Crack Heads
I still can't believe how the Supreme Court ruled on Kello v. New London. Moreover, I can't believe how little discussion there has been about it. Most major media sources (CNN, Fox, Washington Post, et cetera) seem to have used the same AP wire source. NPR had a decent report on it, click here to listen.
Imagine spending years restoring an old home only to be told that your city decided that they'd rather have another strip mall or office complex for the "public good."
Is anyone concerned about this?
Imagine spending years restoring an old home only to be told that your city decided that they'd rather have another strip mall or office complex for the "public good."
Is anyone concerned about this?
posted by John | 10:47 PM
4 Comments:
Thanks for bringing this up. I read the paper today in disbelief, feeling that those people who usually represent my point of view were suddenly, completely, on the other side of the aisle.
We have something like this happening in my neighborhood. There is a beautiful 1870s red brick house with a barn built around 1830 on the lot. The City of Dayton submitted a 30 year old proposal to the feds last November for $1.2 million to fund a $1.9 million project that would widen the intersection and straighten the road. The plan shows the road passing through the center of this house. The money has been set aside. We are 4 years away from this happening. The property owner had no idea that this was going down. The city was going to wait two more years until they had all the funds before telling anyone about this because many homes will lose some of their front yards. Well, when I found out about it I told the owner who is in the process of putting the house on the National Register. This will nix eminent domain at the city level. If he only had two years he couldn't have reacted in time.
I doubt he will lose his house but may have to give up some of his yard. The city really doesn't have a plan in place. They just wanted to get money allocated to this project so they sent in an old proposal, it was the only plan they had. Some people are already getting reamed a new butthole over this.
This is just appalling. In some cases eminent domain is needed. When a street needs to be widened or a waste treatment plant expanded, but to take peoples homes to benefit a corporation is beyond anything that should ever be considered. Even worse is the precedent it sets. Other cities can now use this case as justification to do the same thing. It is bad, bad, bad, bad! King George III is laughing in his grave.
There's a house in this month's issue of This Old House that was torn down to put up a parking lot. This is why getting designations like historic landmark etc... is so important. If a property is protected that way, they can't do it. As I've spoken about on my blog, Chicago has been decimated. We are just lucky to have so much great architecture, that there is alot of good left. But they destroyed way too much already!
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