Why Orlando is Demolishing a Black-Owned Church & What It Plans to Build Over It’s Just Plain Wrong

ijreview.com ^ | kevin boyd

[lowbridge]

City of Orlando officials have filed a lawsuit seeking to seize a church property through eminent domain, in order to build a soccer stadium on it. The Orlando City Lions, set to enter Major League Soccer in 2015, are seeking to build a new soccer-specific stadium to play in.

The Orlando Sentinel published today:

If successful, the eminent domain action filed Thursday in Orange Circuit Court would allow Orlando to take the last of 20 parcels needed for the $115 million stadium being built for the Orlando City Lions, an MLS expansion franchise.

Newly released records show the city more than doubled its initial offer for the small, African-American-owned Faith Deliverance Temple, to $4 million.

Members of the family that owns the church reduced their initial selling price from $35 million to $15 million. Even so, the two sides remained far apart.

This isn’t the first time the Orlando City Lions and Major League Soccer have used eminent domain to take land to build the new soccer stadium.

[Jack Hammer]

Speaking personally, I wouldn’t want to show up in the Next World and have to explain why I helped seize a church to knock it down and build a soccer stadium.

[Leroy S. Mort]

Faced with the bulldozer, I suspect the church elders will accept around 4 million for their cinder block chapel. 35 million seems a bit excessive based on the edifice I see on Google Maps.

[V_TWIN]

Wheres jessie and al? Oh yeah that’s right, they probably go greased up front.

[PeteB570]

We crossed this bridge with Kelso vs The City of New London.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelo_v._City_of_New_London

[yldstrk]

let em have it, they don’t want it, this is their big chance to bleed the beast for money, so let them have it and put the soccer field somewhere there is plenty of space

[PeteB570]

Kelo not Kelso - only on my second cup of coffee.

[John O]

Faced with the bulldozer, I suspect the church elders will accept around 4 million for their cinder block chapel. 35 million seems a bit excessive based on the edifice I see on Google Maps.

But it's theirs! If they say it is worth 35M to them, then that is what it is worth. Why should the government be allowed to redistribute their property at a whim to another private use?

If the City of Orlando wants to build a soccer stadium then they should tear down some of tehir own city owned buildings (or a park) and build it there.

If a private organization wants to run a soccer team (or any other sports team) then they should find (and fund) their own stadium

[jiggyboy]

Oh but “civic pride” and “increased economic activity” are “public use” now you see.

[Gay State Conservative]

Seizing property in order to build a hospital..or even a highway...may be morally defensible.But a soccer stadium? Sounds like another case of “follow the money” to me.Would it be presumptuous of me to believe that Orlando is run by Rats?

[al_c]

Jerry Jones owns a soccer team?!

[Rockingham]

This episode marks an inflection point in the rise of Hispanic political power in the Orlando area and the eclipse of organized Black political power. Orlando and Orange County politicians and officials are falling over each other to build a soccer stadium as a way to connect with influential Hispanic business interests and a rapidly rising pool of Hispanic voters.

As for the local Black community, it has long ago fragmented into followings built around particular Black political figures. A small Black church that is inconveniently located simply does not matter enough to impede the new soccer stadium -- which will, after all, also provide a feast of jobs and contracts to be awarded by local government, with minority set-asides and various plums for insiders.

[Leroy S. Mort]

But it's theirs! If they say it is worth 35M to them, then that is what it is worth.

They apparently have no problem selling their property. They're just haggling over the price. If it means so much to them, there wouldn't be a price to begin with.

Trust me, they and the city will arrive at a price, and there'll be Escalades for all.

[a fool in paradise]

Maybe Bill Clinton’s FBI should investigate this the way they were busy in 1998 hunting down non-existent “racist” arsonists accused of burning down southern black churches...

[Pollster1]

Why does the color of the church matter? The government has no authority to take private property, church property, or any other property “without just compensation” [5th Amendment]. If the church building is worth $35M to the members, then just compensation is $35M. If that’s too high, then the people bribing the city to take that property should build around the church. That would give soccer players a place to pray on their way in/out of the games.

I would never have shopped at the Kelo shopping mall if it had been built, and I will never attend a soccer game at this stolen Orlando site if the church is taken without what its owners consider just compensation. I do not support theft [the reason I will also never under any circumstances buy or rend a GM vehicle].

[freeangel]

Atlanta did the same thing to build a new Falcon stadium. Apparently, sports have become the new religion of this godless society.

[Chode]

and how much $$$$$ are the taxpayers on the hook for for this sucker suckhole???

[lowbridge]

Dont forget, a cabin, or some sort of structure, that was used in the underground railroad during the days of slavery, was torn down to make way for the clinton presidential library.

[ladyjane]

How is it relevant that the church is owned by a black family?

[lowbridge]

I dont know. I didnt write the article. ;-)