« Sunday Comic: Coming to a theater near you | Main | Hakeem Jeffries, open letter on Atlantic Yards »
May 28, 2006
F.Y.I.
The New York Times City Section
Taking Private Property
Q. The use of eminent domain for the benefit of private entities is a hot topic nowadays. Was it ever used that way in New York?
A. Your question alludes to a decision last year by the United States Supreme Court, which upheld the right of New London, Conn., to take private property, without the owner's permission, for economic development.
As it turns out, Lisa Bova-Hiatt, deputy chief in charge of condemnation issues for the city's Law Department, said that New York State law, unlike Connecticut's, allowed municipalities to take property for economic development only if the property is blighted.
Officials of the Empire State Development Corporation, for example, have suggested that the corporation may use eminent domain to help make room for the Atlantic Yards project near Downtown Brooklyn, arguing that the blocks that make up the proposed site of the project — on and around a railyard in Prospect Heights — meet the state's definition of blighted. But many who live and work there dispute that description, saying the neighborhood is thriving.
Ms. Bova-Hiatt cited Lincoln Center, Times Square and the MetroTech office park in Downtown Brooklyn as three developments that were based on the condemnation of blighted property.
NoLandGrab: Hmmm, Lincoln Center, Times Square and MetroTech. Can you guess which one of the three Bruce Ratner hasn't had a hand in? (Hint: he was still in short pants when the Upper West Side's arts mecca was created, otherwise....)
The Times, by the way, appears to be forgetting that it's a recent beneficiary of a Times Square condemnation action - in partnership with the aforementioned Mr. Ratner.
Posted by lumi at May 28, 2006 6:34 PM