Would you look at that racist white guy holding the sign in the background????
/sarc
Posted on 05/19/2016 10:38:15 AM PDT by reaganaut1
One of the main reasons why America was so attractive to hard-working people used to be that if you were successful, you could enjoy your rewards and use your property as you thought best. Sadly, that is less and less true. One immigrant who can testify to that is Hinga Mbogo, who is about to be forced to close his auto repair business in Dallas.
He came to the United States from Kenya in 1974 with some skill in repairing machinery and found a job working as an airplane mechanic. By 1985, he had accumulated the capital necessary to open his own auto repair shop on Ross Avenue in Dallas, where it has prospered ever since.
Mr. Mbogo thought he was set for life, but in 2005 the Dallas City Council decided to re-zone the area where his business was located, deeming it a “planned development district.” That is to say, rather than allowing the invisible hand of marketplace competition to determine what sorts of land uses would prevail, the politicians would impose their own vision.
What they had in mind was turning Ross Avenue into, as Joseph Kessler of the Institute for Justice put it, “a trendy gateway to the city’s arts district.” Since an auto repair business (which is pictured in the article above) is hardly hip and artsy, Hinga Mbogo’s continued use of the property for that purpose would be “non-conforming.”
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
Black Small Businesses Matter!
Zoned out of business is an interesting area of eminent domain law.
If he were in California he could talk to a lawyer about filing an “inverse condemnation” lawsuit and ask for loss of business “goodwill” as damages.
Note that “goodwill” in this context is NOT what is called goodwill in accounting.
Seems like he would be grandfathered, but that was when we still had the rule of law.
He is definitely no shade-tree mechanic, if you click through to the previous article on Forbes he has a 65-66 Mustang and a Shelby Cobra 427 in his shop. He definitely has skills.
Well, he must have been the WRONG kind of Kenyan immigrant.....
/sarc
Would you look at that racist white guy holding the sign in the background????
/sarc
Two weeks ago I was talking with this guy from Ghana in a hotel lobby who was here for about 10 years. Nice, pleasant, smart and an ambitious worker with a positive ‘tude.
A far cry from many of his American born, chip on the shoulder types ‘gibs me dats’ malcontents.
I wonder what #deLIBRE is.
But even if there were some legitimate emergency that required uniform compliance to some new code, you'd think the zoning board had other options. Changing the zoning on a business ex post facto and then demanding that it conform to the new code surely is a "taking," and should obligate the municipality to pay compensation for the value represented by the business activity over an anticipated number of years--something easily established from receipts, in this case.
I don't understand--other than the usual, corrupt, political reasons. In these situations, there's usually the invisible hand of a politically connected competitor in the picture, isn't there? Otherwise, these local totalitarian visions would be impossible to get done.
“planned development district.” “a trendy gateway to the city’s arts district.”
Typically these are created by unelected regional planning councils.
Think Kelo
Dallas City Council has been a cabal of buffoons for quite awhile now. Would like to see a massive demonstration so this good man can keep his business. Govt is a tyrant.
Wonder what his chance of prevailing would be, if he took the matter up with the courts as an unconstitutional taking? If they’re able to force him to sell his property and jeopardize his business, they in actuality are taking from him, and he should be made whole.
South Park covered this very subject...SODA SOPA...all to get a Whole Foods... sad but reality is not too far off!
It’s been my unfortunate experience to lose a business to such zoning notions. I post one word, and one word only to explain how these situations occur:
Liberals.
One never opens a business in a liberal run city. It’s the same as opening a used car lot on Lemon St.
Liberals in Texas have always been resentful of Texas property rights/lack of zoning to keep the ugly (like auto repair shops) out of their upscale environment. This is being done by liberal in Dallas.
It’s an eye-opener to read some of the comments of people involved in these “planning councils” around here.
One guy wants to use the force of government to bring an Applebees or similar chain restaurant to an inner-city corner, currently occupied by an out-of-business gas station (with parking for perhaps five cars).
Another wants to use Eminent Domain to seize a movie theater, which went out of business in 1952, kick out the current owner (who operates a computer repair business there) and turn it back into a movie theater.
Why? Because he believes the neighborhood would be a lot more attractive to the Millenial Chai-Drinking crowd if it had an art movie house.
Hey, Dude, any movie theater that could not hack competition from the DuMont Network really does NOT need to be there.
It would be laughable if they were not dead-serious.
Liberals in Texas have always been resentful of Texas property rights/lack of zoning to keep the ugly (like auto repair shops) out of their upscale environment. This is being done by liberal in Dallas.
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