Author Archives: d.c. forrd

YIMBYs and the continuation of the colonial project

Question: What Is a YIMBY? (Hint: It’s Not Good)

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A series of articles, resources, and videos discussing the so-called YIMBY-class of build-more activists.
What Is a YIMBY? (Hint: It’s Not Good)

By Patrick Range McDonald, Housing is a Human Right, July 14, 2021, Link: https://www.housingisahumanright.org/what-is-a-yimby-hint-its-not-good/

YIMBY Movement Is Not the Answer to Housing Crisis, Grassroots Activists Say

The answer to the U.S. housing crisis is simple and widely adopted elsewhere: more public housing.

By Laura Jedeed & M.K. Hawthorne,     Truthout, Published September 19, 2021, Link: https://truthout.org/articles/yimby-movement-is-not-the-answer-to-housing-crisis-grassroots-activists-say/

YIMBY, White Privilege, and the Soul of Our Cities

A common narrative being promoted about why there is a housing crisis ignores history and serves to assuage new residents’ guilty feelings. But we can craft a new narrative together.

By Fernando Marti, Shelterforce, Published: February 19, 2019, Link: https://shelterforce.org/2019/02/19/yimby-white-privilege-and-the-soul-of-our-cities/



Don't Fall Down the YIMBY Pipeline

By Radical Planning, Published February 8, 2022, Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHigcXE9ZzE

YIMBYism Is Code For Gentrification w/ David Fields

By Real Progressives, Published October 16, 2024, Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YMd0HZA4CE

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YIMBY policies rooted in the royal “my” and paternalism is not new to the battle for equity in DC

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Taken from the Adams Morgan listserve here >>
https://groups.io/g/adamsmorgan/message/66398 

———- Forwarded message ———
From: William Jordan via groups.io <whj=melanet.com@groups.io>
Date: Sun, Nov 17, 2024 at 4:20 PM
Subject: Re: [adamsmorgan] What Do YIMBYs and Donald Trump Have in Common?

 

I’m an amateur genealogist, in building my family tree and working to better understand the stories of my ancestors, I’ve found complex and extensive connections to DC going back to the 1860/70s. 

 

In my genealogical journey, I’ve discovered as with my family, my ancestor’s lives generation after generation lives have been negatively impacted by some form of YIMBY-ism.  YIMBY-ism built around Black family displacement and the I-know-it all paternalistic hubris of the political and bureaucratic elite.   

 

Nadeau’s YIMBY policies rooted in the royal “my” and paternalism is not new to the battle for equity.

 

The attached November 21, 1854 article from the Evening Star features Ezekiel Cunningham my first cousin 3-times removed and DC SW shopkeeper describing 1950s version of YIMBY-ism as a “Passel of Joy and Sorrow”.   

 

Not only are there many parallels between YIMBY-ism of the 1950s and 2020s including the rationalizations, but some of the same Black families which were marginalized and displaced from SW to make room for out of town developers are some of the same families being marginalized by Nadeau’s Ward 1 policies for similar interests.

 

Source file: https://tinyurl.com/bddn5wnw

So we can debate Nadeau’s NW YIMBY-ism and Trump, there is little doubt about Ward 1’s YIMBY-ism roots in S.W.. 

 

William

 

—–Original Message—–
From: whj@melanet.com
Sent: Sunday, November 10, 2024 8:56pm
To: adamsmorgan@groups.io
Cc: adamsmorgan@groups.io
Subject: Re: [adamsmorgan] What Do YIMBYs and Donald Trump Have in Common?

YIMBY-ism for the most part is nonsensical rebranding of government backed Gentrification which is a  rehash of Urban Renewal/Negro Removal.  In particular it’s designed to con mainly younger people who are seeking progressive solutions to community ills into supporting big capital via high rents and consumption. Comparing this YIMBY-ism con to Trump is just an attempt to wake us up a little.

Under the very approaches so called YIMBY’s are pushing for 1/2 of Ward 1’s Black population has been displaced since 2000 and the racial equity gap has increased, especially the Black-White one primarily as a result of government policy/corporate-corruption.

