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January 16, 2010
Robin Hood in Reverse
City Journal
By John K. Ross, Dick Carpenter
This article summarizes a study of eminent domain and that finds that "... eminent-domain abuse in New York disproportionately affects ethnic and racial minorities and those less well-off and less educated." A call is made for the New York legislature to fix eminent domain use in New York.
In November, New York’s Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, upheld the use of eminent domain to take homes and small businesses to make way for wealthy developer Bruce Ratner’s so-called “Atlantic Yards” development: 16 mammoth skyscrapers centered around a basketball arena. The court accepted the Empire State Development Corporation’s contention that the area was “blighted”—based on a study that Ratner paid for himself and which wasn’t even initiated until years after the project was announced.
The court didn’t go so far as to embrace the reasoning of the U.S. Supreme Court’s infamous 2005 ruling in Kelo v. City of New London, which allows governments to condemn property for economic-development reasons alone, regardless of whether the property is blighted. And just a few weeks later, a lower court rejected a similar attempt to condemn “blighted” properties in West Harlem on behalf of Columbia University, which was seeking to obtain a 17-acre site for expansion. But this limitation offers little comfort to property owners in New York State, which remains the nation’s worst abuser of eminent domain. Thousands of properties remain at risk for condemnation under the absurdly lax blight standards given a green light by the state’s highest court.
...
Following Kelo, 43 states passed reforms to rein in eminent domain abuse. New York did not. In 2009, legislators in Albany introduced dozens of bills, ranging from strong reforms such as forbidding condemnation for private projects to superficial remedies like requiring another round of hearings, an additional vote on projects, and the creation of a “comprehensive redevelopment plan” prior to condemnation. As in every legislative session since Kelo, bills languished in committee.
The Court of Appeals ruling should be a clarion call to state legislators that they cannot avoid the issue any longer. The court’s deference to blight designations, and the punitive nature of eminent-domain abuse, suggest that mere procedural reforms will not suffice. To protect New York property owners, eminent domain for private development must be brought to an end.
Additional information...
The Institute for Justice's study can be found here.
Here's a summary of the proposed Atlantic Yards project:
In 2003, developer Forest City Ratner announced plans to build a basketball stadium and 16 office towers on 22 acres in Brooklyn. The project will displace some 330 residents, 33 businesses with 235 employees, and a homeless shelter.[17] The plan was approved, despite competing offers from other developers that would not have relied on eminent domain and would not have required an estimated $1 billion in public subsidies.[18] The neighborhood, which consists of warehouses converted into condos, light industrial businesses and a still-operating Prohibition-era bar, has been declared blighted because it sits next to an unused rail yard owned by the state.[19]
Posted by steve at January 16, 2010 9:35 AM