I feel like a huge amount (not all) of NIMBYism is also due to the total disregard for aesthetics or cohesiveness of new developments with existing neighborhoods. Look at new developments in Brooklyn
If you live on a block with the former, and someone comes in wanting to build the latter, of course you're going to say no. Some might say that this is just a preference for low-density housing, and big buildings will just always look worse to some people, but I disagree. There are plenty of attractive churches, schools, and other high-density buildings that don't look out of place.
Really low quality builds, random stupid rectangles, you can hear everything your neighbor does, yadda yadda yadda. The market is so ridiculous, they can build it as cheap as possible and somebody will snatch it up no matter what.
A lot of them are quite big and use wooden frames, even though they're not really supposed to, because of a loophole with fire-retardant treated wood. There will likely be some major disasters in the next decade.
Kind of an unfair statement because those buildings are actually in downtown Brooklyn, which is a dense downtown in its own right. I don’t think there are many brownstones in that area. The buildings in the more residential areas tend to be far less conspicuous, even if they don’t tend to strictly hew to the styles of early 20th century architecture.
https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/62552986/...
vs. a Brooklyn Brownstone
https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/lXakKpLLBt65Mj0q-QKtmnoVLtQ=...
If you live on a block with the former, and someone comes in wanting to build the latter, of course you're going to say no. Some might say that this is just a preference for low-density housing, and big buildings will just always look worse to some people, but I disagree. There are plenty of attractive churches, schools, and other high-density buildings that don't look out of place.