I've seen enough willfully block affordable housing in violation of law that I've looked several times.
NIMBYs also encourage these sorts of lawsuits, because even if they know they will lose, these projects are 1) so close to not making sense that an affordable housing developer literally can not afford to fight for legal rights, and 2) there's a big fear that fighting the city legally will make all further building attempts by an affordable housing developer even more difficult and likely to fail.
I have zero empathy or sympathy for my NIMBY neighbors that have been displacing so many people in my community after several years of trying to fight for affordable housing. People that are otherwise "nice" behave in the most amoral ways when it comes to excluding people from their neighborhoods. It's been very eye opening for me in a sad way.
In my mind I play out some RICO case takedown where they all get indicted in one fell swoop but surely this is impossible.
In other words, if "NIMBYs" are to blame, it's fine if they are the one that need to pay.
I mean, Kwame is still in jail, right?
I guess that's a different league than this though.
> NIMBY neighbors that have been displacing so many people in my community
Who are the people getting displaced?
The Not In My Backyard people, are they ... rich and affluent who don't want low income people nearby?
https://lao.ca.gov/LAOEconTax/Article/Detail/265
The NIMBYs are almost exclusively wealthy homeowners. Not 100% but close to 99%. But in California, the wealthiest homeowners also co-opt the language of the displaced, and take on the mantle of those who can no longer afford rent, even as their actions of exclusion increase their home values and rents in general.
> co-opt the language of the displaced, and take on the mantle of those who can no longer afford rent
Oh this is too abstract for me (I don't understand)
Courts can also order specific performance.
> If you sue the city and win, the judge orders the city to follow the law, and they still don't, do elected officials go to jail or something?
Courts happily hold municipalities in contempt. The community can then figure out how to hold their electeds responsible.
Can you post examples of this happening, and what the ratio is?
https://lawblog.legalmatch.com/2021/05/03/town-of-mooresvill...
One example isn't very telling.
It’s reasonable to favor local governments on local issues, but this stuff is impacting outside their area so it’s no longer a local issue.
It kind of reminds me of a much more innocuous version of the French Revolution when it was going off the rails, and the wrong political opinion meant death. Almost nobody voted in elections, because keeping your head down was the best way to keep it attached to your body.
There are various things that might happen; an obvious one here is that, with the city declining to follow its own procedures, it would be prohibited from enforcing them against you. You would then not require a permit to do whatever it was you were trying to do.
I say this as a pro-development YIMBY.