YIMBY Can Populate Conference Halls

This weekend’s New York Times article marvels over the apparent embrace of New Urbanist notions of densified and commercially active housing corridors by a seemingly fresh breed of market-oriented libertarians. They have come together under various banners of YIMBY–Yes In My Back Yard–to address a scarcity of “affordable” homes in many areas of the country. What the Times calls red-state Republicans are in fact policy wonks and some homebuilder allies who are channeling longtime philosophical objections to zoning and related restrictions on land use. New Urbanists often draw on Jane Jacobs but are civic planners to their core. The pairing of these traditionally opposing camps (they still are basically at odds over laws that set metropolitan “growth boundaries” or require subsidies within projects for low-income residents) is worthy of note. But as a political force, it is yet to advance beyond a few blue-state legislatures. At ground level, localities from Boston to San Diego are resisting changes in single-family-only zones that keep neighborhoods of a certain flavor (and price). This resistance itself is an amalgam of ideologies–from many of those “red state Republicans” to affluent professionals with Biden-Harris signs in their landscaped front yards. Maybe the phenomenon identified by the Times is one more example of shifting political currents in the country, although it does not reflect class divisions in the way other reorientations do. It really comes down to a simpler old adage: Where you stand depends on where you sit.