Angry in the Great White North
Kelo Decision: The march to take your property begins in the US
Tuesday, August 02, 2005 at 08:08 PM

Read other posts by Steve Janke published by the National Post
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From the San Diego Union-Tribune:

San Diego redevelopment officials are using the threat of taking private property to compel a laundry business [Alsco] in Little Italy to negotiate selling its land to make way for a condominium and retail project.

What right does the city have to take sides in private negotiation like this? If you recall, the Kelo decision expanded the definition of eminent domain to include things like improving tax revenue. Normally, the State can take your property, with compensation, to build a road or some other common use property, and even then only after serious consideration. But now, in the US, a city council can chose sides depending on what property will generate more tax revenue. In this case, a condo development would be preferable to a laundry that employs 150 people. The laundry has been given the a month to respond -- they can sell, they can become partners with CLB, or they can develop their own condos.

Their own condos? Apparently, "No deal" is not an acceptable answer:

CLB Partners has sought, without success, to buy the Alsco land since 2000, developer Patrick Rhamey said. He described his company's communication with Alsco staff as courteous, but indecisive and frustrating.

Again, that's not supposed to be the problem of the city council. But the council is making threats of eminent domain to argue that a condo is more valuable than a laundry that has been operating at that location for over five decades.

When the Kelo decision came down, the warning was raised that the potential now existed for an alliance between well-heeled developers with close ties to city politicians to push out working class homeowners and business. Clearly, city planners would prefer to cater to the posh and boot out the hoi polloi.

It'll be interesting to know of any links between the developer, CLB Partners, and the Centre City Development Corp., San Diego's downtown redevelopment agency.

[Another example, also in California, reported at Captain's Quarters. And speaking of the posh vs the hoi polloi, read about Time$cam at Michelle Malkin, in which the Times is handed a prime piece of propery that was confiscated for "public use", but the lease agreement specifically forbids any other business on the property likely to attract the public -- daycares, dentists, discount stores (but posh and expensive art houses are OK)]

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