Article: No room for NIMBY syndrome

[#Metro]

No room for NIMBY syndrome
April 6, 2010
Tim Colebach
The Age

It's hypocritical to admit to the need for affordable housing, then object to it being built in your street.

MELBOURNE abounds in affordable housing. The Valuer-General reports that in the September quarter last year, there were 116 suburbs in which the median house price was less than $400,000. For the city as a whole, the median unit price was $385,000.

But there was a catch. Of those 116 suburbs, 86 were 20, 30, 40 or more kilometres out of town. Another 20 were 15 to 20 kilometres from town, all in northern and western suburbs. The suburbs with affordable housing closer in were all in the north and west, mostly around Sunshine. It was the same story with units and apartments: expensive close in, cheaper the further out you go. And on the fringe, the median block of land cost just $165,000 - even less in the suburbs where most blocks were sold: Tarneit, Craigieburn, Pakenham and Doreen.

[...]

But the other change must come from us. We need to kill off the NIMBY syndrome. If we want more affordable housing in our suburbs, we have to make room for it. We need to give up knee-jerk reactions against new housing in our street, and become more proactive, looking at where those new homes can go. We can either build out, or we build up. It makes sense to build up around the main suburban centres, around train stations and on tram lines. I once lived in a city like that, and it works.

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/opinion/no-room-for-nimby-syndrome-20100405-rn08.html

[STB]

Interesting article.

NIMBYism, even extends to PT, which is unfortunate.  A couple of stories I've heard in the past including one guy who didnt want a bus route in front of his house as he said it would be too noisy, so two QR workers turn up to measure the noise of the said bus.  Turns out he also lived opposite the rail line, a freight train roared past and the QR workers said to him surely you can have a bus route out the front here, didn't you hear the freight train?  Guy replys, nope, didn't hear a thing.

The other story I heard is in another state (can't remember which), where a new bus route went through this new estate, the NIMBYs jumped up and down, to the point where they used their cars to block the road to stop the bus entering.  While disrupting a whole bunch of potential new users.

[#Metro]

West End was going to get light rail put down the main strip on Boundary Street for Briztram.
Didn't go ahead because they vetoed it.
Same with the property council and the CBD areas.

The Valley business association though took a YIMBY approach (YES in my backyard) and supported it...