Many YIMBYs are likely good people, who have been conned or mislead by people like CM Nadeau who know YIMBY-ism doesn’t work as touted.

William

 

 

ERAP Changes: City Council “Seeking a balance” on the backs of DC tenants

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B25-0994 – Emergency Rental Assistance Reform Amendment Act of 2024 :: https://lims.dccouncil.gov/Legislation/B25-0994

Screenshot_2024-11-16_19-40-31.jpg

 

City Council Cmte on Housing, Chair Robert White, Hearing on November 15, 2024 :: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOdUfzpr45Q

Theme of the hearing from the Chair –> “Seeking a balance” on the backs of DC tenants.

Here’s an abridged list of those who spoke in opposition to changes to the ERAP law that would allow landlords to evict DC residents faster with less protections despite ERAP applications that may be in process.
< Opposition speakers > 

2. Mr. Daniel del Pielago, Housing Director, Empower DC: https://www.youtube.com/live/IOdUfzpr45Q?feature=shared&t=1879

3. Ms. Andria Chatmon, Housing Organizer, Empower DC: https://www.youtube.com/live/IOdUfzpr45Q?feature=shared&t=2073

5. Mel Zahnd, Legal Aid Society of DC:https://www.youtube.com/live/IOdUfzpr45Q?feature=shared&t=2614

8. Damiana Dendy, DC Jobs with Justice: https://www.youtube.com/live/IOdUfzpr45Q?feature=shared&t=6715

9. Amanda Eisenhour, Tenant Support Specialist at the DC BAR Pro Bono Center: https://www.youtube.com/live/IOdUfzpr45Q?feature=shared&t=6995

10. Ms. Makenna Osborn, Policy Attorney, Children’s Law Center: https://www.youtube.com/live/IOdUfzpr45Q?feature=shared&t=7237

13. Adam Marshall, Neighborhood Legal Services Program: https://www.youtube.com/live/IOdUfzpr45Q?feature=shared&t=3397

21. Mr. Ed Lazere, Director of Legislative Advocacy, United Planning Organization: https://www.youtube.com/live/IOdUfzpr45Q?feature=shared&t=16317

28. Ms. Sierra Ramirez, Eviction Defense Committee Delegate, Woodner Tenants’ Union: https://www.youtube.com/live/IOdUfzpr45Q?feature=shared&t=26706

35. Mx. George Lander, Sr. Tenant Support Coordinator, Bread for the City: https://www.youtube.com/live/IOdUfzpr45Q?feature=shared&t=20852

40. Sunny Desai, Legal Counsel for the Elderly: https://www.youtube.com/live/IOdUfzpr45Q?feature=shared&t=21144

41. Saunya Connelly, Legal Counsel for the Elderly: https://www.youtube.com/live/IOdUfzpr45Q?feature=shared&t=21408

47. Joshua Drumming, Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless: https://www.youtube.com/live/IOdUfzpr45Q?feature=shared&t=4220

49. Natasha Bennett, Esq., Supervising Attorney, Bread for the City: https://www.youtube.com/live/IOdUfzpr45Q?feature=shared&t=8262

63. Tamira Benitez, Public Witness: https://www.youtube.com/live/IOdUfzpr45Q?feature=shared&t=12786

65. Kymone Freeman, Co-Founder, We Act Radio: https://www.youtube.com/live/IOdUfzpr45Q?feature=shared&t=23942

107. Ms. Kate Coventry, Deputy Director of Legislative Strategy, DC Fiscal Policy Institute: https://www.youtube.com/live/IOdUfzpr45Q?feature=shared&t=22291

118. Mr. Kelechi Agbakwuru, Housing Justice Counsel, Washington Lawyers’ Committee: https://www.youtube.com/live/IOdUfzpr45Q?feature=shared&t=19462

124. Mr. Chris Otten, DC for Reasonable Development: https://www.youtube.com/live/IOdUfzpr45Q?feature=shared&t=22559

 

< ANC’s >

 

< DC GOVERNMENT WITNESSES >

 

— important to note — 

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Urbanist YIMBYs of course want to make evictions easier for the landlord-class, Cheryl Cort, Policy Director, Coalition for Smarter Growth :: https://www.youtube.com/live/IOdUfzpr45Q?feature=shared&t=12615


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UBI: DC Nonprofits get it, why won’t the Blue-Dems of DC?

