YIMBYs are headlining the SMH:
It’s a revolution, don’t you know!
So-called NIMBYs and YIMBYs are going into battle for Sydney’s future. At issue is whether heritage protection saves much-loved suburbs or locks young people out of them.
The Inner West Council’s final meeting for 2023 was a long one. They all are, these days. On a hot night in early December, 22 members of the public addressed councillors before the meeting even began in earnest.
Six of them (all men) spoke to one item on the agenda: a proposal to put four adjacent Californian bungalows in Dulwich Hill on the local heritage register. A group of nearby neighbours had fought for heritage protection for the homes, and a church two doors down, since 2016.
…That alarms housing density advocates such as Sydney YIMBY co-founder Justin Simon. “If 45 per cent of the inner west is heritage significant, then it’s clear the criteria are too broad,” he says.
Here is the Sydney NIMBY revolution:
Melissa Neighbour
Melissa is the founder and director of Sky Planning, a planning firm based in Sydney working across the eastern seaboard. She also consults to companies and councils on the innovations, trends and forces that are shaping urbanism and defining our communities.
As an urban planner, every day she is faced with the challenges associated with delivering more housing stock. Being so intimately aware of the problem, she is able to see the opportunities for how we can work towards a more abundant housing future. She believes we all have a role to play in solving our growing housing affordability crisis, and that YIMBY is a great vehicle for just that!
Sharath Mahendran
Sharath is a student who runs the Sydney-based YouTube channel “Building Beautifully”, which delves into the complexities of Sydney’s infrastructure and planning woes. Being a student, it’s quite demoralising to see the slow pace of Sydney’s planning process, and the inequitable powers that it appears to grant to vocal and generally well-off minorities. These minorities lock the greater majority – young Australians such as himself- out of the housing market. He really want to see this change, because ultimately Sydney is one of the most diverse cities in the world, and we didn’t become this way by excluding people. Let’s fight to enact the change Sydney that so desperately deserves.
Justin Simon
Justin is a software engineer based in the Inner West. He first became engaged with the issue after seeing the reactions in the richest parts of Sydney to medium density and mid-rise developments. This has been compounded by poor experiences with mouldy heritage rental stock, and seeing friends forced to leave Sydney to buy a home.
He has been writing to council and attending meetings for a few years now, but has come to recognise that a collective effort is needed. We need to make sure there are voices in the room saying “yes” to new neighbours, because otherwise nothing is going to change and our communities will die.
Three kids, two of whom are vested interests.
This is a bullshit debate run by Domain for its benefit. Australians don’t want higher-density living. Everybody knows it is a quality-of-life killer.
Nobody is going to accuse me of not caring about housing for kids. But YIMBYs are the plaything of Domain, to boost profits and distract from real solutions.
Where is the Millennial movement to lower immigration and reform property taxes?
