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i'm curious about the 'NIMBY' expression.

i'm still pretty new to this game, but it seems like NIMBY means 'anyone who is against any development proposal'. and the proposal, of course, is perfect and makes perfect sense for everyone involved because it has, in fact, been proposed, and therefore it must make perfect sense.

i don't buy it.

the 'NIMBY' term never needs qualification. the human entities and their ideas being described by the term aren't deserving of actual attention - they're just NIMBYs, after all. dead-enders. 30%ers. haters. whatever.

the specifics of this particular situation - i have no idea about, but generally speaking, my experience with neighborhood groups is that they have something important to say. they have an expertise that outsiders lack. sure, they may be scared, and/or ignorant, and/or racists, but maybe they have valid concerns, too.

take a cruise around the urban design blogs and you'll see the acronym/slander 'NIMBY' employed several times in a single article. you might end up with the impression that the entire world is filled with self-centered, ignorant people who are unable to read or comprehend the course that their more intelligent urban planner masters have set out for them. the do-gooder capitalist developers are constantly thwarted by those scrappy, degenerate, lawsuit-filing NIMBYs, dagnabbit. why won't they just mind their own business and stop meddling?

not to pick on your first post - it's just something i've been thinking about for a while, now, and your post finally made me want to address it. the term seems unnecessarily confrontational and disrespectful, and just plain tawdry. are we trying to make enemies with people or do we want more and better good urban design advocates out there - whether they have a piece of paper or not?

and maybe i take it all a bit personally because i'm a NIMBY - just in my own neighborhood, though, which is all of planet earth.

:)

by Peter on Oct 13, 2008 6:41 pm • link • report