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Universal Basic Income is an idea that has come to the fore in recent years but has yet to break through the ruling-class gatekeeping of our working families.

UBI is becoming more real in DC. A local non-profit is set to give UBI a go starting this week for the next year.

DC-area nonprofit combines 2 policies that will give low-income families thousands per month

The “Pathway to Economic Mobility, Prosperity and Family Wellness” involves 100 families scattered around D.C. who currently receive subsidized housing from the District. For the next two years, they’ll be receiving $1,000 per month. On top of that, parents will get $1,000 they can put toward an IRA or emergency savings account. Their children will also get $1,000 put into a 529 college savings plan and $1,000 toward a Roth IRA.

As the DC Council funds billionaires to build new arenas and give rich downtown landlords tax breaks and grants to turn unoccupied offices into unaffordable housing, there are some thought leaders turning to UBI as a real alternative to evictions, homelessness, and despair for rooted residents and families struggling to keep up.

What Do YIMBYs and Donald Trump Have in Common?

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trump_yimby.jpg

 

What Do YIMBYs and Donald Trump Have in Common?

  1. YIMBYs and Trump are consistently complicit in the offloading of vast amounts of public property to friends in the speculative real estate market, prioritizing luxury housing for affluent singles while ignoring the affordability needs of working families. https://savedcpublicland.org/the1617project/2023/06/09/dcs-sordid-track-record-of-public-land-giveaways/ 


  2. Both Trump and YIMBYs ignore or dismiss genuine solutions that could provide DC and cities across the nation the truly affordable housing it deserves. Instead of deploying programs such as custom zoning and social housing, Trump and YIMBYs favor private developers doing the lifting and grifting instead of public initiatives, effectively spitting in the face of HUD and endorsing the privatization of public housing through “repositioning” programs. https://ggwash.org/view/97236/dcs-public-housing-agency-is-making-halting-progress-but-much-more-needs-to-be-done 


  3. Both YIMBYs and Donald Trump share a deeply troubling agenda that displaces people of color from their rooted neighborhoods without much concern or acknowledgement. This is seen vividly in Washington, D.C., where our city consistently ranks among the top cities for gentrification, with devastating impacts on longstanding Black communities with barely a blush by YIMBYs. https://journals.sagepub.com/eprint/EVDFHVYYVVSXWIYMPVQ9/full

     

YIMBYs don’t have to care about the impacts of their build-baby-build rhetoric because they are privileged enough not to bear the adverse brunt of their advocating to privatize public land and build more luxury units, this same policy that benefits the exact class of real estate players who fund campaigns of politicians like Donald Trump. 

 

 

#IZFAIL

#IZFAIL




But wait there’s more . . .

Find out why the YIMBY “affordability” program in DC, called “Inclusionary Zoning” or “IZ”, is an absolute fraud perpetuated to guise the overblown and continuing construction of mostly unaffordable market-rate luxury housing units despite the growing racial disparity and displacement in DC.


Other links of import::

 
 
 

 

DC Safety Net on Fire! Council Moves Quick on Social Welfare for a Billionaire Arena Owner While Longtime DC Families Left to Struggle to Meet Basic Needs

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Please take Action, use the Fair Budget Coalition social media kit among other resources out there to get the word out to friends, neighbors, loved ones: https://tinyurl.com/fbc-dc-2025-budget-toolkit


<press alert> DC for Reasonable Development, contact Chris Otten, (202) 656-5874

“The Safety Net Continues to Burn” as D.C. City Council Poised to Give a Billionaire Half-a-Billion Dollars in D.C. Taxpayer Dollars; Key Programs to Help DC's Families and Working Residents Remain Un- & Under-Funded

Washington, DC — The second vote on DC's 2025 Budget is upcoming this Wednesday, and it spells terrible news for DC's most vulnerable longtime residents and families. 

Here's what's at stake for DC's longtime families and residents struggling to survive in their city:
  • ERAP (emergency rental assistance to prevent eviction and housing insecurity) is funded at less than ½ of FY24 – yet the need has grown and the funds run out almost as soon as the portal opens each quarter. 

