History Main / CommunityThreateningConstruction

* In ''Literature/{{Roadwork}}'', a Creator/StephenKing novel published under his Richard Bachman pen name, Barton George Dawes learns that his neighborhood and workplace are scheduled for demolition, to make room for an interstate highway extension. Dawes has a mental breakdown and can't bring himself to leave. [[spoiler:At the end, he wires his house with explosives, gets into a gun fight with the police who try to evict him, then blows up the house while he's still inside.]]

* ''ComicBookScoobyDooTeamUp'': The realtors who appear in the ''WesternAnimation/TopCat'' issue. They're not doing anything illegal but they're jerkasses who don't care about the people whose lives they're ruining with their plans.

* In the Live-Action film of ''Literature/{{The Wind in the Willows|1996}}'' directed by Terry Jones, the weasels tear up the field where Mole lives in order to build a dog-food factory, and their grand plan is to dynamite the ancestral stately home Toad Hall and replace it with an abattoir. [[spoiler:Their plan is foiled by Rat switching the dynamite with a shipment of bones destined for the factory, resulting in the weasels accidentally blowing up the factory.]]

* In ''[[Literature/MrsBrisbyAndTheRatsOfNIMH Rasco and the Rats of NIMH]]'', the construction of a dam threatens to flood the valley that is home to the rats.

** It had a special in TheNineties that starred Joe Pesci as a Sandbox/DonaldTrump {{expy}} who wants to tear down Sesame Street and build his new Grump Tower in its spot; the residents of the Street get together in protest.

* In ''Disney/TheEmperorsNewGroove'', King Kuzco, being a self-absorbed, egoistic teenage jerk, wants to build Kuzcotopia, a giant playground meant for him and him alone, as a present for his own birthday. He intends to build it on top of the hill on which Pacha's village is built, which would mean destruction of the village. When Kuzco is accidentally turned into a llama and brought all the way to the village before he can carry out his plans, this decision becomes the driving conflict between him and Pacha. Kuzco needs his help to find the way back home, but Pacha won't do it unless he'll change his plans.

* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark''. Evil Native Americans want to plow the town under in order to make a freeway bypass that goes directly to their casino.

* The plot of ''Film/BlazingSaddles'' gets started when the corrupt Hedley Lamarr learns that his planned railway course has to be detoured because of some [[QuicksandSucks quicksand]], and conspires with an easily-bribed governor to hire a gang of baddies to rough up the remote town of Rock Ridge so that they can get the land on the cheap.

* In an episode of ''Series/LittleHouseOnThePrairie'', the railroad was coming to town and bringing with it drunks and other rowdies that would completely transform the character of Walnut Grove. The town fought against the railroad and the railroad redirected to go to a different small town.
** The GrandFinale involved a railway baron deciding to do the above-mentioned situation again... and managing to buy the lands where Walnut Grove is located right out from under its inhabitants. The inhabitants of Walnut Grove decide to give the best show of defiance that they can... [[TrashTheSet by blowing up the whole town]] and leaving the baron with no community to profit from.

* In ''Series/{{Cranford}}'', the imminent arrival of the railway is a major source of concern and disagreement in the community, with many concerned that it will destroy their way of life.

* This plays into the RedHerring in ''Film/HotFuzz''. Sergeant Angel suspects that supermarket manager Skinner is murdering people in order to secure control of land that will become prime value after a planned bypass is built. In fact, [[spoiler: Skinner and his compatriots are killing anyone who stands out, in order to maintain their ideal community]].

* In the Live-Action film of ''Literature/{{The Wind in the Willows|1996}}'' directed by Terry Jones, the weasels tear up the field where Mole lives in order to build a dog-food factory, and their grand plan is to dynamite the ancestral stately home Toad Hall and replace it with an abattoir. [[spoiler:Their plan is foiled by Rat switching the dynamite with a shipment of bones destined for the factory, resulting in the weasels accidently blowing up the factory.]]

* Much of the plot of ''Film/BatteriesNotIncluded'' revolved around a large corporation's efforts to remove the tenants of a small apartment building so they could build a huge skyscraper.

* In ''Film/TheCobbler'', the regular people of New York's Lower East Side are forced out of their houses by real estate developers so they can turn the area into luxury housing and retail spaces. Of course, the hero brings these plans to a stop.
* The basic plot of the 1990 TV movie ''Return to Series/GreenAcres'' involves a greedy corporate land developer wanting to tear down Hooterville and turn the area into a thriving metropolis. Mr. Haney [[TookALevelInBadass takes a level in badass]] by being in on the plot, and talks the residents into moving out, however, when the plot is revealed, the residents of Hooterville try to band together to stop this from happening.

