NIMBY!

Fifty years ago, when I was working for the Urban Development Corporation in New York, we proposed building 100 units of housing in each of nine Westchester County towns.  Most would be for middle income people and the rest for low income residents.

You'd have thought we were going to destroy everything the people who were already there held dear.  A firestorm of criticism descended on us:

The school system can't accommodate more kids.  The sewers are already full.  Increased traffic will make our neighborhoods unlivable.  The fire department won't be able to protect us.  Local zoning laws don't allow it.  Etc., etc., etc.

All these reasons were a smokescreen for the real upset.  They thought we wanted to load black people from Harlem on buses, head them toward Westchester and bring crime, drugs and mayhem to their lily white towns.

It was classic NIMBY.  The politicians ran for cover.  And finally the Governor had us cancel the project.  So now, fifty years later, what's happening?  The New York Governor is proposing that tens of thousands of new housing be built in the suburbs.  No one is disputing the need for the housing.  But not in my backyard.

The same reasons they objected to our nine towns proposal have been trotted out.  It is the same smokescreen as in the past.  The real objection is racially motivated fear.  Nothing has changed.  The politicians are still running for cover.

Wanna bet that this time there will a different result?