Sam Staley's piece is an interesting and fair one. As a practicing planner, I'm going to seek out his book Smarter Growth. I think there is one irony worth mentioning: The rise in private-to-private takings may be an unintended consequence of the thinking that brought us "regulatory takings," that mysterious beast that the Rehnquist Supreme Court cooked up in the 1980s.
For 1,000 years, "takings" referred to the government's coming to be the owner of a piece of property. But with the decision handed down in Lucas v. South Carolina Coastal Council in 1992, the Court blurred the line between ownership of land and the opportunity to realize its economic value. In effect, the ruling said physical possession and right of occupation, the traditional meaning of ownership, have been subsumed to economic interest in a piece of land. Obviously, this was not the Court's intent, but a pretty good case can be made that it has been the outcome. This thought process has contributed to the spate of unnecessary, unwise takings by reducing the gravity given to the harm of having one's home taken; since it's no longer the physical, human connection which defines ownership but the economic relationship, and since the property owners are getting compensated at market value, what's the real harm? By distorting the meaning of ownership and taking, the regulatory-takings crowd has made it easier to kick people off their land.
Joseph Boyle
Lowell, MA
I read with great interest Sam Staley's article on eminent domain. I am fighting a convention center project in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The state didn't give local officials the right of eminent domain, so what did they do? They found a friendly economic development group to threaten condemnation and shut down a profitable 100-year-old-plus business.
The city economic development authority called the police when I showed up to videotape their meeting. (The Pennsylvania Sunshine Act explicitly permits such filming.) When the police refused to arrest me -- I called two lawyers and threatened a civil rights suit -- they canceled their meeting rather than have me videotape it.
Ron Harper Jr.
Stevens, PA
Bomb Throwers
In his review of Nuclear Weapons: A Debate Renewed ("Learning to Love the Bomb," February), Steve Chapman refers to author Scott D. Sagan's remarks on the "unreliability" of nuclear weapons personnel. He cites the fact that U.S. armed forces screen out 5 percent of their nuclear weapons personnel annually on this account and points out that Islamic nations have no such screening procedure. The implication is that such nations may be vulnerable to personnel releasing nuclear weapons on their own initiative.
But it's a misconception that the "unreliability" discussed by Sagan regards concern over personnel releasing nuclear weapons unauthorized. In point of fact, nuclear control regimes in place prevent this sort of behavior by requiring explicit physical confirmation from national authorities. The prospect of "unreliability" that prompts U.S. screening actually pertains to the potential failure of personnel to execute nuclear release orders; it is necessary to ensure that our personnel are mentally and morally capable of discharging their duty when ordered.
This, of course, says nothing about the nature and extent of the nuclear control regimes prevailing in Pakistan or any other Islamic nation. But the fact that 5 percent of U.S. nuclear personnel are annually judged as being unlikely to release nuclear weapons when ordered gives us no insight into whether Islamic nuclear personnel would be prone to release weapons without orders.
Michael J. Dunn
Auburn, WA
Great Stone Faces
Charles Paul Freund ("Big Schlock Candy Mountain," February) did not mention Mount Rushmore's most significant symbolic feature. If you visit in the morning, when the sun shines on Washington's face, you can see a tear glisten on his cheek, as he gazes toward the city that bears his name.
John DeJager
Milford, OH
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