This was published some time ago, and was written by Deb Ortman, whos a wonderful friend and a leader in Northeastern Minnesota. RETHINKING NIMBYism By Debbie Dunbar Ortman and Howard Lerner We should care about what is happening in our backyards. It is fundamental to a sense of neighborhood and community. Common sense tells us, moreover, that it is human nature to care much more about a polluting factory, a toxic dump site, a new highway, or encroaching mall sprawl in our own neighborhood than in some other town many miles away. However, when citizens speak out against local health threats, environmental hazards, urban and/or mall sprawl, over development or new roads which cause environmental damage, sooner or later a damning epithet is hurled: the N word - NIMBY, Not-In-My-Backyard. Too often, the public is silenced or despairingly dismissed as selfish or trivialized. We have thus lost control over the language of public debate. Polluters discredit public participation as the work of NIMBY’s. Elected officials ignore resident’s pleas to protect their neighborhoods from outside intrusions and denigrate citizen involvement. Even the press often stereotypes and trivializes efforts by concerned citizens by labeling them NIMBYs. It is time to regain the semantic balance. Caring about our neighborhood backyards and the environment is a key to healthful and wholesome communities. Should people simply shrug their shoulders and say so what if a toxic dump or landfill is not cleaned up while drinking water supplies are potentially contaminated? Should decisions about the size, shape and character of central cities and outlying suburban and rural communities be determined solely by private developers economic self-interests? Should garbage dumps be allowed next to your childs school or a nightclub alongside your neighborhood church? Here are some examples – • It was NIMBY people that forced a mall developer to scale back his site plans, leave a 400 foot buffer between the building site and residential property, and set aside over 30 acres as permanent green space. Residents weren’t able to stop the developer from building a mall but were able to significantly decrease its impact on their neighborhood. • In one city’s rural area, a group of neighborhood residents forced their state’s pollution control agency and the Federal Environmental Protection Agency to designate a superfund site (old oil refinery) as a “priority” clean-up site. This speeded up the process for clean up by several years. The same residents forced the responsible parties to install city water to their homes to prevent any exposure to contaminated well water. • It was NIBMY people that stopped the destruction of an undeveloped area along the north shore of Lake Superior (one of the largest fresh water lakes in the world). The area had been a passive-use park for over 50 years and then the city and a state “natural resource” agency wanted it developed into a multi-million dollar boat launch and harbor. • A group of residents living on a previous military base forced their state’s pollution control agency and the EPA to provide clean drinking water because their well was contaminated with trichloroethane (TCE). The residents were later moved and the area designated as a superfund site that is still waiting to be cleaned up. To build sustainable and livable communities, fair-minded people must participate in public debates regarding threats to clean air, safe drinking water, unpolluted lands and waterways, and community safety. This debate must also include the impacts of urban sprawl and mall sprawl on our neighborhoods, rural communities, existing businesses and the environment. What is wrong with saying loudly and proudly that we want to build and sustain healthy communities? That should be the moral high ground. Never doubt that a small, highly committed group of individuals can change the world; indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. Margaret Mead We must challenge our elected officials, community leaders, business owners, and developers and yes, even the media to encourage citizen participation and public debate on important issues. We must stop the use of labels and epithets; they only serve to divide us. We need to employ positive, affirming language to describe citizen participation. We should and must proudly stand up and fight to preserve our neighborhoods and our communities. We must speak out against the greed and exploitation of some landowners, developers, and corporations. The only real struggle in the history of the world...is between the vested interest and social justice. Arnold Toynbee, historian. It is our democratic right to speak and take action in support of protecting our community’s quality of life. Stand By Your Land! friendscvsf.org
Posted on: Tue, 05 Nov 2013 20:01:09 +0000
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