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Thread: Eminent Domain: how to get f*c'd outta prperty in 5 ez steps

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    God/dess whirlerz's Avatar
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    Default Eminent Domain: how to get f*c'd outta prperty in 5 ez steps

    Well, they've been "improving" my town for the past couple yrs. or so (read, tearing things down, replacing w/condos, etc.
    Now, the trailer park I call home is being targeted, they want a shopping mall here & everyone got a letter from our landlord. (We don't own our lots, some ppl own their homes & some rent from the park). I for one can barely get by paying lot rent, having to work part time & taking care of my family. Our landlord says he will fight it, but it seems inevitable since this is a prime area, & already stores are said to be targeting this area. There is a meeting coming up concerning this, I spoke to a few ppl & they are going, as well as myself. The letter said it will be voted on this spring, we may or may not get compensated at all.
    My plan is this: try to sell off what I can, begin packing, read all I can about possibly getting a mortgage for a real home, looking into addit'l work, hoping for the best.


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    God/dess montythegeek's Avatar
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    Default Re: Eminent Domain: how to get f*c'd outta prperty in 5 ez steps

    Poor Bunz,
    Most state legislatures/local governments take the approach that they want more property taxes and fewer students, so screw the residents. Either that or they put the lot owner in a squeeze, saying we will pay you what it is worth on the market today, but YOU have to pay for all the displaced persons out of your end, even if the forced-seller would not sell at that price with those restrictions.

    the only fdefense is the Souter defense--people are trying to use eminent domain to take Supreme Court justice dAvid Souter;s home as a "punishment" for his opinion in the case that let Connecticut cease homes for "tax enrichment". You need publicity. Start petitions to cease the homes of the political entity that wants yours and gather signatures at the grocery store with signs that say "Your home is next!!", then call the TV station. Booracraps are way behind public opinion on this issue because they think they know the right thing to do and want to cram it down peoples' throats. Go after THEM and make as much nosie as possible complete with crying babies and seniors in wheel chairs saying they want them to die!!!

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    Default Re: Eminent Domain: how to get f*c'd outta prperty in 5 ez steps

    Quote Originally Posted by montythegeek
    You need publicity. Start petitions to cease the homes of the political entity that wants yours and gather signatures at the grocery store with signs that say "Your home is next!!", then call the TV station. Booracraps are way behind public opinion on this issue because they think they know the right thing to do and want to cram it down peoples' throats. Go after THEM and make as much nosie as possible complete with crying babies and seniors in wheel chairs saying they want them to die!!!
    There was a case in Lincoln, Nebraska last year where the city wanted to condemn an entire block with four small businesses on it so they could sell the land to hotel developer John Q Hammons to build a luxury hotel. When the story about eminent domain hit the front page (and practically the entire front page) of the local newspaper, prompting public outrage, city leaders began backpedaling in a hurry. Just goes to show that when you've got the press and public opinion on your side, you can fight city hall.

    If I were in Whirlerz position, all of the local media outlets are the first place that I would head.
    Former SCJ now in rehab.

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    Featured Member GnBeret's Avatar
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    Default Re: Eminent Domain: how to get f*c'd outta prperty in 5 ez steps

    Quote Originally Posted by whirlerz
    ... There is a meeting coming up concerning this, I spoke to a few ppl & they are going, as well as myself. The letter said it will be voted on this spring, we may or may not get compensated at all....
    Go to the meeting and get as many other disaffected people as you can to attend as well. There's no such thing as "may not get compensated at all." You'll have the right to a jury trial re (1) public purpose; and (2) assuming government prevails re "public purpose," fair market value of the property - which is where the real fun begins, as ya'll can pool your resources and hire expert witnesses who will value the property at a significantly higher amount than the government is offering and an attorney with expropriation litigation experience who can sell it to the jury. If nothing else, government will likely increase offer by more than enough to cover cost of experts and attorney somewhere along the way prior to trial... and, if not, take a shot - jurors tend to go with property owners' valuations (if not totally outrageous) as sympathize with their being displaced against will with no compensation (i.e., damages) for trauma of same. Moreover, in most states the landowner can recover costs (expert witness fees, etc.) and attorney fees when they prevail (exceed governments' offer).

