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Lemonio t1_j6kphc6 wrote

Reply to comment by ClarkFable in Maura Healey wants to solve the state’s housing crisis. Here’s step one. by _Hack_The_Planet_

I feel like priority for most NIMBYs is not wanting more people near them, not the housing value

The housing value matters if you want to move short term but most nimby probably care more about what effect there will be on day to day life if they’re planning to stay in their home for a while

Obviously NIMBYs aren’t being helpful to fellow humans, but it also seems like an understandable instinct that people in a suburban neighborhood don’t want it to become more crowded, and don’t really gain anything of value otherwise

Maybe if developers could just legally bribe neighbors with cash to get projects approved that would work to reduce resistance

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1998_2009_2016 t1_j6mwfl9 wrote

Bribing neighbors is basically what happens in Cambridge. Oh you want a big lab? Better build a park, community space, donate to the affordable housing fund … then we will approve your variance.

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ClarkFable t1_j6lekex wrote

>The housing value matters if you want to move short term but most nimby probably care more about what effect there will be on day to day life if they’re planning to stay in their home for a while

This is a fair point, and I agree that the degree to which some will be swayed by potential property value increases varies across individual's. In a way, I probably have more sympathy for a NIMBY who isn't just being greedy for money, but instead has a genuine preference for the characteristics of their neighborhood.

>Obviously NIMBYs aren’t being helpful to fellow humans, but it also seems like an understandable instinct that people in a suburban neighborhood don’t want it to become more crowded, and don’t really gain anything of value otherwise

I find this also to be compelling. In some sense I think this is why the term NIMBY is overused (or misapplied) in these discussions. Home values constitute such a large portion of most peoples wealth/savings, that what rational person is going to want to see development that will harm or lower their home value? Along the same lines, I tend to think of NIMBY as reflecting the following thought process: I want public good X, but I don't want public good x near me--i.e., I want X but not in my back yard. So if a property owner doesn't really care about increasing the housing stock (regardless of its location), are they really a NIMBY?

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Lemonio t1_j6lgwtd wrote

I mean I imagine the reason that nimbys are so common is it basically people who care more about their own interests than others which is most people

You need to either ignore them and not give them a choice, or you need to change the incentives to somehow make it worth their while, otherwise it shouldn’t be surprising that people will oppose new housing near their house

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some1saveusnow t1_j6mjsj5 wrote

Not giving people who have owned for a long time in a community a choice, and doing so across the board, is a fast track to local government hell for the legislature

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Lemonio t1_j6ml87k wrote

If you’re not taking people’s homes and just building big on empty lots and when houses are sold people might not be happy but at the end of the day if they get to complain idk how much they care

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ribi305 t1_j6muwvz wrote

I go to a fair number of these meetings in my neighborhood and the NIMBY view I hear most often is "why do we need to turn Cambridge into another New York?" A lot of old people just seem to feel that their neighborhood shouldn't need to accommodate the new people who want to live there. The problem (in my view) is that we have been adding jobs like crazy so it's become a need to add housing to begin to catch up.

Interestingly, Cambridge, Boston and the urban areas around here actually had higher population in the past ('60s), but they packed way more people into smaller housing. A lot of the reason we need more housing now is because of smaller households wanting more space per person.

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some1saveusnow t1_j6mjf6x wrote

you’re the first person I’ve seen since I’ve been on Reddit who actually gets it

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Lemonio t1_j6mkyv6 wrote

Just to be clear I do think NIMBYs are bad and we should be building a lot more housing - I was just pointing out that the NIMBY response shouldn’t be surprising because people are just following their own incentives

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