Arlington VA County Board Threatens Eminent Domain for "Affordable Housing"! Smoking Gun!

The Washington Times ^ | 5/23/2002 | Mary Shaffrey

[justshutupandtakeit]

Sorry that I assumed you had a reason for posting the 2d postulate of your theory and believed it was somehow related to returning to an equilibrium condition. It is not my fault that it works against that equilibrium resumption. Thus, there was no reason you should have posted it as a means of achieving affordable housing. Unless you are merely listing random variables.

While many will destroy that given them many appreciate the help and do not. The current generation of parasites is unparalleled in its destructiveness.

[Maelstrom]

The owners should destroy the building and force them to confiscate the empty lot.

[lelio]

bump for later reading

[Dems_R_Losers]

Arlington and Alexandria are both crying now about the lack of affordable housing, after spending years in an orgy of approving thousands of luxury apartments and condos in order to pump up their tax bases (e.g. Arna Valley, which was a fine and relatively crime-free neighborhood) and not have to raise tax rates on the rich white folks. (BTW, there is no public housing in Arlington, it is one of the few sensible jurisdictions that never created a public housing authority. There are some active non-profit and faith-based housing groups in Arlington that do a good job because they don't allow the residents to trash the places.)

The yuppies that run Arlington and Alexandria are starting to cry now because the people that serve them their lattes at Starbucks and watch their kids can't afford to live there anymore and are leaving. And now the folks in the outer 'burbs are crying because all these minimum wage workers are moving to their communities because it's the ony place they can afford, and they have to drive on the highways to get to their crummy jobs, thus adding to the traffic.

Unfortunately, the "free market" model doesn't work in an area like this, because there are no jobs in the places where the housing is affordable, and no affordable housing where the jobs are. Fairfax and Prince William, and now Loudoun Counties are restricting development to the point that it is artificially driving up prices everywhere and seriously increasing the value of land closer in to DC, while incomes are not rising at nearly the same rate. And nobody is building roads anywhere, so the traffic is getting ridiculous and causing even more pressure on the price of housing closer in. The idiots in Fairfax County even forced Habitat for Humanity to build $225,000 townhouses with garages. They are spending more on 27 homes than they have on their previous 50, thanks to the geniuses in the county planning department.

The local governments here have gotten themselves into this mess, and now they think they have no choice but to do draconian things like use eminent domain to preserve what little affordable housing they have left. But it's like trying to put the toothpaste back into the tube.

They had a golden opportunity with the Potomac Yard plot to create some significant numbers of affordable housing units that would have relieved a lot of the pressure (and could have been developed at a profit, just not as much profit as the developers wanted), but they knuckled under to the developers who threatened to just sit on the land, and let them develop a huge shopping center and still more luxury townhouses that we don't need.

/end of rant/

[AndrewC]

In that case half your potential audience will tune you out.

So what? Bush lost the popular vote.

[elfman2]

"So what? Bush lost the popular vote."

{smile} Most of those are the other half. I'd rather not structure my life to be dependent on stupidity.

[Husker24]

Probably just a bunch of rich crackers living there now, they want a "vibrant multicultural" community. In other words they want a run down, crime/drug infested sh*t hole, but hey, as long as they vote democrat........who cares, right?

[Husker24]

Bingo!! the words Vibrant multicultural = sh*t hole.

[Husker24]

lol

[madfly]

bump

[swampfox98]

Hi, AuntB. How good to hear from you. I haven't been on FR much of late. We're moving. Our taxes are so high here (rural Ohio) that we can no longer cut it. We're moving to the city and getting rid of our land -- which the government doesn't want us to own anymore anyhow. Maybe they can put some low income high rises on it to compete with Virginia. I know Ohio has taxed us until our tongues are hanging out. Taft started his governship with a 2 billion surplus. Now we are 2 billion in debt. Gosh, how I love Republicans! Not.

Good ole Virginnie, communist state of my dreams --next to Ohio, or nightmares would be more like it.

