Quote:
Originally Posted by someone123
As I sit here typing, I'm by a window pointed toward a 25 storey building that's only tens of meters away from me. It's behind another 4 storey building and it's to the north of me so it has ~0 impact. Actually right now I am getting extra sun reflected from the building next door to the north. My view is brighter than it would have been with no building there.
What I don't like about these stories is that there is very little nuance and the reporters don't do the work to see what was studied as part of the development approval process, or even suggest that such study takes place. Traffic studies, shadow studies, and wind studies are done for all of these larger developments. The studies are more reliable predictors of effects than the conjecture of disgruntled residents, but we only hear the opinions of the disgruntled residents because that feeds the clickbait outrage machine.
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Sounds like you have a great view!
I can't speak to their experience or this case in particular. But I do get tired of the same old NIMBY label that we place on people to allow ourselves to completely write them off as being unreasonable (cancel culture?). It seems more and more the 'outrage machine' is aimed at those whose views we don't agree with, rather than trying to take some sort of balanced view of things.
For example, this is a skyscraper forum, so of course I expect everybody to talk about 'those damn NIMBYs' holding up yet another one of our beloved buildings that still won't be tall enough to satisfy us. If this were a 'vintage mid-century house' enthusiast forum (if such a thing exists) then there would be outrage at those damn developers ruining everything for everbody. Outrage is everywhere to the point that we just turn it off (or at least I do) as being non-valuable information.
In my case it was about 40 years ago, and we lived in an old neighborhood with single family houses built in the 1910s-20s. Modest houses, not so big with relatively small lots with a small backyard. There was nothing ostentatious about it, just an old neighborhood that was reasonably quiet and private, where all the neighbors knew each other. We had a garden in the small backyard that got good sun, and our lot backed onto an old larger lot that had an old Victorian-era "mansion" on it (don't remember much about it, unfortunately, but its large lot was the main reason for our small lot... lol). Anyhow - long story short, an (ugly) 4-storey apt building was built up to about 5 ft from the lot line, taking much of the direct sun from the backyard, making the garden less productive, and basically switching our experience from being in a private yard to (for a relatively shy person, as many of us were back in the day) feeling like we were on display 24/7. No biggie, most people would think, but it was a time before phone cameras and social media - privacy was different than what is considered privacy today, and it was valued. Living with it 24/7, it gets old after awhile.
So, yeah, damn NIMBYs, wanting to block one of our glorious towers for their own selfish needs... but you need to consider that most people pay their mortgage for pretty much their entire working careers - it's a huge investment for most, and they didn't buy into 'skyscraper glory', they bought into a small neighborhood with traffic but little else. At least we owe them that understanding.
Regarding media sensationalism... are we surprised? Pretty much everything in the media is clickbait now - and scanned over in 30 seconds or less. Serious journalism is harder to find now, and even harder to earn a paycheque with. So, whatever, the outrage on either side is ringing hollow to me, but I still know how it feels to have your living situation changed for the negative and to have no control over it. It sucks for them.