Raleigh to condemn site for downtown plaza

WRAL ^ | 7/1/2008 | Dan Bowens

[dubious1]

Raleigh, N.C. — The City Council voted Tuesday to begin condemnation proceedings to gain control of a piece of downtown property for the proposed City Plaza.

[dubious1]

Ironic that the city sold it to a private developer 20 years ago and now is seizing it back.

[AreaMan]

From the article :

he city was trying to negotiate an easement to access the plaza. Officials envision the $14.8 million project, which would include glass retail pavilions, light towers and water fountains, as Raleigh's "public living room," offering a gathering place for local residents and a space for public concerts and other events.

Hey, if this is going to be my living room can I just bring a couch and watch TV in my underwear?

[Brilliant]

If you want to get the courts up in arms about eminent domain, there is a simple way to do it... Start a movement toward condemning rights of way for railroads.

We are going to need more railways, as the energy crisis worsens, and that is bound to make the libs go nuts. They’ll probably begin talking about “eminent domain abuse.”

[dfwgator]

...Land, land..."Land: see Snatch." Ah, Hailie vs. United States. Hailie: 7, United States: nothing. You see, it can be done!

[oh8eleven]

Raleigh's "public living room," offering a gathering place for local residents ...

[TC Rider]

The city was trying to negotiate an easement to access the plaza. Officials envision the City Plaza project, which would include glass retail pavilions, light towers and water fountains, as Raleigh's "public living room," offering a gathering place for local residents and a space for public concerts and other events.

Lovely, a living room for the homeless and the hookers.

Anyone in Raleigh seen this $50,000 'light tower' on Capital Blvd lately? Last I saw the weeds were eating it!

[dubious1]

I drive by the thing everyday on my way to and from work. When my wife and I moved to Raleigh in 1999, we thought it was an old communications tower of some sort. Little did we know it’s “art”.

[Locomotive Breath]

Given that Mayor Meeker is a socialist this does not surprise me. He pretty clearly believes in the unfettered power of the government.

This is the same bunch of people who passed an ordinance banning in-sink garbage disposals. The excuse they made up was that Raleigh was having to spend too much money cleaning fat out of clogged city drains. That turned out to be a complete fabrication. What was really going on was that they felt like it would be “good for us” to compost our table scraps.

This is the same city council that passed ordinances prohibiting people from tearing down their own homes to build bigger ones.

And so on

[Locomotive Breath]

The good news is that one abomination will prevent them from ever trying to “do” publicly funded art again.

[antiRepublicrat]

Officials envision the City Plaza project, which would include glass retail pavilions, light towers and water fountains, as Raleigh's "public living room," offering a gathering place for local residents and a space for public concerts and other events.

This may be dumb, but I have to say it's constitutional since it is for public use as the Constitution allows.