Debunking NIMBYism

Not In My Back Yard - NIMBY.  No doubt there are people who fit this category by why, oh why, do the press and politicians haul out this overworked moniker whenever any one questions a project.

Take for example the Kettle Island Bridge planned for eastern Ottawa.  There are people concerned about the effects of traffic, especially trucks, on the local environment.  After all not only is there a large municipal population within earshot but the approach to the bridge goes right past a major hospital.  Can people not raise these serious consequences of the decision to built a major truck route in the area?  That is not to say that the project should be canceled or relocated (although I am sure that the spineless city council will do just that), it just means that the city engineering folks need to mitigate these issues in their planning.

Take the plan to twin Prince of Wales Rd from Woodroffe to Fisher.  Although they have been informed of the consequences of this plan on local residents and schoolkids, and that the resultant improvements in traffic flow expected by planners will be totally negated by the bottle neck formed at Hunt Club Road; what does the city do?  They ignore the issues and accuse the author of a report on it as suffering NIMBYism.  I know the author and the issue is not in his/her back yard, it is across a park from his front yard.  Regardless of the domiciled location of the author, why are his/her concerns not being given any attention?

The last example of unfair accusation of NIMBYism is in the community of North Gower where a company wants to build 10 windmills, each being 130 meters high.  Local residents want answers to their concerns over noise and environmental effects on their community.  They are not against the project - they have concerns.  Rather than berating the residents, why not just listen to them and address their concerns?  To dismiss them as just NIMBY-ites is no solution at all.