Planning's New Rivalry: Housing Advocates vs. Radical Left

"(YIMBY activist Sonja) Trauss describes herself as an anarchist, with no love for political ideologies. Short of burning the whole place down, she has contented herself with supporting The Man (real estate developers) so as to stick it to The (other) Man (homeowners associations and other anti-development forces). It’s a compromise, to be sure. But even anarchists need someplace to live." 

"Meronek and Szeto have decided that Trauss and her colleagues are 'pro-gentrification,' in league with 'greedy' real estate developers. They equate support for market-rate housing with support for 'luxury' housing. They also equate it with not just tolerance for but, it seems, approval of displacement. YIMBYism, they claim, is 'rooted in the same classist, racist ideologies it supposedly seeks to disrupt,' in line with redlining, slum clearance, urban renewal, and other explicitly discriminatory practices of decades past." 

"Does YIMBYism have problems? Sure. No movement is perfect. But slander and willful misrepresentations are bigger problems. They create bitterness and fragmentation when there ought to be unity, cooperation, and respectful disagreement."