Long Islanders suffer from NIMBY syndrome

[ecoli]

very true Sisyphus. And it's interesting to note the demography differences of Northport and Jones Beach. There seems to be a correlation between income and complaining about things that are actually beneficial.

 

I feel that the windmills would be a great tourist attraction, bringing even more people to the area then already go.

[MattC]

Unfortunately, power plants and other unpleasant, often heavily polluting industries are most often in poorer communities. Affluent people tend to be more organized, and more likely to complain if there is a proposal to put something dirty or ugly in their region. This seems to me to be a case of a relatively small number of wealthy people (in a relatively low population density region) complaining about having a form of clean power generation in their region, and if I am not misunderstanding the situation, I have no sympathy for them.

 

Additionally, the pictures do not indicate that the windmills would be a significant part of the view.

 

As for the arguments by Hailstorm ... well, I don't want to issue any personal attacks, but his/her position seems quite ignorant to me.

When I read this:

"What's the price difference for a waterfront/bluff view lot and somewhere else? Furthermore, the waterfront/bluff lots have houses BUILT AROUND VIEWING THE WATER. The other lots simply do not. I know many people who simply will not move somewhere where they lack an uninterrupted view of the water."

I not help but laugh. You know people like that, do you? I know some people who refuse to eat with utensils that are not made of solid (not coated) gold and blessed by the pope. I have a few names for people like that, but I'll keep those names to myself. I can't help but find it ironic that he/she seems to think that everyone else here just *doesn't understand*, when in fact, the person who doesn't understand is Hailstorm.

Ultimately, our society, and the world at large, is going to HAVE to utilize solar power (wind power is a form of solar power), unless we plan on wasting money on extracting usable energy from every last drop of coal or tar (and by wasting money, I mean wasting money - these forms of energy are efficent today, but that will change as we are forced to turn to less and less ideal, concentrated, and accessible sources.). In the process of the conversion from a fossil-fuel based energy system to a solar-powerd energy system, many, many sacrifices will need to be made. This sacrifice will not even enter into the history books, because the loss in property values that these affluent people will endure will only spark sympathy in the hearts of other rich people, and only because they themselves don't want to have to sacrifice anything. Ultimately, however, those who have more, will lose more - those who have less, have less to lose. I hardly feel any pity for the "burden" of being rich, in this case or in any other cases (as if there are many such burdens ... hah!).

 

That said, it is absolutely the case that, in general, people who stand to lose money, will complain, and everyone else will be happy to have that much more electricity and that much less pollutions. The only compelling argument I have seen is that there may be ways of spending that money on existing infrastructure that will reduce pollution as much, possibly even more (in the short term). Yet these are not compelling to me - though I have no stock in the industry, I consider it in the best intrest of us all for the companies that produce these wind mills and solar panels and so on to make lots of money, to fund research, and hopefully to reduce the prices of these devices. I'd rather that happens sooner than later, as I suspect it will ease the transition.

[jdurg]

I have to chime in about the tarp analogy. The analogy simply does not work. To put a tarp around your house, they would have to build the tarp on your property. One's property extends vertically, not horizontally. So in order to block out the sun they'd have to place something in your property. Property that you paid for.

 

In the case of the windmills, the windmills are NOT built on those homeowners' property. Therefore, why do they even have any say in the matter? If they wanted to build the windmills directly on their land, then yeah they'd have a right to argue. These are not being built on any property that they own, so they have no right to argue about their construction. The argument about the 'view' is malarky too. I live inland, so perhaps I should argue about the fact that those who live in houses closer to the shore than I do are blocking my view of the ocean. Their houses should then be destroyed so that I can get an ocean view.

[ecoli]

You're right MatC, and that's the point I was trying to argue. Hailstorm was just coming from the same ignorant position as the rest of the Nimbies.

 

@jdurg, I like the tarp analogy. I think we should cut down all the trees, houses and people separating my house and the beach... its only a few miles Basically, in this respect, Hailstorm was saying that the more money you have, the more rights you deserve. Anybody else not like that?

[ecoli]

update on this: The latest news is that it's going to be built, though the cost is going to be higher than first thought, because the windspeeds are slightly lower than originally estimated.

[Martin]

update on this: The latest news is that it's going to be built, though the cost is going to be higher than first thought, because the windspeeds are slightly lower than originally estimated.

 

sorry to hear that the windspeeds are not as good as they thought earlier, but HEY! it is great to be having a windpower project right near NYC, everybody on Long Island will be aware of it, things like that filter into people's minds and if it works OK it will gradually ease people into new ways of thinking.

 

glad this happened. It is a start. Hope it works

 

wind turbines, like old sailing ships, are beautiful because adapted to natural forces----gravity, fluid dynamics

[SmallIsPower]

I used to live on Long Island too 30 years ago, I didn't hear anything about NIMBYism then, but, maybe with "the electronics revolution", everybody has gotten mre and more into things and less into people. I don't have any stats to prove it, but alot of older people I've talked to think so. Teddy Kennedy helped kill wind off Martha's Vineyard, this is getting to be an upsetting trend. Maybe the increase in solar panels (at least there are more where I live, will create more awareness. Transitions can often be awkward.

 

Conservation is cheaper then consumpution, in the short term, NIMBYism will reign supreme, so conservation will be even more important. I guess it's too much to ask for a large federal tax break to give communities incentive. Blackouts or price hikes might chance our conciousness.