Idea for an SFBARF yearly event: THE NIMBY AWARDS

[Jon Schwark]

The NIMBY Awards recognize excellence in the field of blocking

Categories include:

• Most units killed by a single NIMBY
• Most units killed by a Neighborhood Group
• Best use of "traffic" in a suburban neighborhood.
• Smallest Monster Award. (what is the smallest in-code building that can be referred to as a Monster)
• Best use of shadows cast by buildings to block housing. (affectionately known as "the Shadey")
  
• Best use of the word "Renters" as code for "Poor".
• Best use of "Too many millionaires coming into my neighborhood" by a person who has gained more than a million dollars in equity on their house.
• Best Classic NIMBY - for outstanding use of the "I'm not against development, but..." construction.
• And the very special Lifetime Achievement Award. AKA "the Redmond"

The NIMBY award itself is a statuette of a cute little dinosaur.

We could do it like a banquet and actually send invitations to the people who are nominated. They wont come, but its ok :) 

It could be fun, and I think it's very press friendly.

Any thoughts or additions?

Jon

[Sonja Trauss]

lol Lifetime Achievement Award

omg do you think we could do it in July? It seems like a nice hot weather event.

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[Adina Levin]

The "confused perigrine falcon" award for the most absurd use of the
term "canyon" to describe the vertical impacts of short buildings.
There is some good competition among folk alleging that 3-4 story
buildings will create sheer canyon walls.

On Tue, Mar 24, 2015 at 10:23 AM, 'Jon Schwark' via SFBA Renters
Federation <SFBAren...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

[Jehan Tremback]

Yes! I can help fabricate trophies!

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[Adina Levin]

the "honey I shrunk the residents" award goes to the best use of
"massive" to describe a small building. There's great competition
among miniaturized opponents of modest-sized 2-3 story buildings.

"the nibble to death by ducks" award goes to the opponents who are
able to get a housing development downsized in the largest number of
small chunks

[Adina Levin]

call it the "angry ducks" award for best visuals...

[Ian Monroe]

On Tue, Mar 24, 2015 at 11:27 AM, Sonja Trauss <sonja....@gmail.com> wrote:

lol Lifetime Achievement Award

omg do you think we could do it in July? It seems like a nice hot weather event.

Hot weather - so you want to delay until September? ;)

Re: award titles, we should really just pick the winners and then can decide on the categories afterwards.

Ian

[Sonja Trauss]

oh yeah - you're right, September

[Brian Hanlon]

Great idea! I think we also need an award for Achievement in Parking Advocacy, only you know, funny.

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[Thomas Rogers]

Fun idea! I think use of humor marks a nice contrast with the dour SF NIMBYs (on that note, is there a more ironic name than "Potrero Boosters"? That sounds fun, but the meetings I've been to have been pretty depressing- more like a museum of parking-related grudges). I'd add:

• George Orwell Doublespeak Award (for simultaneous contrasting comments, like Sonja noted at SPUR last week- "That new building will cast too many shadows! And also knock down our beloved shade-producing trees!")
• Alanis Morissette Irony Award (has to go to this person in Noe Valley w/ a 6,000 sf house, complaining that the 4,820 sf house proposal next door would wreck the charm and character of the neighborhood: http://www.socketsite.com/archives/2013/09/noe_neighbors_design_fight_goes_the_distance_decision_t.html)

[Starchild]

This could be fun. Such an awards ceremony could colloquially be called "the NIMBYs" (like the Grammys, the Emmys, etc.)

We might however want to avoid creating awards that some NIMBY activist types might actually take as a badge of honor (I could see the "most units killed" and "lifetime achievement" awards easily falling into this category) and thereby inadvertently helping incentivize their behavior!

I like the ones that would be a bit embarrassing to receive, like the proposed award for using the term "renters" as a code word (this one could be expanded to cover any NIMBY use of code words to disguise an offensive sentiment), the "Confused Peregrin Falcon" award, the award for a wealthy person complaining about incoming millionaires ("The Gentry award"?), the George Orwell Doublespeak award ("the Doubly?") and "The Shady", which I would suggest be described as going to the person or group most afraid of shadows (the people who blocked that project which would have cast a shadow for like a couple hours a day over a small corner of a SOMA park whose name I forget seem like deserving recipients of this one!). The "Smallest Monster" and "Honey I shrunk the residents" award concepts are two more that would appear to pass the "embarrassing to receive" test, but sound similar enough to be combined into a single award (perhaps with two different terms to describe it).

