From UPI
Officials of a poor, predominantly black Florida town plan to relocate about 6,000 residents to make room for a billion-dollar yachting and housing complex.
The coastal community of Rivera Beach in Palm Beach County may use eminent domain, if necessary, to claim 400 acres of land for the project, The Washington Times reported Monday.
“This is a community that’s in dire need of jobs, which has a median income of less than $19,000 a year,” Mayor Michael Brown said. “If we don’t use this power, cities will die.”
The U.S. Supreme Court in June upheld the use of eminent domain for economic purposes, ruling against a group of New London, Conn., homeowners fighting a proposed corporate development.
The City Council last week chose a New Jersey-based developer, Viking Inlet Harbor Properties LLC, to oversee the project, which is expected to displace 2,000 houses.
Viking has said it will pay at least the assessed values of homes and businesses it buys.
Dana Berliner, a lawyer who represented the New London homeowners, warned, “Once someone can be replaced, so something more expensive can go where they were, every home and business in the country is subject to taking by someone else.”
I don’t want to jump the gun here—after all, I suppose it’s possible that the entire 400 acres is run down beyond repair, and that all 2000 houses meet the criteria for takeover under eminent domain—but that seems rather unlikely.
Instead, what we have is a burgeoning municipal mantra: All your homes are belong to us!
For some nice background on the ideology behind this move, on the part of local governments, to spread what can best be described as Constitutional socialism, see Matt Welch: “Why the New York Times Hearts Eminent Domain” and “The left’s eyeing your home”.
(h/t Robb Allen, who is spitting mad)
Well I see you dingers are still repeating the Rovien message machine….
For all of you who are not, see this link right now:
http://mattstover.blogspot.com/2005/09/heres-one-for-all-you-unclear-on.html
Are you clear yet Jeebus chickenhaws? Do you think we don’t see how you are tryign to distact us with the War so you can take over with corporate rule and steal welfare?
But you still can
Valuing businesses is a very tricky schtick. I mean, when you’re average outparcel or shadow anchored property near a Walmart is ‘assessed’ for between four and five million bucks; it’s almost ludicrous to want to bulldoze it down and build another business on top of it. My guess is, these people are going to get something like a liquidation value for their homes, not a replacement value, and not the value that the property holds for them. Not a price that they would sell it for anyway. This whole thing reeks of fat-cattery, and if it was my neighborhood I’d come up with a plan to burn my home down and collect the insurance. I guarantee that settlement would be bigger than the forced sale price from these Viking Properties folks.
If Mr. Stover had any possession of basic spelling and grammar abilities, I might be inclined to investigate his skills in observation and argument. I mean, if he’s going to just paste this sort of thing into every comments section he comes across, spell-checking isn’t too much to ask.
Just a thought, mind you. On second thought, I rather doubt cleaning up his act would induce me to read him, given that “chickenhaws” seems to be the diseased, bug-eaten core of his public existence.
We’re stealing welfare? How come no one fills me in on this stuff?
And what exactly is a “Jeebus chickenhaw?”
New question re: Miers – What do you think of the Kelo ruling?
OT: but Drudge has his siren out and some 1000 point font on Miers now…
I don’t believe all the houses in New London were ‘run down beyond repair’ either. It wasn’t a high-rent area, to be sure, but not completely ‘blighted’ either.
The question is: did Kelo simply allow local tax revenue generation to be used as a compelling public interest when a taking is to be accomplished? If so, the condition of the properties under discussion; specifically, whether or not they meet criteria for a taking; is legal maneuvering. Under those conditions, not much is safe.
Well, it’s obvious to me that the poor run down communities are the most well equiped to deal with relocation. I’m sure they will all find equitable priced homes near by and they will all qualify to purchase those homes. Furthermore, I must admit I have a fair amount of experience lending B,C and D grade mortgages and I’m absolutely certain that these same individuals won’t spend that equity on anything but a new home. I’m sure non of them will get caught in a one time higher income tax bracket because they’ve lived most of their life below a taxible level. I’m sure they have tax advisors to explain the capital gains tax associated with getting a big fat check from the sale of your home. In addition I’m sure the tax assesed value of these properties would never, ever be below what is owed on those same homes in an age of 90 to 125% LTV second mortgages.
