The NIMBY outcry and argument is going beyond sanity...

[ATXboom]

Check out the comments below this nice little write up in the statesman. Nimbys are now threatening No Growth by growth... all I can read into this is that the nimby crowd wants to see no change and conversely believes things don't change moving forward (example: no new transportation means will exist 40 years from now), so every addition is a subtraction. It's clear they need an economics 101 class.

http://www.statesman.com/opinion/aus...y-1590443.html

[the Genral]

I think its safe to drop the "proposed" prefix to the F1 track. And there's a big difference between discussions in a forum such as this, and comments made after articles and announcements. What they don't realize, most of them probably moved here recently and added to the problems they complain about. Population growth spurs new business, and new business spurs population growth. Now if all the Nimbys incorporated their own township, called Nimbyland, eventually they would all become Nimby squared. I've been here 30 years now and I like where we're going. Bring it on!

[hookem]

The Statesman's comments section is always a hoot. It's got to be one of the more active ones of any paper's web site. I wouldn't worry about the "nimby outcry" if it's just the Statesman site.

[verybadgnome]

Sometimes I agree with them. For example, I'm glad there is not a freeway with frontage lanes where Koenig Lane is now that would have bisected already developed areas in Central Austin:

http://www.texasfreeway.com/austin/p...222/2222.shtml

[Spaceman]

Make Austin a better place, punch a NIMBY in the face...........I mean really punch a NIMBY in the face!!!

[hookem]

Originally Posted by verybadgnome

For example, I'm glad there is not a freeway with frontage lanes where Koenig Lane is now that would have bisected already developed areas in Central Austin:

I agree with you on that. But I'd wager the Statesman comments would be 95% in the form of:

"Dumb Austin leaders from the 70s and 80s had a "don't build it and they won't come" attitude that got us into this mess. Now those idiots want to spend money building boardwalks and bike trails. There should have been at LEAST 2 cross-town freeways at this point."

[verybadgnome]

It just makes me wary when developers try to ram things through even though they sometimes do it to avoid pointless debates and red tape. And in the US at least it seems fast-paced, housing-induced growth in cities like Las Vegas and Pheonix has not always produced the optimum result. I've seen examples of Chinese "ghost cities" that are even more stark:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...-deserted.html

I think sometimes there is a gold rush mentality that is euphoric and only looks at near term impacts. I prefer the long term outlook that someone of someone like Levi Strauss, who a bit ironically made his fortune in part with copper (as in the patented rivets), but that is why we having zoning and comp plans.

[KevinFromTexas]

Originally Posted by Spaceman

Make Austin a better place, punch a NIMBY in the face...........I mean really punch a NIMBY in the face!!!

Ooh, good bumper sticker idea!