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December 26, 2006
EMINENT DOMAINIA
The Canton Repository, NOTES & QUOTES
“Your houses, your homes, your family, your friends. May they live in misery that never ends. I curse you all. May you rot in hell. To each of you, I send this spell.”
Greeting card sent by Susette Kelo, to New London, Conn., city officials and members of the city’s development agency. Kelo lost a controversial eminent-domain case in the U.S. Supreme Court last year.
Castle Watch, Queens, NY: House of Spices May Be Replaced By Bland Development
The “Iron Triangle” area of Willetts Point in Queens is a lot more than a collection of auto parts suppliers and other businesses. It’s also a haven for immigrants who are attracted to the neighborhood to find steady employment and learn English.
But if the City of New York gets its way, it could be responsible for destroying the jobs of hundreds of those immigrants. That’s because the City has its eye on the area to demolish the more than 200 small businesses, most of which were started by immigrants themselves. The proposed redevelopment area, just east of Shea Stadium, would include a bland slab of upscale retail and luxury housing, typical of the developments that city councils want nationwide to generate higher tax revenues.
One of the many businesses that have thrived in Willetts Point for generations is “House of Spices,” an Indian food supply company owned by third-generation American Neil Soni. Soni boasts that roughly two-thirds of his employees are new immigrants, originally hailing from India, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
The Cincinnati Enquirer, Eminent domain legal bill: $850K
The Institute for Justice, a civil-liberties law firm that successfully represented at no charge the property owners who fought Norwood's use of eminent domain, is seeking more than $850,000 in compensation from Rookwood Partners.
Rookwood Partners wanted to build a $125 million commercial development at Edwards and Edmondson roads.
But the Ohio Supreme Court ruled in July that Norwood illegally used eminent domain to acquire properties on the proposed Rookwood Exchange site from people who didn't want to sell.
That ruling stopped the project from being built.
Scott Bullock, attorney for the Institute for Justice, said Ohio law allows non-profit organizations that win cases involving constitutional law to be compensated for fees and expenses even when no fees have been charged to their clients.
Posted by lumi at December 26, 2006 11:46 AM