Another Eminent Domain “Success”
Posted by Jeff Pruitt - 11/15/09 @ 1:22 am - Filed Under Uncategorized
The SCOTUS’ Kelo v New London decision was extremely controversial at the time as it allowed the government to eminent domain your land even if they simply wanted to give it to another private entity. In this particular case the city of New London wanted to buy out several homes so they could redevelop the area for a new hotel among other things. So how’s the redevelopment going?
Weeds, glass, bricks, pieces of pipe and shingle splinters have replaced the knot of aging homes at the site of the nation’s most notorious eminent domain project.
There are a few signs of life: Feral cats glare at visitors from a miniature jungle of Queen Anne’s lace, thistle and goldenrod. Gulls swoop between the lot’s towering trees and the adjacent sewage treatment plant.But what of the promised building boom that was supposed to come wrapped and ribboned with up to 3,169 new jobs and $1.2 million a year in tax revenues? They are noticeably missing.
[...]
New London officials decided they needed Kelo’s land and the surrounding 90 acres for a multimillion-dollar private development that included residential, hotel conference, research and development space and a new state park that would compliment a new $350 million Pfizer pharmaceutical research facility.
[...]
In New London the city’s prized economic development plan has fallen apart as the economy crumbled.The Corcoran Jennison Cos., a Boston-based developer, had originally locked in exclusive rights to develop nearly the entire northern half of the Fort Trumbull peninsula.
But those rights expired in June 2008, despite multiple extensions, because the firm was unable to secure financing, according to President Marty Jones.
[...]
The empty land means the city won a “hollow victory,” he said.“What cities should take from this is to run fleeing from what New London did and do economic development that is market-driven and incorporate properties of folks who are truly committed to their neighborhood and simply want to be a part of what happens,” he said.
Nice. Steal somebody’s land and then leave the lot empty. And just to make matters worse - remember that $350 million Pfizer pharmaceutical research facility they were trying to “compliment”?
On Thursday, Pfizer dealt a final blow to the project and the struggling seaport city by announcing that 1,400 jobs would leave the area as the pharmaceutical giant scales back amid tepid sales and a lack of new drugs in its pipeline. The move will vacate a 750,000 square foot complex built in 2001 and nothing is planned in its place.
I would file that under “unfortunate poetic justice”. Awful jackasses…
Comments
One Response to “Another Eminent Domain “Success””
Leave a Reply
Jeff,
Criminal charges should be brought against the morons who seized private land for the boondoggle.
Mike