* ''Literature/WatershipDown'' is about a group of rabbits who leave a warren to found their own. Their old home warren is subsequently destroyed with poison gas to make room for a housing development. Might be a crossover with GreenAesop.
* In the second volume of the ''Literature/VillageTales'' series, ''Literature/{{Evensong}}'', the Duke of Taunton (late [[MajorlyAwesome major]], the [[UsefulNotes/BritsWithBattleships Intelligence Corps]]) has to get [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} naïve, Lib Dem]][[note]]but I repeat myself...[[/note]] local councillor [[SupremeChef Teddy Gates]] out of just such a crisis. It's a subverted one: the threat is in Teddy's having agreed a pledge to put up social housing in the [[CloseKnitCommunity district]] ... despite every square foot's being scheduled at least Grade II*. (Needless to say, a [[SavingTheOrphanage crafty solution]] ensues. Involving [[spoiler: retired [[UsefulNotes/NepaliWithNastyKnives Gurkhas]]]].)

* In the ''Literature/VillageTales'' series, any development at all, and especially in the second book, ''Literature/{{Evensong}}'', when several County councillors trick local Councillor Teddy Gates into agreeing a new social housing estate in the Woolfonts ward: a scheduled "heritage" area in which even the ''sheds'' are Grade II* or better. (The [[XanatosSpeedChess Duke of Taunton]] of course [[SavingTheOrphanage finds a solution]] which [[HoistByHisOwnPetard bites the County councillors in the ass -- or arse]].)

* Subverted in ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'', where a lone hold-out "valiantly" refuses to sell his bookstore and allow its bulldozing for a massive new development... even though the offer is very fair, literally everyone else in town wants the development, and (with the benefit of hindsight) we know that its experimental features will lead to technological advances that will allow the colonization of Mars.

The structure involved is commonly either a highway, a railroad (especially common in older works), a big mall, a golf course, a big hotel, etc.

* The ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'' BigDamnMovie, which has the residents of Arnold's neighbourhood banding together ([[HeelFaceTurn although some later than others]]) to prevent the neighbourhood from being razed and turned into a mall by a CorruptCorporateExecutive. This includes Arnold and Gerald going into a quest to find documents that show that the neighbourhood has historical significance.

* ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'': In one episode, Ted Wasongasong funds the construction of a "[=McMansion=] on Rainey Street. While the regular characters merely think it's an eyesore, the "community threatening" part comes into play during a severe rainstorm, where the building is so shoddily constructed that it could destroy several neighboring houses if it collapses. Hank and company's solution: grab hammers, axes, and whatever tools they can find to pull the building down ''safely''.

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* Most of the violent events in the backstory of ''VisualNovel/HigurashiWhenTheyCry'' ostensibly stem from a project to build a dam that would have flooded the basin in which the village of Hinamizawa sits.

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* In ''Rasco and the Rats of NIMH'', the construction of a dam threatens to flood the valley that is home to the rats.

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* ''VideoGame/HarvestMoon'' has a couple of very similar examples.
** In ''Harvest Moon: Save the Homeland'', the plot revolves around your character trying to find one of several paths to stopping the town from becoming an amusement park. These include things like discovering protected animals or finding treasure.
** In ''Harvest Moon: Hero of Leaf Valley'', the valley is also under threat of being turned into an amusement park and offers the option of buying the valley outright if you save up enough money. The other methods of saving the valley are all about making either a tourist destination or a nature preserve. Instead of offering multiple paths leading to multiple endings, the idea here is to do three or more storylines under one of those paths to succeed in saving the valley.

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* In the WesternAnimation/BugsBunny cartoon "No Parking Hare", Bugs has to battle a construction foreman building a freeway where his burrow is. In the end, the freeway is built around Bugs' home.

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* Subverted in ''StarTrekVoyager'', where a lone hold-out "valiantly" refuses to sell his bookstore and allow its bulldozing for a massive new development... even though the offer is very fair, literally everyone else in town wants the development, and (with the benefit of hindsight) we know that its experimental features will lead to technological advances that will allow the colonization of Mars.

Compare PredatoryBusiness, GreenAesop, SavingTheOrphanage, RailroadPlot and ChildhoodMemoryDemolitionTeam for similar conflicts, but different victims.

