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Zoning hearing kabuki

Went to a neighborhood zoning hearing for a transit oriented development and watched the alderman the architect (not my project) and the developer say every possible triggering thing to rile up the crowd to the point where people were shouting crying screaming and pulling their hair.

It was a transit orient student housing building 6 floors 27 units 2,3 and 4 bedroom units and 11 off street parking spaces, 1000 feet from the campus and the most drama tears and angst was over street parking.

Anyone else have to endure this entertainment / torture? 

NIMBYs are legion and they do not want new buildings, new people and or "those people"  but they want new businesses to move into their neighborhood.  Such an epic level of misinformation and cognitive dissonance.

Share your thoughts and or war stories.

Over and OUT

Peter N

 
Aug 31, 18 10:28 am
randomised

Read that as bukaki, post still makes sense ¯\_(ツ)_/¯


Aug 31, 18 10:42 am  · 
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Rusty!

I really can't get into the details, but NIMBY stock is at an all time high. I have a project where developers are of wrong color, nationality, religion that is going into one of the richest zip codes in the country. Expansion joints between the buildings are supposed to be attached to both buildings. Adjacent property owners will not allow for it. We will have to let them dangle, allowing for moisture to damage both buildings.

in-n-OUT

Burgers !

Aug 31, 18 11:09 am  · 
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Yep, that sounds like cutting off your nose to spite your face kind of thing. I find that no matter how dyed in the wool red republican or how crunchy granola the area is there is always a concern for and a desire to keep "Those" people away. NIMBY is a bipartisan issue.

Aug 31, 18 11:21 am  · 
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Rusty!

Once I cross the threshold of "I got mine" I have a strong feeling I will collaborate with other people who are in the same position in order to protect our collective holdings. Outsiders may even call it NIMBY. Human nature man! The fact that I will never cross over the "I got mine" is a bit of a bittersweet victory. I guess.

Aug 31, 18 11:27 am  · 
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mantaray

SOOOO true. Possibly the last bipartisan issue left! ((huzzah!))

Aug 31, 18 1:41 pm  · 
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mantaray

You might surprise yourself, Rusty. I got (some of) mine and I still find myself far more pro-development than my reactionary neighbors. It's a matter of understanding exactly what Peter said above... you can't have a thriving neighborhood without SOME turnover/development, and some people seem to want to have their cake and eat it too.

Aug 31, 18 2:09 pm  · 
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tduds

People's obsession with parking makes me wonder if there aren't sentient autos somewhere paying them lobbying fees. It never fails to amaze me how people will prioritize a storage space for their car over the beauty and livability of their own block.

Aug 31, 18 11:55 am  · 
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The one comment I heard at this hearing that was something else: "I tore down my garage so I can have a yard, and I like that Choice I made, but I should be able to park on the street in front of my house and not 3 blocks away."

Aug 31, 18 12:00 pm  · 
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tduds

One of the most heated NIMBY arguments I ever found myself in was with a group who raged at the idea of other people parking in front of their house *AND ALSO* raged at the idea of residential permits for street parking.

The cognitive dissonance is strong in them

Aug 31, 18 12:46 pm  · 
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randomised

"NIMBY is a bipartisan issue."

It's a human issue.

On a side note, how can you call it a democracy with only two flavours representing the people in congress, that's the issue. It's basically China 0.5.

Aug 31, 18 11:58 am  · 
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I agree, NIMBY impulses to thwart development are found in left and right leaning communities.

Aug 31, 18 12:14 pm  · 
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randomised

Still, to describe a community as left or right leaning is weird to me, especially since both American parties in control are leaning right, the one a bit more than the other. But in general people no matter how they vote, if at all, are selfish NIMBY folks...they will just come with a different spin of their objections, pricks...

Aug 31, 18 1:11 pm  · 
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tduds

The conservative xenophobes and the progressive "preservationists" have forged a strange alliance in the NIMBY-verse.

Aug 31, 18 3:47 pm  · 
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JonathanLivingston

CAVE dwellers: Citizens Against Virtually Everything. People don't go out of their way to attend these meetings in order to praise change. The only thing you can do is say "I hear you". 


Aug 31, 18 12:20 pm  · 
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BANANAs (Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Me) are often the reaction to declining quality of life brought on by developers "improving" real estate.

Looking at how most development turns out it's no wonder many people are against it. Modest (i.e. efficient, affordable to maintain, etc.) housing is replaced by philandrapists (RE developers) for profit only.

When was the last time any of you worked for a responsible developer, and does such a thing even exist? Development is basically just a cash grab wrapped in euphemisms and outright lies. Graft and corruption are widespread in communities large and small, where government serves those with money first, last and always.

In this climate worthy projects - few and far between as they are - get the same response as the rest.

Aug 31, 18 1:27 pm  · 
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mantaray

I'm in the same city as you, Peter N, and in my neighborhood people are STILL constantly bitching on the facebook page about an eminent domain action the nearby university took a few years ago.  Of course eminent domain is always a thorny issue and has certainly been an abusive tool in the past -- however in this case the action was taken against a short stretch of substandard buildings with few extant businesses, just alongside a derelict stretch of former commercial establishments that the same people want some kind of developer fairy dust to magically revitalize! I've been to the community planning meetings where we've discussed trying to seduce businesses into reinhabiting our high street.  There isn't any business that's going to want a spot on this derelict stretch currently, that's why those storefronts have been empty for years.  The university's development plans (which call for dorms with 1st floor commercial spaces) would be a huge help to this area, bringing in a bunch of students as the university expands enrollment. Then these neighbors try to argue that college students wouldn't patronize the kinds of businesses THEY want to come here... wtf there is NOTHING there currently, it helps all of us if there is a thriving jimmy johns where NOTHING currently is... ugh.  Students are apparently the wrong kind of people.

Also this neighborhood is EXTREMELY liberal, like socialist liberal.

Aug 31, 18 2:25 pm  · 
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You must be in North Park, I know the project, the same problem over where this was near Lyola. This could be good material for a sitcom as it was so comical.

Sep 4, 18 1:11 pm  · 
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citizen

The closer you get to someone's property line, the paler their political-ideological stripe.

Sep 1, 18 3:31 pm  · 
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proto
I once sat in a City pre-app mtg where a concerned citizen asked if the hospital could tunnel under the neighborhood to the new parking garage to protect the neighborhood from the increased traffic from the highway

We all looked up from whatever we were doing in the room to see who the lunatic was

There was a very dramatic pause in the space
Sep 2, 18 9:36 pm  · 
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geezertect

Was the guy's name Elon Musk?

Sep 22, 18 9:08 am  · 
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