[AuntB]

Hey, it's good to see you, too! I'm sorry to hear you are "leaving the land". I understand, I'm there, too. Oregon's property tax, I believe is the highest in the nation...also the highest unemployment rate.....Does THIS make sense?????? I'm seldom on the internet. Sooner or later I guess most of us had to get back to reality. You take care!

[Ligeia]

Should the Arlington County Board pursue eminent domain to take the property, I wonder if the Republican Attorney General, Jerry Kilgore, can intercede on the property owner's behalf when the resultant lawsuit hits the courts.

[RecallJeffords]

Yes, but a good rant. Arlington and Alexandria have managed themselves into a hole. They approved development without any thgough to its implications. They keep referring to the "affordable housing crisis," but the truth is that their budgets are so out of control that they have to knuckle in to developers to keep feeding the government leviathan. Assessments, for example, have spiraled out of control for years now to keep up with government spending. However, you correctly note an unanticipated problem-- the workers needed to fuel the economy cannot afford to live here. The solution? Cut taxes, get real estate under control and develop thoughtfully, meaning have an idea of what the @#*&@$*&@ will happen when the development is complete.

And while I am at it, it is idiotic for Arlington/Alexandria to participate in this sales tax referendum since the purpose is to suck money out of us to raise money to pave over the area so that the affordable housing workers can drive to work more quickly and developers can continue building without worrying about infrastructure.

End of my rant

[Dems_R_Losers]

You are correct! These a-holes are crying crocodile tears about housing for workers, while laughing all the way to the bank with all the taxes they are raking in thanks to skyrocketing property values and continued high-priced development. Values in Alexandria have gone up about 20 percent in the last year, and we get a whopping ONE CENT reduction in the tax rate! Grrrrrr........

[jrewingjr]

What if: a politician (or his cronies) owns some cheap land that would become very valuable if a new road came by it. Your house is in the middle of where the new road is going, and you are not offered anything near market value. What do you do?

That's how eminent domain is being used in many real-life cases. It's happening right now in several places around the state, as well in MANY other places nationwide. You are talking about theory, countrydummy and I speak of things that are actually happening now.

Eminent domain is being abused. Liberals are using it to take what they can't afford to buy.

[elfman2]

" Eminent domain is being abused. Liberals are using it to take what they can't afford to buy"

I don't know what you think you're telling me beyond what I said in #37.

If you think that the abuse is orchestrated, conspiratorial and systematic, list the 'MANY' incidents on a web site. Don't expect people to just take your word for it. After all, AndrewC as much as admitted in #65 that he lies to achieve a political objective. There are crooks on the right as well as the left, and I'm not going to become one of them for temporary gains in battling the other. If your accusation is valid, you don't need to misrepresent the issue as some here have done.

[elfman2]

"Unfortunately, the "free market" model doesn't work in an area like this, because there are no jobs in the places where the housing is affordable, and no affordable housing where the jobs are."

I wonder if you really mean that, at least in the way the claim is commonly used, that something other than the free market is the best solution.

What do you think is most likely to happen if no governmental measures are implemented to manage affordable housing while free market effects are allowed to multiply over an extended period?

[AndrewC]

After all, AndrewC as much as admitted in #65 that he lies to achieve a political objective.

Quick with the lie accusation aren't you. You, Klintoon, and Karvile are peas in a pod. I note that stealing is taking property without ones permission no matter if payment is made. One could pay a million times the market value of something but would nevertheless be stealing if he took the property without the owners permission. I also noted that the right to take another person's property was contingent on not abusing that right. That is the question.

When I respond to your ignorance of my point that it is a question of abuse of power with "So what?", you take that as lying, again I say, "So what?" I pretty much understand threats and what they imply. The government either uses its power when necessary for the good of the people or refrains from using that power. It is a sure sign of abuse when a government threatens those from which it derives its power.

Oh and I'm sorry about your condition of craniorectal inversion.