Posted on 02/06/2014 6:26:22 AM PST by rktman
Nine years after the Supreme Court’s Kelo decision gutted the right of American property owners to resist eminent-domain seizures, the neighborhood at the center of the case remains a wasteland.
Fort Trumbull in New London, Conn., was bulldozed to fulfill the vision of politicians and developers eager to create a New Urbanist mixed-use “hub” for upscale living in the depressed town near the mouth of Long Island Sound.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
All money and property rightfully belong to the government anyway.
Kelo is an obscenity, but the even greater obscenity is Hawaii Housing Authority v. Midkiff http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaii_Housing_Authority_v._Midkiff — the outrageous precedential decision relied on by the statists justices who rendered the Kelo decision.
We should have know then that we live in a BANANA REPUBLIC!!
I will play devils advocate for a minute. While I do not agreed with the courts decision that eminent domain should be used to take property from one individual and sold to another, in this case it may have worked out well for the forced sellers.
In 2005, when this took place the “fair market value” for the property was probably at the highest it had ever been. Since that time, its value probably has decreased by 20-30%.
If anyone out there would like to buy my home at what it was worth in 2005, come and get it.
So, in tis instance maybe it was the buyers who paid too much and got screwed BIG time.
What is ironic and kind of funny is that the property was taken to create jobs, improve the economic landscape and eventually give a much higher return on revenue to the city of New London, CT. Now the land sits empty with NO TAXES being paid on it at all.
Someone may now post the dude from the Simpsons saying:
HA HA !
What, you don’t believe in the “If you like your house, you can keep your house” doctrine?
It’s dangerous to shrug off a unjust government taking by saying “Oh, well, they got more money for it than they would today”.
That’s the slippery slope we’ve taken all to often in this country.
Aggie,
My first statement was that I did not agree with the decision. However, in this case it may have worked out well for the seller. Please reread my post.
FYI, My father had a 500 acre farm taken by eminent domain in 1963. They turned it into part of a wildlife refuge. He always said he was underpaid because his land was worth more than the “fair market value” for farmland in that county because of the amount of topsoil on the property. So I have some firsthand/second hand knowledge of an eminent domain case in my immediate family.
“We’re from the government and we’re here to help”, used to be the old joke, still is and anyone looking to government for a solution is out of luck.
My reading comprehension is fine.
If someone wants to buy your house at its 2005 price, you would sell. Willing buyer, willing seller.
In the Kelo case, you did not have willing sellers. The homeowners were not allowed to exercise their judgment as to what would be best for them, they were summarily evicted from their homes.
I have tried to argue this point with many of your mindset, to no avail. Money was not the issue to the homeowners displaced by the Kelo decision. If it is the only issue to you, we can not even have a conversation.
This KELO is the PERFECT EXAMPLE of BIG GOVERNMENT!!! They will take your property because their FRIENDS and SUPPORTERS WANT IT.!!!!! And YOU WILL PAY THE TAXES ON PROPERTY YOU DON"T EVEN OWN ANYMORE!!!!
I don’t care if the original property owners were given a billion dollars each...
Sticking a government gun in someones face and forcing them off their land at the behest of another PRIVATE concern is wrong. It is the very definition of corrupt.
Period.
I fought my former city who wanted to condemn my property for the location of a bathroom for a new park. The park was planned long before I bought my house but a new crop of tree huggingnjerks were elected to the town council by the californicators who invaded the city. The park was replanned because one of the consilors didn’t want to see the bathrooms from the river trail. So, for him, it was a simple matter of moving it away which would require a reroute of a planned street and the taking of 8 private property lots. After three years of figting I finally won but was so disgusted I sold the house and left that city.
The Kelo decision is another on a long list of disgusting government actions by greedy stupid cit officials. There was nothing to warrant this thievery of personal property. There was only a wet dream of some city councillor. These people didn’t want to sell. I can only hope NO ONE EVER invests in Kelo. I hope the city is bankrupted. Who would ever invest in a city where they have no problem stealing your property?
We will have lived in our house 38 years come April. We bought an old run-down rental American four-square on the edge of our downtown just as renovation of old homes was beginning and have spent years and lots of dollars renovating, restoring and repairing our home.
Now, the powers that be think our block would make a great re-development site because our downtown would flourish, flourish, I tell you, if only there were more housing choices surrounding downtown. We had to fight a blight designation twice within a year and it’s scary and frustrating, because the blight designation has nothing to do with the condition of housing but is things like improper platting, or obsolete street patterns.
We have so many examples in this town of developers promising “world-class” projects and delivering “discount city”, but our city council keeps falls for the same line, over and over.
The only suggestion I can give you is to contact the local reporters. This is one time you can use liberal agenda reporters to your advantage. They love digging up dirt on politicians for the little guy. That’s what ultimately saved my property. The local lib rag shamed them in to admitting what a sham the eminent domain declaration was in regards to my former city.
You are fighting big money and dreamy eyed politicians. Your biggest ally is your local neighbors and the newspaper. Go full Alinsky on their asses. Go out and find an endangered toad and place it in your garden. Go find some spotted owls and put their nest in your trees. Fight those bastards with every dirty trick in the book because they will not stop.
Thanks for the advice! The local rag’s pro-development editor and I have already had words and I suspect we’ll have more in the future.
I know they won’t stop, but I really like the idea of “aging in place”!
I hope public outrage over the theft of the land helped to kill the project. A shopping mall that half of all potential customers have placed on a permanent boycott list has to be a terrible investment. The next time around, we need to muster the same level of outrage and again kill (or permanently boycott) the project. Those “capitalists” who hope to profit from insider connections need to be resisted - forever.
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