Malibu residents tell The Edge to walk away, walk away...they won't follow his green mansions pitch

[Amerigo Vespucci]

The Edge's green pitch for Malibu riles residents

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090502/ap_en_mu/us_u2_malibu_development



By NOAKI SCHWARTZ, Associated Press Writer Noaki Schwartz, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 26 mins ago

MALIBU, Calif. – A few years ago, U2 guitarist The Edge went for a hike, and there in the golden hills overlooking Malibu's cerulean waters, he finally found what he was looking for.

The Edge and his wife, Morleigh Steinberg, bought 156 acres in Santa Monica Mountains and now want to build five mansions there, including their own dream home. From a distance, they say, their house will look like nothing more than scattered leaves on the ridgeline.

"These homes will be some of the most environmentally sensitive ever designed in Malibu — or anywhere in the world," the guitarist, whose real name is David Evans, said in a prepared statement.

Nearby residents, however, haven't bought his green pitch and say The Edge is endangering the beauty of one of Southern California's most famous beachfront communities along with U2's globally conscious image.

"It is going to look nice to the human eye but at what cost?" said surf shop owner and City Councilman Jefferson Wagner. "When is enough enough?"

[Jackeens]

1. I still love their music, but as individuals they're increasingly hard to like. eg

The 'tax-dodging' issue:

U2 accused of 'robbing the world's poor'

An Irish aid group coalition has protested against U2's 'tax evasion', claiming that the band are costing the impoverished world while trying to champion its cause.

U2 are "robbing the world's poor", according to a coalition of Irish aid groups. At a demonstration this week, Debt and Development Coalition Ireland (DDCI) condemned U2's "tax evasion" and its alleged tax shelter in the Netherlands. DDCI is a coalition of 70 organisations including Oxfam and Concern Worldwide.

"We wanted to raise our concern that while Bono has championed the cause of fighting poverty and injustice in the impoverished world, the fact is that his band has moved part of its business to a tax shelter," DDCI's Nessa Ni Chasaide told ITN. "Tax avoidance and tax evasion costs the impoverished world at least $160m (£142.5m) every year. This is money urgently required to bring people out of poverty."

The DDCI drew attention to U2 Ltd, a company set up by the band to deal with royalty payments. When Ireland changed its tax laws in 2006, capping the artist income tax exemption at €250,000 (£223,000), U2 moved the company to a finance house in the Netherlands.

In 2007, U2 Ltd paid out more than £19m in wages, according to ITN. "U2 is just one part of the problem," Chasaide emphasised. "This is a much wider and systemic problem in our global financial system. Every company and individual has the responsibility to pay the right amount of tax."

U2 manager Paul McGuinness rejected the protestors' accusations, insisting that "U2 is a global business and it pays taxes globally". "At least 95% of U2's business ... takes place outside of Ireland and as a result the band pays many different kinds of taxes all over the world," he told the Belfast Telegraph. The band are "personal investors and employers" in Ireland, McGuinness said, but "like any other business, U2 operates in a tax-efficient manner".

"There is nothing illegal about what they have done in taking advantage of more favourable tax laws," DDCI's Chasaide admitted, "but given Bono has invested so much in promoting an end to poverty, we see a contradiction there."


http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/feb/27/u2-irish-aid-group-coalition

[Amerigo Vespucci]

3. I basically signed off as a fan with "Rattle And Hum"...

...I was a fan of the music starting with "Under A Blood Red Sky" and ending with "Rattle And Hum" and can take or leave most of what followed.

:toast:

[Jackeens]

5. Loved Achtung Baby, but Zooropa and Pop were unforgivably awful!

:hi:

[Liberal_in_LA]

2. 5 mansions...looking like 'scattered leaves"? I don't think so

[LiberalFighter]

4. Building 5 mansions makes one anything BUT an environmentalist

[Liberal_in_LA]

6. 10,000 square feet mansions at that!

[alarimer]

11. Yes and at that size they can hardly be "green".

Now, I realize that green building methods are mainly available to the rich because they cost so much.
Still those 156 acres is a lot of habitat for something.

[Liberal_in_LA]

13. ...unless each mansion will house 10 families

That's it...this guy is building environmentally friendly homeless shelters.

[Recursion]

8. Maybe I misread but I don't think they're all for him

[Jackeens]

12. Apparently he and his business partner will keep two and sell the other three. n/t

[Recursion]

7. Low visual impact is part of "green" architecture as I understand it

Some of the modern designs are really amazing; you don't realize there's even a house there until you're within a few dozen yards.

I think I'm missing the outrage: he's trying to do some green development of 4 houses plus his own. What's wrong with that?

[Retrograde]

9. from how far away?

Get far enough away and of course they'll look insignificant.

But how is he going to build them? Are the workmen and materials going to magically transport themselves to the sites with roads for construction equipment? Or utilities? Where's the water going to come from? How about access for the people who are going to live (and work) there, and their guests? It's not like he's just going to plonk a bunch of ready-made houses up there.

Hypocrite, methinks: I want mine, so I'm going to use the politically correct words to make sure I get it.

One of the few good things I can say about Ronald Reagan is that he sold his Malibu ranch to the state for Malibu Canyon State Park, which I recommend to anyone who happens to be in the neighborhood.

[Jackeens]

10. Some info here

According to the Los Angeles Times, the proposed project would ..... require some extensive and tricky engineering, including extension of a road down a rugged elevation, grading 70,000 cubic yards of hillside and installing water lines.

"The downside of this is a permanently scarred mountainside for the benefit of a very few that for many years all will view," Jefferson Wagner, a Malibu councilman, told the newspaper. "For somebody so revered even to be orchestrating this type of development in such a sensitive area is hypocritical."

...This is not the first fight Evans has found himself in with neighbors.

He and the rest of U2 came under fire in their hometown of Dublin for now defunct plans to build the so-called U2 Tower, a proposed skyscraper in the heart of the city that would've been the tallest in Ireland. Preservationists claimed the $220 million project would have resulted in the tearing down of four adjacent historic buildings.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/eonline/20090417/en_music_eo/119279