NIMBY and YIMBY related terms

Morris,

The original term NIMBY has inspired many spin-off terms, including YIMBY. Here are some we've found, you are welcome to add your finds or suggestions:

• AHIMBY: Affordable Housing In My Back Yard.
  earliest use found:
  Sharky Laguana‏ @Sharkyl 6:19 PM - 10 Oct 2016
  Replying to @mateosfo
  "Is there such a thing as a MIMBY? Or AHIMBY?"
  Also used by Berkeley city councilmember Kate Harrison on 5 Dec 2017. 
   
• AHIMBY: Affordable Housing In My Back Yard.
   
• AIMBY: Already In My Back Yard: the position that a given land use is already concentrated in some area, and should be distributed to other areas. For example, a concentration of low-income housing or social services facilities.  [contributed via Twitter from an activist in San Jose, California, opposing new Affordable Housing facilities in her neighborhood]. 
   
• BIMBY - Beer In My Backyard. 2019 event description from YIMBY Democrats of San Diego.
   
• EIMBY - Equity In My Backyard. suggested by Brandon Long @BLongStPaul, 14 Jun 2019.
   
• FIMBY - Factory-based [housing] In My Backyard. In support of factory-based housing. (from Tim McCormick, 14 Aug 2019).
   
• LIHIEDBY: Low Income Housing In Everyone’s Damn Back Yard) - Leigh Elion @leighelion, 26 Jan 2019.
   
• MIMBY:
  • Mostly In My Backyard.
    From Leslie Poston, April 30 2018, https://twitter.com/leslie/status/991018253450330112
  • Maybe [In My Back Yard], If the design is good enough.
    Jo Wolff @JoWolffBSG 12 May 2018.
     

 

• NIABY: Not In Anyone's Back Yard:  term to describe opposition to land-uses which should not be allowed anywhere - for example, unregulated industrial polluters.  Note, this is meaning mainly expressed by 'NIMBY' in Jane Anne Morris, Not In My Back Yard: The Handbook (1994), pictured at right. 
   
• NIMBY: a person who objects to the siting of something perceived as unpleasant or potentially dangerous in their own neighborhood, such as a landfill or hazardous waste facility, especially while raising no such objections to similar developments elsewhere.
   
• NIYBY: Not In Your Back Yard. Objecting to what others do in their back yards. Described in NY Times, 2000 article.
   
• OHIMBY: Only Homeowners In My Back Yard.  (used to criticize or satirize anti-renter sentiment). 
   
• PHIMBY: Public Housing In My Back Yard - term coined by DSA Los Angeles member Jed Parriott, expressing a position for public housing and against YIMBY movement. See Citylab on this.
   
• PIMBY: Please In My Back Yard. (@yimbwiki 13 Oct 2017: seems term arose in Kruibeke Polders proj, Flanders; perhaps from consultancy @Sigmaplan? via @RichardBlyth7).
   
• QIMBY - Quality in My Back Yard.  See our article QIMBY for more on this. 
   
• SHIMBY - Social Housing In My Back Yard. Charlotte Morphet  @MorphetMinor 15 Apr 2018.
   
• SLIMBY - Something Lovely In My Back Yard. - apparently coined by Kit Malthouse, UK MP 
  https://twitter.com/policy_exchange/status/1064594677901463553
   
• SWIMBY - Something Wonderful In My Back Yard. From Victoria Hills MRTPI @VictoriaRTPI Jul 5 2019.
   
• VIMBY - Vaporware In My Backyard. "A term for somebody who claims to support housing but only if impossible conditions are met. See also: PHIMBY (public housing in my backyard)." From @MarketUrbanism 13 Aug 2018. 
   
• WIMBY - Wall Street In My Backyard.
   

YAIMBY - Yes AND In My Backyard. "an improv-inspired third option called yaimby, yes AND in my backyard" - Bill Black, 22 July 2019. 

• YEIMBY - Yes Efficiently In My Backyard. In support of factory-based housing. (from Tim McCormick, 14 Aug 2019).
   
• YIGBY - Yes In God's Back Yard - support for building on faith organizations' property. From Clairemont Lutheran Church, San Diego, 2019.
   
• Yimbertarian - Libertarian YIMBY; pejorative variant of YIMBY. A person identifying or identified as YIMBY who thing "if it's not purely market-based, it's suspect".  From @gibsopi 7 Jun 2018.
   
• YIMBU / YIMBE - Yes In My Buildings that’s Underutilized / Empty.
  Suggested by Tim McCormick, commenting on Commonweal Pod housing.
  https://twitter.com/YIMBYwiki/status/973621341264920576.
   
• YIMBY
  • Yes In My Back Yard (primary)
  • Yes In Many Back Yards (original usage, 1988. See YIMBY_movement). 
     

