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April 26, 2006
Legal Theft In Norwood
Newsweek
The conservative columnist George Will makes the case against eminent domain abuse and explains why the Gambles are fighting the City of Norwood to save their home:
Norwood's government, in a remarkably incestuous deal, accepted the developer's offer to pay the cost of the study that—surprise!—enabled the city to declare the neighborhood "blighted" and "deteriorating." NEWSWEEK reader, stroll around your neighborhood. Do you see any broken sidewalk pavement? Any standing water in a road? Any weeds? Such factors—never mind that sidewalks and roads are government's responsibility—were cited by the developer's study to justify Norwood's forcing the Gambles and their neighbors to sell to the developer so he could build condominiums, office buildings and stores.
NoLandGrab: This case is being watched very carefully by property-rights activists in Brooklyn and the Ratner clan. Many issues run parallel — an inevitable finding of "blight" that benefits a developer who already owns all of the recently developed commercial property adjacent to the site — and the case is on track to possibly reach the US Supreme Court long before the Atlantic Yards eminent domain legal challenge.
Posted by lumi at April 26, 2006 8:55 AM