12 ms·

Getting involved with a local YIMBY group is pretty easy, fun, and one of the best things you can do on several fronts: * It's good for the economy, as "legits

by davidw 7y ago

Getting involved with a local YIMBY group is pretty easy, fun, and one of the best things you can do on several fronts: * It's good for the economy, as "legitster" points out. * It's good for the environment if people can drive less (or even walk or bike!) because they live closer to things. * It's good for the people "on the margins", those struggling to pay rent, or those at risk of homelessness, or those who might like to move to a more productive place for a better job. It's much easier to make a difference locally: in many places it's not hard to get to know your city councilors, or state reps/senators. One of my prouder YIMBY moments was turning out 5 people on a weekday morning to speak to our state rep, who ended up voting in favor of HB 2001, which legalizes up to 4-plexes throughout most Oregon cities.

exterrestrial 7y ago
>It's good for the people "on the margins", those struggling to pay rent, or those at risk of homelessness, or those who might like to move to a more productive place for a better job. Please cite at lease one example in which this has ever been the case. I do understand the theory behind your argument here, and I assume you are familiar with (leftist) counter-arguments, so this is not an attempt to open a debate. Rather, I want you to be right but until I see some solid evidence I am unconvinced. >One of my prouder YIMBY moments was turning out 5 people on a weekday morning to speak to our state rep, who ended up voting in favor of HB 2001, which legalizes up to 4-plexes throughout most Oregon cities. This is a great example of how it seems to me that YIMBYs are anti-NIMBY in the way Democrats are anti-Republican. Time and time again, it appears neither groups are actually doing any thing ‘good for the people “on the margins. Clearly, this policy benefits landlords more than anybody and the implication is that this is besides the fact of lowering rent prices. Fine. But it is not insignificant that all of these efforts primarily promote the perpetuation of rent-seeking. I watched from the front row as investors bought up Portland. It has been about 6 years since it entered full-swing and rent prices are higher than ever before. This is not good for people “on the margins”. In fact, most of those people were not even on the margins before the investors came in. I am one of them. I should know. Of course, history is littered with cases of YIMBY theory failing urban housing markets, so please show me an example of where your theories have actually succeeded.
- davidw 7y ago
  I think that if you're going to argue that supply and demand are not real for housing, you'd need to supply some good evidence of your own. There are a lot of ways to build more supply: https://www.sightline.org/2017/09/21/yes-you-can-build-your-way-to-affordable-housing/ https://www.sightline.org/2017/09/21/yes-you-can-build-your-... I find the 'Montreal' example the most compelling in that it's fairly "human scale", but tastes vary.
  - Spooky23 7y ago
    Rental housing has price floor that distorts the market. Once a property diverges from the requirements of housing subsidy programs, it usually gets abandoned. In most places new supply is high end and is making more housing available for people who don’t lack access.
    - davidw 7y ago
      > In most places new supply is high end and is making more housing available for people who don’t lack access. In most places, new cars are more expensive than used ones, but if you stopped providing new cars, the price of the used ones would shoot up as everyone started competing for a dwindling supply of cars. Same goes for housing. Also, it's a longer term process with housing, but 'filtering' is a real thing: https://oregoneconomicanalysis.com/2016/05/25/housing-does-filter/ https://oregoneconomicanalysis.com/2016/05/25/housing-does-f...
      - allovernow 7y ago
        >In most places, new cars are more expensive than used ones, but if you stopped providing new cars, the price of the used ones would shoot up as everyone started competing for a dwindling supply of cars An unspoken consequence of cash for clunkers. Practically overnight 100k miles was considered "low mileage", which was ridiculous before people started needlessly trashing perfectly good used cars.
        7y ago
buss 7y ago
Agreed 100% I'm very involved with YIMBY Action here in SF: I'm on the board of both YIMBY Action and YIMBY Law, and I'm also running for local office in the current election: https://buss2020.org https://buss2020.org If you have any questions about YIMBY, send them my way!
- davidw 7y ago
  Nice work! It'd be fun to have a mini-meetup at the YimbyTown conference this spring; there seems to be an overlap of tech people and YIMBYs.
  - buss 7y ago
    I'll be there! SF YIMBY will probably put on a happy hour or something
- mrfusion 7y ago
  Is the movement growing? Do you see a way forward?
  - buss 7y ago
    We're growing a lot! YIMBY Action just brought in People for Housing Orange County and Peninsula For Everyone as affiliate clubs. We're in the process of expanding into Denver and NYC. The demise of Scott Wiener's SB50 this year has certainly been a disappointment, but we try not to pin our hopes on any single solution. It took us 50 years to get where we are, and we expect it'll take at least 10 to get out. That will be a combination of local, state, and federal action. The thing I've learned being involved in SF politics and YIMBY for the past few years is that politicians don't make change. They don't shift the discourse. Instead, it's grassroots movements like YIMBY Action that build a parade that politicians then jump to the front of. (Of course, this isn't true for Scott. He's one of the few true believers!) We're building a passionate and vocal community that can do the on-the-ground organizing necessary to make politicians court us. The way forward it to continue building a voting bloc. You only have as much power as the people you can turn out to vote.
foxx-boxx 7y ago
It’s only if your don’t have a job. People who need to work and pay income taxes simply don’t have time for all this. Because they know, that market always does its job.
badfrog 7y ago
Any tips on how to find such a group? Google is turning up nothing for my city.
- davidw 7y ago
  Sometimes people pick other names... maybe search for people talking about housing issues. Not 100% correlated with YIMBY, but people thinking about similar problems: https://www.strongtowns.org/local https://www.strongtowns.org/local Or start something yourself! Where do you live?
- mayneack 7y ago
  If you know of initiatives you care about (like SB 50 for example), look for groups pushing that. If you're on twitter, the twitter networks usually bridge cities. I follow a lot of LA area YIMBY groups, but get some cross pollination from other cities too.
arthurjj 7y ago
Anyone in San Diego looking for a group we actually have YimbySD which supports YIMBY candidates in the primaries https://www.yimbydemssd.com/ https://www.yimbydemssd.com/
- windthrown 7y ago
  Thank you!
- koonce 7y ago
  I find the inclusion of Olga Diaz in the voter guide ironic, considering she voted against infill apartments because they were "out of character with the space". Gotta love politicians claiming they support something in the same breath as letting you know they voted against it. https://www.thecoastnews.com/city-council-nullifies-contested-mid-rise-apartment-across-from-city-hall/ https://www.thecoastnews.com/city-council-nullifies-conteste...
Xelbair 7y ago
>It's much easier to make a difference locally: in many places it's not hard to get to know your city councilors, [..] I am not from USA, but over here i did have a 'pleasure' contacting them. They worked actively against communities they were supposed to represent. I am talking about both city councilors, and district ones. You know whats the best part? you have like 3 options to pick, and they all are exactly the same(cozy job, with limited hours for appointments and ignoring your community)

