[l33tbro]

How do you guys ensure the character of a neighbourhood remains in tact? That's the only thing I see wrong when people do this. Banging up a cheap white/grey box that just looks so incongruous with all of the older surrounding homes.

[Pxtl]

"character of the neighborhood" is hollowing out the bottom of Maslow's hierarchy of needs to decorate the top.

[aspenmayer]

Totally quoted this for truth, will delete/remove mention upon request!

https://twitter.com/aspenmayer/status/1479760958859927554

[mythrwy]

I don't know if you came up with that but very well put! (copying it into my list of witty and true sayings).

[Pxtl]

It's mine but I admit I use it constantly when discussing NIMBYism.

[seanmp]

Historic conservation areas (as determined by the local municipality) are exempt from SB9, and cities are allowed to put in place "objective design standards" that apply to SB9 as well as new single family housing. But, we're also a team of great designers developing many unit types that will complement what's already there.

[opportune]

Don’t care at all. Neighborhood character in California almost always either means McMansion from 90s/2000s or cheap 50s-70s ranch with some additions.

[woah]

"Neighborhood character" is a NIMBY dogwhistle

[l33tbro]

Lol - I can see how that could be construed that way. No, I'm definitely no NIMBYist. But I think character of neighbourhood is really important, and I think it is definitely possible to do these kinds of developments in harmony with the existing landscape environment.

Probably well exemplified by Frank Lloyd Wright in the mis-century who created what he called 'usonian' homes. These were small block specific homes intended for workers that were completely in keeping with the surrounds.

[woah]

NIMBYs are not against new housing, they're just against new housing that doesn't meet 100 different conflicting requirements that are impossible to satisfy at the same time.

Meanwhile the most famous picturesque neighborhoods (in SF, Paris, NYC, etc) were built in a disorganized way to make a quick buck for property developers and landlords in an era before zoning codes even existed.

"Neighborhood character" is a historically unprecedented concept which exists only as an excuse to block new housing.

[mistrial9]

> "Neighborhood character" is a historically unprecedented concept

you are probably right for the situations you have thought of, but really over all of the world and all of history, this is really not the case.. start to narrow that down, of course, and you still find contradictions and edge-cases.. too much a generality for the real world

[chrisseaton]

> "Neighborhood character" is a historically unprecedented concept

Nonsense. For example the UK has been protecting our built environment since Ancient Monuments Protection Act 1882. The movement to strengthen protections it is a reaction to cultural artefacts being irretrievably lost in the 20th century.

[jelliclesfarm]

Paris and NYC. London and even Tokyo, Shanghai, Mumbai have fantastic reliable fast public transport.

That comparison doesn’t hold water. California is a joke when it comes to public transport. Newsom shut down the HSR after collecting millions. Just like that. Shut it down. As voters and tax payers, we don’t demand enough accountability from our elected ‘leaders’. It’s unconscionable how they keep repeating the same clown trick again and again…and we just keep clapping our hands and ask for more.

[chrisseaton]

Some neighbourhoods are historical and cultural artefacts and should be preserved for future generations. That's not NIMBY-ism.

[oldsecondhand]

Those neighborhoods are architecturally unique make up a tiny amount of the housing supply. Trying to place mass produced random crap under historical protection is just another form of NIMBYism.