Yasssss!!!! This is all fantastic. As an ex-San Franciscan and YIMBY-turned-Georgist, here's my take. I love the outcomes YIMBY is pushing for, but the implementation is too tedious, e.g., YIMBYs shouting at NIMBYs at town halls and planning commissions. Ugh.
What I love about Georgism is that it's the perfect tool for YIMBYs in their battle against NIMBYs. For NIMBYs that don't want additional construction ("Oh, the shadows!") they're welcome to have their way -- as long as they're willing to PAY FOR IT. The problem with zoning laws, etc. is that NIMBYs capture the benefits while making OTHER PEOPLE pay for it (e.g., all the low wage workers living 1-hour away and commuting into the city). Georgism gets incentives back into alignment.
Thanks for the comment! One thing I will say is that YIMBYs vary a lot in their theory of change. Some are focused on showing up for individual projects at local meetings, as you said. Others are more focused on more systemic change, like upzoning bills such as sb79 in California.
Good point. Lord knows that when I was in SF I supported a ton of Scott Wiener's upzoning bills.
FWIW, I still think those solutions are too piecemeal and we really need wholesale change. Today people see increasing real estate prices as an inherently good thing ("I sold my house for more than I paid, yay!"). I want to live in a world where homes are like cars: quality increases and prices decrease (or at least stay level). Ideally, something like "I left my 1,200sqft home at $2,000/month to upgrade to a 1,400sqft home nearby at $1,800/month. I love how housing keeps getting better and more affordable".
Fun article to read as a deep-movement YIMBY. I always assumed Georgism was a niche group within the YIMBY tent rather than a distinctive movement with its own conferences and organizing capacity. As someone particularly interested in movement building, I’d be curious to read a deeper dive into the infrastructure of the Georgist movement—and attend one of the conferences someday
As to how Georgists can learn from YIMBYs, beyond your (very good) proposals for coalition building and message testing, YIMBYs have also been very successful at
1. Partnering with academia. High-profile scholars as well as well respected think tanks like the Terner Center in CA pump at valuable research answering hard YIMBY questions
2. Building a broad base of organizations doing a combination of top-down and bottom-up organizing. In CA, CA YIMBY runs state legislation driven by staff while YIMBY Action organizes chapters that have more agency to do work on the ground as they see fit. A host of other orgs do local or regional work to fill in gaps in coverage
There’s more but those strike me as two particular opportunities for Georgism to learn from YIMBYism’s rise and grow
Yasssss!!!! This is all fantastic. As an ex-San Franciscan and YIMBY-turned-Georgist, here's my take. I love the outcomes YIMBY is pushing for, but the implementation is too tedious, e.g., YIMBYs shouting at NIMBYs at town halls and planning commissions. Ugh.
What I love about Georgism is that it's the perfect tool for YIMBYs in their battle against NIMBYs. For NIMBYs that don't want additional construction ("Oh, the shadows!") they're welcome to have their way -- as long as they're willing to PAY FOR IT. The problem with zoning laws, etc. is that NIMBYs capture the benefits while making OTHER PEOPLE pay for it (e.g., all the low wage workers living 1-hour away and commuting into the city). Georgism gets incentives back into alignment.
Thanks for the comment! One thing I will say is that YIMBYs vary a lot in their theory of change. Some are focused on showing up for individual projects at local meetings, as you said. Others are more focused on more systemic change, like upzoning bills such as sb79 in California.
Good point. Lord knows that when I was in SF I supported a ton of Scott Wiener's upzoning bills.
FWIW, I still think those solutions are too piecemeal and we really need wholesale change. Today people see increasing real estate prices as an inherently good thing ("I sold my house for more than I paid, yay!"). I want to live in a world where homes are like cars: quality increases and prices decrease (or at least stay level). Ideally, something like "I left my 1,200sqft home at $2,000/month to upgrade to a 1,400sqft home nearby at $1,800/month. I love how housing keeps getting better and more affordable".
Fun article to read as a deep-movement YIMBY. I always assumed Georgism was a niche group within the YIMBY tent rather than a distinctive movement with its own conferences and organizing capacity. As someone particularly interested in movement building, I’d be curious to read a deeper dive into the infrastructure of the Georgist movement—and attend one of the conferences someday
As to how Georgists can learn from YIMBYs, beyond your (very good) proposals for coalition building and message testing, YIMBYs have also been very successful at
1. Partnering with academia. High-profile scholars as well as well respected think tanks like the Terner Center in CA pump at valuable research answering hard YIMBY questions
2. Building a broad base of organizations doing a combination of top-down and bottom-up organizing. In CA, CA YIMBY runs state legislation driven by staff while YIMBY Action organizes chapters that have more agency to do work on the ground as they see fit. A host of other orgs do local or regional work to fill in gaps in coverage
There’s more but those strike me as two particular opportunities for Georgism to learn from YIMBYism’s rise and grow
Great suggestions. Indeed, some of us have been thinking about doing exactly that. :)