Development
Inspirational quotes turn NIMBY
Blogger Tales from the Sharrows mashed up a classic inspirational quote with an equally classic argument opposing urban change. This sparked a hilarious set of #inspirationalNIMBY tweets yesterday.
Here are some favorites. For each, I've added attribution, put them all into a standard format, and corrected any spelling errors.
SharrowsDC
@sharrowsdc
"Some people see the world as it is and ask why. I see the world as it could be and ask where will they all park." — Robert F. Kennedy/George Bernard Shaw
Will Sommer
@willsommer
"Never underestimate that a small group of people can hold up a liquor license. Sometimes, it's the only thing that can." — Margaret Mead
J. T. E
@jtedc
"The only constant is change. Unless you get a small group of neighbors together to stop it." — Heraclitus
David Alpert
@alpert
"If they have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; now, argue they violate zoning." — Henry David Thoreau
David Alpert
@alpert
"Life has no smooth road for any of us; but at least it has no overhead wires." — William C. Doane
David Alpert
@alpert
"If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door, but only as long as it's not visible from the street." — Milton Berle
Brandon Essley
@No_Brand_Hero
"If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him and preserve your property values." — Lin Chi
The Greater Marin
@theGreaterMarin
"The only medicine for suffering, crime, and all the other woes of mankind, is a parking minimum." — Thomas Huxley
Emily
@stayawaystars
"Ask not what your community can do for you; ask what your community can not do for anyone else." — John F. Kennedy
Emily
@stayawaystars
"Whenever God closes a door, he keeps out undesirable elements that bring down the property values." — Maria, in The Sound of Music
Marc Mitcham
@TwoWheelsDC
"Good fences make good neighbors as long as they're no taller than 7 ft and made of period-correct materials." — Robert Frost, based on a proverb
Aimee Custis
@AimeeCustis
"Inaction may not always bring happiness ... but there is no happiness without inaction." — Benjamin Disraeli
Emily
@stayawaystars
"If I have seen a little further, it is because of the height limit and absence of overhead wires." — Isaac Newton
Ron Knox
@ronmknoxDC
"It is by acts, and not by ideas, that people ensure the bar down the street cannot have a patio." — Anatole France
Emily
@stayawaystars
"Let he who would move the world, first complete an environmental impact assessment and a 90-day public comment period." — Socrates
mikezdc
@mikezdc
"Give a man a fish and you feed him a day. Move the food kitchen off your block and it's not your problem anymore." — Proverb
Emily
@stayawaystars
"Better to light one small candle than to allow one small solar installation." — Proverb
♭oſsi
@thisisbossi
"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I don't want a stop sign. That would make all the difference." — Robert Frost
Chewy
@CapCityChewy
"It takes a village to raise a child, but only if all of the structures are of a neutral palette." — Proverb, popularized by Hillary Rodham Clinton
Marc Mitcham
@TwoWheelsDC
"Home is where the heart is, unless you don't have a permit for it." — Proverb
J. T. E
@jtedc
"How many roads must a developer walk down, before they accept the amenities package?" — Bob Dylan
Jacqueline Dupree
@jacdupree
"We shall fight in parking lots, we shall fight in empty fields and on wide streets, we shall never surrender." — Winston Churchill
Kevin Bourne
@kevinrbourne
""Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of condos." — Martin Luther King, Jr.
SharrowsDC
@sharrowsdc
"I've been to the mountaintop. Because it blocked my view and it never should been approved in the first place." — Martin Luther King, Jr.
The Greater Marin
@theGreaterMarin
"A man's home is his castle, and his neighbor's home is his moat." — Proverb
Eric C.
@transbay
"For what do we live, but to make sport by subjecting our neighbors to endless discretionary review for minor additions?" — Jane Austen
Mr. T in DC
@MrTinDC
"We have nothing to fear, but fear itself, and main street turning into another Adams Morgan." — Franklin D. Roosevelt
Randall Myers
@ranpuba
"All the world's a stage ... and you better have a zoning variance or it's coming down." — William Shakespeare
Eric C.
@transbay
"If you would build something, you must first be something. But really, it's better just to not build anything." — Goethe
Christopher Kidd
@BikeBlogChris
"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win, then they build nothing." — Mahatma Gandhi
Randall Myers
@ranpuba
"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you—unless they covet a sidewalk—then hit them with an injunction." — Proverb
Emily
@stayawaystars
"Never tell me the sky is the limit when the zoning code clearly imposes a stricter limit." — Paul Brandt
Tiffany Bridge
@tiffany
"Teach your children well, so they don't live in off-campus group houses and throw loud parties while I'm trying to sleep." — Graham Nash
City Beautiful 21
@citybeautiful21
"Scuttle no small plans. They have no magic to stir single issue individuals into a group of people against everything." — Daniel Burnham
What would you add?
 | David Alpert is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Greater Greater Washington and Greater Greater Education. He worked as a Product Manager for Google for six years and has lived in the Boston, San Francisco, and New York metro areas in addition to Washington, DC. He loves the area which is, in many ways, greater than those others, and wants to see it become even greater.   |
Comments
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6:30 pm Height limit meeting at NCPC
"One does not simply walk into the Planning Board. Your black gates can't be guarded by orc statuary." -Boromir
"You shut your mouth, how can you say I go about things the wrong way; I am human & I need some quiet, just like everybody else does." -The Smiths
[all of Bill Pullman's Presidential speech just before they let loose upon the aliens in Independence Day]
by Bossi on Aug 4, 2012 11:27 am • link • report
by aaa on Aug 4, 2012 2:19 pm • link • report
by ggwdad on Aug 5, 2012 8:14 am • link • report
So forget your complaints about them riding in the road oh yeah!
Self-entitled gentrifiers they'll be riding today
So look out for those helmetless idiots oh yeah"
-Queen
by dcd on Aug 5, 2012 8:34 am • link • report
-Calvin Coolidge.
by Frank IBC on Aug 5, 2012 12:15 pm • link • report
Steve Mouzon
by Tom Coumaris on Aug 5, 2012 3:30 pm • link • report
by monkeyrotica on Aug 6, 2012 7:22 am • link • report
-William Shakespeare
by Frank IBC on Aug 6, 2012 9:46 pm • link • report
by Lisa Madigan Tate on Aug 8, 2012 12:52 pm • link • report
by VeggieTart on Mar 14, 2013 1:29 pm • link • report
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