    Fact is, they're going to take your property (government rarely loses on "public purpose" question)... but, that doesn't mean you have to let them f*** you for cheap in the process.
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    Default Re: Eminent Domain: how to get f*c'd outta prperty in 5 ez steps

    If I were in Whirlerz position, all of the local media outlets are the first place that I would head
    it's true that local media can hold sway in such issues ... PROVIDED that most of the other local residents (i.e. those unaffected by the proposed emanant domain seizure) actually prefer to see these 'neighbors' left alone versus new developments.

    Not to be overly negative, but the public outcry usually works best when the areas affected by emanent domain proceedings involve multi-generation law-abiding homeowners/taxpayers whose house just happens to be in the middle of a beachfront parcel or a parcel bordering the intersection of two interstate highways, and when the proposed development involves something catering to the uber-rich that local residents have mixed feelings about. The public reaction might be entirely different when the areas affected by emanent domain proceedings involves a trailer park, inner city slums, high crime areas etc. which local residents would in truth rather see replaced by something/anything else, and increasing the surrounding property values as a result !

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    God/dess Bridgette's Avatar
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    Default Re: Eminent Domain: how to get f*c'd outta prperty in 5 ez steps

    Round up as many residents as you can, especially the elderly, sick, babies, etc to go to that meeting - and call all the local media you can to ALSO attend the meeting. It'll be plastered all over the tv and newspapers almost immediately and I'll bet those city officials and businesses will start to take a different opinion on this. At the very least you should be able to get a lil $$ out of the deal

    Quote Originally Posted by pheno View Post
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    God/dess montythegeek's Avatar
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    Default Re: Eminent Domain: how to get f*c'd outta prperty in 5 ez steps

    Bunz does not own her lot, so they can just throw her out in many places with a pittance. Your biggest allies are likely to be the businesses who would have to compete with the new place if buildt and the non-displaced houses who will now find their traffic screwed up at Christmas time. They should also make demands that they are being taken from by all the comparative activity destroying their homes value without compensation. The idea is to take it to them, and make it so expensive to fight that the town gives up. Go after the people who want to build a mall, find a graveyard or archeological site that some native American tribe used 300 years ago. Find an endangered weed or frog. there have to be some politicians who are smart enough to see the voters hate eminent domain for private purposes. google eminent domain and find out who helped folks in the New London case and see who filed friend of the court briefs for the people.

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    God/dess Deogol's Avatar
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    Default Re: Eminent Domain: how to get f*c'd outta prperty in 5 ez steps

    This shit is happening ALL OVER THE PLACE these days.

    I hear the pundits on talk radio going on about this nonsense - and really a constitutional amendment is in order to check this. But what amendments can they offer up? Gay marriage. Un-fucking-believable.

    I am curious just how much is going to come out of the abramhoff scandal. I doubt much if anything.

    I blame the voters. So many people don't get off their ass to vote. Others vote party line because "in the 60's dey waz lookin out for us!" irregardless the nonsense that goes on. Voters don't work the recall card enough. They don't demand ballot initiatives be made available in their state.

    They bitch and moan - and then they turn the channel. Not to mention incredible short-sightedness and greed (mostly for cheap goods at the sacrifice of their fellow citizens so they can have MORE MORE MORE shit to store up in the garage.)

    I hate to say it, but in a way, this country deserves what it is getting.

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    God/dess Deogol's Avatar
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    Default Re: Eminent Domain: how to get f*c'd outta prperty in 5 ez steps

    Quote Originally Posted by montythegeek
    Bunz does not own her lot, so they can just throw her out in many places with a pittance. Your biggest allies are likely to be the businesses who would have to compete with the new place if buildt and the non-displaced houses who will now find their traffic screwed up at Christmas time. They should also make demands that they are being taken from by all the comparative activity destroying their homes value without compensation. The idea is to take it to them, and make it so expensive to fight that the town gives up. Go after the people who want to build a mall, find a graveyard or archeological site that some native American tribe used 300 years ago. Find an endangered weed or frog. there have to be some politicians who are smart enough to see the voters hate eminent domain for private purposes. google eminent domain and find out who helped folks in the New London case and see who filed friend of the court briefs for the people.
    But making it expensive for them means making it expensive for you.

