<story><title>The illegal city of Somerville</title><url>http://cityobservatory.org/the-illegal-city-of-somerville/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>vkou</author><text>The only thing I wish on NIMBYs is for them to spend a decade in a Soviet queue for apartments.&lt;p&gt;This shortage is &lt;i&gt;man-made&lt;/i&gt;.</text></item><item><author>bhickey</author><text>We&amp;#x27;re talking about this a lot in Cambridge and I&amp;#x27;m hoping to put together an analogous map for us. For example, here&amp;#x27;s a map of parcels where the floor-area-ratio exceeds 0.75: &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;i.imgur.com&amp;#x2F;D9m9Gx2.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;i.imgur.com&amp;#x2F;D9m9Gx2.jpg&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Most of our residential zones are currently zoned with a 0.5 or 0.6 cap.&lt;p&gt;The local NIMBY group has been petitioning the zoning board for more restrictions: downzone an entire neighborhood, add setbacks and more area restrictions along the main thoroughfare. Meanwhile, everyone who isn&amp;#x27;t affluent or in subsidized housing is getting pushed out to the surrounding towns.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ktRolster</author><text>Everyone is a NIMBY in their own way, it&amp;#x27;s just a difference of how much annoyance you are willing to tolerate. Most people wouldn&amp;#x27;t want a noisy factory or a smelly dairy next door, for example, but those things have to be &lt;i&gt;somewhere.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Now imagine you spent a lot of money to get a house with a nice view. Suddenly Larry Ellison decides to build a skyscraper next door, which blocks the sun on your property every day. You can&amp;#x27;t even grow flowers anymore because there&amp;#x27;s not enough sun. Some of your trees die. Are you happy?&lt;p&gt;Now imagine you spent a lot of money for your house. A housing company proposes changes to the neighborhood that will reduce the value of your house by 20%. In other words, you will be working and paying for years on a portion of your house that no longer has value. Are you happy? Well, maybe you can handle it because you&amp;#x27;re rich.&lt;p&gt;So these are the kinds of things that go through the minds of NIMBYs.</text></comment>
<story><title>The illegal city of Somerville</title><url>http://cityobservatory.org/the-illegal-city-of-somerville/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>vkou</author><text>The only thing I wish on NIMBYs is for them to spend a decade in a Soviet queue for apartments.&lt;p&gt;This shortage is &lt;i&gt;man-made&lt;/i&gt;.</text></item><item><author>bhickey</author><text>We&amp;#x27;re talking about this a lot in Cambridge and I&amp;#x27;m hoping to put together an analogous map for us. For example, here&amp;#x27;s a map of parcels where the floor-area-ratio exceeds 0.75: &lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;i.imgur.com&amp;#x2F;D9m9Gx2.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;i.imgur.com&amp;#x2F;D9m9Gx2.jpg&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Most of our residential zones are currently zoned with a 0.5 or 0.6 cap.&lt;p&gt;The local NIMBY group has been petitioning the zoning board for more restrictions: downzone an entire neighborhood, add setbacks and more area restrictions along the main thoroughfare. Meanwhile, everyone who isn&amp;#x27;t affluent or in subsidized housing is getting pushed out to the surrounding towns.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>eru</author><text>Have a look at &amp;quot;Why are there NIMBYs?&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=11919667&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=11919667&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>