Gentrification is actually a useful trend [Video]

Those of us who follow urban development issues are well aware of the neighborhood busybody who organizes others to stop developments. It’s one reason why California housing is so expensive, as it’s too easy – thanks to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and local slow-growth ordinances – for naysayers to derail housing and business projects.

When people think of NIMBYs (“not in my back yarders”), they usually think of residents of middle-class suburban neighborhoods or wealthy historic districts who don’t want to see changes to their neighborhood’s character. But the tendency to act like a NIMBY is widespread, and even afflicts lower-income and working-class neighborhoods.

So now we see a weird phenomenon taking place from Oakland to Los Angeles, where residents of older and economically struggling neighborhoods are angry as wealthier people move in. The latest conflagration takes place in LA’s Frogtown (Elysian Valley) neighborhood, where shortsighted anti-gentrification activists recently succeeded in shuttering a popular flea-market crawl.

“Residents weren’t simply frustrated by the nuisance created by …