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    God/dess whirlerz's Avatar
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    Default Re: Eminent Domain: how to get f*c'd outta prperty in 5 ez steps

    Well, first of all, thank you kindly to everyone who answered. My head is still spinning from all this.I talked to one lady yesterday, she is terrified (as I am) of becoming homeless. She is almost 60, has been suffering a period of extended unemployment. She is a renter (of her home) so she wouldn't get anything if we get kicked out, barely making it..I know she tries hard to find work. I'm just back working myself after a huge non working dry spell.
    I've had to leave an apt bldg. (after 7 yrs) because of an owner change, & a condo so now it's the same old sh** (even worse).
    I'm trying to figure out a gentle way to explain it my mom, I'd like to bring her to the meeting. There is already a petition circulating (they came by briefly & I was out yesterday)
    Believe me, I'd have no trouble going to the press, going on a talk show, contacting the state reps, whatever. Right now, the owner of the park has hired some attorney to fight it, I want to see how the 1st meeting (a week from this Mon) comes out. I woouldn't mind press at the meeting. The two business nearby don't want us out either


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    Default Re: Eminent Domain: how to get f*c'd outta prperty in 5 ez steps

    Whirlerz...PM me and let me know where you live. I believe you live in my general area, so I would like to know where this is happening.

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    God/dess montythegeek's Avatar
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    Default Re: Eminent Domain: how to get f*c'd outta prperty in 5 ez steps

    Quote Originally Posted by Deogol
    But making it expensive for them means making it expensive for you.
    If you fight them with lawyers, you are right, if you fight them with bad publicity, no. A petition drive with the press covering it costs vey little. " A we don't want to be homeless for a mall" march on City Hall costs a little shoe leather.

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    Default Re: Eminent Domain: how to get f*c'd outta prperty in 5 ez steps

    and really a constitutional amendment is in order to check this. But what amendments can they offer up? Gay marriage. Un-fucking-believable.

    I am curious just how much is going to come out of the abramhoff scandal. I doubt much if anything.

    I blame the voters. So many people don't get off their ass to vote. Others vote party line because "in the 60's dey waz lookin out for us!" irregardless the nonsense that goes on.
    I biting my tongue while attempting to minimize injecting politics into a financial forum, but the primary political backers of expanding the govt's eminent domain powers (i.e. forfeiting the rights of individual property owners to benefit a supposed greater public good) are for the most part the same politicians and judges who also support expanding the govt's gun control powers (i.e. forfeiting the 'rights' of individual gun owners to benefit a supposed greater public good), expanding the govt's tobacco control powers (i.e. forfeiting the 'rights' of individual smokers to benefit a supposed greater public good), expanding the govt's zoning and business regulation powers (i.e. forfeiting the 'rights' of individual business owners to benefit a supposed greater public good), expanding the govt's 'hate speech' regulation powers (i.e. forfeiting the 'rights' of individuals to express particular opinions in public to benefit a supposed greater public good) etc. etc. The only significant difference where recently expanded gov't eminent domain powers is concerned appears to be that the 'slippery slope' that individual 'rights' began sliding down over the course of all of these other expansions of gov't power has now FINALLY taken a 'personal' toll on Americans who previously supported all of the other gov't inroads into the individual rights of Americans to own guns, to smoke, to run their own businesses as they themselves saw fit etc. etc.

    In terms of future probabilities, there is probably zero chance that a concensus can be reached between the 'red' states and the 'blue' states to enable the passage of a constitutional amendment re eminent domain, just as there is probably zero chance of a concensus being reached on other issues i.e. gun control, tobacco regulation, zoning & business regulation, or future controversial issues i.e. gay marriage, abortion, etc. As such, in all likelihood eminent domain, as with the other controversial issues, will revert to the jurisdiction of individual states to decide for themselves the appropriate applications of eminent domain forced evictions and sales.