At the risk of further adding to the already burgeoning list of proposed awards, surely there ought to be an overall "Most Sensitive Award" ("the Whiny"?) for the most outrageous and absurd claim of a project threatening quality of life (e.g. "My pet chihuahua gets frightened around new people, and having a bunch of new neighbors could be stressful for him").

When I originally proposed the NIMBY Monster idea I suggested a line of NIMBY Monster dolls. If we had a product or products like this made, they could do double duty as purchasable items to raise money for the group, and as award trophies (perhaps dipped in gold paint, and/or wearing special ribbons or something). Maybe that's something like what Jon had in mind?

Love & Liberty,
((( starchild )))

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[Starchild]

The Alanis Morissette Irony award sounds like a similar concept to the "Gentry" or millionaire award and another prospect for combining, but the name is funnier. The fact that potential recipients of these various awards are already coming to mind seems indicative that a ceremony could be a worthwhile endeavor.

Love & Liberty,
((( starchild )))

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[Max Cantor]

Best manipulation of social justice advocates by wealthy homeowners.  (looking at you prop-b)

I love this idea.  Can we get Kim Mai Cutler to present?  I kind of doubt it since she, very respectably, makes a strong effort to remain impartial.

It would be a fun party, fundraiser, etc.

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[Jon Schwark]

Wow, I dropped this post on the WiFi Bus to Marin yesterday and amazed to see all the responses! 

I'm currently in the middle of a crazy work project, but I'll be back around starting Monday. 

So what kind of format would this be? At its simplest it could just be a crowdsourced list that we turn into a web page and a press release. It could also be like a 10-15 minute presentation at one of our forums.

At it's most complex it could be a whole banquet gala, with hosts etc. If we took that route, where would we do it? We could sell tickets to pay for it, and give free invites to press and awardees. I'm not sure any of them would actually walk up and give a speech LOL. Is that kind of a damper on making it a real award ceremony? We could just have it where we showed a slide of the person, roasted them in absentia, and after every presentation the presenters would say something like "Tim Redmond couldn't make it tonight, but we will make sure he gets this", and then mail it to them.

I don't care if they use it as a badge of honor. It's all for fun, and every person they tell the story is another person who has heard of SFBARF, like us or not :)

I was thinking of something like that Starchild, and I love the idea of making it something SFBARF people could also get as a souvenir.

I guess we need to differentiate a little bit between the NIMBY  monster who eats housing, and the "Friendly Monster" who is a big house. Maybe we could have some of the friendly monsters as awards as well, so that some of the awards are positive rather than only satirical and negative. Just a thought.

Also, I really like the idea of giving the awards to neighborhood groups (or possibly small cities), because then a lot more people will be discussing it when it comes in the mail. i could see a story getting published in a local newspaper if we made a press release and included a photo of us dropping it off at the City Hall of Fremont or Milpitas or somewhere like that.

Jon

[Thomas Rogers]

Nestled in this article:

http://www.socketsite.com/archives/2015/05/superior-court-judge-halts-valencia-street-development.html

is my nominee for the George Orwell Doublespeak Award, specifically the name of the NIMBY group:

Neighbors for Preservation and Progress

The Ministry of Peace would be proud!

-Thomas

[isabell...@gmail.com]

I wondered if you have these. There are a couple of people that I definitely think deserve recognition here in RWC.

[Nick Yale]

Ugliest building that a preservationists group suddenly claims has true architectural significance and must be saved from the wrecking ball in spite of its being completely bland or an urban blight.

Sent from my iPhone

> On Apr 14, 2017, at 9:58 PM, isabell...@gmail.com wrote:
>
> I wondered if you have these. There are a couple of people that I definitely think deserve recognition here in RWC.
>

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[Isabella Chu]

Our NIMBYs can crush your NIMBYs in that category.

We have a big lots, CVS, jack in the box and Denny's surrounded by a giant parking lot in an absolutely prime spot. They are mourning the loss of big lots. Not a single business in this complex had over 2.75 stars on yelp.




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[Sonja Trauss]

The last detail is making me 😂😂😂😂😂

YIMBY Action is going to have a gala so we can finally do these awards. Can people post specific appeals/ comments/ individuals/ organizations that they think merit an "award"?

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[Isabella Chu]

Ooooooh. Can we dress up? I think we should do this right. We can charge $$$/plate and make it a fundraiser.

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[Sonja Trauss]

Yeah definitely 

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