In his letter to the Mountain Xpress, Doug Baughman asks: Why has NIMBY (not in my backyard) come to be seen as a bad thing? [“Why Is NIMBY Considered a Bad Thing?” Jan. 21] He remembers when the environmental movement was getting started and our mission was to protect and prevent: If a forest or wetland was threatened by development, we tried to stop it.
What has changed? Global warming and the broader environmental vision it requires. Now, when new housing is proposed for Haw Creek, where Mr. Baughman and I live, we have to ask not only, “Will a few trees be cut down?” but also, “If housing is not built here, where?” And the answer is farther out of the city, where it will not only destroy forests and fields, it will require those living there to take long car trips to work, school, shopping and friends, each time pumping more carbon into the atmosphere.
To reduce damage to the global environment, we need more people living in more central, denser neighborhoods, where they can walk, bike or bus to many of the places they need to go. And this requires some building in close-in areas like Haw Creek — not high-rises on every block, but townhomes, duplexes, small apartment buildings and cottage clusters on some lots. The younger generation understands this as part of the big picture of a healthy planet; some of us older homeowners need to realize it, too…