    Many states with 'black hole' budget deficits see the use of eminent domain to evict 'undesireable' local residents and to attract high-ticket developer property investment as a double win situation. First, the state and localities directly profit from increased property tax revenues on the redeveloped property. Second, the state and localities indirectly profit from reduced public expenditures if a portion of the 'evicted' local residents wind up relocating out of the jurisdiction thus transferring the cost of any social welfare benefits to another jurisdiction as well, while at the same time attracting more taxpayers into the jurisdiction because of the redeveloped property thus increasing state/local tax collections. As many states find themselves running out of options in regard to balancing their budgets, eminent domain for the purpose of private redevelopment has now become one of the few options which can actually help achieve this without pissing off the majority of registered voters (99% of which are personally unaffected by the eminent domain proceedings) as other options such as increasing state/local property/income/sales tax rates would definitely do.

    For anyone who is personally affected by an eminent domain proceeding, i.e. being told by the gov't that they have to move elsewhere, you have my sympathy. All I can say is that you have now joined the realm of persons who have been told by the gov't that they cannot purchase a handgun, that they cannot smoke a cigarette in a bar, that they cannot expand their business, that they cannot install a septic tank in their back yard etc. Just keep telling yourself that 'its for the public good' !

    IMHO eminent domain in regard to the removal of 'slums' is a done deal, and has been for many years now. I'm much more concerned that local govt's will latch onto eminent domain as an indirect means of achieving other political objectives in the interest of the 'public good' which those local govt's have been unable to achieve by previous means. In particular, I'm concerned that local govt's will begin to use eminent domain as a means of forcing strip clubs to relocate ... with the only properly zoned 'new' locations for strip clubs being next to the city dump, heavy industry etc. and well away from hotels and commercial business districts (with obvious negative effects on the strip club's business model).

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    God/dess Deogol's Avatar
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    Default Re: Eminent Domain: how to get f*c'd outta prperty in 5 ez steps

    Some ideas:



    Group Seeks Souter Eviction As Protest

    Group Descending on Justice Souter's N.H. Hometown in Eminent Domain Protest

    By KATHY McCORMACK Associated Press Writer
    The Associated PressThe Associated Press

    CONCORD, N.H. Jan 21, 2006 — Angered by a Supreme Court ruling that gave local governments more power to seize people's homes for economic development, a group of activists is trying to get one of the court's justices evicted from his own home.

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    God/dess doc-catfish's Avatar
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    Default Re: Eminent Domain: how to get f*c'd outta prperty in 5 ez steps

    Quote Originally Posted by Melonie
    IMHO eminent domain in regard to the removal of 'slums' is a done deal, and has been for many years now.
    The problem is that they tend to keep broadening the definition of "slum" or more commonly used "blighted area" to fit the agenda of these greedy developers. These folks in Ohio almost found that out the hard way.

    http://www.ij.org/private_property/lakewood/

    Truthfully, I think a lot of folks are going to think twice about buying any home in an older section of their community for fear that 10-20 years down the road, the neighborhood that its in will be in some ED project's crosshairs. So much for helping out property values.
    Former SCJ now in rehab.

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    Default Re: Eminent Domain: how to get f*c'd outta prperty in 5 ez steps

    Again the Lakewood case fits the successful formula of the property being threatened belonging to lifelong residents who are taxpayers and 'fine upstanding citizens' whose private home of many years was being threatened. I highly doubt that the local voters would react the same way for the benefit of a trailer park, for the benefit of a low rent apartment complex, etc. that was being threatened instead.

    Besides the issue of renters having no 'property rights' beyond the length of their current lease, there is also the politically incorrect issue that, statistically speaking, trailer parks and low rent apartment complexes tend to contribute little in income/property taxes, tend to consume much in social welfare benefits, tend to have higher crime rates, and tend to depress surrounding property values. Thus in the majority of cases surrounding property owners stand to personally benefit if the affected trailer park or low rent apartment complexes were replaced with stores or upscale condos, and the former residents of the trailer park and/or low rent apartment complexes were to relocate somewhere else (preferably in the next county or better yet the next state !).