This sound like a great idea. From a pure economical view this is as fugly as it gets. This isn’t just one guy’s Muffler shop, it’s a whole community and a poor one at that.
’Jeebus chickenhaws’? I think you’ve coined a phrase there, Stover. Nice on a t-shirt. One with long sleeves that can be wrapped around your shoulders and tied behind your back. A little Rovien, maybe, but thanks for ‘tryign’.
And I wouldn’t even consider trying to distract you from the quagmire in Iraq. In fact, I’ll even give you a little push. Perhaps you can tell us how deep it is….
Just saw Drudge. Harriet looks suspiciously like a Democrat– a Janet Reno Democrat. In fact, Bush looks suspiciously like a Democrat.
I stand affirmed.
Hmmmm.
What a wonderful way to gerrymander a state. Identify all of those areas in a state that are blue, or red depending on your point of view, and then take the properties, kick out the residents and give’em just enough money to move out of state.
Hell if you can get enough of them to leave the state, you won’t have to deal with them come next election cycle.
Man that just creeps me out.
SCOTUS just doesn’t care about black people, it appears.
Kelo-cation.
Cain’s joking, right?
Kelocation? NOBODY WITH THE GAME-WINNING GRAND SLAM! Too right, man that’s hilarious.
It seems that what this case and the Kelo case have in common is WATERFRONT PROPERTY!!!!
If they want to do this, they should have to pay the full price of the cleared, consolidated title, development-approved land to these residents. Probably two to ten times per acre than they plan to pay them.
Building on the waterfront is next to impossible for an individual homeowner, and almost so for a small development company. Now, get the city on your side, and you’re golden.
Talk about buy low, sell high!
Nobody: You’ve just coined a term that will gain infamy, I predict. Well done.
Cain: We would never dream of distracting you with “the War” so that we can “steal welfare” and “take over corporate rule.” Frankly we’re all too busy installing Rovien Message Machine 2.1(beta) upgrades. You’d think with all the input Bill Gates had on this version, the damn thing’d work better with XP than it does.
But seriously Stover, is there a Bush Derangement pageant that you’re trying out for? “BDS Poster Boy” title you’re trying to win? You’d be funny if you weren’t so sad.
This isn’t <a href=”https://www.proteinwisdom.com/index.php?/weblog/entry/hurricane_coverage_and_the_
legacy_medias_mainstream_failures/”>the first time</a> cain’s blathered on about <a href=”https://www.proteinwisdom.com/index.php?/weblog/entry/how_i_know_im_not_turning_i
nto_andrew_sullivan_1/”>”Jeebus chickenhaws”</a>. It’s like he uses the phrase as some sort of retarded schtick or something.
Oops, sorry about that. Frankly, I’m not sure what went wrong with posting that.
Cain/Stover,
Maybe you were too busy listening to Howard Dean to notice it was the conservative justices who voted against Kelo.
Hello?
(cricket chirps)
AWG, it looks like you forgot a space between the href and the “
Either that or the comment section doesn’t support links? *shrug*
Kelocation,,, I have to write that down somewhere.
Kelocate, v: to forcibly remove someone from their own property with a nickel
Federal aid for New Orleans=allocations for kelocations?
…and the entire Louisiana purchase was only $3 million.
Create jobs? Sure, all those janitor and busboy jobs will get that economy moving!
The problem with buying properties for their ‘full value according to their owners’ is that you don’t need Kelo for that. You just need a free market.
Hmmm.
“C’mon c’mon do the Kelocation with me ….”
Hehe.
I don’t know what’s up with that. My links work just fine. But then, I don’t use the button. Maybe there’s something wrong with the button.
[pokes at it dubiously, flinches, notices nothing has exploded]
…or not.
You know, getting linked by Hit&Run is going to do nothing for your conservative bona fides.