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December 25, 2007

EMINENT DOMAINIA: The Big Apple Bites!

Here's a sampling of non-Atlantic Yards eminent domain news from this week, including a short article about an Upstate couple who explain how it feels to live under the threat of eminent domain (and you thought your holidays were stressful).

Though NYC's policy of using eminent domain as a tool for handing land over to developers has been apparent to us for a while, 2007 appears to be the year that others are acknowledging that the City's abuse of eminent domain has reached epidemic proportions.

amNY, City threatens eminent domain on planned museum

Four years after an oil company donated land to a Brooklyn couple for a museum to honor the nation's first commissioned ironclad warship, the property, wedged between industrial warehouses and the East River, still sits vacant.

It's not what Janice Lauletta-Weinmann and her husband, George Weinmann, who have lived their entire lives in Greenpoint, envisioned on Dec. 23, 2003, when Motiva Enterprises gave them an acre of land in their neighborhood where the USS Monitor, the focus of their planned museum, was built and launched in 1862.

Five months after being awarded the land, the couple received a letter saying the city planned to seize the property through eminent domain to clear the way for a 28-acre waterfront park along the East River stretching from North Williamsburg to Greenpoint.

amNY, via Duffield St. Underground, AM New York: Rescue Us

Number Four on the AM New York's [preservation] list is Duffield Street:

Development pressures in downtown Brooklyn threaten the existence of several houses possibly linked to the Underground Railroad. Preservationists say the city ignored documents detailing the historical significance of the houses on Duffield Street.

Crain's NY Business, Columbia expansion forges ahead, despite opposition

The plan has been the fulcrum of an extended battle between Columbia and Manhattanville—a battle containing racial and class overtones. The community fears that the university's expansion will overwhelm it and spark a wave of gentrification that will force out artists and manufacturers, and make rents unaffordable. Looming over the project is the possibility that Columbia will seek to have the state exercise its right of eminent domain for the remaining commercial properties needed to realize the school's vision. Opponents argue that for the state to do so would constitute a misuse of eminent domain.

NY Post, Letter to the Editor, COLUMBIA CALAMITY
Christina Walsh from the Institute for Justice criticizes the NY Post's editorial position in support of the Columbia University Expansion plan:

Worldwide, New York City is regarded as a beacon of hope and endless opportunity. Yet it routinely uses eminent domain for private gain.

This sends a message, loud and clear, that in the Big Apple, the American dream is subject to the whims of a tax-hungry government and land-hungry developers.

The Evening Sun, NYRI has dampened holiday for one family
Despite what you think about the NY Regional Interconnect proposal, here's a good look at what it feels like to endure the fear and stress of life under the threat of eminent domain (Yeah, Happy Holidays.):

“It’s a cloud over the holiday,” said Betsy. “You wonder where you’ll be next year. It’s a sick, sad feeling we have in our hearts.”

If the line is eventually built – it would run along the New York Susquehanna & Western railroad tracks behind the Mahannah’s house – Rick and Betsy say they’d be left without any choices.

“We couldn’t live here anymore,” she said. “Even if they didn’t force us out using eminent domain, the house would be as good as condemned. Medically it would be unsafe and the property value would be worth nothing with that power line in our backyard. We couldn’t live there and no one would buy it. It feels like we’re being pushed out the door of our own house and we may not get a blessed penny.”

Posted by lumi at December 25, 2007 7:12 AM