• YIMBYIABN - YIMBY In All But Name. "The key tenet of YIMBY-in-all-but-name (YIMBYIABN) is that YIMBYism will be more accepted if it has different marketing." Tommaso Sciortino @TommSciortino Aug 9 2019.
   
• YIMFY! - Yes In My Front Yard!
  Used by group in Seattle's Roosevelt neighborhood, North Link Neighbors for 12th, in support of putting a light-rail line alignment in their area in 2011. 
  https://www.pinterest.com/pin/421790321323415193. 
  "YIMFY! Yes In My Front Yard - Light Rail Belongs in Roosevelt's Core. From April 28th 2014 rededication of Brenda the successful tunnel borer from the Capitol Hill leg, now working on the Roosevelt Station Link. Seattle's U District projects!"
  See post about the situation at http://council.seattle.gov/2011/12/22/four-truths-about-the-roosevelt-rezone/.
  Northlink Neighborhoods for 12th: https://web.archive.org/web/20050212143053/http://www.nln12.org:80/FAQ.html.
   
• YIMNDY -Yes In My Next Door.  YIMBY operations conducted in (the often hostile terrain of) NextDoor online platform.
  From: Tim McCormick @yimbywiki.  
   
• YIOBY - Yes In Our Backyard.  Apparently coined by Laura Loe Berstein (@YIMBYsea), Seattle. 
   
• YIRBY - Yes in Rich People's Back Yards. 
  from Paul Musgrave @profmusgrave, 6 Nov 2018.
  "Most important: support YIMBY if you can but always support YIRBY—Yes In Rich People’s Backyards. Oppose candidates and laws that restrict development in our most valuable parcels."
   
• YIYBY- Yes, In Your Back Yard.  Pejorative variant of "YIMBY," suggesting that YIMBY advocates a) don't have yards of their own, and/or b) are really talking about building in other people's back yards. 
     Seen in letter to the editor of East Bay Times by George Doddington, of Walnut Creek, NOV 17 2016. https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2017/11/17/letter-yimbyers-actually-have-no-backyards/. 
   
• YUPIMBY -Yuppies In My Backyard. 
  Yimby.Go‏ @YimbyGo 9:07 PM - 21 Jun 2017
  "Yuppies In My Back Yard"
  
  Richard Hall‏ @rihallix 4:39 PM - 20 Jan 2018  
  Replying to @SaveMarinwood @YIMBYwiki and 4 others
  "#sb827 is going to create primarily Seattle like luxury apartments with rents 40% above the norm. YIMBY is changing their name to the more accurate "Yuppies in My Backyard"."
  http://seattletimes.com/business/real-estate/downtown-seattles-construction-boom-surges-to-new-record-with-no-end-in-sight/. 
  
  YIMBYwiki‏  @YIMBYwiki 4:44 PM - 20 Jan 2018
  Replying to @rihallix @SaveMarinwood and 4 others
  YIMBYwiki Retweeted YIMBYwiki
  #BeckyOMalley in Berkeley is on that angle already https://twitter.com/yimbywiki/status/881293237310210048 … #knowyourmeme #YupIMBY
  
  @YIMBYwiki
  "we used to call them Yuppies, but now they call themselves YIMBYs": iconic Berkeley anti-houser, #BeckyOMalley 
  http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2017-06-30/article/45849?headline=Mourning-and-moving-forward--Becky-O-Malley … 

 

More from [Stephens 2005]:

• BANYs Builders Against NIMBYs [Not In My Backyard Activists] ^[
• GOAH Gedoudaheah
• GOOMBA Get out of my business area
• GUMBY Gaze upon my backyard [Opponents of residential walls and fences]
• KIIMBY Keep it in my backyard
• NIMD Not in my district
• NIMEY Not in my election year
• NIMFOS Not in my field of sight
• NIMFYE Not in my front yard either
• NIMTOO Not in my term of office
• NITL Not in this lifetime
• NOPE Not on planet earth
• NORF No observable redeeming features
• NOT None of that
• NOTE Not over there either
• NUMBY Not under my backyard
• PIITBY Put it in their backyard
• QUIMBY Quit urbanizing in my backyard
• WIIFM What’s in it for me?

 

 

References

• Morris. Jane Anne. Not In My Back Yard: The Handbook. 1994). 
   
• Stephens, Ric (2005). "From NIMBYs To DUDEs: The Wacky World Of Plannerese." Planetizen, 26 July 2005. https://www.planetizen.com/node/152.
   
• Stephens, Richard (2005b). Plannerese Dictionary. Trafford On Demand, 2005. https://www.amazon.com/Plannerese-Dictionary-Richard-Stephens/dp/1412047943/.