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November 9, 2006
NY State Left Behind in "Kelo's Revenge"
From DEVELOP DON'T DESTROY BROOKLYN'S response to yesterday's massive voter backlash to the US Supreme Court's Kelo decision:
It is clear that American citizens understand eminent domain abuse better than most of the officials they elect, and want to see it returned to its proper, constititutional use. When pure eminent domain reform is proposed we consistently find ordinary citizens pitted against municipalities and real estate developers with vested interests in keeping eminent domain laws as broad as possible.
New York State and Forest City Ratner, we believe, are abusing eminent domain in an unconstitutional manner, and owners and tenants in the proposed "Atlantic Yards" footprint have filed a federal lawsuit saying so. New York State, perhaps one of the worst abusers after only New Jersey, was unable to bring numerous eminent domain reform bills out of the Assembly judiciary committee. The Senate judiciary committee did move bills forward to the Senate but they have not moved forward. Albany has not even been able to pass a bill that would simply set up a commission to further study the need for eminent domain reform. Thus New Yorkers are left with only one option to protect their rights–the courts. (By the way, oddly enough, Governor Pataki did indeed prohibit eminent domain for the NY Interconnect power line project–a traditional public use–while supporting it fully for Ratner's luxury housing and arena project–a non-traditional use. Pataki is named as a defendant in the lawsuit referred to above.)
Posted by lumi at November 9, 2006 11:37 AM