Why do so many anti-development groups try to cast YIMBYs as just entitled, privileged and white? And why this is so far from the truth!
My name is Stanley Johnson, an African American, and I have been a part of the YIMBY movement since late 2016. Like so many Angelenos, I came to this city from out of state. I moved to a small studio apartment in Hollywood next to Paramount Studios in 2003. It was just a room and a tiny bathroom (like a small Motel 6) and it cost $650/month (which, for me, was a lot). It was full of many Hollywood hopefuls and the neighborhood was predominately Latino.
I quickly gained two vastly different perspectives of Los Angeles. The first perspective was how amazing this city was. There were palm trees everywhere, an amazing amount of diversity of people, beautiful sunny skies all the time, and I have never been somewhere that had so many things to do (from sports to beaches, hikes, entertainment, clubs, restaurants, bars, meetup groups, etc.). A person would have to purposely avoid everyone and everything to be bored here. It felt like the sky was the limit and Los Angeles quickly became my all-time favorite city.
However, my second impression was a question: how can a city so rich with people, diversity, culture, opportunity, and jobs be so poor at the same time? The city was incredibly segregated and tents would consistently line up the streets of downtown. Hollywood was full of parking lots, graffiti, and trash. And our downtown only had life from 8am to 5pm Monday to Friday. How could the leaders of a city so large and with so many amazing people have such little pride in every one of its neighborhoods? And what was worse; as I ventured to parts of South Los Angeles, one of the poorest neighborhoods in L.A., all I saw was trash on the sidewalks, car shops, cash loan places, liquor stores and fast food restaurants with bullet proof windows.
Like many people, I voted for state and national elections, but I did not pay attention to the local elections. It was not heavily advertised and I was quite honestly too busy working 12 hour days and building my career. I was busy with hobbies outside of work so I just accepted the reality that Los Angeles was amazing for some and horrible for others without thinking about what our leaders could be doing to make it a better place for all. Later I started to visited more and more large cities, and I always wondered why we lacked public transit, density, tall buildings, and city pride. However, those thoughts would quickly go away when I returned as I went on with my day to day life.
As the years went by, more and more development was happening and the public transit was getting more and more attention. I got excited every time I saw a crane and I started following Curbed and Urbanize LA to see what the city was doing to become… a city. However, in 2016, a campaign was just starting to form to stop development; Measure S. This scared me like no other. To me, the backers of the campaign mainly seemed to be older white homeowners who just did not want development in their neighborhoods. They even had a campaign called “Preserve LA.” I thought to myself how privileged and entitled must one be to call their campaign “Preserve LA.” Preserve traffic jams, neighborhood inequality, homelessness, and unaffordable prices? If a survey was done, I knew most people in South Los Angeles and other minority dominated neighborhoods would never vote against improvements in their neighborhoods.
So in the first quarter of 2017 I decide to volunteer for the campaign against Measure S. I went from phone banks to door to door and then to neighborhood council meetings. I always volunteered for South Los Angeles. It was amazing to see so much heart, passion, and pride they had for their neighborhoods. The residents consistently wanted more safety, better selections of shops and restaurants, safe and well-funded schools, better infrastructure, and nearby jobs. At the same time, they wanted security where they live (like everyone else). While I attended many of these meetings, I would see paid and non-paid volunteers from the anti-development groups. Most of them appeared to be white, and they came in with a well suited plan.
The best way to create action among people is to use “fear” and to “create an enemy.” We have seen this play out many times throughout recent history and it is a proven technique that works. The narrative they painted was, “You are at risk of being displaced from your homes and it is all because of the Greedy Developers.” They classified every new Apartment Complex as “luxury” and all these Greedy Developers wanted was to go in to neighborhoods, get rid of all the current tenants and replace them with tenants who could afford to pay luxury prices. From articles to billboards to mail in advertisement, they kept painting the narrative that development is bad for low income neighborhoods. These were the same people protesting AGAINST homeless housing, protesting AGAINST the purple line going through Beverly Hills, protesting AGAINST density along the Exposition line. They were not coming to South Los Angeles and asking people what they wanted in their neighborhoods. They were simply telling them the only way they can afford to stay in their neighborhood is to NOT have change and development. I took this personal. How much white privilege can they have? These anti-development groups are literally going to neighborhoods of color, neighborhoods they have probably never been to, and they are essentially scaring people to fight the development battle for them.
And as these anti-development groups lost more and more battles (like Measure S), they have since gone after the YIMBY movement and are trying to discredit these YIMBY groups by stating they are only white and privileged and they lack the understanding of the working class people. Let me say this again, a group of White people (typically wealthy, older homeowners) are going to Minority Communities and are claiming that the pro-development group is only white, privileged, and entitled. I hope Hollywood has been following this as this sounds like a script for “Black Mirror.” The irony is quite amazing and the actual truth is much different. YIMBY groups are full of people of all economic levels, of all races, of all ages, gender, sex, education, occupations, and etc. I am so proud of being a volunteer for Abundant Housing, a group that fights for the ability for everyone to have a roof over their heads.
These anti-development groups pay attention to the local elections, something I neglected to when I first moved here, and they count on low voter turnout from people like me to get their way. This was another major reason I wanted to align myself with the YIMBY movement. We work hard to make sure the public knows about every election and which candidates actually care about the people and which candidates are fulfilling an agenda.
As an African American, nothing makes me prouder than working with minorities from low income communities and fighting for what they want and need in their neighborhoods. I’ve constantly asked, “Why do people have to choose between having nearby jobs, good dining options, entertainment, parks, good schools, public transit options, safety, cleanliness OR the ability to actually afford housing?” Anti-development groups keep giving people this choice and they demonize those who want to see neighborhoods improve as they call them “Gentrifiers,” “Colonizers,” and basically selfish, entitled, greedy, non-understanding white people who are only looking for a profit. The reality is that these YIMBY groups are fighting for “AND!” The question we ask is why can’t a place remain affordable AND have a safe, clean neighborhood with jobs, public transit options, parks, entertainment, restaurant options. We think with an “AND” mindset.