These entities need to engage the Comprehensive Planning and others planning measures during the Update Period and comment period so that folks are engaging and Co-creating the areas where they live. It is this type of of engagement that brings the best outcome. Why are these groups missing this process? Planning, it is all in the Planning. It is always in the 3 and 5 year cycle.
I broadly agree with you Andy, that we need as many allies as we can muster to solve these challenges. However, I also expect the hesitation from some to 'partner' with conservatives on this matter is related to the ongoing trauma of past collaborations: The promises of Thatcher and her contemporaries worldwide are a good example, where privatisation and supply-side policies around housing and essential services were embraced enthusiastically by many in the working class, and politicians from the "left" [sic], based on the facade that they would empower and share the wealth of the nation with its citizens.
Smart conservatives see the writing on the wall: they know we absolutely need to build urban density. But, two decades from now, if we've been laser-focused on "a shorter walk to the barber", while our conservative partners have themselves focused on "liberalising zoning rules to unlock private land value"—both under the banner of YIMBYism—we risk making our problems far worse... After all, a slum is also a 'walkable neighbourhood'.
While we have very little choice but to embrace the capitalist levers available to us (and many of those who pretend otherwise are living in fairyland), I think it's also perfectly reasonable (and sensible!) to be highly suspicious of the wolves in sheep's clothing in this YIMBY discussion, based on the past 40 years of evidence.
As disappointing as some of the discourse has been, I take some solace in the fact that the people doing the work are the ones most willing to have the big tent.
Like @ryan was saying, the vibes at YIMBYtown were nothing but hopeful. We had everyone from DSA members to folks who really really like property rights all agreeing on the common path forward.
I live in Berlin, Germany, and spend a few months a year at my wife’s house in Belvedere, CA. Back home I design information systems for public transit (think Berlin Transit, Legible London and now even for the MTC here in San Francisco), which puts me right in the middle of this discussion. I’ve always been surprised at the fact that conservatives, of all people, could be behind zoning laws that put cars at the center, rather than people! People walking about, meeting their neighbours, running small businesses seemed to me to be the epitome of the traditional American Way of Life. I grew up looking at Norman Rockwell paintings of life in those towns, with New York et al being extensions of that life style, not contradictions. Conservative comes from conservation, preserving things that are good for us. How can sitting in traffic jams for hours every day be good for us? Is that what freedom means? Europe is always a few years behind the US, unfortunately also when it comes to imitating bad things, like building more roads which create more traffic. I’m happy that more and more people here want to enjoy the same type of towns that they travel thousands of miles to visit in Europe, while we, in turn, use the US as a horror example for what car dependency has meant.
Thanks for your thoughts on this, and I 100% agree! While the online discourse has been disappointing, most people I've talked to at YIMBYtown and in subsequent in-real-life conversations are seeing the bigger picture of what's at stake. It's about building more housing, not owning the libs or problematizing deplorables.
These entities need to engage the Comprehensive Planning and others planning measures during the Update Period and comment period so that folks are engaging and Co-creating the areas where they live. It is this type of of engagement that brings the best outcome. Why are these groups missing this process? Planning, it is all in the Planning. It is always in the 3 and 5 year cycle.
Daryl Davis is amazing, kudos for sharing his story.
I broadly agree with you Andy, that we need as many allies as we can muster to solve these challenges. However, I also expect the hesitation from some to 'partner' with conservatives on this matter is related to the ongoing trauma of past collaborations: The promises of Thatcher and her contemporaries worldwide are a good example, where privatisation and supply-side policies around housing and essential services were embraced enthusiastically by many in the working class, and politicians from the "left" [sic], based on the facade that they would empower and share the wealth of the nation with its citizens.
Smart conservatives see the writing on the wall: they know we absolutely need to build urban density. But, two decades from now, if we've been laser-focused on "a shorter walk to the barber", while our conservative partners have themselves focused on "liberalising zoning rules to unlock private land value"—both under the banner of YIMBYism—we risk making our problems far worse... After all, a slum is also a 'walkable neighbourhood'.
While we have very little choice but to embrace the capitalist levers available to us (and many of those who pretend otherwise are living in fairyland), I think it's also perfectly reasonable (and sensible!) to be highly suspicious of the wolves in sheep's clothing in this YIMBY discussion, based on the past 40 years of evidence.
As disappointing as some of the discourse has been, I take some solace in the fact that the people doing the work are the ones most willing to have the big tent.
Like @ryan was saying, the vibes at YIMBYtown were nothing but hopeful. We had everyone from DSA members to folks who really really like property rights all agreeing on the common path forward.
I live in Berlin, Germany, and spend a few months a year at my wife’s house in Belvedere, CA. Back home I design information systems for public transit (think Berlin Transit, Legible London and now even for the MTC here in San Francisco), which puts me right in the middle of this discussion. I’ve always been surprised at the fact that conservatives, of all people, could be behind zoning laws that put cars at the center, rather than people! People walking about, meeting their neighbours, running small businesses seemed to me to be the epitome of the traditional American Way of Life. I grew up looking at Norman Rockwell paintings of life in those towns, with New York et al being extensions of that life style, not contradictions. Conservative comes from conservation, preserving things that are good for us. How can sitting in traffic jams for hours every day be good for us? Is that what freedom means? Europe is always a few years behind the US, unfortunately also when it comes to imitating bad things, like building more roads which create more traffic. I’m happy that more and more people here want to enjoy the same type of towns that they travel thousands of miles to visit in Europe, while we, in turn, use the US as a horror example for what car dependency has meant.
Thanks for your thoughts on this, and I 100% agree! While the online discourse has been disappointing, most people I've talked to at YIMBYtown and in subsequent in-real-life conversations are seeing the bigger picture of what's at stake. It's about building more housing, not owning the libs or problematizing deplorables.
FWIW, I wrote up my own take a couple weeks ago: https://www.ryanpuzycki.com/p/building-a-bigger-tent