonize as racist attempts by their less privileged fellow citizens to exercise their rights to protect their country and state from overpopulation by foreigners much as progressives protect their own little paradises from infiltration by inland Americans.