NIMBY refers to opposition to development in one’s city or neighborhood. This attitude is often seen as negative because it can hinder public necessities like waste or water treatment plants, highways, and power lines. NIMBYists also oppose seemingly innocuous developments like big-box stores and apartment complexes. They argue that these developments could corrupt a neighborhood’s peaceful atmosphere, change the natural landscape, or increase traffic. Critics of NIMBYism believe that citizen-placed roadblocks cost taxpayers and private developers more money and that low-income areas lack the resources to combat developments they might oppose.
NIMBY stands for “Not In My Backyard” and is often used to negatively describe the attitude of a person or group that opposes the development of anything they deem inappropriate in their city or neighborhood. They usually take this stance because they just don’t want it in their “backyard,” and not because they think it’s inherently bad or unnecessary. The term was first used in print in the Christian Science Monitor in 1980, according to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED).
While most people are concerned about the type of buildings being built in their neighborhoods, the contempt typically associated with NIMBY is that development is usually a public necessity. It usually means that the person opposed to the project would be perfectly happy to benefit from the service the development provides, if only they were in someone else’s backyard. Developments such as a waste or water treatment plant, landfill, highway, power lines, cell phone transmission towers, or other infrastructure are usually required to upgrade, replace, or supplement current services. Since they have to go into someone’s backyard, it’s especially concerning when neighborhood or citizen groups put roadblocks on these projects.
Other seemingly innocuous developments that may not be considered public needs but provide services also face opposition from the NIMBY. “Big-Box” stores like Barnes and Noble, Best Buy, and Home Depot have all come under the wrath of NIMBY. New shopping centres, churches or apartment developments also often encounter resistance. Wal-Mart has faced countless protests when it has attempted to build in new neighborhoods and is often in the news for the NIMBY controversy.
Certain developments such as chemical plants, shelters for the homeless, criminals or sex offenders, prisons or detention facilities most often arouse the wrath of the NIMBY contingency. For understandable reasons, many residents don’t want the possibility of a chemical disaster or prison outbreak. While these are all necessary evils of society, the average person would rather they were out of sight and comfortably out of mind. Many developers would argue that their particular project would serve the community because it is a public need such as a new highway, or provide needed services, jobs and tax revenues, such as a new shopping mall. Developers of apartment complexes may argue that more affordable housing is needed in a particular area.
For NIMBY advocates, a development can corrupt a neighborhood’s peaceful atmosphere or architectural style, change the natural landscape, or increase traffic to an unbearable level. For those opposed to big-box establishments, they argue that the old “mom-and-pop” companies would suffer as the neighborhood is overtaken by much-maligned “corporatization.” NIMBYists argue that property values could decline, infrastructure could be overwhelmed, crime rates could skyrocket, and the local environment could be negatively impacted.
For those who criticize the NIMBY philosophy, they believe that citizen-placed roadblocks cost taxpayers and private developers more money. Citizens often make costly or impossible requests such as new freeway ramps, wider roadways, or additional cosmetic features on a new building. Furthermore, many residents of low-income areas lack the economic or political resources to combat developments they might oppose. Since many NIMBYists reside in affluent or more powerful neighborhoods, they may be more successful in thwarting a developer’s plans and the project ends up in the backyard with the least resistance.
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