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    Default Re: Eminent Domain: how to get f*c'd outta prperty in 5 ez steps

    Well, 2 ladies (residents here) are circulating a petition to fight this. It sounds like many of the residents will be @ the meeting next week. This park has been here since the early 50's. From what I can gather it seems more of a case of wanting $tores to bring in $ales tax, then considering any type of "improvement".


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    Default Re: Eminent Domain: how to get f*c'd outta prperty in 5 ez steps

    Be sure to call the press in to that meeting! Don't wait for someone else to do it. YOU do it. Call the papers, tv and radio stations and talk to anyone who will listen. Tell them you and your neighbors are facing eviction so some greedy developers can build a shopping mall where you live; tell them about the meeting, and invite them to come.

    I also like Monty's idea of staging a march on City Hall complete with signs and chants saying we're being evicted for a shopping mall. Stage the march with as many neighbors as you can, the more pitiful-looking the better (ha), and tip off the press about it's occurrence. The press will eat this stuff up.

    Get creative. Don't just sit on your ass and wish it wouldn't happen. Take action.

    Quote Originally Posted by pheno View Post
    When you lead a nontraditional life don't try to measure it with traditional milestones.

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    God/dess whirlerz's Avatar
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    Default Re: Eminent Domain: how to get f*c'd outta prperty in 5 ez steps

    You're joking, right?^


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    God/dess montythegeek's Avatar
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    Default Re: Eminent Domain: how to get f*c'd outta prperty in 5 ez steps

    No W,
    B is not joking. The only way to stop a group from buying the land and tossing you out as road kill is to get the public on your side. the only way to get people on your side is if they have the idea in the back of their minds that the same damn thing could be done to THEM--otherwise it is 4 miles closer to the new mall, than the old one. the press is going to love covering a peoples' revolt against a nameless, faceless bunch of technocrats who have no hearts and just want to grab the land. What bleeds will lead off the show, but what gets the blood boiling and people damn-mad is a threat to THEIR homes, even remote.

    You have to get nasty or you are going to be out on your butt. Ask the governor for an ethics probe of the developer and the authority doing the taking. Find out if anyone related to the authority members has any connection to the developer, or could sell stuff to them. Find out about any sunshine (open government) rules and get transcripts of meetings. GET MEAN!

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    Default Re: Eminent Domain: how to get f*c'd outta prperty in 5 ez steps

    Again I don't want to burst anybody's bubble, but it's one thing when a lifelong resident homeowner and his family are being ousted by eminent domain proceedings. As you say, it is rather easy for news media to appeal to other homeowners and families which share a lot of attributes with the family being ousted along the exact line you mention - that if it can happen to them it might happen to us.

    However, it's another thing altogether to attempt to drum up support from local homeowners on behalf of a trailer park owner, or on behalf of a 'slum lord' apartment building owner. The reason is that local homeowners do not see themselves as having much in common with trailer park residents or low rent apartment tenants, that local homeowners usually stand to see their own property values increase if the trailer park of low rent apartments disappear and upscale retail or condos appear in their place etc. From the standpoint of city council members, they see the trailer park residents and low rent apartment tenants as people who do NOT pay real estate tax, who may or may not be eligible to register as voters in future local elections, and as a group who statistically speaking costs the city more money in social benefit costs, law enforcement costs etc. than the city gains back in sales taxes.

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    God/dess Deogol's Avatar
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    Default Re: Eminent Domain: how to get f*c'd outta prperty in 5 ez steps

    Quote Originally Posted by TarynJolie
    edited to add: woohoo ! I didn't think we could block a mod in their own area but it worked

    Yea well, whatever.

    Back to subject though - I agree with Monty - you HAVE to get out there in people's faces. Heck, even get a video camera and make a "pod" for current.tv or something. They are always putting up political stuff like that.

    Heck, you could even pod it out over the internet with google video. Interview some neighbors - show the letter - show around the place. Stuff like that will spread like lightning around the internet - there are a LOT of people who are calling BS on this "eminent domain for developers" stuff.

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    Veteran Member TarynJolie's Avatar
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    Default Re: Eminent Domain: how to get f*c'd outta prperty in 5 ez steps

    Here is some info I found in a quick search on the subject of eminent domain. There are some names of people that you might want to contact for ideas and support on how to fight this situation. I this helps and best of luck to you in your fight to keep your home.

