International Journal of Human Capital in Urban Management
Quarterly Publication

Does NIMBY work in Iran? The unexpected case of Danesh Pedestrian and bicycle path

https://doi.org/10.22034/IJHCUM.2020.01.08
Volume 5, Issue 1 - Serial Number 17
Winter 2020
Pages 69-84
International Journal of Human Capital in Urban Management

Document Type : CASE STUDY

Authors

M. Sattarzad Fathi 1
N. Jahed 2

1 Department of Urban Design, Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, Imam Khomeini International University, Qazvin, Iran

2 Department of Architecture, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey

Abstract
“Not in My Back Yard”; people shout this when they feel something deleterious and nonlocal will be sprung into existence in their territory by top-down powers. Some believe that NIMBY syndrome provokes parochialism, but parochialism itself can bring many beneficial consequences. Danesh Pedestrian and Bicycle Path- a recent project established on the south rim of Bagh-e-Sib (a vast historic apple orchard) in the Mehrshahr neighborhood- is one of the cases that has been crystallized through NIMBY syndrome. The municipal authorities’ decision on devastating this aged green area and turning it into a mega-scale market place or, who knows, into a highway, faced with radical protests of locals and eventuated the construction of the path. One can call it a win-win situation or maybe a social failure, but regardless of pessimistic and extremist views, it is well known that pedestrian and bicycle accessibilities are two indubitable realities of contemporary urbanism. Therefore, the evaluation of abovementioned path turned to a necessity to realize whether NIMBY is worked in this case, and generally in Iran, or not. This article delves into the subject in two phases, including 1) environmental qualities, 2) public acceptability; and originally follows several questions: has the voice of locals been heard or it was a compulsive decision just for protecting the garden? Is it a social setting or a fraudulent totalitarian exercise of municipal power? Does it meet the needs? Do people like it? How can it be over-promoted? What type of strategies are needed for further development of it?

Keywords

NIMBY (Not in my back yard)
Local power
Nontotalitarian projects
Environmental qualities
Public satisfaction
Subjects
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  • Receive Date 29 July 2019
  • Revise Date 11 September 2019
  • Accept Date 09 December 2019

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