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Beyond NIMBY
Not In My Back Yard. Who hasn't had that thought at some point?
Or perhaps you're more familiar with NIMBY's cousins, NIMTOO - 'Not In My Term Of Office' and BANANA - 'Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anyone.'
The NIMBY phenomenon has a curious status: we all practice it, but we almost universally condemn its use by others. We like to characterize other people who resort to NIMBY as being irrational, self-serving, and isolationist.
Yet NIMBY is simply a reality. It is a human response that is not going to go away.
NIMBY is based on perceived risk. There are many studies to show that we associate great risks with change and the unknown. Our neighbourhood may not be perfect, but we can live with its imperfections. When that new condo complex or youth home comes into our neighbourhood, we don't know what will happen. That's risky.
NIMBY is also based on distrust or perhaps more frequently lack of trust. There is a subtle difference. When a developer appears in our neighbourhood we don't necessarily distrust the organization, but typically we also have no reason to trust it. Without trust, we believe that we, as citizens, are the only ones who can 'defend' our neighbourhood. NIMBY is based on affinity. We associate with people we like, and people that are similar to us. We therefore suspect people that we don't know, or who appear to be 'different' than us.
NIMBY is simply the negative expression of a very positive force. The existence of NIMBY reactions shows that people care - they care about their families, their properties, their neighbourhoods. There's an energy in that caring that can be, should be, tapped for the good of the broader community.
The challenge is in finding ways to tap into NIMBY energy and channel it into positive initiatives. To do so, the people who are originating development ideas need to engage those citizens much earlier in the process.
How? We know that citizens are often disinterested until they perceive something as having a direct bearing on them, especially a development that they think will change their world for the worse.
However, there are strategies for building on community strengths, and for diffusing negative reactions to specific proposals. Those strategies are presented in our six booklet series, 'Changes in the Neighbourhood: development processes that work.' Check our Publications page to order the publication.
We work with municipalities, developers, and other organizations that are proposing community change. We help in three ways: | | |
