They want more housing density, taller buildings, apartments on top of apartments, street-level retailers and tap rooms in residential areas, and public transit to connect it all. They dream of building better bike lanes. The e-scooter thing works for them.

With a mantra of “upzoning,” or “denser, taller, faster, more,” they just might be YIMBYs.

That’s YIMBY — as in “yes in my back yard”: advocates for urban redevelopment who prefer pedestrian-friendly streets and sidewalks over large parking lots.

RELATED: In St. Paul planning, walkers come first, drivers last

They have turned their backs on suburban-style housing and retail designed for cars, but embraced prospects for a 100-unit apartment building next to a transit station near their home. You could say they’re the opposite of a NIMBY — as in “not in my back yard.”

Then there are the NUMTOTs.

Never heard of them? The “new urbanist meme/transit-oriented teen” community on Facebook, Twin Cities NUMTOT, has grown to 761 members after launching little more than a year ago.

If YIMBYs, NUMTOTs and new urbanists sound exotic, guess again. A number of political candidates are winning elected office by advocating such policies, in part by rallying grassroots supporters to their side as voters, donors, phone bankers and campaign organizers. There’s a strong millennial streak, but it’s by no means limited to an age group.

Over the past 14 months, St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter, St. Paul City Council member Mitra Jalali Nelson and Ramsey County Commissioner Trista MatasCastillo have all won office on platforms that called for greater housing density.

Is there pushback? You betcha.

From the planned redevelopment of the former Ford Motor plant in St. Paul’s Highland Park to the rezoning of West Marshall Avenue in Merriam Park, YIMBYs have clashed with property owners accustomed to single-family housing, historic preservationists eager to safeguard the architecture of past years, skeptics who doubt expensive new construction will lower rents, and everyday residents concerned about the effects of density on parking, traffic, schools and quality of life.

The Pioneer Press recently spoke with a number advocates who may fall under the YIMBY umbrella.

JAMIE STOLPESTAD, TRANSIT-ORIENTED DEVELOPER

Jamie Stolpestad surprised residents and business owners of St. Paul’s South St. Anthony Park this year with plans to build housing above and around a former carpenters union hall. Ringed by single-family homes, the 1940s-era Lakes and Plains Building at 842 Raymond Ave. sits near the Green Line’s Raymond Avenue light-rail stop, in his eyes making it ripe for redevelopment.

But Stolpestad isn’t planning on tearing down the office building. Instead, the developer says he’ll convert the ground level into co-working space while surrounding it with nine to 12 new apartments. It’s a new look for an old neighborhood.

“Having grown up in St. Paul, and gone away, and returning, I would observe the Twin Cities is more reticent to embrace urban living,” said Stolpestad, principal of EG Capital. “And that’s resulted in some detrimental effects.”

“It’s resulted in commuting times that are higher than what they are across the U.S. We’re just now catching up to a level of urbanization that many other cities had experienced decades ago,” he said. “The civic leaders are further along in embracing this evolution of change than many residents, who are more accustomed to living in single-family homes.”

Stolpestad, son of Exeter Realty founder James A. Stolpestad, isn’t finished with his transit-oriented projects.

He also plans a new four-story apartment building next year across the alley at Long and Bradford streets, on what’s currently a parking lot. Twenty percent of the units would be designated affordable housing.

SUSTAIN WARD 3, DENSITY ADVOCATES

Tom Basgen was tending bar at the Chatterbox Bar in Highland Park when he learned of a community meeting on a proposed bike lane for Cleveland Avenue.

“I was excited to go, because I felt like it was for me. And it was miserable,” said Basgen, a bike commuter who recalled feeling like every comment was hurled at his head. “I was vilified for riding a bike and being a renter and being a young person. There was this crowd of older, white homeowners at this meeting that were actively upset at me for being that way. Who wants to be berated and denigrated every time you get involved?”

Rather than shy away from future meetings, Basgen found a community of like-minded residents who supported him and the bike-lane project, which was eventually constructed.

Under the title “Sustain Ward 3,” the same cast of characters — neighborhood residents Rob Wales, Jeff Zaayer, Amanda Willis, Brandon Long among a core group of about 20 — has continued to meet at libraries, community centers and people’s homes to advocate for bicycle infrastructure, denser housing construction and pedestrian improvements.

Several members, Basgen included, have joined various political campaigns or the Highland District Council.

When Highland Park homeowners organized against the city’s plans to rezone the Ford Motor Co. campus for apartment buildings, Sustain Ward 3 took the opposite tack, arguing for the need for more rental housing.

Basgen takes heart in the Ford rezoning, which allows three-story apartment buildings along most of West Marshall Avenue, and the election last year of Nelson, a housing advocate, to the St. Paul City Council.

“It doesn’t take a genius to realize that zoning has its genesis in red-lining,” said Basgen, Sustain Ward 3’s treasurer. “Red-lining was the practice of the real estate and the banking industry to segregate based on race back in the ’60s and ’70s. You literally drew a red line around a black neighborhood. You couldn’t do that in the open, so you have to put a mask over it. Once you realize that, you see that the whole thing is as rotten as an Easter egg on Christmas.”

TRISTA MATASCASTILLO, COUNTY COMMISSIONER

On the campaign trail, MatasCastillo repeatedly delivered the same stump speech.

If she won a seat on the Ramsey County Board, she told audiences, it would be because of her willingness to embrace bike lanes, not in spite of it.

“When I first started running, people warned me about two things,” she said. “They said the incumbent was unbeatable and that I shouldn’t mention bike lanes. But I talked about bike lanes. A lot.”

