Silicon Valley 2013 NIMBY awards

 90% empty space balanced economy

San Jose Mercury News/Scott Herhold Column, 10/12/13.  "NIMBYs shine in Silicon Valley this year".  Column title in the Local News, 10/13/13, "2013 NIMBYs target fast food, kids, dogs."

Not anywhere, not ever

"....  The moment you've been waiting for has arrived: the opening of the envelopes for this column's 2013 NIMBY awards, honoring achievement above and beyond in defending the backyards of the valley.

It's been a banner year. As the economy surged, the need to defend property values from the winds of change has grown apace. NIMBYs (not in my backyard) have taken aim at kids, dogs, old folks, Muslims and Big Macs. Yes, you can applaud.

Highway 1 improvement, kidding

Even more notably, a rich line of inventive arguments emerged in the past 12 months. The opponents of a tapas bar in Saratoga claimed it would clash with an ice-cream store next door. The opponents of a dog park in Cupertino predicted that kids would be bitten. The foes of a South County mosque fretted about contamination from a Muslim graveyard."   Read article. 

Note:  Photographs: " Not here" from No Shoot Foot, "Stop" from  Self Storage blog, and the unicyclist from the Bold Italic, San Francisco, CA.  From the bold Italic, "The Transportationazi":  "He/she spells “car” as a four-letter word. Anything with four wheels is damnable unless it’s two bicycles riding side by side. New freeway? Forget it. More taxis? No way. Often joining forces with The Super Cycler and The Freeway Fighter, The Transportationazi solely believes in only pedal, pedestrian, or public transportation."   

Related article -  Los Angeles Times/Christopher Thornberg 7/12/13, "How NIMBYs hurt California", Local interests and populist politicians have helped create a housing shortage.  It is no small concern that local NIMBY — "not in my backyard" — groups are consistently able to wield a disproportionate amount of power and threaten even "smart" projects. They delay projects by years and drive up the costs because of legal fees, lobbying and political contributions."
 
Posted by Kathy Meeh