Tiny Homes Torpedoed

By Bruce Firestone | Investing

Nov 15

As expected, NIMBY (not in my backyard), BANANAS (Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything or Anyone) and CAVE (citizens against virtually everything) people are torpedoing tiny home subdivisions as this AP article by Scott McFetridge makes abundantly clear.  

Tiny houses are trendy – unless they go up next door.

The Associated Press

Published November 14, 2017

DES MOINES, Iowa — As he tows a 96-square-foot house around Des
Moines, Joe Stevens is overwhelmed by the intense, sometimes tearful
support he receives from churches, schools and service groups for his
plan to use the trendy little structures to help homeless people.

But when Stevens actually tried to create a village of the homes in Iowa’s largest city, the response was far different.

“We
got shot down,” said Stevens, who leads a group that proposed erecting
50 tiny homes on a 5-acre industrial site north of downtown Des Moines.
“It was a sense of fear, uncertainty and doubt, a kneejerk situation.”

Tiny
homes have been promoted as the solution to all kinds of housing needs —
shelter for the homeless, an affordable option for expensive big cities
and simplicity for people who want to declutter their lives. But the
same popularity that inspired at least six national TV shows about the
homes often fails to translate into acceptance when developers try to
build them next door.

In at least a dozen cases across the nation,
neighbours organized to stop tiny house projects, including in
Charlotte, North Carolina; Nashville, Tennessee; San Jose, California;
Tulsa, Oklahoma; Tallahassee, Florida; and Bend, Oregon. Sometimes the
efforts moved ahead despite objections, but in many cases, the
communities were blocked.

[Read more at, https://ottawacitizen.com/pmn/news-pmn/tiny-houses-are-trendy-unless-they-go-up-next-door/wcm/6f7e0840-6e37-4c65-a147-2a6a1bd5cbe8]

Unless cities, towns and villages can somehow find political and social
unity thereby engendering a willingness to experiment with new urban forms, our
communities will never live up to their potential to be inclusive places where
not only everyone is welcome, but they

also

become much more energetic engines of
creativity, learning and growth..

Prof Bruce

Bruce M Firestone, B Eng (civil), M Eng-Sci, PhD, Ottawa Senators founder, Real Estate Investment and Business coach, ROYAL LePAGE Performance Realty broker, 1-613-762-8884 bruce.firestone@century21.ca twitter.com/ProfBruce profbruce.tumblr.com/archive brucemfirestone.com

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Bruce is an entrepreneur/real estate broker/developer/coach/urban guru/keynote speaker/Sens founder/novelist/columnist/peerless husband/dad.

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