I think part of the problem is that they they're neither fish nor fowl. They don't fit into what people conventionally think of as a "neighborhood" with single

I think part of the problem is that they they're neither fish nor fowl. They don't fit into what people conventionally think of as a "neighborhood" with single family homes (or at least buildings that were originally built as single family homes and later subdivided into one or two units), and they also don't necessarily fit into an area full of large apartment buildings for economic reasons (if it's economical to build a 20 story apartment building with 120 units, why would you put a 20 unit building on the same plot). We're watching the first part play out. At the end of our street, there's a garage that was built for a heating oil distribution company. Real estate prices are nuts (Boston area), and the heating oil company has either moved or gone under. The building owner is trying to redevelop it into a 4 story apartment (or condos, TBD) with 7 units. I went the the community meeting with my wife because she has domain expertise with the environmental side of such a redevelopment project. People are having a fit about the building. It's too tall, it'll change the character of the neighborhood. What if the neighbors throw RAGING PARTIES on the terraces? What if they leave their lights on and they shine in the windows of the immediate neighbors? Can you put plants on the edge of the terraces to mitigate that? What if the new neighbors don't trim the plants?! The color the developers are proposing is too ... I don't know, but people don't like it. The neighbors have been holding the developers feet to the fire over what amounts to 1) bikeshedding, and 2) what if we get bad neighbors? How much is it costing the developer to hold people's hands over these things? The only possible reason for doing this I can imagine is that there simply isn't a lot of unencumbered land waiting to be built upon, so infilling smaller buildings is the only way to go about developing unless you have the resources to develop something truly huge on a large ex-industrial parcel. Don't get me wrong, I'm sympathetic to the fact that bad neighbors exist, and we like the neighborhood in part because it is quiet. Still, real estate prices are insane, and building more housing is the only way it's going to get better. In the interests of full disclosure, we rent. Largely because we don't see staying here for more than another couple years (largely because we don't see a realistic way to become home-owners, so we're doing our part to perpetuate the property price problem). We're largely insulated from any property value concerns that people may have about the new building. Still we like the neighborhood, and we do our part to be neighborly to the many owner-occupants we live near. We're as invested in the neighborhood as anybody who doesn't own is likely to be, but we do think the development is wholly reasonable and a great reuse of what is a hulking, windowless brick building.