What you need to know about NIMBY

One of my favorite podcasts, Make Me Smart, recently made me smart about an acronym that has gained popularity in the past few decades. Do you know what a NIMBY is? Let the Word Nerd explain.

NIMBY is a goofy sounding word for a serious problem. It stands for “Not in my backyard,” and it refers to a person who opposes the placement of something, usually undesirable, like a power plant, wind farm, prison, or incinerator, in their neighborhood or near their neighborhood. It’s use started in the 1970s and has seen a dramatic rise and steady use in the last decade.

Usually, people accused of being NIMBYs don’t want a project built near their home because they are worried about damage to property values or their personal well being. They are fine, however, with having these things built near poor or marginalized neighborhoods. Therefore, NIMBY usually carries the stench of hypocrisy.

Here’s a great point from Political Dictionary:

The result of NIMBY is that, in practice, municipal projects like landfills, prisons, and public housing tend to end up being located in low-income neighborhoods. That’s because wealthy neighborhoods, which hold more political power, usually protest vociferously against have such projects located in their “back yards.” It’s not that the wealthy object to prisons, landfills, and public housing, but they do usually object to having them located near their homes. Meanwhile low income neighborhoods usually hold much less political power, and can’t effectively prevent undesirable projects from being put in their areas.

Political Dictionary

The NIMBY attitude also poses a serious challenge to a green energy revolution. New and renewable energy sources, like wind and solar power, have a large footprint, but some counties are banning new energy development before plans are created.

On Urban Dictionary, I found a bunch of other interesting slang terms related to NIMBY. They included NOPE (Not On Planet Earth), the BANANA (Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anyone), and the TEDAO (Tear Everything Down At Once).

I get it. I would have reservations about living near a bunch of giant wind turbines and low income housing too. But here’s the thing. We need new forms of energy and ways to manage trash and treat water and provide affordable housing. It’s a burden of living that we should share and not dump on the poorest and least powerful among us. Of course, that’s the way it always goes, but that doesn’t mean it’s right.

Last weekend, I heard the author Ross Gay speak at the Virginia Festival of the Book. One of the excellent and hopeful points he made in his discussion of his writings on joy was this: we experience joy when we practice our entanglement. He noted that although so many of us want to live “independently”, we need each other. Even people who grow gardens so they can be “self-sufficient” need people to provide the seeds and starter plants. And need bees to pollinate the blooms. We live, Gay emphasized, “in dependence.”

In summary, don’t be a NIMBY. When you feel that NIMBY response rising in you, think about the bigger picture, and what we all need to do to take care of each other. Try to practice that currently neglected concept of compromise.

Heard any interesting slang lately? Share, and make us smart, in the comments.

Thanks for getting nerdy with me!

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