Letter to the Editor: Time for This 'NIMBY' to Speak Up

I was at the as part of a group of concerned citizens and residents protesting the building of a new development in our neighborhood.

I am not writing to you to argue the merits of our case. I am writing to you concerning one of your planning commissioners, who at that hearing, chastised our group for the audacity of showing up and protesting this new development. He accused us all of being "NIMBYS," as in "not in my backyard."

I don't think I've ever heard a more anti-Democratic statement in my life. And made in what many people would consider the cornerstone of a Democracy—a local board meeting.

Every political movement, every charitable organization, every person who has ever run for office is a NIMBY.

Should Rosa Parks have kept her mouth shut and sat in the back of the bus because the anti-black laws were only really effecting her and her race? Should Gay people not fight for their right to marry, because it's really only about gay people?

Our founding fathers were angry about taxation without representation, yet not everybody in the colonies felt under-represented. Should they have not fought for independence?

I'm sure the AIDS Walk was started by someone who lost some personally to the disease. The Special Olympics were started by the Kennedy Family, because they had a special-needs child. I am sure you all have a very sincere and personal reason for getting involved in your community as well. 

I am not directly comparing our Save Kings Road group to the founding fathers or Rosa Parks, but let's also be clear that that developer is no George Washington either. He is not proposing to build a a free health clinic or low income not-for-profit senior citizen housing either.

It is a building not going up for the public good, but for sheer profit. And built to maximize that profit. That's why there are four low-income units on the property. If the applicant was truly altruistic, he of course could have added more than just the minimum or made the whole building low income housing.

The point is, everyone has a right to speak and more importantly be heard. But a person like Marc Yerber, who is in such an important decision-making role, with such negative anti-American views on community activism, has no business being on any city commission.

Mr. Yerber at best should be relieved of his post and at worst be made to take a basic high school course on civics and government. At the very least, he should publicly apologize to the Save Kings Road group, as well as all the residents of West Hollywood.

I know it must seem terribly inconvenient to the commissioners when local tax paying, home-owning citizens show up to exercise their constitutional right to offer their side of the debate—so inconvenient apparently that Commission Chair Alan Bernstein decided with no warning and no explanation to limit our time to speak to just two minutes instead of the three minutes promised online and posted in the agenda handouts.

That decision must have got him hungry as he decided it was appropriate to eat his dinner while we argued our case. Do these commissioners realize they are on TV?

I have never been to a city meeting before and I can see now why the wide majority of my fellow residents don't show up. Who wants to be insulted and ignored while doing their civil duty? I can't imagine commissioners like Alan Bernstein and Mark Yerber are the best representatives of our city council and our community.

—Dan Rosen, 18-year West Hollywood resident

West Hollywood Patch accepts Letters to the Editor from residents. Please e-mail yours to Local Editor Danielle Jacoby.