Hi all! I am a PhD student at a university where I am trying to quantify NIMBY attitudes nationwide at a city level using newspaper op-eds/articles. One of the things I am trying to figure out is how to identify articles that show NIMBY sentiment. Are there any articles you think typify NIMBYism from local newspapers?

This is at 67 Memorial Boulevard in Newport, RI. The city’s zoning laws, not created until 1977, outlawed construction on this property due to its “sub-standard size” (2500 sq ft & already built on), lack of parking (there is abundant street parking), lack of setbacks (every building in the neighborhood lacks setbacks), and being a business in the newly created residential zone.

The building was grandfathered in until the 90’s when it went out of business and had to be demolished. This is in a city which claims historical preservation as a top priority.

It would be illegal to rebuild, and the lot is now valued at $430k on Zillow.

If you’re not familiar with it, https://resist.bot is amazing. Use it to contact your reps and all levels of local, state, and federal government. I emailed them to ask them to add city council level categories that they don’t currently maintain.

Also, they need help on GitHub to maintain their records in general. The info for my city’s Mayor is out of date and I don’t know how to update it. If you know how to use GitHub, they could use support to update records.

But I’ve used it already to email everyone it would allow me to about a number of issues.

"The report explores  housing density near transit in Greater Boston, and offers ideas for how the region could can create thriving, diverse communities that benefit from robust transit opportunities."

https://www.bostonindicators.org/transitsupportivedensity

Seems like it would be a good thing to do given some of the stats in this article

https://sourcenm.com/2025/01/29/new-mexico-governor-once-again-tries-to-create-office-of-housing/

Source https://www.youtube.com/watch?si=7njclO5nkyyL8sqb&v=394qrxynNUI&feature=youtu.be

I'm a yimby, don't let the title fool you. We need more housing, fundamentally it's a supply and demand issue, and more supply = lower cost and more people housed, full stop.

My question is about how to actually put some guardrails on the design of new developments in an area with a distinct character or style. Maybe think of a ski town, or a historic area. I think I, like many of you likely, have a negative immediate reaction when I hear the phrase "character of the neighborhood", because it's usually just an excuse for NIMBYs to shoot down new developments. But is there actually a way to somewhat control for a styles and designs in a certain area, without creating a tool that can be misused to restrict housing supply?

What is the happy medium between a design review that NIMBYs can weaponize to restrict ANY development, and a totally oversight-free approach that enables ANY new development, to get built?

Apologies if this is not allowed:

I was thinking about deed restrictions for owning and renting based on income (Affordable Housing) and Age (retirement communities) and wondered about deed restriction for vehicle ownership.

Parking and traffic are major NIMBY arguments. Perhaps they could be sidestepped with a requirement that residents of new construction not own cars at all.

Is a scheme like this legal?

Could a city in California decide to do this by itself? Does State or Federal law need to change?

What are the verification avenues (vehicle title, insurance, drivers license?)