In fact, her communications manager, Ethan Osten, also co-chairs the St. Paul Bicycle Coalition.

Without explicitly promising that bike lanes would be added to each thoroughfare, MatasCastillo made traffic calming, public-transit access and affordable housing on Rice Street, Dale Street and Maryland Avenue key parts of her campaign. Each corridor connects her St. Paul-based district to the suburbs.

“It’s not just a luxury. Specifically, people in the North End, many of our Karen (refugee) community use bikes,” she said. “We were at a Karen community meeting, and the ability to bike safely was toward the top of their list.”

On Election Day, her pro-density rhetoric paid off. She unseated Ramsey County Commissioner Janice Rettman — a 20-year incumbent — 63 percent to 37 percent. MatasCastillo, 44, a Payne-Phalen resident, is now the board’s youngest member.

ST. PAUL BICYCLE COALITION

Osten’s goal is simple, he says: “Make St. Paul safe to walk and bike around.”

The 27-year-old North Ender just moved to the city two years ago — by way of Minneapolis, a bunch of other cities and his hometown of Lincoln, Neb.

“We liked the feel of St. Paul and the historical character of the city. But it was also more affordable than Minneapolis,” he said.

And he’s been co-chair of the St. Paul Bicycle Coalition for both of those two years.

“Whether you want to encourage people to walk or bike enough, there are a lot of people doing it. And the way cities are designed historically, a lot of people get hurt,” he said.

The $500,000 that Mayor Carter carved out as an annual dedication to bike paths will, in Osten’s estimation, pay for “a lot of paint and very little pavement.”

For a full-rehab job like Wheelock Avenue, that might cover a block. But it would allow for miles and miles of repainted streets.

“Previous, it was all piggy-backing on scheduled maintenance,” Osten noted. When one looks at bike lanes on Cleveland and Stillwater Avenue, along with the Grand Round project in general, he added, “Over the last two years, it seems to me at least, these projects have become less controversial. City council has become more comfortable with them.”

Osten’s current focus is on St. Paul’s downtown — particularly the bicycle loop that has been discussed for some time, encompassing Kellogg Boulevard and Jackson, St. Peter and 10th streets. He notes that the city just funded a study through the spring on how to implement that loop on an interim basis, and he’s waiting on that.

“People who bike right now, sort of by definition, are the ones comfortable biking without bike lanes. The planning for these projects isn’t necessarily for (them), but for people interested in biking but are maybe nervous about it, or would bike if it was safer.”

STREETS.MN, ONLINE FORUM

As vice chair of the board for Streets.Mn, Janne Flisrand has a front-row seat to some of the headiest debates around about inclusionary zoning, public transit, road design and urban planning. She also gets to read a fair number of photo essays by contributors like Wolfie Browender, a St. Paul man who plans to bike every block in the city and blog about the people, architecture and history he encounters along the way.

The mission statement of Streets.Mn says transportation and public spaces should be “people-centered,” rather than focused on private vehicles.

The environment should “inspire wonder” and be “designed for the needs of future generations.” And cities, towns and streets should be “justice-driven” to “empower and include people of all ages, especially the vulnerable and marginalized.”

If that sounds like a tall order, the volunteers who make Streets.Mn a brainy beehive of often wonkish, occasionally irreverent activity recognize that it is.

The nonprofit online forum, which is full of written posts, personal essays and elaborate critiques, doesn’t pay its 100 or so contributors, but many are nonetheless prolific and well-read in their fields.

St. Paul planning commissioner Lindeke, a published author who holds a doctorate in urban geography, is board chair and a founding member.

“We do not do advocacy,” said Flisrand, an affordable-housing consultant. “We do not call on people to do advocacy. What we would do is provide a platform for people who are writing about fostering positive connections and better places in Minnesota.”

JOHN EDWARDS, WEDGE LIVE BLOGGER

John Edwards, a resident of Minneapolis’ Lowry Hill East, felt turned off after a tense neighborhood meeting about a planned apartment complex at Franklin and Lyndale avenues. Among his concerns, the room lacked renters and young people, or diversity of any kind.

The crowd “didn’t look anything like my neighborhood,” he said. “I’m grateful to be able to take transit and live close to things and bike to things, and I want other people to have that opportunity, too. I’m glad there are apartments for people who don’t have big families who want to be able to afford to live in a nice place. We need housing of all types.”

So he decided to do his own neighborhood coverage through his website and on Twitter under the online handle @WedgeLive.

Edwards, co-founder of the pro-housing development group “Neighbors for More Neighbors,” is the irreverent mind behind WedgeLive.com, where he compiles video and first-person accounts from planning meetings and city council sessions across the Twin Cities. There’s nothing impartial about his voice: He wants housing density in the Twin Cities’ urban core, and a lot more of it. His parody videos skewer those who disagree.

His coverage includes his own personal endorsements of candidates for Minneapolis City Council, mayor, school board, Hennepin County attorney, county commissioner and county sheriff. Edwards recently butted political heads with Carol Becker, a member of the Minneapolis Board of Estimate and Taxation, who attempted to claim the name “Wedge Live” through business registration and trademark rights. They’ve since reached a legal settlement.

The two disagreed on the Minneapolis 2040 Comprehensive Plan, which calls for allowing triplexes across the city.

To his relief, the plan was approved by the Minneapolis City Council in early December.

“It was basically my primary focus for 2018,” Edwards said. “It’s kind of good to move past that. On the other hand, what do we talk about now?”

Tad Vezner contributed to this report.