Friday Funny: Are You NIMBY Material?

A satirical article in McSweeney’s Internet Tendency by Devin Wallace pokes fun at NIMBYs with a questionnaire styled as an “application” designed to “ensure that you’re cranky enough to join our bad-faith organization of cranks.”

“The Not In My Back Yard movement has been a proud supporter of exclusionary zoning, regressive views, and rose-colored nostalgia for decades,” writes Wallace. The “application” includes questions such as “What is your biggest concern about building new homes in your area?”

Answer choices:

• A. Decreasing property values
• B. More people, specifically ones that don’t look like me.
• C. Option B but I feel more comfortable publicly choosing option A.

After a few more questions, the form concludes: “Thank you for filling out this form, and the NIMBY National Organization will be in touch in six to eight weeks or whenever someone proposes building a duplex within a fifty-mile radius.”