August 3, 2025 The Best Source of News, Culture, Lifestyle for Culver City, Mar Vista, Del Rey, Palms and West Los Angeles

Column: NIMBYs Getting a Bad Rap

By Tom Elias

Rarely has a major group of Californians suffered a less deserved rash of insults and attacks than the myriad homeowners often described as “NIMBYs” – an acronym for folks who may favor new developments, but “not in my backyard.”

NIMBYs have killed liquefied natural gas projects pushed by Pacific Gas & Electric Co. and Southern California Gas, thus saving California consumers billions of dollars in rates they otherwise would have paid for generations for unneeded and dangerous gas imports.

They’ve prevented building prisons in urban areas, thus sending murderers, rapists, burglars and more to isolated areas where escapees are less likely to harm anyone than if they make off into crowded neighborhoods.

They kept freeways from running through the greenest (and most expensive) residential parts of the state.

Now they often fight placement of permanent supportive housing for the previously homeless in their areas, because those developments sometimes bring crime increases with them. They also have pushed cities and counties to clean up or wipe away encampments of the unhoused, often placed beneath freeway bridges.

Their moves, whether flawed or beneficial for all law-abiding Californians, mostly drew invective and eventually spawned creation of a opposing group called California YIMBY (yes in my backyard), largely funded by developers who essentially want a license to build what they want, where they want, and never mind the cost to the mental or financial health of anyone living in the area.

Nowhere have supposed NIMBYs taken more heat than in Berkeley today. In the wake of a court decision won by a homeowners group called “Save Berkeley’s Neighborhoods,” the academically choice UC campus there claimed it would have to accept more than 3,000 fewer students for the next academic year than planned.

In this dramatic town vs. gown dispute, the homeowner group won a ruling that some say will force the onetime flagship campus of UC (these days, UCLA is higher ranked and gets more applicants) to lower its planned enrollment.

The residents essentially complained that adding thousands of enrollees could produce a new corps of homeless students or drive up rents in the area so high that current occupants might be forced out. They also griped that introducing thousands of new student residents into off-campus housing would create nightly noise problems for other residents.

And, using a sometimes maligned law called the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), they won in California courts at every level.

For this, they were labelled “reactionaries” and “backward” and “selfish” by some of the state’s largest newspapers and television stations.

Meanwhile, after taking a closer look, something that perhaps should have been done before the neighborhood group went to court, the Berkeley campus concluded things would not be so drastic after all: It turns out a thousand or so of the new enrollees can take classes online wherever they live, others can wait six months and then enroll, and no one need be deprived of an education, as critics of the so-called NIMBYs all the way up to a dissenting state Supreme Court justice, had claimed.

In fact, the folks labeled NIMBYs previously accepted many campus expansions, but resisted this one primarily because UC did not build new quarters for its new students. Yes, that was proposed, but the campus conveniently did not examine all the effects of its putative expansion on the area, and no construction was imminent in any case. The neighbors, then, are really being lambasted for a failure by campus officials to take care of needed business and preparation.

But blasting NIMBYs is politically correct in this era, when YIMBY has claimed SB 9, a new law it helped push through the Legislature last year, would simply allow homeowners to make duplexes of their single-family homes. That’s untrue: The 2021 law actually allows at least six new units on virtually every current single-family lot in California.

Politicians also find it convenient to blast what they call NIMBYism whenever their proposals are exposed as harmful to many Californians. Not surprisingly, dozens of today’s legislators, and the governor, have been major beneficiaries of campaign donations from developers and building trade unions who want to build anywhere they can.

All of which means the current anti-NIMBY fashion is often hooey. Informed Californians must learn to see through it.

Email Thomas Elias at tdelias@aol.com. His book, “The Burzynski Breakthrough: The Most Promising Cancer Treatment and the Government’s Campaign to Squelch It,” is now available in a soft cover fourth edition. For more Elias columns, visit www.californiafocus.net

Related Posts

Two LA County Deputies Charged in Off-Duty Scheme Tied to Crypto ‘Godfather’

August 2, 2025

August 2, 2025

Deputies Accused of Abusing Law Enforcement Powers for Beverly Hills Mogul One Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputy pleaded guilty,...

Film Review: Together

July 30, 2025

July 30, 2025

By Dolores Quintana Dave Franco and Alison Brie, a married couple in real life, star in Michael Shanks’ gruesomely passionate...

UCLA Agrees to $6.1 Million Settlement Over Alleged Discrimination During Campus Protests

July 30, 2025

July 30, 2025

Faculty Group Argued Protest Wasn’t Antisemitic; Judge Approval Still Pending UCLA will pay more than $6 million to settle a...

More Than $50 Billion in Damage: What January’s Wildfire Cost the City of Los Angeles

July 27, 2025

July 27, 2025

Nearly 11,000 Properties, Many in Pacific Palisades, Affected; True Losses Likely Higher Nearly $52 billion in residential real estate across...

Mid-Century Hotel Near LAX to Become Hundreds of Affordable Apartments

July 27, 2025

July 27, 2025

Project Will Turn Hotel Into Income-Restricted Apartments Near Transit Hub Plans are moving forward to convert the shuttered Four Points...

Metro D Line Resumes Today After 70-Day Closure

July 25, 2025

July 25, 2025

The shutdown, which began May 17, enabled Metro to connect the current line to newly built tunnels extending west under...

CicLAvia to Open 6.75 Miles of Car-Free Streets from Culver City to Venice

July 22, 2025

July 22, 2025

The event features four hubs: Arts District on Washington Blvd., Downtown Culver City near the Culver Hotel, Mar Vista on...

County Offers $58M in Parks Grants, Hosts Info Session Wednesday

July 20, 2025

July 20, 2025

The grants aim to enhance park equity, access, and environmental benefits, with awards ranging from $100,000 to $4 million The...

(Photos) See Inside This $60M Holmby Hills Mansion Inspired by a Madrid Museum

July 20, 2025

July 20, 2025

Soaring 30-foot ceilings, adorned with 400-year-old Moorish columns and 16th-17th century Florentine carvings, greet visitors Nestled on the prestigious 133...

Nine-Unit Apartment Complex in Palms Hits Market for Nearly $3M

July 20, 2025

July 20, 2025

The property, zoned LAR3, presents a potential value-add opportunity for investors, though specific details are outlined in the offering memorandum...

Nearly $1B Secured for Refinancing of Westfield Century City Mall

July 18, 2025

July 18, 2025

The proceeds will replace a $925 million commercial mortgage-backed securities loan, originally issued by Morgan Stanley in 2023 and due...

Newly Built Mar Vista Home with Spa and Plunge Pool Offered at $3.6M

July 14, 2025

July 14, 2025

The home’s powder room stands out with Roman Clay walls and a marble sink, while European oak floors, brass fixtures,...

Nine-Unit Apartment Building in Palms On Sale for $3.3M

July 13, 2025

July 13, 2025

Recent upgrades include a new roof coating and water heater tank, with no seismic retrofit required, according to listing details...

One Last Bite: La Novia Bids Farewell with Final Pop-Up at Cardinale du Vin

July 8, 2025

July 8, 2025

Inventive Latin-Asian Pop-up Serves Seasonal Small Plates for One-Night-Only La Novia, the pop-up kitchen known for its inventive Latin-Asian flavors,...

Governor Newsom Unveils Fast-Track Rebuilding Plan on Six-Month Anniversary of Palisades Fire

July 7, 2025

July 7, 2025

State Clears Over 5.5 Billion Pounds of Debris From Fires Ahead of Schedule Marking six months since the devastating Eaton...