by davidw 7y ago

exterrestrial 7y ago

>It's good for the people "on the margins", those struggling to pay rent, or those at risk of homelessness, or those who might like to move to a more productive place for a better job. Please cite at lease one example in which this has ever been the case. I do understand the theory behind your argument here, and I assume you are familiar with (leftist) counter-arguments, so this is not an attempt to open a debate. Rather, I want you to be right but until I see some solid evidence I am unconvinced. >One of my prouder YIMBY moments was turning out 5 people on a weekday morning to speak to our state rep, who ended up voting in favor of HB 2001, which legalizes up to 4-plexes throughout most Oregon cities. This is a great example of how it seems to me that YIMBYs are anti-NIMBY in the way Democrats are anti-Republican. Time and time again, it appears neither groups are actually doing any thing ‘good for the people “on the margins. Clearly, this policy benefits landlords more than anybody and the implication is that this is besides the fact of lowering rent prices. Fine. But it is not insignificant that all of these efforts primarily promote the perpetuation of rent-seeking. I watched from the front row as investors bought up Portland. It has been about 6 years since it entered full-swing and rent prices are higher than ever before. This is not good for people “on the margins”. In fact, most of those people were not even on the margins before the investors came in. I am one of them. I should know. Of course, history is littered with cases of YIMBY theory failing urban housing markets, so please show me an example of where your theories have actually succeeded.

