Posted on 04/13/2006 10:55:46 AM PDT by pabianice
This would bother me not at all, if the Catholics, Protestants, Mormons, and Jews - or even Scientologists for that matter, got to bid on the land too. But they didn't, did they. Curious, that...
Was the Mosque land worth more than $400K? Apparently, MUCH more.
According to a report at Boston's Weekly Dig, a parcel of land sold by the Boston Redevelopment Authority to the embattled Islamic Society of Boston at the bargain-basement price of $175,000 cash, previously thought to have had an actual value of $401,000, is actually worth more -- much more. Like around $1.6 million more.
CHURCH, MEET STATE - More questions arise about embattled Roxbury mosque project
...In August, 2000, the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) signed a term sheet agreeing to sell a sizable chunk of public land to the Islamic Society of Boston (ISB). The terms of the deal—in which the ISB paid the BRA $175,000 cash and a variety of in-kind public benefits for a parcel of land they publicly agreed was worth $401,000—caused a firestorm.
Local activists and media argued that the land discount was both gratuitous (saving the ISB a couple hundred thousand dollars on a $22 million construction project) and constitutionally dubious (an encroachment on church-state separation). The land sale so enraged Mission Hill resident James Policastro that he sued the BRA and the city in September, 2004. Recently, a judge declined the city’s bid to have the courts dismiss the lawsuit, which questions the land deal’s constitutionality. The BRA is presently working to avoid turning documents over to Policastro’s lawyer.
However heated things have gotten so far, a series of new documents obtained by the Dig shows that, as far as the ISB land sale goes, the city’s legal and PR woes are just beginning. The BRA first anticipated a lawsuit like Policastro’s more than 16 years ago, and was explicitly warned about discounting land for a religious organization. What’s more, previously unpublished letters show that the BRA had originally valued the land it sold to the ISB as being worth much, much more than the $401,000 it has publicly acknowledged...
...a 1989 BRA legal memo acknowledged that there were serious constitutional questions raised by the transfer of city land to a religious organization. According to this memo, although the city might argue that the mosque project had a secular purpose—revitalizing the Roxbury Crossing area—the transfer of city lands to a Muslim organization might also “be considered an advancement of religion,” and therefore unconstitutional...
...But while it was at best unwise for the BRA to seemingly ignore these cautionary memos, new details surrounding the land sale itself are downright salacious: After years of being told that the value of the ISB’s land was $401,000, the Dig discovered documents—written just months before the BRA-ISB term sheet was signed—estimating the parcel’s value at over $2 million.
In March of 2000, a high-ranking BRA official wrote two letters, on BRA stationery, regarding sale negotiations for the mosque land parcel. One of these letters went to a Menino administration official, while the other went to the president of Roxbury Community College. In both letters, the official represented the “estimated market value” of the land as being more than $2 million.
However, when the two parties signed their term sheet a few months later (in August, 2000), the BRA agreed that the value of the land it would be selling to the ISB was roughly $400,000. The value of the in-kind benefits the ISB promised the city in exchange for a discounted price (such as building an Islamic library at Roxbury Community College, running a lecture series and maintaining neighboring parks), pegged in March at $1.9 million, dropped to around $465,000, as the ISB’s cash payment jumped $71,000 to $175,000 for the parcel. Local media raised an outcry, alleging that selling city land to a religious organization at a 50 percent discount raised church-state separation questions; actually, the ISB received city land for far less than what the BRA just estimated its worth at.
To what do we owe this sudden devaluation of public land, as well as the BRA’s insistence on publicly citing the $401,000 figure? That’s anybody’s guess. The mayor’s press office referred all questions to the BRA’s spokeswoman, who failed to acknowledge repeated inquiries...
Those guys don't give away land just because they love Muslims. There must have been some major kickbacks involved. Maybe the Saudis paid off a few people, or something like that.
Just selling them the rope they will hang us with.
I read the entire story looking for info about whether this Islamic group is anti-U.S. If it is, the sale should be stopped regardless of its legality.
At least I'm sure the Moslems won't discriminate against homosexuals in adoption cases...
You are right, there won't be any homosexuals.
bump
Muslims do not want our culture, Muslim culture is diametrically opposed to the culture in the United States. Muslims do not want to assimilate, ( their religion does not allow assimilation ) Muslims want to inundate.
Get your burnooses and burqas while they are still cheap.
Vote for Kerry the Viet Nam hero.
Muhammed Ali-Salaam
Citation: http://www.davidproject.org/materials/BRArecords_doc1.pdf
Who apparently valued the property as:
"the estimated fair market value of the subject property is $2,010,966" on March 29th, 2000.
This according to a web-site "Atlas Shrugs" at the following URL:
http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/how_the_left_destroys_the_nation/index.html
In addition to the maxim: "Follow the Money," one should add: "Follow the Muhammeds." It is unlikely that it is coincidental that a co-religionist was involved when a property is marked down by over 90%.
Yes, side benefit, the end of gay marriage in Mass. Maybe Barny Frank will be beheaded....or demasted...or something.
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