My community has a very vocal, thanks to social media, elderly community who doesn't want their farming community to turn into "that place" (meaning the city to our south) or even a suburb of it. They shoot down school levies a lot, which has resulted in dated school, including the worst high school theater within 50 miles. (It should be rented out constantly and be a revenue generator, but instead it sits mostly unused.)
These people are crazy xenophobic and being born in the community is a legit concern.
(Side note: Bigotry will never, ever go away. It's ingrained in people. They want to "belong" and whether it's skin color, sex, place of birth, favorite team, and so on, people are always going to judge others on certain ridiculous criteria.)
Anyway, what these asshats don't get is that their farming community is already a suburb. They couldn't stop it. Their intention is to keep out folks looking to escape the city because "they'll bring all that city shit with them". The subtext there is they don't want the crime, white trash, or minorities. They don't specifically say minorities, but trust me, these fucks are pretty racist. (You should hear them bitch about the folks who bring cans up from OH...)
Just so you get a good sense of where this place is located, it's directly north of the city. The part of the city that borders it is starting to rapidly decline. Some businesses are going under, houses are not being tended to as nicely, lower income people are moving there, increased minor crimes, etc.
So their logic says, "Vote down improvements so people won't want to move here."
What they don't understand is that voting FOR those improvements is what will get them their desired outcome. Make the schools better and housing gets to be in demand. When housing is in demand, property prices climb. When property prices climb, only certain people can move into the area. The additional financially stable people means an increased police presence can be paid for, and so on.
All that explanation was just to setup for what I did in the voting booth last night. I was standing there voting on the Democratic side of the ballot as two candidates I really want on the November ballot are on that side and I had to write them in. I looked over and saw the County Senior Millage Renewal among other ones. I'm typically a rubber stamp of Yes for levys and whatnot. Got to keep the gears oiled up! However, last night I thought about all the bitching these old xenophobic fuckers do and said to myself, "Fuck you old pricks" as I voted No.
That shit passed easily, but I felt good.