When you look beyond the negative headlines, the marathon hearings, and relentless attacks in the public square, Not-In-My-Backyard controversies reveal something deeper than we ever imagined. It’s been hiding in plain sight, feeding countless community conflicts over real estate development for decades.
In a word, what we have been overlooking is fear.
The fear of change, the fear of voters, and the fear of failure are the three faces that are acting out in a public drama that we witness every day across NIMBY America. It’s a Shakespearean storyline revealing the emotional anxieties that surface over a proposed project.
We see it so often, it blends into the background with little notice and little thought.
We see local neighbors reacting to the fear of change threatening their status quo views. We see local elected officials fearing the voters will abandon them on Election Day. Finally, we see the developer fearing failure, so much so that they go out of their way to avoid stirring up potential NIMBY resistance under the fatigued and failing practice of “flying under the radar.”
Fear creates higher risks of project rejection at city halls across the nation. It’s time to acknowledge the gripping power of fear and turn it into fortune.
Fear of Change
It is said that a lie travels faster than the truth. The local grapevine has always been a threat to sustainable real estate development. When you combine the grapevine with emotionally-charged information, especially in today’s social media age, half-truths morph into misinformation that can be easily manipulated into anti-development rhetoric a.k.a. disinformation.
Martin Luther King, Jr. nailed it when he said, “The soft-minded man always fears change. He feels security in the status quo, and he has an almost morbid fear of the new.” For him, “the greatest pain is the pain of a new idea.”
Fear of change is powerful, ingrained, and leads to hate and anger. When left to the imagination with no mitigating information to tame it, it grows into a mob mentality, where a relatively small group of activists can influence public policy at the expense of the silent and indifferent majority.
Of course, there are other types of NIMBY profiles who oppose projects for other reasons, such as environmentalists. Still, their playbooks manipulate the public’s inherent fear of change to further their special-interest agendas.
At the end of the day, NIMBY activists are driven by the fear of change and willing to peddle “Google-based science” to deceive stakeholders in protecting the status quo. They, in their angry voices, make it hard for elected officials to reject their rhetoric and threats of electoral retaliation.
It’s a grave mistake to underestimate or overlook this powerful motivator lurking beneath the surface of the communities that grant the license to operate. For those who account for it and plan on it manifesting itself, they are armed with strategies and best practices that keep them ahead of the chaos and angst that often results from the fear of change.
The NIMBY Insider
In Part II of the NIMBY Fear Series, we will explore how elected officials fear the voters once the NIMBY controversy hits the fan.
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About Patrick Slevin
Patrick Slevin is a former Florida mayor, #1 Amazon bestselling author, national YIMBY speaker, publisher of the NIMBY Insider newsletter, and head of his NIMBY public affairs and crisis management firm, SL7 Consulting.
Patrick’s clients are located from California to New York, working on development projects from north of Detroit to South Florida. Over the span of his career, Patrick has educated, trained, and counseled thousands of real estate executives in successfully pre-empting and prevailing against NIMBY opposition.
He is a two-time winner of the prestigious Public Relations Society of America’s Silver Anvil Award of Excellence in crisis and issues management. He’s also been recognized as one of the nation’s top political “Movers & Shakers” by Campaigns & Elections Magazine and featured in Influence Magazine as a “Great Communicator.” Patrick was appointed presidential-campaign spokesman in the 1996 and 2004 elections.
You can learn more about Patrick’s firm and services at www.PatrickSlevin.com