For some the money doesn’t matter, especially if they are old and $ secure.
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I still don’t have a ton of sympathy for them though, honestly. This is a risk you assume when you move to the suburbs. This is my biggest peeve with American suburban sprawl: folks think they can have all the perks of living in the city with none of the downsides, all while maintaining a fenced in lawn. But cities grow, that’s what they do. And eventually, somewhere down the line, you’re going to have developers knocking on your neighbor’s door, or perhaps yours. It’s inevitable.
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Now for low-income folks who get displaced when their landlord sells to a developer… I think the onus is on the city to ensure that there is a place they can move to that’s still close to their job, especially if they can’t afford (or don’t want) a car. But I really don’t feel too bad for individuals who have owned the same property for twenty-five years and stand to make a killing off of selling and moving a mile or two down the road. Maybe I will if I’m ever in that situation, but again, that’d be on me. It’s an assumed risk of suburban life.
Okay, hopping off my pedestal now.
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Eh, we can all just ignore the posts we don’t like on ND. I think ND is useful for reuniting lost pets and getting references for various contractors and being informed about crime. I posted when my house was broken into and ransacked, for example. I live in NH - I do like the appreciation in my land value (not my house value, which is plummeting), but I also agree that if I lived across St. Albans (I don’t) I would not be happy. Easy to make fun of NIMBYs but if you actually have a backyard, and something tall is being built in it, you might not like it. No big deal if a person feels that way about their largest investment. It feels different to me than if I lived in downtown in a high rise and then another tall building was built next to me and now I’m annoyed by perpetual shade. In that case, it’s to be expected.
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We can, because we know there are alternatives with a solid community. But NextDoor is also more mainstream, so there’s plenty of people (like my parents) who aren’t as tech-savvy and engaged online. Isn’t that exactly the sort of societal norm that we should be thinking critically and talking about?
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ND keeps my elderly mother in constant fear. I hate that platform.
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If you look at the aerials from 2002 there use to be about 4 houses directly on St. Albans (before alignment was changed) and Kane paid them $$$$. There was an old apartment complex also. Traffic is always an issue. Wait until the project behind the Hilton gets going.
The home ended up being rented at $1400 a month. Whoosh. It is possible they received additional incentives.
If folks on nextdoor are Attacking urbanism and our interests for growth in the city then we should be up there countering there every point it’s pros and cons to everything alot of folks just like to follow the herd, if Nimbyism is not challenged and checked it will grow like rampant wild weeds, I’m from California so I have seen first hand what Nimbyism does.
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Most of the people in there can’t be reasoned with. I completely understand the point, and wish there were a way to shed light on fact and not the crap most of those people gravitate towards, but at some point your mental health is more important than trying to get “them” to accept facts and reality.
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agreed. I have tried to engage them before. and it just leads to pointless arguing and bickering. I live right near North Hills and all the development along St. Albans is a big topic of discussion on ND. I have learned to just make my point once about a topic. I will make my case and then just let it be. If you engage in the back and forth it’s just a downward spiral.
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There in a cult!!! Thet are shrinking and will continue the war has started!!!
I feel like there’s a lot in common with arguing with stubborn extremists over the internet. Past a certain point, you’re no longer debating with people about facts in good faith. It’s too emotional, too intuitive, and too personal.
The million-dollar question, then, is this: if we should just ignore those people (past a reasonable attempt to debate in good faith) and let them be since it’s pointless? Or is that harmful because we’re allowing those uninformed (if not bigoted) opinions grow and prosper?
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I guess my one counterpoint to the “don’t bother” argument (as someone who doesn’t go near NextDoor) is that the app probably has a lot of lurkers (I know my dad is one of them). Lurkers may actually be swayed by a good argument one way or the other, as they tend to be less bull-headed about the subject matter in question.
So, if you’re going to argue, do it for the sake of those watching, not those that you’re arguing with.
Edit: additionally, if NextDoor remains strictly an echo-chamber, said lurkers are likely to become “radicalized” NIMBYs (I use the term loosely, of course).
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Thank you for explaining it better this is exactly what I meant to say.
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bigoted?
what kind of stuff are they saying that’s bigoted? I want to give people the benefit of the doubt but are there are people on next door saying racial slurs or whatever?
Disagreeing with development, if that’s what they are doing, no matter how uninformed, or however much one might disagree with them, doesn’t make the other a bigot. I’m hoping your adjective is an exaggeration, but i never go on the site.
examples?
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It’s not uncommon to see posts like “there is a black guy in a hoodie walking walking down the street. Wonder what he’s up to?”
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Nextdoor, like Facebook and Twitter started with so much promise. There is a true need for communication platforms, especially. the hyper-local ones. But like all the others it has devolved into something that’s almost intolerable.
The sad part is, it’s not the technology, it’s the people. The companies make money when they get more people posting. The problem is, the strength in these technologies, and where they could provide societal value, is not as people’s daily diary or a place for angry neighbors to air every complaint that they a re scared to air in person. In fact, those that use it this way are usually. those who have no one to talk to in person (and in a lot of cases there is a reason for that). Those people dominate the platform and the platform rewards them or their continued use (with their algorithms).
So what you’re essentially doing is holding up a megaphone to some of the most annoying people in society.
*it’s 2021 so I need a disclaimer. There are a lot of people who are power-users who use social in a tolerable way. Also “annoying” is subjective and some people have issues they didn’t bring on themselves and are forced to use social as a daily diary for mental health reasons. This is not fact, this is my opinion as someone who works in tech and studies social interaction, digital influence, and conversion tactics. Did I cover my bases? I guess I’ll find out in a few minutes. 
Agree or not, this article should be a must read before you graduate college. They update it every year and I re-read it every year to keep perspective:
ok sorry, now back to downtown south
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The Original Gladys was the bomb. She won an Emmy posthumously.
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