It’s tough. My inner progressive is “fuck those NIMBYs, people need affordable housing!” But I also bike past two different sets of affordable housing twice a week for soccer.
One is near our soccer field and playground. The playground is mostly kid free these days as there are all sorts of needles and other paraphanalia strewn about. Meanwhile, there are usually people smoking hard drugs right by the pitches. Most of us don’t leave our bikes at the parking rack as you can come back to a stripped bike or having had the spokes kicked, presumably as punishment for locking our bikes.
The other one is a little out of the way of most people. The street by it is still littered with refuse and drug paraphanalia and for some reason, they seem to occasionally move rocks into the street (as I painfully learned one day when not paying enough attention.)
If I had kids, I’m not sure I’d want that around my kids either. I know people who live in the same area as one, in what is otherwise a nice part of town. Some of the girls are afraid to go outside alone at night in their own neighbourhoods, and frankly I don’t blame them. I’m a scaryish looking dude and keep my head on a swivel, headphones off whenever I visit.
I don’t know what the answer is but I don’t blame the NIMBYs for feeling like they do.
This is a lopsided take. NIMBY isn’t aimed at just affordable housing or section 8 - it’s aimed at ANY development, thus limiting the housing supply. It also targets any effort to change zoning. We need more medium density housing. Something like 90% of the country is R1 single family detached which is the worst thing for the environment ever.
In my parents neighborhood, there was a plan on building 8 story buildings right next to single houses.
Off course we need higher density housing to reduce housing shortage… In this case, people fought back to keep the previous rule (4 story high max) and the old 2-story buildings were replaced by 4s ones. To recoup the loss, these appartments were made super high-end and are now empty because they can’t sell.
All in all, I’m torn that i fought to keep a “gradual” increase in height, but also the promoter kind of didn’t do this for the right reasons and would probably have created 8-story high end appartments…
Poverty and drug addiction is a very difficult problem I believe can be tackled by UBI and safe injection centres together.
I have the same gripes about the Montreal Metro, I think it’s unsafe outside of commute hours because of the drug users and homeless people who take shelter within. It’s not their fault, it’s a societal problem, but the end result nonetheless is that people get assaulted frequently on the metro.
Being poor is expensive, both for the individual and for society, and studies show that if you give someone $200, they’ll spend it on food and drugs. If you house someone, they’ll feel like they have no autonomy and go back to the streets. If you give them $25k a year with no strings attached, most will try to find housing they like, buy food they like and solve their addiction and mental health issues, and go on to live fulfilling lives.
And, best of all, if done and funded correctly, employers get to save $25k a year on employee paychecks as it’ll be presumably garnered off of corporate taxes for all of society to enjoy. Unfortunately, companies are “people” and would protest against this as it’ll end up being slightly more expensive in the short term.
Pushing poor people away just makes them someone else’s problem.
It’s tough. My inner progressive is “fuck those NIMBYs, people need affordable housing!” But I also bike past two different sets of affordable housing twice a week for soccer.
One is near our soccer field and playground. The playground is mostly kid free these days as there are all sorts of needles and other paraphanalia strewn about. Meanwhile, there are usually people smoking hard drugs right by the pitches. Most of us don’t leave our bikes at the parking rack as you can come back to a stripped bike or having had the spokes kicked, presumably as punishment for locking our bikes.
The other one is a little out of the way of most people. The street by it is still littered with refuse and drug paraphanalia and for some reason, they seem to occasionally move rocks into the street (as I painfully learned one day when not paying enough attention.)
If I had kids, I’m not sure I’d want that around my kids either. I know people who live in the same area as one, in what is otherwise a nice part of town. Some of the girls are afraid to go outside alone at night in their own neighbourhoods, and frankly I don’t blame them. I’m a scaryish looking dude and keep my head on a swivel, headphones off whenever I visit.
I don’t know what the answer is but I don’t blame the NIMBYs for feeling like they do.
This is a lopsided take. NIMBY isn’t aimed at just affordable housing or section 8 - it’s aimed at ANY development, thus limiting the housing supply. It also targets any effort to change zoning. We need more medium density housing. Something like 90% of the country is R1 single family detached which is the worst thing for the environment ever.
In my parents neighborhood, there was a plan on building 8 story buildings right next to single houses.
Off course we need higher density housing to reduce housing shortage… In this case, people fought back to keep the previous rule (4 story high max) and the old 2-story buildings were replaced by 4s ones. To recoup the loss, these appartments were made super high-end and are now empty because they can’t sell.
All in all, I’m torn that i fought to keep a “gradual” increase in height, but also the promoter kind of didn’t do this for the right reasons and would probably have created 8-story high end appartments…
You have a very balanced take, it’s refreshing.
Poverty and drug addiction is a very difficult problem I believe can be tackled by UBI and safe injection centres together.
I have the same gripes about the Montreal Metro, I think it’s unsafe outside of commute hours because of the drug users and homeless people who take shelter within. It’s not their fault, it’s a societal problem, but the end result nonetheless is that people get assaulted frequently on the metro.
Being poor is expensive, both for the individual and for society, and studies show that if you give someone $200, they’ll spend it on food and drugs. If you house someone, they’ll feel like they have no autonomy and go back to the streets. If you give them $25k a year with no strings attached, most will try to find housing they like, buy food they like and solve their addiction and mental health issues, and go on to live fulfilling lives.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/basic-income-gives-money-without-strings-heres-how-people-spend-it/
And, best of all, if done and funded correctly, employers get to save $25k a year on employee paychecks as it’ll be presumably garnered off of corporate taxes for all of society to enjoy. Unfortunately, companies are “people” and would protest against this as it’ll end up being slightly more expensive in the short term.
Pushing poor people away just makes them someone else’s problem.
I don’t think you have jumped to conclusive outrage enough to be posting on Lemmy
My bad! Next time I will end my thought by deciding one of the two (NIMBYs or those needing affordable housing) should be eradicated.
How about just more housing till the supply pressure makes it affordable? 🤔