Would you approve of a new nuclear power plant in your neighborhood? How about a 500-unit housing development next door? Maybe a hundred or so fully loaded coal trains rumbling through your town everyday and snarling traffic so you can’t get home after work in time to enjoy a cool libation before you switch on the television.
A recent article in the San Francisco Weekly also takes NIMBYs to task, with an opinion that a plan by AT&T to install 726 broadband-Internet-equipment boxes next to its telephone-service boxes throughout the city is being resisted for no particular good reason other than the NIMBYs simply don’t want change.
Here in Washington State one of the things that really galls me is the resistance people have to hiking trails. Consequently, hiking trails, which are such a wonderful addition to any city, are incredibly costly and take forever to establish.
We are foolish and selfish people. Some NIMBYs in Point Roberts, Washington, raised a ruckus awhile back because a cell phone company wanted to install a tower at the edge of the region’s park. The rent payment would have helped the park district, which had been struggling financially for years, to develop ball fields, trails and other amenities. And the tower would have been partially hidden in the trees. But did the selfish NIMBYs care? NADA!
I read a book titled Who Moved My Cheese a few years ago. It’s still in the bookstores. It tells the story of two mice and two little people who suddenly find their life situations changed. The mice adjust and survive. The little people are not so lucky. The little people probably were NIMBY’s.
The NIMBYs are going to take us all down with them and nobody will have any more cheese. Sam and I say three bags of poop on that.
If you have answered “Not in my backyard,” to any of these scenarios you are like thousands of other NIMBYS. Basically, you just want the world to stop so you don’t have to deal with real life. You’ve got what you want, to heck with everybody else.
It’s okay to protest things; the Vietnam War surely needed protesting. And God knows our politicians don’t always know which end is up or how to protect us the way they’re supposed to. And boy do I hate it when some bozo developer tries to buy us off with, “But, my project will bring badly needed jobs to the community,” which doesn’t usually happen.
But the way things are these days, you NIMBYS have just about stopped progress everywhere. Go ahead lay down in front of that bulldozer. Start ‘er up Joe! The United States of America is fast becoming a third-rate nation because we are so spoiled we no longer aspire to anything more than shopping, sipping lattes, and watching (gag) reality television.
NIMBYs are fighting or have fought new cell towers, high-speed rail, pedestrian and bicycle trails, Wal Marts, - just about everything you can think of. Here’s how a fellow in Arizona feels about them: “I hate NIMBYs; they just push my buttons.”
Here in Washington State one of the things that really galls me is the resistance people have to hiking trails. Consequently, hiking trails, which are such a wonderful addition to any city, are incredibly costly and take forever to establish.
We are foolish and selfish people. Some NIMBYs in Point Roberts, Washington, raised a ruckus awhile back because a cell phone company wanted to install a tower at the edge of the region’s park. The rent payment would have helped the park district, which had been struggling financially for years, to develop ball fields, trails and other amenities. And the tower would have been partially hidden in the trees. But did the selfish NIMBYs care? NADA!
I read a book titled Who Moved My Cheese a few years ago. It’s still in the bookstores. It tells the story of two mice and two little people who suddenly find their life situations changed. The mice adjust and survive. The little people are not so lucky. The little people probably were NIMBY’s.
The NIMBYs are going to take us all down with them and nobody will have any more cheese. Sam and I say three bags of poop on that.
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