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July 08, 2008

Comments

Liz Stone Abraham

I wonder if eminent domain will come into play if the storage facility refuses to sell. It sounds like it's waiting for a bidding war, though--if the reporter's conspiracy theory turns out to be true.
A similar thing happened in downtown Bridgeport, CT not that long ago. In this case, however, the holdouts were homeowners who had been there for years and were forced to sell after they lost the eminent domain fight.

John Michlig

From what I'm hearing, the "carrot" has been abandoned, and the city is starting to use the "stick," though I'm sure eminent domain is something they are loath to wield.

The owners of the land are a nice older couple who have a house there and genuinely want to stay for reasons other than financial considerations. No one who knows them suspects them of trying to leverage the situation for more money.

Problem is, the development planned for the land isn't exactly awe-inspiring.

Liz Stone Abraham

The City of New London wasn't at all loath to wield emininent domain (it was New London, not Bridgeport). Here's a recent follow up to that story: http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/06/21/house_in_ct_eminent_domain_dispute_finds_new_home/

John Michlig

A sticky issue. The "property rights" crowd is pretty right wing; they LOVE the freeways but now want to take up the cause of eminent domain abuses.

Here in Milwaukee we tore down an entire African-American neighborhood to carve the freeway through (Bronzeville).

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