Posted on 01/23/2016 10:01:45 PM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
DES MOINES - If nothing else, Donald Trump certainly didn't toe the company line or kowtow to the citizens of Pella, Iowa, while touting his support for eminent domain during his second campaign stop in the Hawkeye State on Saturday.
With only eight days until voting, the Republican Party front-runner continued to back eminent domain before a crowd interspersed with locals from Pella and Oskaloosa as the two cities continue to push to build a regional airport next to Highway 163 using the practice. Twice, Trump called the practice a "positive thing" while talking up the necessity of its use.
"I'm not in love with eminent domain, but eminent domain is a good thing. It's necessary," Trump said, adding later that "eminent domain is something that's a positive thing - not a negative thing. Yeah, sometimes cities will use it in order to do business."
"Let's say a person has a house or a person has a backyard and they're going to build a factory that's going to employ 5,000 people, and sometimes the city will use the power," Trump said. "And by the way, if you don't get that property, they're going to go to another city, and they're going to spend millions of dollars and they're going to build a factory there, they're going to employ 5,000 people - but not in your city. Eminent domain is a positive thing. It's got to be used judiciously."
According to reports, the building of the proposed airport, which has been talked about for over a decade, would seek to use eminent domain to take property from nine separate properties. Despite largely enjoying Trump's remarks, locals in the crowd admitted they were a little surprised Trump used the occasion to support the idea.
"If I had to say yes or no to the airport ... I would say no. It's going to be a huge tax burden on the community. I don't want to see that," said Guy Schwab, a Pella resident. "I don't want to be given the bill for ... private enterprise thinking that they want something. Right now, we've got private businesses that front that airport. I don't want the bill."
Schwab, a 65-year-old impending retiree, argued that the airport isn't a necessity as the two current airports (Pella and Ottumwa) aren't deficient structurally or financially.
In his pitch, Trump also touched on the building of pipelines, specifically mentioning the Keystone XL and Bakken pipelines, which runs from Northwest to Southeast Iowa to deliver crude oil from North Dakota to Illinois.
"Where else is eminent domain used? For pipelines. All of these [GOP 2016 candidates] are in favor of the Keystone pipeline," Trump said. "You couldn't build five feet of the Keystone pipeline without eminent domain. It's going through people's farms, it's going through people's houses."
"Without it, you wouldn't have any highways, you wouldn't have laws," Trump continued. "Did anyone know that that's how you build roads and thats how you build schools and that's how you build other things?"
Bob Owens, a 61-year-old resident of Pella, agreed partly with Trump's points, stating, "yeah, you've got to think about progress, and you've got to think about things that [Trump] was talking about. But when it gets to actual personal and talking about taking away your farm, then it gets to be a little bit of a different deal [who's against the airport.] We have a good airport. We have an airport that's functional. I just personally don't think there's a need for it."
Although the situation is in limbo, the stance of many area residents is clear with signs lining Highway 163 protesting the airport. Other candidates who have come into the area have taken on the issue directly, with Sen. Rand Paul hosting a town hall on the subject in Oskaloosa on Jan. 7.
Trump is currently in a heated battle with Sen. Ted Cruz to win Iowa. According to the latest RealClearPolitics average, Trump leads by 2.5 points over the Texas senator. In the Washington Examiner's presidential power rankings, Cruz is in first place with Trump in second. While Trump is slated to make stops in Iowa on both Sunday and Tuesday, Cruz will be holding events from Monday to Friday, with the two meeting Thursday at the GOP debate in Des Moines.
I could’nt care less what they want to use my home for so long as I am paid much more than what the house is worth. Our family has sold and bought 5 different homes since 1988, each time to upgrade into a better home. I have zero regrets of leaving the old 4 homes behind.
But we took all photo’s and paintings hung on the wall, our favorite furniture and kitchen and bath items and our clothes, each time we moved. The shell of houses left behind....was just that an empty shells.
It seems to me the issue is about the airport, not eminent domain. The people in the article would oppose it even if eminent domain wasn’t used.
Some of the members of Free Republic folks are have really disappointing on this issue. It seems unfortunate that the old lady was taken advantage of by her attorney.
Here is an article about the eminent domain closer in time without the taint of an election. The funniest thing about the story is that the lawyer who defended this for the property owner was in it for his ego. In the end, he made a name for himself and unwittingly his client lost quite a bit of money.
“CRDA said Coking’s place was worth only $251,000. Coking wanted $1.5 million. So the CRDA sued Coking and the two other owners to condemn their parcels, and turn the land over to Trump.
“CRDA figured the parking use would constitute the grounds to condemn land in the gateway corridor of proposed new development between Trump Plaza on the ocean and the new convention center on the west side of town.”
