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December 29, 2004
Residents fight to save homes. Developers out to prove neighborhood is blighted.
The Cincinnati Enquirer, Nov 25, 2004: Citizens Against Eminent Domain Abuse formed in Norwood, OH to fight the city's use of eminent domain for reasons of blight.
New group leaders - as well as some council members - take offense to the possible blight designation. They call the study a ploy to pressure property owners.
"If this block is blighted, then 75 percent of Norwood is blighted," said Nick Motz, a new group leader who owns a business, Wilker Design, at Edwards and Edmondson roads. "There are people that want to sell their property. That's fine. But those who don't shouldn't be forced to hand it over to another private person."
This significance of the sister struggle in Norwood from the Nov. 25th Enquirer only became clear at the end of November when Forest City Ratner Exec. VP Jim Stuckey revealed that the State was planning on using "BLIGHT" as the reason for condemning private property in the footprint of the proposed Atlantic Yards development. Nick Motz's quote from the article can be adapted to Brooklyn:
"If the blocks between Flatbush, Pacific, Vanderbuilt and Dean are blighted, then nearly all of Brooklyn is blighted."
Posted by lumi at December 29, 2004 8:14 AM