The Secret of NIMBY

I came across this post today about President-elect Obama's sweeping stimulus-via-infrastructure-improvements plans. The thesis of the piece is a decent point: that there's a lot more involved in building bridges and roads and train tracks than just mixing the concrete (i.e., lengthy surveys, feasibility studies, environmental impact investigations, etc.) There are also some rather dubious generalizations, like this one:

In fact, Obama's people don't want anybody operating a noisy, smelly jackhammer anywhere near them. It's not that they're against infrastructure per se. Indeed, they would like infrastructure to have been built, but Obama People are going to oppose via lawsuits the actual building of infrastructure anywhere close to them, with its attendant racket, odors, and traffic jams. Not in my back yard!

I'm not familiar enough with Mr. Sailer's work to know if this is just a cheap jab, or if he has some special insight into the intentions of Obama's supporters. Irregardless, even the remotest possibility that this statement even approaches a whiff of truth scares the bejesus out of me.

All-time great Boston College graduate and former speaker of the House of Representatives Tip O'Neill once said that all politics is local. And while it may not be true that ALL politics are local, most of them are. I understand that Barack Obama amassed the largest margin of popular vote victory for a non-incumbent in the history of presidential elections, and that he managed to pick up stalwart Republican states like North Carolina and Indiana, and that he raised more money than any person ever in the history of everything. But Barack Obama doesn't stand a chance against oh, say, the garbage-transfer-station-opposing residents of Isabella Avenue in Bayonne, or any of a million such populations of incredibly motivated, incredibly short-sighted citizen activists who will oppose any project that will keep them up an extra 15 minutes at night or cause them to have to park around the corner for a week.

To counter Mr. Sailer, it's not just Obama's people that "don't want anybody operating a noisy, smelly jackhammer anywhere near them." Obama's people don't want that, but neither do McCain's people. Or Palin's. Or Ron Paul's. Or John Edwards's. Or Lydon LeRouche's. Nobody wants jackhammers! Jackhammers are like brussels sprouts. They're good for you. Just choke 'em down!

NIMBY is real. NIMBY is like the Green Lantern's ring. It's like, the most powerful force in politics. No matter how great a project is, no matter how many jobs it creates, no matter how many people it helps, there's always a nigh-omnipotent faction of nearby NIMBYists who will sacrifice their lives to stand in that project's way. In fact, NIMBY is so prevalent that when I worked in City Hall in Bayonne, my boss proposed the next logical step in its evolution: the BANANA theory. As in "Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anyone." Watch out, America. And Mr. Obama, stay strong!