Monday, November 05, 2007

Stop Calling People Names: Even When It's Good Planning -- Does Calling Opponents NIMBY Help?

Folks outside the development process, editorial boards, county governments, not-for-profit organizations, housing advocates, and other associations often decry the impact of NIMBY interests.

The most recent failure of large scale projects in Hempstead Village, Plainview, Cerro Wire, as well as numerous moratoriums throughout Brookhaven and other municipalities, are examples of Long Island being ruled by the NIMBY's.

What does the word NIMBY mean? According to Wikipedia: NIMBY (an acronym of "Not In My Back Yard") describes the opposition of residents to the nearby location of something they consider undesirable, even if it is generally considered a benefit for many. Examples include: an incinerator, an ethanol plant, a nuclear-power plant, or a prison. The term is usually applied to opponents of a development, implying that they have narrow, selfish, or myopic views.

Do we really believe that all folks who oppose development on Long Island have narrow, selfish, or myopic views? Does calling folks NIMBY simply foster the us vs. them mentality in development and planning? How can we raise the bar with quality development proposals that meet community needs without a dialogue or rational discussion about what those needs are? In short, are we building an understanding with local communities or simply calling them names?

Who are these NIMBY's? After meeting thousands of residents in the majority of communities on Long Island, most of the NIMBY's are good, smart, hard working people who are struggling to deal with impending changes in their community. They often feel that the developer or their government is not working in the best interest of the community and that the folks calling them a NIMBY have their own narrow, selfish, or myopic interests that will forever change the character of their neighborhood. Maybe we should join civic associations in our own community and understand the work that these NIMBY's do. It is often the tireless and thankless tasks of clean ups, code enforcement, maintenance, fundraisers, community events and, yes. tackling difficult development proposals.

Let me be perfectly clear: we are not happy when communities oppose progressive and well-organized plans. I often joke that I could double my staff and probably double my salary by fighting projects, calling for moratoriums and ultimately killing projects that have not garnered community support. Having said that, despite their frustration, our organization, most developers and many local governments know that they need to work with the public in order to get a successful plan, project, or development application moving forward.

Is there hope? When we first started in Huntington, 95% of folks wanted more input in development decisions. The first wave of community involvement is to stop projects and wield some power in the planning process. The next step is to be more proactive and move projects forward. There are civic leaders who do support plans and progress- witness, Connie Kepert from Middle Island, Richard Johannessen from Rocky Point, Neal Lewis from the Neighborhood Network, and countless others. Their are about forty civic associations on Long Island that are working very proactively to make their communities better and manage to not simply oppose change. Courageous stands on very difficult land use and development issues are not easy for community leaders and when there are folks who take these positions, we should embrace them.

At best, we should work with the NIMBY's from the start. These folks ARE going to be deciding the future of many development projects on Long Island. We should, at the very least, listen, learn, adapt our proposals, and try to work with community leaders as projects emerge. In the end, if we are so enraged, angry, obsessed, and feel the behavior of NIMBY's is unfair, let us keep our anger and frustration to ourselves, yell about it over a beer, work out, go for a run, or take an anger management class. Let's not just call folks who are opposed to development names. We can do better.

I am asking folks to take a pledge to say that we will not be calling folks NIMBYs from here on out. Please e-mail or call us with your thoughts on this matter and if you agree to take the pledge.

 

Eric Alexander
Executive Director
Vision Long Island

Posted by Eric at 8:19:00 AM in Blog (23) | Comments (5)

Comments

1. Pandadoll said...

We are very concerned about the use of space.....

The problem is that there are plenty of areas that have NOT succeeded over & over again. Obviously the LOCATION is WRONG....for anything. Why can't those particular places be returned to NATURE.

There are also so many places that have "SPACE FOR RENT" that are not renting. They probably aren't going to rent, either. Really, these are the problems with constantly developing areas that will NEVER be used. Redevelop spaces that have already been built on.....leave the undeveloped areas ALONE.

That will be the KEY....to smart growth.

11/5/2007

2. anonymous said...

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. Regards.

11/7/2007

3. said...

I say absolutely NOT!

"NIMBYS!" - "WE, PROPERTY OWNERS ARE NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE!"

Vision Long Island states "What does the word NIMBY mean? According to Wikipedia: NIMBY (an acronym of "Not In My Back Yard") describes the opposition of residents to the nearby location of something they consider undesirable, even if it is generally considered a benefit for many" and asks us to stop using the word because it promotes conflict with community activists.

I say absolutely NOT!

NIMBY is a most appropriate acronym for most activists that insert themselves into the real estate development process, particularly to downsize or stop a particular development.

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


Long Island's land use system is broken.

Property rights are treated with contempt...that is "your right to property is treated like dirt!"

Throughout most of Long Island you need permission to cut a tree. install a fence or build a room over your garage...much less build apartments, townhouses, restaurants, a shopping center or an office building.

All property owners, developers, tenants, business owners, architects. contractors, real estate brokers, real estate lenders must unite to say "We're not going to take it anymore!"..."this is our property and our capital and this is a free country with laws to protect the individual's right to property from the power of the mob!"

Government's role was supposed to protect our rights from the mob, not be the mob's tool of force to take away our rights to our property...and tell us what we can do with our property!

"STOP NIMBYism!" ...not the use of the word!

11/7/2007

4. said...

hey you guys- a great article about nimby-ism.
i might actually use it in my a.p.env. science class!
a word of constructive criticism from the heart (so "they" - the bad guys- have less amo against "us"):

11/7/2007

5. said...

I think that NIMBY is ingrained, now embedded in our language; it is accepted terminology for people who fear the devaluation of their property. I believe NIMBY has lost entirely its gravity as a curse, but for the most part is considered rather neutral name for people who oppose a development near them for reasons that are legit to those who are just plain selfish. I believe you are whistling a pious wind to ask people to not use the term as it is everywhere a part of our language and you simply cannot move back the clock to a time 25 years ago when it first appeared and carried the weight of a speaker's disapprobation. 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!

11/7/2007

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