* In the Live-Action film of ''Literature/TheWindInTheWillows'' directed by Terry Jones, the weasels tear up the field where Mole lives in order to build a dog-food factory, and their grand plan is to dynamite the ancestral stately home Toad Hall and replace it with an abattoir. [[spoiler:Their plan is foiled by Rat switching the dynamite with a shipment of bones destined for the factory, resulting in the weasels accidently blowing up the factory.]]

* The Quabbin Reservoir in Massachusetts was made in the 1930s by flooding four towns, Dana, Enfield, Greenwich and Prescott, were all disincorporated. The residents went all the way to the state Supreme Court to try and block the project but ultimately lost.

* In the second volume of the ''Literature/VillageTales'' series, ''Literature/{{Evensong}}'', the Duke of Taunton (late [[MajorlyAwesome major]], the [[UsefulNotes/BritsWithBattleships Intelligence Corps]]) has to get [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} naïve, Lib Dem]][[note]]but I repeat myself...[[/note]] local councillor [[SupremeChef Teddy Gates]] out of just such a crisis. It's a subverted one: the threat is in Teddy's having agreed a pledge to put up social housing in the [[CloseKnitCommunity district]] � despite every square foot's being scheduled at least Grade II*. (Needless to say, a [[SavingTheOrphanage crafty solution]] ensues. Involving [[spoiler: retired [[UsefulNotes/NepaliWithNastyKnives Gurkhas]]]].)

* In the ''Literature/VillageTales'' series, any development at all, and especially in the second book, ''Literature/{{Evensong}}'', when several County councillors trick local Councillor Teddy Gates into agreeing a new social housing estate in the Woolfonts ward: a scheduled "heritage" area in which even the ''sheds'' are Grade II* or better. (The [[XanatosSpeedChess Duke of Taunton]] of course [[SavingTheOrphanage finds a solution]] which [[HoistByHisOwnPetard bites the County councillors in the ass � or arse]].)

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* In the second volume of the ''Literature/VillageTales'' series, ''Literature/{{Evensong}}'', the Duke of Taunton (late [[MajorlyAwesome major]], the [[UsefulNotes/BritsWithBattleships Intelligence Corps]]) has to get [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} naïve, Lib Dem]][[note]]but I repeat myself...[[/note]] local councillor [[SupremeChef Teddy Gates]] out of just such a crisis. It's a subverted one: the threat is in Teddy's having agreed a pledge to put up social housing in the [[CloseKnitCommunity district]] … despite every square foot's being scheduled at least Grade II*. (Needless to say, a [[SavingTheOrphanage crafty solution]] ensues. Involving [[spoiler: retired [[UsefulNotes/NepaliWithNastyKnives Gurkhas]]]].)

* In the ''Literature/VillageTales'' series, any development at all, and especially in the second book, ''Literature/{{Evensong}}'', when several County councillors trick local Councillor Teddy Gates into agreeing a new social housing estate in the Woolfonts ward: a scheduled "heritage" area in which even the ''sheds'' are Grade II* or better. (The [[XanatosSpeedChess Duke of Taunton]] of course [[SavingTheOrphanage finds a solution]] which [[HoistByHisOwnPetard bites the County councillors in the ass – or arse]].)

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* In the second volume of the ''Literature/VillageTales'' series, ''Literature/{{Evensong}}'', the Duke of Taunton (late [[MajorlyAwesome major]], the [[UsefulNotes/BritsWithBattleships Intelligence Corps]]) has to get [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} naïve, Lib Dem]][[note]]but I repeat myself...[[/note]] local councillor [[SupremeChef Teddy Gates]] out of just such a crisis. It's a subverted one: the threat is in Teddy's having agreed a pledge to put up social housing in the [[CloseKnitCommunity district]] … despite every square foot's being scheduled at least Grade II*. (Needless to say, a [[SavingTheOrphanage crafty solution]] ensues. Involving [[spoiler: retired [[NepaliWithNastyKnives Gurkhas]]]].)

TruthInTelevision, in particular in the three or four decades following the Second World War (1945-1975), when the United States embarked on a massive highway building program. NewYorkCity transportation planner Robert Moses is sometimes invoked as the KnightTemplar embodiment in conjunction with this trope.

* The episode of ''WesternAnimation/KingOfTheHill'' where a thinly veiled Walmart {{expy}}, Megalomart expands its operations to include refilling propane tanks, selling grills and bait and tackle, throwing small independent retailers out of work, leading to veteran former shop-owners manning the sporting goods section and being bossed by teenagers who don't respect their retail or trade skills. It takes Hank Hill and an "accident" with propane gas tanks (thanks to a TooDumbToLive employee named Buckley) to save the day.