davidw 7y ago
I think that if you're going to argue that supply and demand are not real for housing, you'd need to supply some good evidence of your own. There are a lot of ways to build more supply: https://www.sightline.org/2017/09/21/yes-you-can-build-your-way-to-affordable-housing/ https://www.sightline.org/2017/09/21/yes-you-can-build-your-... I find the 'Montreal' example the most compelling in that it's fairly "human scale", but tastes vary.
- Spooky23 7y ago
  Rental housing has price floor that distorts the market. Once a property diverges from the requirements of housing subsidy programs, it usually gets abandoned. In most places new supply is high end and is making more housing available for people who don’t lack access.
  - davidw 7y ago
    > In most places new supply is high end and is making more housing available for people who don’t lack access. In most places, new cars are more expensive than used ones, but if you stopped providing new cars, the price of the used ones would shoot up as everyone started competing for a dwindling supply of cars. Same goes for housing. Also, it's a longer term process with housing, but 'filtering' is a real thing: https://oregoneconomicanalysis.com/2016/05/25/housing-does-filter/ https://oregoneconomicanalysis.com/2016/05/25/housing-does-f...
    - allovernow 7y ago
      >In most places, new cars are more expensive than used ones, but if you stopped providing new cars, the price of the used ones would shoot up as everyone started competing for a dwindling supply of cars An unspoken consequence of cash for clunkers. Practically overnight 100k miles was considered "low mileage", which was ridiculous before people started needlessly trashing perfectly good used cars.
      - 7y ago

buss 7y ago

Agreed 100% I'm very involved with YIMBY Action here in SF: I'm on the board of both YIMBY Action and YIMBY Law, and I'm also running for local office in the current election: https://buss2020.org https://buss2020.org If you have any questions about YIMBY, send them my way!

davidw 7y ago
Nice work! It'd be fun to have a mini-meetup at the YimbyTown conference this spring; there seems to be an overlap of tech people and YIMBYs.
- buss 7y ago
  I'll be there! SF YIMBY will probably put on a happy hour or something
mrfusion 7y ago
Is the movement growing? Do you see a way forward?
- buss 7y ago
  We're growing a lot! YIMBY Action just brought in People for Housing Orange County and Peninsula For Everyone as affiliate clubs. We're in the process of expanding into Denver and NYC. The demise of Scott Wiener's SB50 this year has certainly been a disappointment, but we try not to pin our hopes on any single solution. It took us 50 years to get where we are, and we expect it'll take at least 10 to get out. That will be a combination of local, state, and federal action. The thing I've learned being involved in SF politics and YIMBY for the past few years is that politicians don't make change. They don't shift the discourse. Instead, it's grassroots movements like YIMBY Action that build a parade that politicians then jump to the front of. (Of course, this isn't true for Scott. He's one of the few true believers!) We're building a passionate and vocal community that can do the on-the-ground organizing necessary to make politicians court us. The way forward it to continue building a voting bloc. You only have as much power as the people you can turn out to vote.

foxx-boxx 7y ago

It’s only if your don’t have a job. People who need to work and pay income taxes simply don’t have time for all this. Because they know, that market always does its job.

badfrog 7y ago

Any tips on how to find such a group? Google is turning up nothing for my city.

davidw 7y ago
Sometimes people pick other names... maybe search for people talking about housing issues. Not 100% correlated with YIMBY, but people thinking about similar problems: https://www.strongtowns.org/local https://www.strongtowns.org/local Or start something yourself! Where do you live?
mayneack 7y ago
If you know of initiatives you care about (like SB 50 for example), look for groups pushing that. If you're on twitter, the twitter networks usually bridge cities. I follow a lot of LA area YIMBY groups, but get some cross pollination from other cities too.

arthurjj 7y ago

Anyone in San Diego looking for a group we actually have YimbySD which supports YIMBY candidates in the primaries https://www.yimbydemssd.com/ https://www.yimbydemssd.com/

windthrown 7y ago
Thank you!
koonce 7y ago
I find the inclusion of Olga Diaz in the voter guide ironic, considering she voted against infill apartments because they were "out of character with the space". Gotta love politicians claiming they support something in the same breath as letting you know they voted against it. https://www.thecoastnews.com/city-council-nullifies-contested-mid-rise-apartment-across-from-city-hall/ https://www.thecoastnews.com/city-council-nullifies-conteste...

Xelbair 7y ago

>It's much easier to make a difference locally: in many places it's not hard to get to know your city councilors, [..] I am not from USA, but over here i did have a 'pleasure' contacting them. They worked actively against communities they were supposed to represent. I am talking about both city councilors, and district ones. You know whats the best part? you have like 3 options to pick, and they all are exactly the same(cozy job, with limited hours for appointments and ignoring your community)