Urbanities,
Vol. 4
·
No 2
·
November 2014
© 2014
Urbanities
16
Pardo (2012) points out that when government ignores small problems like crime,
there is often a snowball effect. It was apparent in our interviews that political
disenfranchisement becomes something that causes a great deal of resentment and alienation.
Although many residents do not (or cannot) phrase their concerns articulately, the effects of
political alienation leave neighbourhoods powerless to fight for quality of life issues.
Given Pardo’s (2012) analysis of negligent government, one question that we must ask
is:
are NIMBY battles worth fighting
? One thing is clear from our interviews: NIMBY
battles
bond residents in a powerful way. To us, the downside of that unification is not so much the
misunderstanding of halfway houses but the unfair labelling of a group of people, many of
whom are returning from prison to an already uncaring and cold community. On this note, we
suggest an in depth study of the relationship between racism and NIMBY struggles for future
research.
There are several other implications for future research that would provide a better
understanding of the NIMBY battle. The region that we studied is racially mixed, as is the
composition of the halfway house residents. Therefore, offering a simple reason of racism
does not clearly explain this phenomenon. Additionally, there is no study that has produced
data on whether halfway houses correlate with increases in crime. Nor has any study
confirmed that the presence of halfway houses subsequently destroyed the economy of any
financially solid town.
Another topic for future analysis would involve finding ways to close the schism
between community and government created by unwanted land use. When describing the
growth of halfway houses, residents make it clear that halfway houses are a constant source of
anger, fear, and irritation on Chestnut Lane. As one resident put it, ‘It [the placement of
halfway houses] just grew and grew and grew. And it was not accepted in the community in
the beginning. The problem is that there are too many. There are just too many. While I don’t
have any objection… personally, I’m supportive of that because I see the value of halfway
houses. The thing that makes me angry is that the state has allowed the private sector to run
around town buying up houses and plunking halfway houses in neighbourhoods that are
inappropriate. And that causes white flight. And that’s not fair. Put houses in [neighbouring
towns]. They all have buses. They can bus people into town for the services they need. And I
really get angry about that…and of course, you can’t talk about it publicly. I mean political
correctness has gotten to be totally absurd. People can’t vent their distress about it except in
generalized terms, because you offend one portion of the community or another’.
A final question to be pondered in future research might be an analysis of ‘
who leaves
and who stays in a neighbourhood facing a NIMBY struggle?
’ Our research would seem to
indicate that there is a tipping point that usually involves the combination of fear and having
one or more children. As one resident stated, ‘I very much enjoyed the fact that even though
it’s a small town it’s a lot like a city and you could walk everywhere. So I could walk my
daughter to school. Which is good, I got a lot of exercise and it was great for my legs. I also
got to ride my bike frequently. I got to walk to shops. But I could also walk to the drug
dealers. Which I did not do though I could have. The real down side was the issue of safety
for the children since we were on this third floor, letting them go out to play would require
