NIMBY: Not in My Back Yard. Part of an ongoing collection of articles exploring some of the many ways that a worldwide affordable housing crisis is opposed.
A new national fear is born, and NIMBY may make a claim to share the blame. If America is the ‘hood’, it is apparently no longer safe, thanks to the invasion of Bogey-People From Away. At the national level, it seems that Bogey-People can actually be identified by type. And so the nation quivers in fear as Mexican rapists pour across the country’s shambolic Southern border.
With development pressure on urban districts around the country, exclusionary zoning has hitherto allowed virtual ramparts to be erected to protect local ‘hoods’ from all kinds of threats, particularly affordable threats.
Alas, more and more local governments are refusing to bow down before the Gods of NIMBY. When the walls of the ‘hood’ come a-tumblin’ down, the threats become real. Bogey-People From Away are one of those threats, often not identified except in safety terms. You and I? We will do our best to protect ourselves by shuddering. Still . . . “our children and neighbours are not safe.”
For more on a a recent, epic defeat of ‘hood’ defenders that promises to produce needed affordable housing and at the same time compromise the safety of children and neighbours, read more in the Denver Post: Low-income housing scores victory in Aurora with city OK of controversial 50-unit facility
