No. 6 – April 6, 2022

 

Hi First name / there, 

 

I’m landing in your inbox a little later than usual today. It’s week 11 of my semester and with just over a month remaining in the school year, I’m running on fumes! I genuinely love writing this newsletter though, and no matter how busy things get, I find myself excited to craft each new edition. 

 

My birthday was this past Sunday, and as an Aries during Aries season is wont to do, I’m feeling a little spicy. That’s why we’re talking about the group that everybody loves to hate today: NIMBYs. 

Tbh, I had to google this question like two months ago. NIMBY is short for Not In My Backyard, a moniker given to homeowners (important distinction!) who resist change in their neighborhood. 

 

In the housing world, NIMBYs are known for protesting against more dense housing developments in their neighborhoods. You’ll often hear arguments that reference an unwanted change in the “character of the neighborhood.” I have sort of a knee-jerk reaction to that energy (IT’S RACIST! THEY MEAN BROWN PEOPLE!), but let’s humanize the folks who get lumped into this category real quick. 

 

Let’s say you buy a home in a quiet neighborhood because you’re looking for extra space and, well, a quiet neighborhood. Now let’s say that 20 years go by with little-to-no change in the general structure of your neighborhood, and suddenly the city/county/municipal entity wants to double the number of housing units over the next 5-10 years. You worry about traffic, you worry about schools becoming crowded, you worry about change. 

 

You talk with some of your neighbors and they’re worried about those potential changes, too. Maybe you talk to your elected officials and attempt to halt a project that’s in the works. Congratulations, you’re now part of a NIMBY. 

 

As is well-articulated in this story from DCist’s Ally Schweitzer, NIMBYs’ efforts can add cost to, delay, and even overturn housing development projects. That means that even when a city planning office knows it needs more housing stock, they may not be able to come close to the amount they’d like because neighborhood groups stand in the way. It’s important for people to have a say in the community planning process; I think the challenge here is that homeowners have too much power. And since white Americans have historically higher rates of homeownership, you can see how this might be problematic. 

 

The same article quotes Brookings’ Jenny Schuetz (who recently wrote Fixer-Upper: How to Repair America’s Broken Housing Systems): “Existing homeowners have essentially veto power over proposals to build new housing.” 

 

We’ll dig into why that is next week. 

 

Feel free to reply to this email if this topic sparks any thoughts! I’d love to hear from you. Today is definitely not the last time we'll talk about NIMBYs.

 

Until next week,

Dominique 🧡