Posted on 10/06/2005 11:17:56 AM PDT by JZelle
At least when they're done, they'll be a ball team's worth of people who earn an honest living in DC.
A reasonable deal is whatever the SELLER is willing to accept, not what the buyer wants to pay...unless you don't mind me seizing your property for say....$15.00?
Let me end this right here. As a disaffected Orioles fan, I hereby grant Camden Yards in Baltimore to the Washington Nationals! ;)
I hope neither one of us is correct.
Sorry 'bout that. You're quite right, it is in poor taste to not ping you.
They aren't considered that by any normal logical person, but they are considered that by politicians and their crime partners, the Baseball owners.
And YOU might live somewhere that government owns the ball park, but in Chicago, both teams play in parks that are PRIVATELY owned.
The football team here plays in a government owned stadium, which of course is a different philosophical problem.
As to telling you what you are for, I can only go by what you post. You post in favor, you are in favor. It's simple. Saying you don't like something while supporting it is a non starter.
Neat trick. You pretend that seizing private property for the purpose of transferring ownership to a different private party is not the same as Kelo just because they have been committing that crime for decades.
Seizing private property for a private real estate development and seizing it for a private business of a different kind are not different in any meaningful way.
Develop it for homes, or develop it for a baseball park. Same thing.
You might be confusing government seizing the property so that they (the government) can build a stadium with seizing it so someone else (a private business) can build a stadium. If so, I can see why yo think it's a trick.
I can assure you, the only people who have been tricked are those who think it's OK for the government to suspend property rights when it suits their purposes.
Is the "District" mentioned in the article above public or private? Does its stock trade on the NYSE?
It is certainly immoral. Your milage may differ.
You are correct, but we are talking about market price. If the gallery owner doesn't take the $1.8 million, then she is saying that she will pass up $1.8 million to keep it, which makes it worth at least $1.8 million. You can offer me $15 for my property, but my not taking it only makes the property worth at least $15.
. . . or Houston (3 times)
But consider why someone might consider it public use. Certainly city hall is public use. Certainly the expansion of a highway is public use. What about a park? You know, with benches and trees and grass and such. That's public use, right? What about a zoo? They'll probably charge admission. Is that public use? Well, if that's public use, what about a stadium? The city will own it. They'll have public events there. It should be noted that this is a very big reason why stadiums are not more often privately-owned. It's much harder for the private owner to sieze land. So, for those who lament the proliferation of public arenas, there you go.
There are also ways around eminent domain, of course. Offer money, if there are hold-outs, build around them and make the property worthless.
Build the stadium itself on non-eminent domain land and build the public parking on the seized land. The parking can be wholly independent of stadium events.
There's a romantic notion of saving one's precious home (or art gallery, I guess) against the bulldozer, but most of the time, it's just greed. The problem with New London is that they weren't Machiavellian enough. If you're subtle, you can take all the land without anyone putting up a fight.
Oh, and it should be noted, that without eminent domain, in order to get large tracts of contiguous land (for stuff like stadia, not for a big box store), you have to buy things like farms. So, for anyone who laments the dwindling farmland, it's worth keeping in mind.
Every action has a consequence.
I hate these eminent domain rulings and am a big property rights guy, but I have to confess it's tough for me to dredge up a whole lot of sympathy for the gay nightclubs, bathhouses, and porno dealers down there in that area. This won't be a loss for the city by any stretch.
The zoos in my town are private. The ball parks are private. One of them was built on partially stolen land.
Parks should be built on property acquired legally and ethically.
Governments should not be in business. Governments exist to defend the rights of the citizens. Nothing more.
What you call greed is nothing more than your opinion of the motives of rightful property owners. Motives, of course, are irrelevant.
Kelo was an abomination to freedom loving people. The small mischief they have caused so far is just the beginning. Governments have been abusing property owners ala Kelo for a long time, but this time the court gave them the stamp of approval.
The misuse of government power in the story above may or may not be technically a Kelo situation, the story is ambiguous in some ways. The principle however is the same.
Property taken for the benefit of a third party or the government themselves via increased tax revenues is wrong. It is immoral. Your mileage may vary.
What a boondoggle - some obscenely rich Washingtonians get to bid on this very valuable franchise knowing that they won't even have to pay a penny for the stadium. Nice work if you can get it!
Part of the point I was trying to make is that it's very difficult to avoid this when it comes down the pipe. My concern is "just compensation". Now, you apparently live in Chicago. In that case, the government will take land for private interests and the courts will say, "OK, and thanks for the bundles of cash, Mayor Daley." But in most other places, it's tougher.
An assumption, which as they say "is not necessarily valid"... (Think the steroid scandal...)
the infowarrior
I'll make one more point, "just compensation" is determined by a willing buyer and seller absent force, fraud or coercion in a free society. To the extent that it is not, the lives of people are diminished.
But in most other places, it's tougher.
Hopefully. But I fear the genie is out of the bottle.
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