    Indiana

    In the Indiana legislature, Democrats have taken the lead in formulating legislation to protect private property rights from government takings.

    State residents "want to make sure you don't come knocking on their door because someone thinks it's a good place to throw up a strip mall," said Rep. Ryan Dvorak (D-South Bend) during August 10 hearings on the topic, as reported the following day by the Indianapolis Star.


    Texas

    In Texas, a bill designed to bolster private property protections received unanimous support from House Democrats in July. House Republicans also supported it unanimously. A similar bill passed the Texas Senate with only four votes--three Democrats, one Republican--against it.

    Explained Sen. Eliot Shapleigh (D-El Paso), "The Kelo case raised key issues on when condemnation can be used for economic development. In my view, condemnation should never be used to take a private property from one to confer a private benefit to another. [The Texas legislation] made sure that government shows a public use when condemnation is used. While the bill is far from perfect, I think it addressed many of these issues."


    New Jersey

    The New Jersey governor's race is turning into a contest over who will be more dependable in protecting citizens against eminent domain abuses.

    Businessman Doug Forrester, who served as assistant state treasurer in Republican Gov. Tom Kean's administration, immediately responded to the Kelo decision by appointing a task force to study what steps the state can take to bolster its private property protections. Less than a day later, U.S. Sen. Jon Corzine (D) outlined seven concrete steps he would take to strengthen property rights.

    Among his recommendations, Corzine proposed requiring municipalities to study alternatives to condemnation, delaying condemnation proceedings until all appeals are exhausted, eliminating no-bid development contracts on condemned land, and requiring homeowner compensation above fair-market value.

    "New Jersey must strengthen its existing laws to guarantee that homeowners throughout this state are protected, that the system is open to the public and easy to understand," said Corzine, as reported by the July 15 Greenwire.

    "There should be no taking of homes for economic development except in rare and exceptional circumstances and then only with adequate safeguards to ensure that the process is fair and transparent," Corzine added, according to a July 15 New Jersey Star-Ledger report.

    Not willing to wait for the outcome of the upcoming governor's race before taking action, Sen. Nia Gill (D-Essex) introduced on July 1 a bill prohibiting any state or local government entity from taking residential property and transferring it to another private person or group.


    California, New York

    In California, Sen. Dean Florez (D-Kern County) introduced a similar bill banning public agencies from taking private property from one citizen and giving it to another.

    In New York, Democratic Assemblyman and attorney general candidate Richard Brodsky has made private property protection a centerpiece of his campaign, condemning the Kelo decision and pledging to protect New Yorkers' private property.


    Connecticut

    In Connecticut, where the actions of the New London city government led to the Kelo decision, Democrats are beginning to call for stronger protection against eminent domain abuses. Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, after initially praising the Court for upholding New London's taking of private property, began backtracking the very next day.

    "We must make sure that [Connecticut's eminent domain law] protects private property rights and adequately defines the public interests that taking private property must serve," said Blumenthal, according to the July 13 New York Times.

    Connecticut House Speaker James Amann, a Democrat who in recent years oversaw the defeat of three separate Republican proposals to restrict government's ability to take private property and hand it over to another private entity for economic development, also appeared to be changing his stance on the issue.

    "We certainly don't agree with the Supreme Court," Amann said in a July 12 news conference, according to the New York Times.

    http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=17789

  24. #24
    Banned Melonie's Avatar
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    Default Re: Eminent Domain: how to get f*c'd outta prperty in 5 ez steps

    ^^^ I won't even get started on the issue of the political stumping involved with the above ... i.e. proposing a bill is one thing, but actually passing it is another thing. Also, legal precedent wise, passing a bill that protects the individual detached home and lot owned by a law abiding taxpayer is much easier than passing a bill which prevents the use of eminent domain proceedings to 'eliminate urban blight' i.e. trailer parks, low rent apartment buildings etc. The 'urban blight' angle has more or less been established law since Berman vs Parker in 1954, thus any/all of the above mentioned bills supposedly protecting private property rights will actually address the property rights of the owners of individual detached homes (the new wrinkle established by last year's Kelo case), but not necessarily the ""rights"" of tenants in trailer parks and/or low rent apartment buildings (which has been established precedent under the Berman case for the past 50 years).


