Monday, May 24, 2004
Boy, do I hate the phrase "NIMBY"
NIMBY, the acronym for 'Not In My Back Yard'is used with ridiculous regularity in this town by everyone.
What's really frustrating about it is how many folks use it as some sort of general term meaning conservative or problematic. It gets its origins from people living near a proposed project of one kind or another come out saying, 'I don't want X near my house'... for whatever reason they might have. Of course, not many realize this stance applies across the board.. If someone wanted to build a Hummer dealership in Upper Haight, there'd be a whole lot of people coming out and saying 'not in my back yard!' who would be quite different looking than those who might come out in a different community when, say, a meth clinic might be going in. You could say the people fighting the parking garage in GG Park are NIMBYs, so are the folks fighting the new condos in North Beach, the changes in density, the changes in bike lanes, the changes...anywhere.
Let's not use this phrase anymore.
NIMBY, the acronym for 'Not In My Back Yard'is used with ridiculous regularity in this town by everyone.
What's really frustrating about it is how many folks use it as some sort of general term meaning conservative or problematic. It gets its origins from people living near a proposed project of one kind or another come out saying, 'I don't want X near my house'... for whatever reason they might have. Of course, not many realize this stance applies across the board.. If someone wanted to build a Hummer dealership in Upper Haight, there'd be a whole lot of people coming out and saying 'not in my back yard!' who would be quite different looking than those who might come out in a different community when, say, a meth clinic might be going in. You could say the people fighting the parking garage in GG Park are NIMBYs, so are the folks fighting the new condos in North Beach, the changes in density, the changes in bike lanes, the changes...anywhere.
Let's not use this phrase anymore.
