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February 20, 2010
How 'eminent domain' makes blight
New York Post
By Nicole Gelinas
This piece uses the dealings around the proposed Atlantic Yards project as the prime example why eminent domain law needs to be changed in New York. The article concludes with the results of underhanded dealings in Prospect Heights:
Eminent-domain abuse is a symptom of a deeper problem: The belief that central planning is superior to free-market competition. To cure yourself of this notion, stroll around Atlantic Yards, past three-story clapboard homes nestled near corniced row houses -- "blighted" residences. You'll peer up at Goldstein's nearly empty apartment house, scheduled to be destroyed.
And you'll see how Ratner's wrecking balls have made the neighborhood gap-toothed. A vacant lot now sprawls where the historic Ward Bakery was.
Today, Prospect Heights displays what the state wants everyone to see: decay. But it's isn't the work of callous markets that left the neighborhood to perish. It's the work of a developer wielding state power to press property owners to sell their land "voluntarily." Meanwhile, true private investment has been choked off, since everyone knows the state's aiming to hand everything to Ratner.
Posted by steve at February 20, 2010 10:36 AM