NIMBY's and "Preserving the towns character" name a more iconic duo. If the character you're preserving is impassable dirt roads and white people then eat my ass. The town needs paved roads!!
/rant
NIMBY's and "Preserving the towns character" name a more iconic duo. If the character you're preserving is impassable dirt roads and white people then eat my ass. The town needs paved roads!!
/rant
The phrase raises red flags to me, but I do think preserving “town character” is still interesting when applied properly. Like city blocks that preserve old, architecture instead of replacing it with depressing glass towers. Or neighborhoods that value physical activity and regularly host group activities with each other instead of empty, paranoid sprawls. Or a rural/mountainous region where nature dominates instead of gas stations every block.
But unfortunately what people mean by “preserving town character” is preserving
I think in an urban environment, this phrase definitely has a different meaning. However, I live in a very rural town that's abutted the largest university in the state. And as a result, the university absorbs a lot of the land mass of the town. So there's a valid concern with what happens to the remaining property in the town. The unfortunate reality though is the university encourages landlordism and short term rentals for the sake of profit earning off of the transient student population as opposed to ensuring that single family zoned homes are given to families who want to work, live and utilize public services in town.
The reactionaries in this town can't seem to understand that the university isn't going anywhere and what the real problems are that underpin the town itself. So they get pissy about paving a road they don't live on as opposed to getting pissy about all of the properties being bought up and then rented out as commodities to students who don't live here.