Every NIMBY sentence starts with: ‘I’m not against development but…’
Anyone know what this fallacy is called? English isn’t my first language.
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The Big But fallacy maybe?
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Not my first language, either, but I tried to look it up anyways 
It sounds pretty similar to a straw-man argument or whataboutism at first glance, but I couldn’t find a perfect fit in discussions about similar statements or in a list of logical fallacies. I think it depends on what comes after that clause.
Food for thought: a lot of my search results were talking about throwaway comments like “I’m not racist! I have Black friends!” or “not that I’m racist but…”. These are examples of whataboutism too, and are literally classified as propaganda techniques.
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The neighborhood that is directly adjacent to Parcel C is a firmly working class neighborhood filled with long-time (mostly white) residents who have been there for decades upon decades, but also many African American and Hispanic families. It’s a great, diverse community filled entirely with modest, affordable, missing middle housing many love to pay lip service to as a “priority,” but ultimately clearly do not care much about. Rentals comprise a large portion of the housing stock - most of which have been acquired by one person over a number of years. The people who call this area home have not been working remotely from home in their PJ’s these last 9 months, able to drop all to sit through remote meetings - they’re the essential workers who have kept our community - and our country - running during this hellscape of a year. I doubt most of the older folks have any idea what Zoom even is, much less the capacity to participate in the paltry community outreach that occurred. I don’t think asking for a seat at the table for these citizens is unreasonable - especially considering everything that has happened this year: a pandemic, deep social and civil unrest, a widening chasm of income disparities, displacement that has been occurring a robust pace these last years in particular, and a grim economic outlook moving forward. I really hoped we were better than this. If you listened to the speakers, there were some who will be a “no” no matter what - but I heard most people recognize that change and density is certainly coming. They recognize the opportunities that will hopefully come with that, but for a neighborhood that’s been there for a century, they want a say as to how to mitigate all the negative impacts that will come with it - some accountability is necessary too. To compare this to NIMBY’ism is just such an odd and frankly sad flex that I just don’t understand.
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Oh I know this one: ad hominem.
However, adding tens of thousands of housing units to South Raleigh would stabilize housing prices. It’s a free market so supply and demand.
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It’s one of those you take the bait comments!!!
Welcome to this forum!! A friendly stylistic tip, though... (click here)
It might help to break up longer chunks of texts into shorter paragraphs. There’s people from a wide range in age, education, and literacy in this community. This translates to a lot of people not reading longer blocks of text -though it’s not really clear to me if it’s because more people can’t or just don’t.
Either way, it helps to be mindful of how you lay out your writing. That’s been my personal experience, anyway!
They slap on that label because these people see red whenever they see developments against “economic progress”. I don’t know, though, if it’s because people think there’s a false dilemma between being for/against development, they don’t think the race or economics of residents should matter in these sorts of projects.
…at least, that’s how I understand what several people have written in earlier posts on this thread. Y’all know who you are, so please speak up if I’m wrong 
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Marianna first of all welcome to the Family, second yeah you’re right people will always be no that just the answer!!! No matter how good it is it comes down to race, politics, and economics but will never understand NIMBYism they collapse on themselves!!! Just like the Republican Party collapsing on themselves!!!
We have build baby build! If not then it will just get worse, we will become a big sterile Chapel Hill part two, I think density gives us a fighting chance to at least stabilize the market.
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What negative impacts are they trying to mitigate? I have not kept up with the back and forth
That’s a great first comment! I agree that if Kane, the City, and the neighborhood all approach this in good faith, there’s no reason why this project can’t be a win-win-win for everyone. Separating the good-faith negotiators from the agitators is always the trickiest part.
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Having rents spike up so high due to land value increases that people with low income can no longer afford to live where they are (housing displacement) is a big one. But there’s also concerns about building where Walnut Creek could flood, whether increased car traffic will make their neighborhoods more dangerous to walk around in, etc.
Despite how people here make it sound, DTS critics aren’t a monolith with a single agenda. You can read here what I wrote earlier about how you could group them into three rough groups.
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The will have to meet all stormwater requirements as any other development. As for rent increases that is part of life. Move to Kinston or Hickory where jobs (that pay over $15) are scarce and rents are cheap. Move forward and grow or die.
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As someone who lives and has owned near tract C, be-it 5 blocks north, quite a few SFH are owned by landlords. They have been purchasing properties over the decades as owners passed away. Dumont management, Windsor Crest, etc. I don’t believe there will be as much gentrification as has been suggested.
I personally do have concerns about my taxes, as this was/is to be my forever home. I have lived here for 12 years, just before downtown became THE place to live. I would love to have any tax benefit DS might receive, I.e. taxes frozen at current value
I may be incorrect on my information but that is my perception.
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Keita, not only replying to you here; more of a general thought…
Rents increase over time from supply/demand and inflation dynamics, but a major sudden increase in rent must coordinate with the amenities of not only the immediate neighborhood (safety/crime, walkability, comps of nearby properties, etc.) but the individual property amenities too.
A common SFH in this area: A 1930-1970 ~1,200 sf 3 bed 1 or 2 bath house that hasn’t been updated since the 80s and doesn’t have efficient HVAC, operable windows, or any decent outdoor space isn’t going to fetch $2k a mo. until the owner fixes the property to actually compete with the new stock hitting the market. Of course over time the pressure for owners to fix and flip/inflate rent will happen, but it’s going to happen regardless of DTS as Raleigh continues the current trajectory of gentrification. As that study I posted previously points out, adding new market rate stock to this area will increase interest (induced demand) from wealthier folks to immigrate into this part of town, but the immigration into existing housing stock should slow as the new stock absorbs a larger proportion of the overall demand.
I live in a very diverse socioeconomic 1960’s neighborhood nearby DTS, and I say all this from our neighborhood’s perspective… our area is already turning over rapidly, strictly from it’s proximity to DTR (we’re closer to DTR than Carolina Country Club is). If we don’t give these old houses some competition (new apartments, etc.) then the gutting/remodeling that’s already happening will continue to accelerate and I predict we’ll have complete tear downs happening in the next 2-3 years.
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Welcome to the forum, @Marianna! It’s great to have you here.
This is not a logical fallacy per se, it’s just a fairly standard debate technique of the speaker attempting to make themselves look like a reasonable, fair-minded, objective person in the hopes that this will lend more credence to their argument. It’s closely related to how people will usually say “Look, I’m not the sort of person who believes in conspiracy theories, far from it,” before telling you about a conspiracy theory they believe in.
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We’re not dorks for downtown Raleigh, but here’s 12 pictures of the same building under construction over a 1 week period…
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Waiting for the full Baker’s Dozen! 
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