Tag: eminent domain

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Common Sense

A Muse Not Amused

Blight. One of my favorite bloggers, Blue Collar Muse, refers to the continual abuse of eminent domain by government as “blight.” He“s playing off the slippery concept of blight that local governments use to condemn whole areas in order to steal homes and small businesses.

This Muse also alerted me to yet another instance of government blight: The story of Joy Ford“s light to keep her business, Country International Records, away from the bulldozers of Nashville’s Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency.

You see the MDHA is hooked up with a Houston, Texas, company trying to force property owners off their land to make way for a $100 million development scheme. So far, Mrs. Ford faces the wrecking ball.

It’s too bad Tennessee’s legislature didn’t pass legislation to further restrict eminent domain power after the Kelo decision. But wait … it did.

In one part, the Tennessee law forbids governments from taking property from one owner to give to another private party. But in another part, the law explicitly allows “housing authorities” and “community development agencies” to do just that. Outrageous!

Many states and localities enacted similar laws that are at best band-​aids, and at worst, blatant scams perpetrated against the public. In fact, back in 2006, when Tennessee’s law was passed, Drew Johnson of the Tennessee Center for Policy Research said it was a “joke.”

Funny, for all the jokes in government, why are we not amused?

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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Common Sense

Trichotillomania

Trichotillomania is a mental disorder, the compulsion to pull one’s hair out. I think I have it. At least, I find reasons to tear out my hair.

Frayda Levin knows what I’m talking about. As chair of the New Jersey chapter of Americans for Prosperity, she’s been very passionate on a host of issues. I met her in the course of fighting against eminent domain abuse. We risked follicular damage after Kelo.

Like all sensible taxpayers, Frayda opposes Congress’s corrupt earmark culture, whereby congressmen use our tax dollars to fund their personal favor factories. Recently, she wrote to New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez asking him to support a legislative moratorium on earmarks.

Instead, Senator Menendez wrote back defending his support for earmarked pork. “While our federal agencies implement programs from Washington,” he countered, “they often do not understand the unique needs of the communities and the states.”

When Frayda responded to Senator Menendez, she pointed out how completely ludicrous it was to “send money to D.C.” and “then have to spend resources finding a sympathetic ear, who can, as you note, understand local needs.”

Frayda asked why the senator hadn’t initiated a shake-​up of the admittedly out-​of-​touch federal bureaucracy. She mentioned the 10th Amendment, the role of the states, and inquired why this money should be going to the federal government in the first place.

She got no response to that.

I’m sure Menendez saw danger to his own scalp.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

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Common Sense

Too Much Trouble to Respect Rights?

We often lament the abuse of eminent domain power that occurs when the property of one private owner is forcibly transferred to another private owner.

But this doesn’t mean all grabbing of property for “public use” is honorable or sensible. Government officials too often mindlessly deploy their power, simply because they possess that power and can get away with abusing it.

And if the easiest way to get what they want also happens to show brutal contempt for the rights of their constituents? Hey, them’s the breaks, pal.

The editors of a Phoenix area newspaper, the East Valley Tribune, also oppose such arbitrary assault on the property and rights of others. In the town of Chandler, Arizona, Lloyds Complete Auto Supply must close its doors. Not because they can’t make money any more, but because Chandler officials want a new town hall. Aztec Wrought Irons in the same neighborhood is also on the government’s hit list.

There is no more urgent reason for the peremptory bulldozing of these businesses than the expiration of a ten-​year lease in a private office building where many city officials have their offices. That’s the crisis. That’s the dire emergency.

The Tribune believes that instead of using tax dollars and police powers to “knock down decades of hard work,” Chandler officials should take the trouble to align their plans with those of property owners.

Yes. They should.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.