Pick your favorite acronym. Some roll off the tongue — RFTA and CDOT are both catchy enough. ACRA works OK in the world of geek speak. Others are problematic, like RLUIPA. Maybe one could turn this bit of legislation — the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act and an important feature of the Grace Church debate — into the moniker “really whip ya.”
My favorite is “NIMBY.”
Its spoken brilliance always makes me imagine a nimble Gumby shrieking through its rounded mouth as a shadow from a towering, incoming backhoe moves over its eye-blinking figure: “Oh no, don’t destroy my flower bed.” How one polished package of words can say so much. The acronym’s successful enunciation is dependent on the “B,” which restricts its purview to “not in my BACKYARD.” But we know that the proverbial backyard means much more than a patch of grass with a barbecue grill, lawn chairs, and an apple tree.
I have worked on my share of what have been pegged as NIMBY issues, and always felt justified in speaking up for a place that I knew intimately from being, dare I say the word, a “neighbor.” I’m not sure who better to speak about how a proposed development could wreak change than neighbors, especially those who have been around awhile. It must be noted that since death and destruction in the backyard tend to elicit high emotion, clear and reasoned input from the neighbors helps further the cause.
Sometimes NIMBY issues are bigger than the press makes them appear. A current example is the proposal to open a trail within the Filoha Meadow to public use, as proposed in the Pitkin County Open Space and Trails program’s draft management plan. Many people who don’t live anywhere near the meadow and aren’t members of the Crystal River Caucus have spoken against this idea, seeking to conserve what is a biologically rich place.
During a conversation comparing Basalt and Carbondale, an acquaintance I bumped into last week remarked, “I like to think of myself as a citizen of the valley.”
With that in mind, the whole place is our backyard. But the backyard is seeing a heck of a lot of activity from one boundary to the other, in one way or another. So to try to get involved single-handedly in each issue would drive even the activist addict into delirium. So, I say “NIMBYs unite” — come out for whichever version of the backyard you can muster the time and energy for!
The webzine “New West” recently ran an interview with author Alexandra Fuller, a resident of Jackson Hole, Wyoming. When asked if she would leave Wyoming, after watching oil and gas activities overwhelm parts of the state’s landscape, she said she isn’t going anywhere. Her response: “I think that term NIMBY ... I think corporations invented that so we would be embarrassed into not fighting for our backyards. I absolutely am a NIMBY, and I am going to stay and fight for my backyard. It just happens to be an oil patch. I’m going to bear witness to the roadkill and the habitat destruction and the air quality and what’s happening to the water.”
After this motivational pep talk, it’s hard to imagine not being a NIMBY, not being in touch with where one lives. And when those speaking up in the name of a neighborhood converge with those speaking up in the name of God (NIMBY vs. RLUIPA) — really watch out!
Kristine Crandall welcomes e-mail comments at birke@sopris.net.
