Help! Trump’s ballroom blitz is turning me into a NIMBY

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but where the hell is this guy’s planning permit?

Three years’ covering urban affairs in Sydney made me highly critical of planning systems – in NSW, certainly, but also more broadly.

Typically, there is no level of minutiae that planners don’t want to be involved in. Whether it’s zoning, building heights, setbacks, heritage or window sizes, you can bet there’s a rule for it and a convoluted process to follow.

Indeed, City of Sydney planners are assessing a development application from Deicorp to put temporary, non-illuminated signage bearing the company’s name on two cranes that will construct a residential building in Zetland.

That’s right – a developer has to seek permission to put its name on its crane. And council officers have to spend time evaluating this proposal.

But in Washington, it turns out you can just demolish the White House at will.

Donald Trump’s knockdown rebuild is emblematic of his presidency in so many ways. He has a point, but has acted on it in a highly questionable way. The White House probably does need a ballroom, a space capable of accommodating the hundreds of guests who might attend a state dinner or some other high-level function. Sticking dignitaries in tents on the south lawn doesn’t really cut it.

Still, the American people are being asked to put a lot of trust in Trump and his tastes. And he has not exactly honoured that trust with candour. Americans were initially told the ballroom project wouldn’t touch the existing building. Then it turned out the existing building had to be demolished.

What was the White House’s explanation for this 180-degree turn?

“With any construction projects, there are changes over time,” Trump’s press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said. “Just trust the process.”

‘He literally tore down hundreds of years of history in four days. There’s just really no words for it.’

Melanie Stansbury, Democratic congresswoman

Once again, Trump has exploited the exceptionalism of the presidency. The White House is exempt from the usual rules governing historic federal buildings.

The National Capital Planning Commission ostensibly doesn’t concern itself with demolition, only construction. And so Trump has found a way to skate through the gap and bulldoze the site. Seek forgiveness, not permission.

It is, of course, America’s political culture and its reverence for the president that has created the system where Trump can do this. But when dealing with a building as important as the people’s house – “the country’s house”, as Trump called it – Americans probably deserve slightly more due process.

On Monday evening, I wandered a short distance from my office in downtown Washington to see what I could glimpse of the demolition site. Not much, it transpired, with the area blocked off by even more barriers than usual.

But I did meet Democratic congresswoman Melanie Stansbury of New Mexico. “I just had to see it with my own eyes,” she said.

“[It’s] a lot more emotional than I thought it would be. Obviously, it’s such a metaphor for what’s happening with our country and the rule of law and checks and balances and all that.

“They’re saying that he tore it down in four days. He literally tore down hundreds of years of history in four days. There’s just really no words for it.”

And therein lies the difference. Back home, we have a cottage industry of heritage consultants paid by councils to declare every two-bit terrace house, shopfront or bungalow an indispensable piece of the city’s heritage. It has become so abused, bastardised and weaponised that the word itself has lost all meaning.

But the White House is as heritage as heritage gets. The least you could do is tell people you’re planning to knock part of it down. If that makes me a NIMBY, so be it.

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