The DMV needs a YIMBY revolution

[Anonymous]

I find a lot of people advocating for upzoning and density do not often live in the places that are dense. I have noticed a number of them live in single family homes in the suburbs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:After you nationalize and develop all the golf courses inside the beltway, which are a far worse use of land than SFHs, then come talk to me. You could solve all the housing problems in this area in one fell swoop. Make ‘em as dense as you like.

+ 100

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why can't YIMBY people understand that people move to the suburbs because they want to live in the suburbs? Not everyone wants a small apartment and walkability. Some of us want yards and space

This is why you are selfish and what you don’t understand. It’s not only that I personally prefer high-density urban planning and walkability. It’s that if more people lived this way, then we wouldn’t have the suburban garbage like stroads and strip malls and sprawl. If you house 20 families in an acre as opposed to one or two families, then that acreage can turn back into forest land, or green space, and be home to more biodiversity, OR it can be used for local farming, OR solar fields to power the neighborhoods. Land is finite and it better used that way than for empty lawns and gas-guzzling SUVs.

The United States may not be the right country for you.

This. US is not and will never be Europe or Asia. The land is there. The population density isn’t. It’s futile to demand people acting out of self interest will converge upon a model of high density, car-independent living. I love the European /asian model of urban living and often miss my years in Tokyo, London, and Amsterdam, but I’ve learned to accept the fundamental conditions of the US. The irony is as great as urban living is in those cities - safe, wonderful public transportation and infrastructure, 0 need for car ownership - those with means will often have a second property, what we would call SFH here in a car dependent area as a weekend or second home.

[Anonymous]

Sorry, but the old money in NW DC is not going away. It is the real power in the area. Sure the DC government has its petty ways of punishing the area, like not plowing snow for 3 days and not picking up trash for 2 weeks and letting the streets get pot holes the size of the grand canyon. But, the residents dont care and flip a big middle finger right at the mayor and ANC. Keep trying Pol Pot.

[Anonymous]

Honestly, all of MoCo needs to be upzoned, starting with Brookdale, Chevy Chase, and all the neighborhoods surrounding Friendship Heights. Bring on the vibrant density that those decrepit areas desperately need.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Unironically.
Most of you will hate this but I don’t care. We all need to suck it up and move into the 21st century, 25 years too late.

No more tweaking around the edges with low-level zoning reform or a few more metro stops or buses here and there. We need a broad scale systematic urban planning overhaul that completely eliminates single family zoning anywhere inside the Beltway.

Single family zoning is simply unsustainable. We can’t grow our economy if we don’t have new residents and we can’t have new residents if we don’t have homes. And if we don’t have more homes near better, reliable transit, then everyone will be more miserable stuck in traffic and less productive at work and less economically competitive. We need to completely eliminate suburban sprawl. The 1950s planned communities need to stay in the past. In a perfect world we’d move everyone closer in to promote re-wilding of our exurbs.

Nobody should be living in a single family suburban home and drive an SUV. It should be either urban, dense multi family dwelling walkable 15-minute neighborhoods, or rural homesteads, preferably using their land for organic family farming and solar fields and green spaces.

If it weren’t for American “but muh freedumb!” selfish ideology, I guarantee we would all have a much higher quality of life with less traffic, less stress, stronger communities, less obesity, and a better economy.

Bring on the YIMBY revolution.

Just go live in DC and stop bothering normal people. Single family home lots inside the beltway are small, barely adequate for a medium size dog to have a place to run around.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unironically.
Most of you will hate this but I don’t care. We all need to suck it up and move into the 21st century, 25 years too late.

No more tweaking around the edges with low-level zoning reform or a few more metro stops or buses here and there. We need a broad scale systematic urban planning overhaul that completely eliminates single family zoning anywhere inside the Beltway.

Single family zoning is simply unsustainable. We can’t grow our economy if we don’t have new residents and we can’t have new residents if we don’t have homes. And if we don’t have more homes near better, reliable transit, then everyone will be more miserable stuck in traffic and less productive at work and less economically competitive. We need to completely eliminate suburban sprawl. The 1950s planned communities need to stay in the past. In a perfect world we’d move everyone closer in to promote re-wilding of our exurbs.

Nobody should be living in a single family suburban home and drive an SUV. It should be either urban, dense multi family dwelling walkable 15-minute neighborhoods, or rural homesteads, preferably using their land for organic family farming and solar fields and green spaces.

If it weren’t for American “but muh freedumb!” selfish ideology, I guarantee we would all have a much higher quality of life with less traffic, less stress, stronger communities, less obesity, and a better economy.

Bring on the YIMBY revolution.

Just go live in DC and stop bothering normal people. Single family home lots inside the beltway are small, barely adequate for a medium size dog to have a place to run around.

Dogs are a waste of resources. You should spend your time caring for your neighbor's children and the elderly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Every time I see new housing being built whether it is apartments, condos, or single-family homes, it is not cheap or affordable for most. New 1bdr apartments are foing for $2k on the low end. New townhouses are going for $450k on the low end. New 1bdr condos are priced at $400k on the low end. Furthermore, new housing seems to be built with single people or couples without kids in mind. Most new housing is narrow and cramped. Not suitable for families with more than 2-3 people.

