[notliketherest]

I've met these "YIMBY" members personally, and only about 20% of them are actual home owners. The rest are renters. So first of all, it's not their backyard to say yes to. Secondly, these people are promoting the Hong Kong-ification of small cities such as Palo Alto and Mountain View. Yes to 20 story apartment complexes along the 101? Vote with YIMBY!

[jaibot]

"Renters should have no say in what people are allowed to build - only the landed gentry have that right!"

[whyenot]

who are you quoting?

[cobookman]

The landed gentry have more to loose with bad housing policy. Where as renters can up and leave without issue.

Get rid of prop 13 if you want home owners to care about rising housing costs.

[kelnos]

Many of the renters would love to be homeowners, but can't afford it due to already-abysmal housing policy.

[dingo_bat]

The slogan is "Yes in my backyard." But the people saying it don't have a backyard. They should not be coercing people with backyards and imposing their will.

[capitalsigma]

If I live in SF, I have the right to vote in local elections, and I have the right to vote for people who represent my interests, regardless of whether I rent or own. If you're hoping for the ballot box to be restricted to homeowners, you're about 300 years too late.

[chiaro]

It's more conversationally natural for me to refer to the yard adjoining my property as 'my backyard' than my landlord to (who likely has a yard of his own for which that is more semantically assonant).

[dingo_bat]

That's technically wrong, the worst kind of wrong. If you rent a house, the backyard is owned by your landlord. Sure in casual conversation you will say "my backyard", but we're talking about ownership here.

[chiaro]

And we're talking about how a (loose) organisation is branded, not the legal implications. The "backyard" in question is already one metaphor deep, for crying out loud.

This is like complaining that Amazon has little to do with the rainforest.

[conanbatt]

I would say the coercion comes from people having the ability to say what happens outside of their backyard.

[TulliusCicero]

Jesus Christ, it's not literally referring to the backyard attached to your particular house. I can't believe I have to explain this, but "backyard" in this context means neighborhood.

[raldi]

Addressed here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15683970

[twblalock]

That's an overly literal interpretation.

[Mindless2112]

That might have something to do with not being able to afford a backyard.

[dingo_bat]

How is that anybody else's problem?

[junkscience2017]

That's a feature, not a bug. High cost is an efficient barrier to growth that exceeds the carrying capacity of the region.

California is suburban. Changing that will take decades. Cramming more people in to the Bay Area will not result in transit solutions springing up...these will take decades.

Don't forget that the State continues to have long term systemic issues providing water to current residents.

California is at 40 million now and I have no desire to see it reach 50 million. The Governor needs to start thinking about how many people we want here.

[raldi]

If you’re going to use a literal interpretation of backyard, instead of the colloquial and intended meaning (neighborhood), then the only person who’s talking about their own yard is the person who wants to build on their land.

When a neighbor says they can’t build, it’s a case of exactly what you decry: “it’s not their backyard to say [no] to”.