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October 8, 2009
PRESS RELEASE: New Report Documents Widespread Eminent Domain Abuse Across New York State
From the Institute for Justice:
New York is one of the worst states in the nation when it comes to abusing eminent domain for private gain, according to the Institute for Justice, which tracks such abuses nationwide.
The Institute for Justice, which litigated the infamous Kelo eminent domain case before the U.S. Supreme Court, today released a report that documents example after example where government officials across the Empire State used eminent domain not to create projects that would be owned and used by the public—such as a courthouse or post office—but, rather, to create private development that would financially benefit politically powerful private developers.
The report, “Building Empires, Destroying Homes: Eminent Domain Abuse in New York,” states, “Over the past decade, a host of government jurisdictions and agencies statewide have condemned or threatened to condemn homes and small businesses for the New York Stock Exchange, The New York Times, IKEA, Costco, and Stop & Shop. An inner-city church lost its future home to eminent domain for commercial development that never came to pass. Scores of small business owners have been threatened with seizure for a private university in Harlem and for office space in Queens and Syracuse. Older homes were on the chopping block near Buffalo, simply so newer homes could be built. From Montauk Point to Niagara Falls, every community in the Empire State is subject to what the U.S. Supreme Court has accurately called the ‘despotic power.’”
A copy of the report is available at: http://www.ij.org/BuildingEmpires.
Posted by lumi at October 8, 2009 6:06 AM