[fkyoureadthedoc]

I don't think it's even VC brained, the average us NIMBY doesn't actually want anything to change with regards to zoning or public transit. They don't care that the closest place to buy anything is a 54 minute walk with 0 sidewalks, because it only takes 8 minutes to get there in their Tahoe.

[bluGill]

To be fair to the NIMBYs - most public transit investments have been done wrong.

Transit often doesn't get people where they want to go, when they want to go, in a reasonable amount of time, for a reasonable price. If you are missing any of the above then you don't have a useful transit network and the car starts to look compelling. (cars are expensive, but the marginal cost of a trip is very low once you have one)

Worse, when transit improvements are done, often they are expensive and deliver very little useful changes.

With the above backdrop it isn't hard to see their point. That doesn't make them right, but it means if you want transit you have a lot of evils on your side to fight.

[huytersd]

Yes, this but with an appreciation for that paradigm. I get to live away from the city center, in privacy, and can have a bunch of land and room for activities I want to do. This way I get to raise goats, have a woodworking shop, grow my own vegetables and still be 10 minutes away from restaurants/shows/nightlife in the city center. I felt like an animal the few years I lived in an apartment.

[bluGill]

Where you live is a compromise. Sometimes I wished I lived downtown - but there are enough things that make it unlivable that I instead choose something else. However many of the things I don't like about downtown would be easy to change.

[huytersd]

That’s not the way I see it. There’s no reason for it to be a compromise unless it’s purely financial. I have everything set up just the way I like it with the existing status quo.

[bluGill]

You don't have easy access to the symphony, whatever museums are downtown, many restaurants, or any of the other things you could have. You have set yourself up a different life, but to get that you had to compromise something else.

[huytersd]

I live in a rural buffer area, a 15 minute drive from a large downtown with theatres, restaurants, shows, festivals/parades etc. There’s no compromise here. None of that would be possible without good road and personal vehicles.

[fkyoureadthedoc]

> None of that would be possible without good road and personal vehicles.

Would be very possible with good public transit. But that's the point. The average NIMBY doesn't want bus stop in their neighborhood. They don't need it. The only thing it would enable in their mind is people that do need it (poors, browns, etc) access to where they live. You don't spend $650k on a house and $80k on a Tahoe to have poor people riding busses around you.

That's the general attitude in my neighborhood at least when I describe why my old ghetto neighborhood was better in a lot of ways. Zoning allowed businesses nearby. I could walk 5 minutes to Dollar General instead of an hour. But I might have a black guy ask me for bus money, which seems like it would be a horrifying experience for most of my neighbors.