Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Elections, Nimbys and the Smart Growth Summit

2007 Elections...

I confess to being a bit of a political junkie and like many folks, get lost in the drama of local elections up until Election Day. Afterwards, there is that strange feeling. What does it all mean? Mixed messages were sent this political cycle. On the positive side, none of the challengers campaigned hard on a Smart Growth platform and most of the incumbents who were working to implement Smart Growth solutions were handily re-elected. The biggest failure was that of the Brookhaven Community Preservation Fund; it became a real missed opportunity for the region to stopping sprawl and preserving open space. On a hopeful note, the passage of the Oyster Bay and Suffolk County Open Space Funds is very significant in an environment where voters are understandably concerned about taxes.

NIMBYs - err... um... I mean Concerned Citizens

In other news, we really stirred up a sea of emotion with our commentary and pledge to stop using the NIMBY jargon. Impassioned responses from both sides of the debate emerged. A few samples...

Supporters -
"Appreciate your recent article re "NIMBY" label as inaccurate most times, too convenient an excuse for others, and not doing anyone any good. Thanks for it."

Opponents - One fellow seemed a bit enraged -
"Stop using word NIMBY? I say absolutely NOT! I am not in favor of avoiding the use of such an acronym. However, there are a number of other acronyms that support the Anti-Growth, Anti-Property Rights Movement, that I avoid and that I think others should avoid using as well. Please avoid using the following acronyms:
"Open space preservation" - Government purchase with taxpayer money of developable land to be sterilized in its natural state forever ...destroying the land's future conversion to productive capital.
"Over development" - development
"Affordable Housing" - lower priced housing or lower cost of housing
"Inclusionary Zoning" and "Affordable Housing Mandates"- Government subsidized housing or housing price controls
"Government Planning" - an oxymoron
"Visioning" - an act of communism where the commune of voters meets to decide what happens to a titleholder's property, without his or her consent
"STOP NIMBYism!" ...not the use of the word!"

And folks with some alternate ideas -
"I suggest you would get more mileage and the same effect by promoting YIMBY as an alternative. Forget NIMBY, proudly hold up YIMBY as who you are, as who we are. Yes in my back yard!"

The responses are three to one in favor of ditching NIMBY and moving on more constructively. The point here is that, regardless of the terminology, we need to work together a bit more constructively. More on that in future issues.

2007 Smart Growth Summit

Lastly, I want to take a moment to personally invite everyone/anyone who reads this newsletter to attend our Smart Growth Summit next Friday. We are anticipating 40 civic leaders, 50 elected officials, 25 not-for-profit organization, and a slew of supporters, sponsors, and representatives from 10 of LI's thirteen Towns and over 15 Villages. We will have 15 worksessions with over 70 presenters and are anticipating close to 700 folks.

This may be our biggest event ever, but we need a broad representation to create the energy and synergy in the room. For folks who have attended in the past, the Summit is a place to share ideas, learn the best practices in Smart Growth planning and development, as well as develop policy solutions for Long Island.

Check out the Summit schedule below. It is a who's who of decision makers on land use and planning issues on Long Island. As for what is new or different this year, we have added additional sessions, afternoon technical worksessions on Placemaking, Implementation and Green Building, as well as a Civic Summit for folks who are working to implement Smart Growth Solutions on a community level. Also new this year is our location. After five years at the Huntington Townhouse, we needed to change our location to the Melville Marriott.

Again, we look forward to seeing folks at this event. We all need to step up in order to accomplish these very challenging tasks.

Posted by Eric at 12:22:21 PM in Blog (23) | Comments (0)

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