    " In Berman v. Parker, 348 U. S. 26 (1954), this Court upheld a redevelopment plan targeting a blighted area of Washington, D. C., in which most of the housing for the area's 5,000 inhabitants was beyond repair. Under the plan, the area would be condemned and part of it utilized for the construction of streets, schools, and other public facilities. The remainder of the land would be leased or sold to private parties for the purpose of redevelopment, including the construction of low-cost housing.

    The owner of a department store located in the area challenged the condemnation, pointing out that his store was not itself blighted and arguing that the creation of a "better balanced, more attractive community" was not a valid public use. Id., at 31. Writing for a unanimous Court, Justice Douglas refused to evaluate this claim in isolation, deferring instead to the legislative and agency judgment that the area "must be planned as a whole" for the plan to be successful. Id., at 34. The Court explained that "community redevelopment programs need not, by force of the Constitution, be on a piecemeal basis--lot by lot, building by building." Id., at 35. The public use underlying the taking was unequivocally affirmed:

    (from the court's ruling) "We do not sit to determine whether a particular housing project is or is not desirable. The concept of the public welfare is broad and inclusive... . The values it represents are spiritual as well as physical, aesthetic as well as monetary. It is within the power of the legislature to determine that the community should be beautiful as well as healthy, spacious as well as clean, well-balanced as well as carefully patrolled. In the present case, the Congress and its authorized agencies have made determinations that take into account a wide variety of values. It is not for us to reappraise them. If those who govern the District of Columbia decide that the Nation's Capital should be beautiful as well as sanitary, there is nothing in the Fifth Amendment that stands in the way." Id., at 33.
    "



    My only concern in taking a 'devil's advocate' position on this issue is that, if a protest/publicity campaign is done incorrectly, it can play straight into the hands of the local gov't/media/developers. I'm thinking of a 6:00 news shot of a group of protesting trailer park and low rent housing residents, immediately followed by 'bad light' shots of the trailer park or low rent apartment building, followed by the local mayor or police chief spouting crime statistics, followed by the developer's airbrushed concept drawings. Such a 6:00 news presentation may come across as more of a public advertisement for support of the developers' project than as an effective plea for help to prevent the forced removal of trailer park and low rent housing residents from the community. - especially so if those protests include prominent news footage which creates the impression that gang bangers and welfare moms make up the bulk of the protesters.

    I'm in more or less complete agreement with Deogol and Monty that an effective defense needs to garner the support of as many neighbors as possible. But appealing to those neighbors is best carried out by face to face meetings which stress the potential negative effects on the neighbors (i.e. traffic, gentrification), and not the potential positive effects (i.e. rising property values, decreased crime rates).
    ~
    Last edited by Melonie; 01-27-2006 at 04:17 AM.

  25. #25
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    Default Re: Eminent Domain: how to get f*c'd outta prperty in 5 ez steps

    To restate what people have said--legally you are indeed screwed, the courts will allow almost anything that passes a sniff-test that all the procedures have been followed.

    That means the only option is to garner public support by whatever means allowed by law. Get publicity! Get merchants on your side. Get the stores you and your neighbors shop at onyour side. Whatever naked interest people have in getting a higher tax base, and lower bills ($20 off your tax bill, until the town finds a way to spend the extra money) can be offset by people's fundamental sense of fairness. No one wants to throw people out on the street for a friggin pottery barn.

    You have to get the politicians working for you against the beauracracy. Midwestern states have recall and initiative provisions. Get recall petitions going against any pol who does not publicly support you. Get an initiative onthe local ballot denying the town the right to use eminent domain for anything except government buildings and highways and stand outside the frigging grocery store and get signatures.

    The legal system is too expensive and stacked against you-- you have to use the political system and any politician who will support you. Work on the politicians who are not in power and apply all the pressure you can. Get anyone who talks on tv a lot talking FOR you, rather than ignoring you.

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