Truly a dark day
Misuse of Eminent Domain upheld by the Supremes
In a nutshell, the local government can come in, take anything they want and give it to whoever they want. Oh yeah, first they declare it "blighted" so they can pay bottom dollar for it.
Eminent Domain has always been a rather strange concept to me. Actually, the concept makes sense to a point, the execution has always been flawed. The main flaw is that the government can come take your property and pay you whatever they feel like paying for it. Lots of people take the cash and are generally happy about it but you have the people like the lady who was born in her house 80+ years ago and just doesn't want the money. She has a house and a very compelling reason to stay there. On the other hand, you have a private developer who has convinced some local official to give them the land for a business venture which has no guarantee of succeeding.
It's really disappointing that the Supreme Court has now officially said that money is more important than people.
In a nutshell, the local government can come in, take anything they want and give it to whoever they want. Oh yeah, first they declare it "blighted" so they can pay bottom dollar for it.
Eminent Domain has always been a rather strange concept to me. Actually, the concept makes sense to a point, the execution has always been flawed. The main flaw is that the government can come take your property and pay you whatever they feel like paying for it. Lots of people take the cash and are generally happy about it but you have the people like the lady who was born in her house 80+ years ago and just doesn't want the money. She has a house and a very compelling reason to stay there. On the other hand, you have a private developer who has convinced some local official to give them the land for a business venture which has no guarantee of succeeding.
It's really disappointing that the Supreme Court has now officially said that money is more important than people.
posted by Big Ed at 7:37 AM
8 Comments:
There is where we have always disagreed on this. I don't care what my "fair assessment" is, if you want my house, you have to pay what I ask for it. If I don't want to sell it because my family has lived there for 10 generations, go put your damm shopping center somewhere else.
That's fair.
As for city planning, planning is best done in advance.
Not everything has a price tag on it.
Some people agree with that sentiment, some don't.
I think the government needs to be real careful here. People are willing do devote their lives, basically (30 year mortage is pretty much devoting your life) to paying for a house. That sorta means they have strong feelings about the place.
If I owned a home and they tried to force me to sell it so they could build a mall and make some rich dudes richer, they better bring a swat team or something.
The whole concept, to me anyway, just smells of the bad old days when the people in charge could just come in and do whatever they felt like doing. Now, supposedly, the people in charge are elected and represent the people who elected them. We all know that just isn't the case anymore, to be honest, it may never have been. Yes, they have to pay but they pay what they deem as fair. Is fair ignoring 10 generations of family heritage? Is fair bulldozing some old ladies garden to make a parking lot? It seems like anything that is too hard or too expensive to put a dollar value to is ignored.
I've always said that the concept of "rights" is a myth, this just further proves that point.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/3239024
Mego, you're link didn't post correctly, can you try again.
OK, here is an extremely pertinent quote
Lee Cameron, director of the city's Economic Development Corp., said the marina is expected to attract $60 million worth of hotels, restaurants and retail establishments to the city's downtown area and create 150 to 250 jobs. He said three hotels, two of which have "high interest," have contacted the city about building near the marina.
OK, what happens if it doesn't attract any hotels? We seize private property, put a company out of business and all on the vague promise of some hotel chain.
It just doesn't make any sense.
This is kind of cool.
http://www.freestarmedia.com/hotellostliberty2.html
That's some funny shit. Naturally, he has less than no chance of succeeding but it still worth a try.
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