Cory Briggs’ Mayoral Candidacy: Tilting Windmills at the YIMBY Menace?

Time is of the essence for this discussion…

Environmental attorney and mayoral candidate Cory Briggs has taken to Facebook, clarifying that his campaign is focused on challenging the “phony” YIMBY (Yes In My Back Yard) movement.

Here’s his opening statement.

We must immediately halt all YIMBY proposals to lift height limits and eliminate parking requirements to promote new high-density residential development until all adverse consequences have been studied and funding has been secured to protect neighborhoods from those consequences.

The “yes in my back yard” movement consuming City Hall is really advocating for “yes, but only in your back yard.” Make no mistake: I am running to fight the phony YIMBY movement.

His lengthy statement could use an editor, and it seems some comments were based on negative feedback received since announcing his mayoral campaign.

Cory’s voice deserves to be heard, and we need someone with a keen eye for detail overseeing the city’s future. However, the defensiveness in his words undermines the strength of his arguments.

Briggs’ Main Assertions

1. High-density residential development proposals lifting height limits and eliminating parking requirements result in a massive transfer of wealth from residents to corporate investors and absentee landlords.
2. State and local efforts would effectively dismantle the community-planning process, giving developers the power to decide how and when neighborhoods change.
3. San Diego’s capital-improvement program (CIP) and development-mitigation funds won’t deliver the needed infrastructure, amenities, and services (especially since they aren’t doing it now).
4. Increasing residential density hasn’t been proven to make a difference in family housing costs.
5. Gentrification and displacement created by demolishing existing homes and replacing them with high-rises are consistently undervalued or ignored in planning for increased density.
6. Increasing density without improved public transit means the only beneficiaries of more development will be developers.

There’s much more in his commentary, but this post aims to be concise. Briggs raising these concerns is commendable, particularly given San Diego’s history of questionable deals with local landowners.

However, the city, considering the political stance of many council members, can address multiple issues simultaneously.

Briggs believes intensive infilling for existing urban San Diego neighborhoods should be halted until environmental, political, and infrastructure concerns are addressed.

These discussions should have occurred decades ago. San Diego’s neighborhood community plans were largely set aside as economic, political, and environmental considerations changed.

The lack of developable real estate outside urban cores in the county, short-sightedness of past politicians, and awareness of climate change consequences have created an unstoppable force.

Cory Briggs Saying “Stop” Won’t Change What’s Already Happening

By the time all the lawsuits against the state’s probable mandates and local re-do of building regulations are resolved, our 12-year window to mitigate climate change’s worst effects will be upon San Diego.

The YIMBY movement didn’t emerge solely from profit-seeking developers, even if they’re eager to exploit it. And a mayoral candidate framing infill advocacy as participation in a nefarious alliance will only attract the most reactionary voters.

A movement pushing back against NIMBYism is needed. Community control and input often hide less-than-noble intentions, like racism and classism.

In North Park’s zoning process, arguments against increasing density along major corridors often boiled down to fear of the “other” (crime as the code word) and lower property values.

Now, some of these people are spreading misinformation on the Next Door app, claiming anyone can build anything anywhere and lamenting millennial partygoers on weekends.

As a long-time homeowner in the neighborhood, I know these justifications for resisting change are baseless. The situation has been working out well: property values have risen, crime hasn’t increased, and the emergence of small businesses is welcome, even if there are too many breweries.

What Makes Sense Is For All Of Us—Yimbys, Nimbys, And Others

1. Demand support from developers for increased revenue for transportation infrastructure upfront.
2. Move beyond “MBYism” to focus on creating a path forward, transcending hollow labels. This means building a viable environmentalist/community/labor coalition with enough clout to make things happen.

Briggs has promised to release a plan for making housing more accessible and more environmentally and taxpayer-friendly soon.

The key to gaining my support will be his realism about getting things done before I end up living on beachfront property.