Ned Beatty Appreciation Week: Day 3

The City of St. Louis to Jim Day's Royal Auto Repair: bend over and squeal like a pig:

An agency backed by the city is preparing to take Day's business by eminent domain to make way for something called a "Media Box."

Day can take the offer of $67,500 for his property—less than the city says it's worth—or continue with an already drawn-out court battle. Either way, he has little chance of keeping his shop on a triangle of land at Spring Avenue and Olive Street….

"I can't talk to you about the Media Box," Eric Friedman, a real estate agent who describes himself as a principal in the project, said earlier last month.

But last week, Michelle Cohen, a public relations executive recently hired by Grand Center, said the "Media Box" is a building that will hold a design studio and apartments or condominiums.

"The 'Media Box' is really the working title for the design studio piece of it," Cohen said.

Friedman is working with the city's postmodern standard-bearer, an asbestos lawyer turned multimedia artist named Paul Guzzardo. Guzzardo has been involved in creative presentation of images, including projecting the last episode of "Seinfeld" on the side of a building on Washington Avenue. He also owned an "interactive" nightclub, Cabool, where dance moves were broadcast over the Internet.

"I have an interest and kind of obsession with information culture and urbanism," Guzzardo said recently—although he also refused to discuss the Media Box.

The proposal submitted to the city by Grand Center says nothing about using Day's property for commercial purposes. Still, Schoemehl says the intended use of the land is consistent with the redevelopment plan.

"It is not simply being condemned in furtherance of a piece of abstract art," Schoemehl said.

Reason has covered eminent domain abuse in many articles over the years, including pieces by Bill Steigerwald and Sam Staley.