Skip to Content
Streetsblog Los Angeles home
Streetsblog Los Angeles home
Log In
DC Streetsblog

What Do Anti-Density NIMBYs and Road-Wideners Have in Common?

Matt Yglesias made an excellent point about NIMBYs over at Slate yesterday. Writing about opposition to multifamily residential construction in the tony neighborhood near Lake Calhoun in Minneapolis, Yglesias wondered how much value residents really place on keeping the area a "single-family residential community."

false

Just because there's value in something doesn't mean people are willing to pay for it. Yglesias likens it to his third-generation iPad. "There would undeniably be a value in upgrading it to a fourth-generation iPad," he says, but "it's not worth what it would cost."

So how much do the residents of Lake Calhoun value keeping their neighborhood single-family? Enough to let the entire rest of the city pay for it. But enough to pay for it themselves? Not a chance. Yglesias lays it out:

One thing [the] neighborhood group could do is look at the land they don't want to see developed and buy it, thus leaving them free to do what they want with it. But they don't want to do that, presumably because even though there's "a value" in getting their way it's less than the value of using the land for higher-density construction. What they want to do instead is get the city government to block the high-density construction, because that way the cost is spread across the entire population of Minneapolis in the form of foregone tax revenue.

The Minneapolis housing example reminds me of debates around the value of congestion-free roads. When roads are congested, many commuters jump to the "let's build a wider road" approach, meaning all the taxpayers should pick up the tab to make their morning drive to work faster. But would these same commuters pay directly to speed their commute?

Clark Williams-Derry of Seattle's Sightline Institute once told me that the highway lobby often places more value on the time people waste in traffic than the drivers themselves:

If you actually make people pay out of pocket to get a faster trip, people aren’t willing to spend that much. We have two bridges across Lake Washington. One has to be replaced. They put a toll on it to help pay for the project, and immediately traffic plummeted. People are driving around to get to other side, driving on the other road, sitting through congestion, timing their trips differently in order to avoid tolls. People really, if they have to pay out of pocket for a quicker trip, they don’t place much value on it.

So we’re expecting taxpayers to foot the bill for things the drivers themselves will not pay for.

An even more stunning example of this comes from another Seattle road project, the Alaskan Way Viaduct, projected to cost about $4 billion. "The total amount they think they can raise from toll-payers for this project is $200 million," Williams-Derry said. "So we’re expecting taxpayers to pay 20 times as much as drivers themselves are going to pay."

It's what Yglesias calls the "push the costs onto other people" plan. The few who benefit from bad urban policy want the cost to be borne by the many who suffer from it.

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog Los Angeles

Duarte Station Area is Adding Transit-Oriented Multi-Generational Housing, plus Walk Improvements

Just north of Duarte's light rail station, 600+ luxury apartments are under construction - some completed - and 100+ affordable units are on the horizon

September 13, 2024

Eyes on the Street: Crosswalk Upgrades in Glendale’s Adams Square

"Where we meet" is a series of art crosswalks designed by local artist Keith Knueven as part of the city of Glendale's Creative Crosswalks program

September 13, 2024

Thursday’s Headlines

Vermont Ave. bus lanes, Move Culver City, TAP-to-exit, oil, and fire, fire, fire

September 12, 2024

Wednesday’s Headlines

In addition to Southern California hillsides ablaze, today's headlines also touch on sidewalks, bus shelters, the 710 and 14 Freeways, Pasadena, Big Blue Bus, high-speed rail, and more

September 11, 2024
See all posts