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It is also a cultural problem. To use an anecdote, my mother in law has lived, for many years, on a peaceful dead-end street. Last year, an apartment building

It is also a cultural problem. To use an anecdote, my mother in law has lived, for many years, on a peaceful dead-end street. Last year, an apartment building was put up at the end of the street more than quadrupling the number of families that lived there. Since then, there are cars driving by on a regular (many times a day) blaring loud music. Her neighbor's big window in her living room has had rocks thrown through it on several occasions in the first months. My mother in law feels less safe going for walks, because she no longer knows most of her neighbors and this area of the city was already not exactly low crime. Her perception of her new neighbors, and their behavior (both criminal and otherwise) have completely devalued her experience of living at her house. Does that make her a NIMBY? Yup. Is her quality of life now lower? Yup. Is it the fault of higher density? No. It is the fault of a culture that tolerates disruptive behavior. Higher density has only brought more of it to her doorstep.

firejake308 3y ago
You see, if Americans had the same value for "not being a nuisance" as the Japanese, then you could pack us like sardines in a can, and we'd all get along fine. "Changing the character of the neighborhood" is an actual concern that real people have, and trucking over them to build more housing will probably just cause another wave of white flight. Ideally, Americans would value respect over freedom, but I think the right to do whatever you want is too deeply ingrained in our culture at this point.
- mcpackieh 3y ago
  The problem is "be more like the Japanese" isn't actionable advice. Americans don't have uniform values; most Americans are already respectful neighbors (yes, even the "freedom loving" ones) so telling them to be more like the Japanese is pointless because they aren't the problem. The problem is the small portion of Americans who are deliberately antisocial. If even 10% of Americans are antisocial neighbors, then 100 Americans moving into your neighborhood will mean you have 10 awful people making the neighborhood hell. And what can the quiet 90% do about it? Socially pressure the anti-social people? This provokes even more disruption in retaliation and stands a non-negligible chance of getting you stabbed. Calling the police with noise complaints is ineffectual, as soon as the police leave the disruption will become even worse just to spite everybody else. NIMBYism is the most proximate and pragmatic solution; stop the problem from occurring in the first place.
happytoexplain 3y ago
Yes, absolutely. The US has an enormous empathy problem that manifests as the general cultural issue you're describing and also, notably, it manifests on both sides of every single political issue. On the subject of housing, the obvious empathy problem is wealthy NIMBYs blocking lower income housing because they are worried about their property value. But the empathy problem on the other side is the people using that image to paint everybody, not understanding how many people are in the situation you're describing: Normal people simply not wanting the lives they've worked so hard to attain completely disrupted and having to choose between misery and uprooting their entire lives to take a crapshoot at moving (and even the task of moving itself is often an effort that even middle-income people can't always afford, not even to mention that it means losing your community).

firejake308 3y ago

You see, if Americans had the same value for "not being a nuisance" as the Japanese, then you could pack us like sardines in a can, and we'd all get along fine. "Changing the character of the neighborhood" is an actual concern that real people have, and trucking over them to build more housing will probably just cause another wave of white flight. Ideally, Americans would value respect over freedom, but I think the right to do whatever you want is too deeply ingrained in our culture at this point.

mcpackieh 3y ago
The problem is "be more like the Japanese" isn't actionable advice. Americans don't have uniform values; most Americans are already respectful neighbors (yes, even the "freedom loving" ones) so telling them to be more like the Japanese is pointless because they aren't the problem. The problem is the small portion of Americans who are deliberately antisocial. If even 10% of Americans are antisocial neighbors, then 100 Americans moving into your neighborhood will mean you have 10 awful people making the neighborhood hell. And what can the quiet 90% do about it? Socially pressure the anti-social people? This provokes even more disruption in retaliation and stands a non-negligible chance of getting you stabbed. Calling the police with noise complaints is ineffectual, as soon as the police leave the disruption will become even worse just to spite everybody else. NIMBYism is the most proximate and pragmatic solution; stop the problem from occurring in the first place.

happytoexplain 3y ago

Yes, absolutely. The US has an enormous empathy problem that manifests as the general cultural issue you're describing and also, notably, it manifests on both sides of every single political issue. On the subject of housing, the obvious empathy problem is wealthy NIMBYs blocking lower income housing because they are worried about their property value. But the empathy problem on the other side is the people using that image to paint everybody, not understanding how many people are in the situation you're describing: Normal people simply not wanting the lives they've worked so hard to attain completely disrupted and having to choose between misery and uprooting their entire lives to take a crapshoot at moving (and even the task of moving itself is often an effort that even middle-income people can't always afford, not even to mention that it means losing your community).