Why we should be saying YIMBY (Yes In My Back Yard)
Far too often people say NIMBY.
We live in a small town lacking opportunities for younger generations, soaring housing costs, and a long commute for many people to accumulate goods and services they need and or want. We are sitting on vast amounts of undeveloped land that could be turned into green projects of the future, and potentially set an example for other jurisdictions to follow suit.
Collaborating as a community, I don’t see why we can’t come up with a viable plan to become a hotbed for green development on a commercial and residential level. Integrate buildings, houses and apartments with green rain catching roofs, solar panels, geo-thermal heating/cooling, rain catching reservoirs, irrigation cannals to capture natural run off water, and make our buildings as efficient as we can in general. Require a certain amount of trees/shrubs to be planted per acre developed to keep our air fresh and coast green.
Not only would this help our over-heated housing market by increasing supply to meet the demand, but we could create good jobs of the future for young and old local residents, cut down on commutes for people, saving time and emissions, and build a great sense of community. Everything from engineers, educators, architects, landscapers, programmers, and all spectrums of tradesmen would have good local work. A lot of us often divert big problems onto other people believing that we cannot or will not make an impact, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Small communities are the backbone of a nation, and big changes start with individuals. Let’s all get on board and say, yes, we do want to make a difference, let’s start by setting an example in our back yards. Yes In My Back Yard!
Dallas Holness
Mill Bay