Eminent Domain Notes From All Over

Tim Cavanaugh | March 14, 2006

Colorado
Gov. Bill Owens likely to sign bill (slightly) limiting the condemning powers of private toll road companies, aimed at stopping the controversial "Super Slab" project.

Long Island
Affordable golf for all rich bastards! Wealthy village plans to seize local golf course, open it up to all residents.

New Jersey
Long Branch liquor store owner says city destroyed his million-dollar business. Bound Brook giving minorities the boot. Even humble Camden aims to break up its Cramer Hill neighborhood. State Assembly is considering changes to state seizure laws. The government's idea of fair market value for a 17-room house at the Jersey Shore, by the way, is $140,000.

Georgia
Stockbridge mayor goes wobbly, may allow local florists to keep their shop.

Ohio
Eighty-year-old lady about to get rolled by Good Samaritan.

California
City of Long Beach votes unanimously to condemn Filipino Baptist Church.

Great Outdoors
Just when it looked like Mark Trail might end up showing Scott Bullock sit in some rural courtroom for months, the Walter Pidgeon lookalike villain in the eminent domain storyline finally hatches the kind of violent scheme that will allow Trail to settle this matter with some of that Chuck Norris-style ass-kicking we're accustomed to (although it's pretty clear Bruce Campbell, not Norris, will have to play Mark Trail in the movie):

Comments

|3.14.06 @ 11:28PM|#

I am going to protest eminent domain by showing my Balls to random people on the street. You gotta start somewhere.

Brian|3.15.06 @ 12:23AM|#

"Last March, the Stockbridge City Council approved plans to redevelop its struggling downtown.."

I had to laugh when I read that. I grew up in the next town over, and I can attest that Stockbridge, GA doesn't have anything that any sane person would call a "downtown".

|3.15.06 @ 12:42AM|#

had to laugh when I read that. I grew up in the next town over, and I can attest that Stockbridge, GA doesn't have anything that any sane person would call a "downtown".

Exactly. Hence Eminent Domain. By the time the government planners are done, there'll be a downtown, damnit, even if no one's there.

b-psycho|3.15.06 @ 12:57AM|#

Damn, that's the first of those kind of comic strips I actually found amusing. LMAO@the brat wanting to watch daddy be evil...

|3.15.06 @ 6:36AM|#

The comic reminds me of Christian Slater's father in 'Heathers'. What was the line...something like '...these old broads trying to save this hotel because Glenn Miller and his band took a shit there once...' before he snuck in and blew it up.

|3.15.06 @ 6:43AM|#

The item about the golf course reminds me that my dad was spitting blood when the University of East Anglia (near Norwich, in Britain) was built on the site of a fine golf course. The bastards.

|3.15.06 @ 6:49AM|#

I've stopped being amazed at the evil so-called public servants do.

|3.15.06 @ 9:05AM|#

Indiana just passed a new eminent domain law last night. Not perfect, but better than nothing. The lobbyists for Indiana cities got it watered down some. You might want to check it out. It passed as house bill 1010; onto the governor for signature. Hopefully that happens.

|3.15.06 @ 10:02AM|#

.. in New Mexico, prez hopeful Bill Richardson just vetoed a bill that would limit eminent domain abuses ..

http://www.kobtv.com/index.cfm?viewer=storyviewer&id=24647&cat=SEARCH

.. Hobbit

|3.15.06 @ 10:37AM|#

Can we please skip the libertarian eminent domain shit and get to the important thing--Mark Trail? In today's episode the kid gets a digital camera from his grandpa* that looks like a 1953 Brownie. I'm guessing the kid's going to pick up a few snaps that will put an end to Casino Road. But will he post them on the Internet? Will Mark download them? Can Mark operate a computer? This is interesting shit.


*"To show how much I love you," the scheming, steaming pile of crap old codger tells the kid. Grandpa, I have the feeling that you're going to get a lesson in "love" that you'll never forget!

VM|3.15.06 @ 10:40AM|#

Alan: got into the medicine cabinet again???

|3.15.06 @ 10:52AM|#

I don't think the guy looks like Walter Pidgeon at all. But he's got a mohawk/mullet thing going on on his head that is just wicked.
I hope they blow up the road. Casinos are better than trees.

|3.15.06 @ 11:39AM|#

(although it's pretty clear Bruce Campbell, not Norris, will have to play Mark Trail in the movie)


Maybe Bruce Campbell just as he walked off the set of Man With the Screaming Brain.

*shudder*

The comic reminds me of Christian Slater's father in 'Heathers'. What was the line...something like '...these old broads trying to save this hotel because Glenn Miller and his band took a shit there once...' before he snuck in and blew it up.

I love that movie. The dad is one of my favorite characters.

|3.15.06 @ 11:58AM|#

"I am going to protest eminent domain by showing my Balls to random people on the street. You gotta start somewhere."

Why how delightfully foppish!

R C Dean|3.15.06 @ 12:15PM|#

The government's idea of fair market value for a 17-room house at the Jersey Shore, by the way, is $140,000.

I wonder if that's where they've assessed it for property tax purposes.

|3.15.06 @ 2:07PM|#

In today's episode the kid gets a digital camera from his grandpa* that looks like a 1953 Brownie.

A friggin' camera? Lame. Whatever happened to the days when grandpas gave kids .22 rifles and pocket knives?

|3.16.06 @ 11:45AM|#

Golf courses are a type of park.
Most people believe that parks are a legitimate govt function for which eminent domain is appropriate.

What's wrong with that?