“Then I did something that had never been done before in condemnation work,” Zeitz said. “I filed an answer to that complaint, and then filed a third-party complaint against Trump and against the CRDA, alleging that they were conspiring to violate her civil rights, by taking her property without due process.
“I sued them, and brought Trump into the case,” Zeitz said. “It was, ‘The Widow vs. The Tycoon.’ You want to know what this really was? It was two people with gigantic egos, namely me and Trump, and then a person with real major principles, which was her. That’s what fueled the fire. That’s what kept the battle going.”
In the real estate business, we refer to Vera and her attorney’s actions as “overplaying her hand”. This was a boarding house, not the family farm, let’s be clear about that. Here is an excellent article which tells the end story about Vera.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/22/nyregion/a-homeowner-who-refused-to-cash-out-in-a-gambling-town-may-have-missed-her-chance.html
She kept the home and it WAS NEVER BULLDOZED. She was offered a fair price...she declined...her family is now left to settle for whatever they get in a real estate auction.
Now, as Atlantic City teeters under the weight of all of its opulence, Ms. Coking and her family may have lost their shot at a big payout.
After decades of happily running her boarding home, Ms. Coking was eventually relegated to the ground floor before her family moved her out. Now 91, she lives at a retirement home in the San Francisco Bay Area near her grandson, Ed Casey. He has been trying to sell the property since she moved out in 2010, initially putting it on the market for $5 million....Mr. Casey said the most he remembered Mr. Trump offering was $1.9 million...now the property will go up for auction. The reserve price, or the lowest the seller will accept, is $199,000.”
Furthermore, the constitution says the land “private property [shall not] be taken for public use, without just compensation.”
The land was assessed in 1996 for $251,000 and Trump offered $1.900,000. That is definitely not Trump “stealing the property.” Vera most likely of diminished mental capacity and got punked by her attorney.
Let me buy you a clue. Kelo is not the road to the white house and stopping the invasion. We had 500,000 people over stay their visas last year.
You’re sitting here trying to score Principled Conservative (TM) points why the Dems assisted by the beltway GOP burn the country to the ground.
Trump built stuff. A lot. He employs 11,000 people. Stuff happens while he’s making that property sausage. If you go through billions of dollars in property deals you can probably find some less than ideal stuff. That’s just how it is in the real world.
This one throw grandma off the cliff deal is a campaign season mountain of out a mole hill. That you take umbridge at that small deal while excusing Ted Cruz taking a big pile Goldman cash and then campaigning for Barack Obama & Goldman Sachs in the U. S. Senate shows your bias.
Please direct me to a source with more information.
I didn’t realize that trashing Trump is a punishable crime on FR. Well that is one way to get rid of Cruz supporters. We can all be one big happy family talking good things and praising Trump all the time, and trashing the other leading candidate.
It passed in 1994. It was shot down shortly thereafter. Cruz was Bush’s adviser in 1999, and he sent a memo helping Bush explain why he was against it. Why should either be against it? They don’t believe in state’s rights?
No one owns "private property", as in "real estate".
I hired a professional forester to log my "private property", and one of the neighbors snitched to the local "drain commissioner".
If I would have flipped off the drain commissioner, he would have slapped a lien on "my" property, and peeled a few thousand dollars off the timber sale money.
If I refused to pay, the drain commissioner would have just confiscated HIS property.
So, you would be the freaking clown.
Suites me just fine.
In case you didn’t notice this is a public forum.
When you post to someone, you are posting to everyone who reads these threads not just the person you replied to.
Get a clue.
DB! It's you again!
Hey - the States stole all of our "real property" over the last 50 years.
The only place you can have real property and not pay rent to the government is Alaska.
And yet when Cruz bad mouthed Proposition 187 to Bush, it wasn’t indicative of him being a RINO.
The problem is, not one Cruz guy want’s to face up to what he has been.
So instead we get out the anal prob for Trump, and Cruz is deemed the immaculate Conservative.
Sorry, I’m not on board that. I bring up the fact that Cruz backed John Roberts, and folks couldn’t be bothered. Why anyone could have done that.
Cruz did it. It wasn’t just anyone.
Exactamundo, FRiend. Senator Principled Conservative (TM) “did it”. In some cases a FEW MONTHS AGO IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE. Just no comparison to Trump blowing hot air 20 years ago or whatever.
The cognitive dissonance in Team Cruz is breathtaking. I can’t wait for the primaries to be over.
Cruz wrote Bush’s position to repeal 187.
I don’t know if Cruz was simply the lawyer doing what Bush wanted or something else.
You and me both.
Couldn't have happened to a more deserving freeper...
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