4 ms·

Heaven forbid residents might get a say in whether or not a corporation can come in and build a huge blight / negative externality right next to them in their c

Heaven forbid residents might get a say in whether or not a corporation can come in and build a huge blight / negative externality right next to them in their community! We should just let corporations build whatever they want anywhere they want to, right?

fastest963 6mo ago
This is what zoning is for. If you live near land zoned for industrial or commercial then you can't fight it when someone wants to develop the land. If you don't want to live near something like that you shouldn't have bought/rented next to that zone.
- jmye 6mo ago
  Or I can fight to rezone that land because a single pass of zoning, shockingly, isn’t fucking permanent. Y’all do vaguely understand how government works, right? Planning and zoning is a core function. This is hardly rocket science, except, I suppose, when your vibe-code shit start-up depends on building data centers in other folks’ backyards.
  - fastest963 6mo ago
    Rezoning land is extremely difficult and likely requires changes to the Master plan for the city/county. If a citizen is unhappy with a zone nearby do not move there. If an area is zoned for industrial and someone wants to build a datacenter there without variances I don't see why anyone should be able to say no. Same thing for building condos or single-family homes in areas zoned for those. There's almost always variances though which is why there is even an opportunity to say no.
    - rtgfhyuj 6mo ago
      may you find empathy and holistic thinking
- rtgfhyuj 6mo ago
  that’s thick headed and reeks of privilege
JuniperMesos 6mo ago
The lesson of YIMBYism is, actually yes, you should let corporations build whatever they want wherever they want to; because otherwise local residents will take advantage of any legal provision they can to prevent anyone from building anything, and that's how you get a housing shortage (that happens to financially benefit the incumbent homeowners, although I think this is mostly not what's driving NIMBYism). But the real lesson of YIMBYism is the ability to think that local residents politically agitating against something they think constitutes a local negative externality, might need to get told to go to hell for the benefit of the rest of society, even if they're right about the thing being a negative externality for them. In my California neighborhood right now, there are people complaining to our local city council representative about a certain planned housing development, that they think is a negative externality for them for various reasons. The city council person is interested in responding to the concerns of his constituents, and is also telling them that California state law limits what local governments can do to prevent these kinds of developments. I am wholeheartedly in favor of that California law, much to the chagrin of my anti-housing neighbors. I would wholeheartedly be in favor of an analogous Texas law that tells anti-data-center local interests that their concerns are stupid, and they shouldn't have the power to prevent a corporation from constructing a data center near them, so that the rest of society can continue to benefit from using computer systems housed in data centers.

fastest963 6mo ago

This is what zoning is for. If you live near land zoned for industrial or commercial then you can't fight it when someone wants to develop the land. If you don't want to live near something like that you shouldn't have bought/rented next to that zone.

jmye 6mo ago
Or I can fight to rezone that land because a single pass of zoning, shockingly, isn’t fucking permanent. Y’all do vaguely understand how government works, right? Planning and zoning is a core function. This is hardly rocket science, except, I suppose, when your vibe-code shit start-up depends on building data centers in other folks’ backyards.
- fastest963 6mo ago
  Rezoning land is extremely difficult and likely requires changes to the Master plan for the city/county. If a citizen is unhappy with a zone nearby do not move there. If an area is zoned for industrial and someone wants to build a datacenter there without variances I don't see why anyone should be able to say no. Same thing for building condos or single-family homes in areas zoned for those. There's almost always variances though which is why there is even an opportunity to say no.
  - rtgfhyuj 6mo ago
    may you find empathy and holistic thinking
rtgfhyuj 6mo ago
that’s thick headed and reeks of privilege

JuniperMesos 6mo ago

The lesson of YIMBYism is, actually yes, you should let corporations build whatever they want wherever they want to; because otherwise local residents will take advantage of any legal provision they can to prevent anyone from building anything, and that's how you get a housing shortage (that happens to financially benefit the incumbent homeowners, although I think this is mostly not what's driving NIMBYism). But the real lesson of YIMBYism is the ability to think that local residents politically agitating against something they think constitutes a local negative externality, might need to get told to go to hell for the benefit of the rest of society, even if they're right about the thing being a negative externality for them. In my California neighborhood right now, there are people complaining to our local city council representative about a certain planned housing development, that they think is a negative externality for them for various reasons. The city council person is interested in responding to the concerns of his constituents, and is also telling them that California state law limits what local governments can do to prevent these kinds of developments. I am wholeheartedly in favor of that California law, much to the chagrin of my anti-housing neighbors. I would wholeheartedly be in favor of an analogous Texas law that tells anti-data-center local interests that their concerns are stupid, and they shouldn't have the power to prevent a corporation from constructing a data center near them, so that the rest of society can continue to benefit from using computer systems housed in data centers.