So you want to be a NIMBY? Cough up then...

So you want to protect that precious view? Right now what NIMBYs do is put pressure on politicians to stop developers building in that view. Perhaps the answer is that the NIMBYs should cough up?

Last week, The New York Times published a story about the residents of a 12-story loft building in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood who, faced with the prospect of a new condo building that would block their view of the Empire State Building, decided to bargain rather than litigate.

The building's inhabitants offered to buy the air rights from their neighborhood developer for $11 million. Residents on the upper floors paid up to $1 million, people on the lower floors paid less, and those on the bottom floor paid nothing at all. People who didn't have the cash to pay their full share relied on loans from their neighbors.

In return, developer Gary Barnett ceded his right to build anything other than a three- or four-story structure on his property.

It's long been true that the only way to save a view is to own that view and full marks to these New Yorkers for stepping up to the mark.

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