  • Housing vouchers for individuals and families experiencing homelessness are funded at less than 1/10th of the need, leaving us deeply worried about the trauma and hardship they will face in FY25 without housing. 

  • The Mayor is planning to evict 2200 families in the next 2 months (and another 1000 in FY25) from their housing in the Rapid ReHousing program. Without any housing solutions for where they will go, virtually no vouchers in the budget, and no way to pay market rate rent, these families are in immediate danger of homelessness. This is a horrific human tragedy awaiting the families and the city unless lawmakers take action.

  • SNAP benefits have not kept pace with the realities of struggling households. There were no new or improved investments in food/nutrition programs (outside of the schools) this year, even though several Councilmembers stated concern about senior hunger.


In contrast, social welfare for a billionaire (Ted Leonisis) was quickly made available by the Council who are primed to serve up half-a-billion taxpayer dollars for downtown arena funding.

“The safety net continues to burn, with the Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP), housing vouchers to end homelessness, and nutrition assistance each horribly, shockingly underfunded. Thousands of housing-insecure families lack access to ERAP to prevent eviction, even as landlords have doubled the number of eviction filings compared to last year and rents have risen more than incomes. There are 3,200 families facing immediate homelessness with the Department of Human Services evicting them from the rapid rehousing program — 2,200 this summer, and another 1,000 starting in the fall. And unhoused individuals living on the street routinely face encampment clearance with no corresponding investment in housing and services to promote their health and well-being. DC’s seniors, both housed and unhoused, face the highest rate of older adult hunger in the country, yet their food assistance benefits are paltry, especially in the face of high, even rising, costs for food and housing.” –Niciah Mujahid is executive director of the Fair Budget Coalition.


Advocates for DC's working families and individuals making less than $55,000/year are asking the city to raise money on the classes of income earners who have gotten wealthier over the pandemic.

Chairman Mendelson's recently proposed property tax increase on high-value homes only raises $5.7 million in FY 2025, and while a step in the right direction, measured against all that is at stake residents are demanding the Council to improve the wealth tax proposal and consider higher taxes on those with incomes above $500,000/yr.

The budget vote is scheduled for Wednesday.

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Please take Action, use the Fair Budget Coalition social media kit among other resources out there to get the word out to friends, neighbors, loved ones: https://tinyurl.com/fbc-dc-2025-budget-toolkit

More reasons to go SHIMBY and definitely not be a YIMBY or a NIMBY

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We want Social Housing in our Backyard as SHIMBYs.

Neither YIMBYs nor NIMBYs like social housing because it would decommodify shelter as we know it as human housing (hurting the pockets of the investor-class the YIMBYs serve) and bring in truly affordable housing (exposing the fragility of the racist & classist NIMBYs in their exclusive neighborhoods).

See the exploration below focusing on why YIMBYs are so dangerous to existing urban communities of working class families and neighborhoods of color.

YIMBYs & NIMBYs want the same thing!

YIMBYs & NIMBYs want the same thing!

What Is a YIMBY? (Hint: It’s Not Good)
By Patrick Range McDonald, July 14, 2021

 
Excerpts:

  • YIMBY stands for “Yes In My Back Yard.” It’s a clever twist on NIMBY or “Not In My Back Yard.” NIMBYs have a controversial reputation for fighting new development in their communities. YIMBYs try to capitalize on that by using a moniker that sounds inclusive and appealing. Don’t be fooled. 
  • YIMBYs embrace trickle-down economics or what’s now called “trickle-down housing” policy. As middle- and working-class people have long known, trickle-down anything doesn’t work — except to make the rich richer.

