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January 22, 2008

EMINENT DOMAINIA: The Big Apple Bites!

Columbia Spectator, Possibility of Eminent Domain Worries Manhattanville Residents

Bright orange brick reaches into the Manhattanville skyline, refusing to blend in. Though the business name painted on the wall reads “Tuck-It-Away,” the building’s owner does the opposite when expressing his thoughts about Columbia’s expansion. It is one of only three properties preventing Columbia’s full control of the campus footprint. But above “Tuck-It-Away” reads another message—“Stop Columbia! We Won’t Be Pushed Out!”

Though the city approved the University’s expansion plan, a major aspect of the project remains uncertain—whether the state will invoke eminent domain on the University’s behalf.

NoLandGrab: You can be "certain" that "the state will invoke eminent domain on the University’s behalf."

The article also mentions Atlantic Yards, but gets developer Bruce Ratner's and NY State's official justification of the project totally wrong:

In two of the city’s recent eminent domain cases, developers proposed replacing private properties at Brooklyn’s Atlantic Yards and Queens’ Willets Point with commercial real estate. The state granted eminent domain for Atlantic Yards and is considering invocation for Willets Point. The Atlantic Yards decision, and apprehension about Willets Point, sparked a fury of opposition from local residents and community leaders who allege eminent-domain abuse.

Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner defended the construction by explaining that, although it would not be for public use, the project would be more economically beneficial than the existing properties.

The justification for the use of eminent domain is "blight." Initially Ratner used both reasons, blight clearance and economic development. However, after the Kelo *case was decided so closely, with one concurring justice describing an exception that sounded very much like Atlantic Yards, the developer and the State fell back on the old warhorse, BLIGHT."

Castle Watch Daily, The occasional irony of eminent domain

It was to complement the Pfizer facility that the city of New London invoked eminent domain on the properties of Susette Kelo and her neighbors. On January 5, Crain’s New York Business reported:

Assemblyman Vito Lopez, D-Brooklyn, has written a bill to condemn several acres in Williamsburg that Pfizer has owned since the 1800s. He wants the plot taken by eminent domain to make way for affordable housing.

But Pfizer denies Mr. Lopez’s claim that the drugmaker reneged on a pledge to give the land away for public use once it closes its plant there.

Duffield St. Underground, Duffield Street is the #1 story of the year

On Jan. 3, the Downtown Brooklyn Star published its countdown of the Top 10 Stories of 2007, and Duffield Street even surpassed the Atlantic Yards.

GroundReport.com, Presidential Candidate Defended Black Church Dispossessed By Eminent Domain

Local Libertarian Party leader Richard Cooper reports from the town of West Hempstead:

The town offered $80,000 for a property that the church paid $130,000 and held a $200,000 mortgage. A member of the zoning board said "We have enough churches here in New Cassel." Rev. Fred Jenkins and St. Luke's Pentecostal Church did not want to sell at any price. The Church wanted to renew the community and the building with "God's plan and their money" instead of "the Town's plan and the taxpayers' money."

2008 Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul, MD (R-TX) heard our voice as reported in Libertarian Party News and acted. He introduced a bill with the cosponsorship of Congresswoman Carolyn Kilpatrick (D-MI) to bar the use of federal funds to seize houses of worship.

Posted by lumi at January 22, 2008 7:12 PM