Abuse of Eminent Domain Results in Nothing But Vacant Lots

Flopping Aces ^ | 11-13-09 | Wordsmith

[Starman417]

An entire neighborhood was uprooted to make way for a big money development which will never be built!

Want to know why people are mad at the nexus between big government and big money?

The Famous 'Kelo House' Property Is Now A Vacant Lot By John Carney The Business Insider Law Review Nov. 10, 2009

What you are looking at above is a monument to government folly.

It is the vacant lot where the home of Susette Kelo once stood.

A decade ago, the town of New London, Connecticut claimed Kelo's house by right of eminent domain. The plan was to demolish the residential neighborhood so that Pfizer could built a massive research and development plant on the adjacent land. Pfizer got the land for next to nothing. Five Supreme Court justices upheld the taking, ruling that although the primary beneficiary was a corporation, it met the constitutional requirement of "public use."

Now Pfizer has announced that it is shutting down the plant.

More from the Associated Press:

[2banana]

A classic case if this (going back to the 1980s) is the GM Poletown eminent domain car factory.

They destroyed a whole neighborhood (enclosing demolishing a church) with demonstrators inside/outside. They actually did build the car factory only to have it closed about 10 years later. The neighborhood was totally destroyed and have never recovered and the factory has been abandoned.

[annieokie]

An incredible,disgusting and,selfish act, with no remorse, now on to the next project.

[Sunshine Sister]

I think poetic justice applies here. The government on all levels got what they deserved for their greed. Not only did they lose this developement they are not getting property tax from the buildings that were torn down. What goes around comes around.

[lowbridge]

bump

[Crooked Constituent]

This is what happens in a recession.

The land remains undeveloped because there is no money to fund these projects. Paying fair market value or more for an improved property and razing the structure to get developable land is an expensive endevour.

[grey_whiskers]

Kelo ought to sue to have the house rebuilt: is there a lawyer on FR who knows grounds for a suit? (I could throw around half-remembered, misunderstood latin terms myself but it would only discredit my arguments.)

The gist of what I'm aiming for is this: if Kelo as a decision is allowed to stnad, it ensconces the principle that the government has the absolute right to take your property without compensation, on the chance or promise that in the future, they may get more tax revenue from the suggested use than from you; but if the taxes never materialize, that's just too bad. To a layman, this seems to violate due process or just compensation or somesuch.

Cheers!

[bmwcyle]

We need to start a web site, governmentfailure.com