  • YIMBYs know developers built almost exclusively luxury housing, and that is okay with them. 
  • YIMBYs are NOT housing justice activists. But for political reasons, YIMBYs are desperate to own housing justice credentials. YIMBYs have co-opted messaging from the housing justice movement and joined housing justice coalitions. It’s a strategy that continues to this day. 
  • Despite their pro-gentrification agenda and clashes with housing justice activists, many Democratic politicians champion YIMBYism and the mainstream media too often touts the YIMBY cause. Why? Politicians take huge amounts of campaign cash from the real estate industry, and YIMBYism gives them political cover to deregulate land-use protections and allow developers to build more luxury housing — and to generate huge profits — under the guise of solving the housing affordability crisis 
  • “The YIMBY movement has a white privilege problem,” Anya Lawler, a policy advocate with the Western Center on Law & Poverty, told the Los Angeles Times. “I don’t think they recognize it. They don’t understand poverty. They don’t understand what that’s like, who our clients really are and what their lived experience is.” 
  • YIMBY leaders are consistently silent about the predatory practices of corporate landlords and developers. The silence speaks volumes.
 
 

2025 DC Budget Update — DC’s Continued War on the Working Families and Lower Income Residents of DC

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DC4RD — 2025 DC Budget Update tl;dr here: http://www.dcfeedback.com/fit2print/dc/3330

Washington, DC — May 23, 2024 — As workers who put their bodies on the line in the many capitalist wars get ready to relax one extra day before summer, the DC City Council is poised next week to take up Mayor Bowser's continued war on the poor and working residents and families (many of whom are veterans without a vote).


It was in April when the news of the Mayor's 2025 austerity budget came across newswires. The City Councilmembers remarks were stark in their analysis of what Bowser is trying to impose: http://www.tinyurl.com/dcbudget2025-take1


But, instead of lifting the burden off the backs of the working residents of DC, the Council seems to desire a shift of the pots of money around to make the hardship a tiny bit less bearable all while delivering a line of credit of half-a-billion dollars (that butts DC up against our loan ceiling) to be delivered to a billionaire (Ted Leonisis) so that luxury playtime “can save Downtown DC.” https://dccouncil.gov/council-approves-arena-funds-to-keep-teams-in-dc-receives-mayors-budget-proposal/

Numerous DC advocacy groups who care about working families and the lower-income DC residents are asking that the wealthy pay a much fairer share of the burden and the city make modest tax increases on millionaires, let alone billionaires.

The Council, at least the Chair, seem to be playing the dire need for human services to be maintained let alone increased against their understanding of a mostly apathetic DC voter base who are confused by the false propaghanda and spin. 


Officials appear to seek deflecting calls for raising taxes on the rich, again, despite overwhelming support as such: https://www.dcfpi.org/press-releases/dc-voters-strongly-support-taxing-wealth-to-raise-revenue-and-address-inequality/

Mayor Muriel Bowser, leading Phil Mendelson by the nose, all together are essentially telling the plebiscite that stadiums are far more important than the massive displacement of Black residents and the severe uptick recent evictions of longtime DC residents from their home and even from the tents.

► 'Homelessness numbers continue to rise in D.C. region, data shows.' WaPo's Kyle Swenson: “The number of unhoused individuals across the Washington region jumped by over 12 percent from 2023, marking the second year in a row that homelessness has increased, according to data released by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments this week. https://archive.ph/nuMMl

► 'D.C. clears major homeless encampment, but critical housing problems linger.' WaPo's Marissa J. Lang: “Dozens of homeless adults were forced to scatter this week to far-flung parks and slivers of turf around the District after the National Park Service and D.C. officials cleared out several sites in the Foggy Bottom area that collectively had become the last large-scale homeless encampment in the city. https://archive.ph/h94iD

If the Council truly cared would they not deploy the verve and fast action we've seen go to protecting Leonisis' Capital One Arena as we would for real DC people undergoing serious hardship as entire DC neighborhoods being emptied of their people and culture, replaced by expensive housing and homogeneity.

Perhaps this is a wrong read, but yet again this budget season, the Council and Mayor seem poised to keep the working-class under threat to unduly bear the brunt of an overall sluggish economy coming out of a global pandemic all while funding billionaires for more luxury play time.

If the veterans of past fought fascist dictators, their grandsons, and granddaughters, and great family are now being compelled into a class war by pitiful political policies that provide social welfare to the rich and downright brutal auerstry for the working families and lower-income residents of the city.

There are solutions — will the Council take them up this budget season?
— DC4RD 2025 BUDGET UPDATE, Chris Otten