Upzoning does not work in the DC area (and probably most major and mid-size cities). At best, it may slow the growth of housing costs, but it does not make it any more affordable with these stagnant wages.

I consider myself a liberal. But people advocating for upzoning in nearly every area where there is single family housing are naive. They do not understand the impact of density on property taxes and how that impacts community resources.

The federal government is going to subsidize your purchase. That will lower prices!

[Anonymous]

I'll take dogs any day.

[Anonymous]

Curiously, the failures of Communism are more often treated as a joke than as a tragedy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are DCYimbys, the Coalition for Smarter Growth and GreaterGreaterWashington - if you are a YIMBY, then support these great groups!

I do. And I appreciate their advocacy but none of their piecemeal approaches is going to accomplish what really needs to happen.

Think about it this way. Have you traveled around Europe? What is so appealing to Americans about Europe? Other than history buffs and foodies, why do people enjoy European cities and towns? Because of the urban planning. Everything accessible by transit, effective planning that centers around historic buildings, compact amenities, walkable streets. You don’t to go Europe to drive down a stroad to a wasteland of parking lots dotted with McDonalds and Walmarts.
In between these dense European cities you get cute little towns and scenic countryside.

You don’t get a 355/Wisconsin Ave or a Georgia Ave or a 29/Columbia Ave etc.

Most Europeans cities and towns were laid out before the advent of the automobile - which is why they are walkable because they had to be. And so they planned public connective transit because they had to and did that very well.
But there are many areas of Europe that are not connected by transit and are not walkable. The poster above is referencing major towns.
They do have some wastelands of parking and strip mall areas, not as much as the US, but they do exist. They are ugly and tucked in the back away from town centers.

There is a difference between advocating for multi-family dwellings and arguing against urban planning centered around the automobile. Don't conflate the two as they are completely different issues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unironically.
Most of you will hate this but I don’t care. We all need to suck it up and move into the 21st century, 25 years too late.

No more tweaking around the edges with low-level zoning reform or a few more metro stops or buses here and there. We need a broad scale systematic urban planning overhaul that completely eliminates single family zoning anywhere inside the Beltway.

Single family zoning is simply unsustainable. We can’t grow our economy if we don’t have new residents and we can’t have new residents if we don’t have homes. And if we don’t have more homes near better, reliable transit, then everyone will be more miserable stuck in traffic and less productive at work and less economically competitive. We need to completely eliminate suburban sprawl. The 1950s planned communities need to stay in the past. In a perfect world we’d move everyone closer in to promote re-wilding of our exurbs.

Nobody should be living in a single family suburban home and drive an SUV. It should be either urban, dense multi family dwelling walkable 15-minute neighborhoods, or rural homesteads, preferably using their land for organic family farming and solar fields and green spaces.

If it weren’t for American “but muh freedumb!” selfish ideology, I guarantee we would all have a much higher quality of life with less traffic, less stress, stronger communities, less obesity, and a better economy.

Bring on the YIMBY revolution.

Just go live in DC and stop bothering normal people. Single family home lots inside the beltway are small, barely adequate for a medium size dog to have a place to run around.

Dogs are a waste of resources. You should spend your time caring for your neighbor's children and the elderly.

Agreed. Dogs are an emotional surrogate. A filler for the lack of human companionship.

[Anonymous]

Sad for Americans.

Your jobs were shipped overseas and your schools are psych wards.

Now you think putting families in teepees and yurts or stuffing four people into 500sq. ft. is going to save our society.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unironically.
Most of you will hate this but I don’t care. We all need to suck it up and move into the 21st century, 25 years too late.

No more tweaking around the edges with low-level zoning reform or a few more metro stops or buses here and there. We need a broad scale systematic urban planning overhaul that completely eliminates single family zoning anywhere inside the Beltway.

Single family zoning is simply unsustainable. We can’t grow our economy if we don’t have new residents and we can’t have new residents if we don’t have homes. And if we don’t have more homes near better, reliable transit, then everyone will be more miserable stuck in traffic and less productive at work and less economically competitive. We need to completely eliminate suburban sprawl. The 1950s planned communities need to stay in the past. In a perfect world we’d move everyone closer in to promote re-wilding of our exurbs.

Nobody should be living in a single family suburban home and drive an SUV. It should be either urban, dense multi family dwelling walkable 15-minute neighborhoods, or rural homesteads, preferably using their land for organic family farming and solar fields and green spaces.

If it weren’t for American “but muh freedumb!” selfish ideology, I guarantee we would all have a much higher quality of life with less traffic, less stress, stronger communities, less obesity, and a better economy.

Bring on the YIMBY revolution.

Just go live in DC and stop bothering normal people. Single family home lots inside the beltway are small, barely adequate for a medium size dog to have a place to run around.

Dogs are a waste of resources. You should spend your time caring for your neighbor's children and the elderly.

Dogs are intelligent and loving creatures that are part of many families. YIMBYs are the real waste of resources.

[Anonymous]

YIMBYs like many of the special groups, yell loudly to make up for their lack of actual numbers - https://www.yimbysofnova.org/