Kelospawn

Radley Balko's posted a list of towns and municipalities that are eagerly moving forward to seize property now that Kelo has been resolved.

Comments

[dead_elvis]

The promenade is land west of Front set aside by Memphis founders for public use. Although the city has a permanent easement, the land is owned by heirs to John Overton and other founders.

As a recently former Memphian, I *knew* it was going to come to this. After all, a "public promendade" can't be properly enjoyed unless one is in the patio seating area of a trendy, overpriced bar and grill. Those city fathers are rolling over in their graves. Their intent and what they thought of as "public use" doesn't matter anymore; the Supreme Court has deemed it irrelevant.

Scary quote:

"But Lendermon said the decision provides a boost for Memphis and other cities.

"It's critically important for cities, for their ability to control economic development opportunities, especially in these days when financial crises are the norm," he said."

Shouldn't the solution be to make financial crises *not* normal?

[Stevo Darkly]

We should coin a term for when a government seizes property from one private party and gives it to another private party in order to boost tax revenues, or to do a crony a favor.

Kelograb?

Keloglom?

Kelobite?

Kelohurts?

Keloptemania?

[Swede]

Stevo Darkly,

How does "fucking thievery" sound?

[Lowdog]

You know, in downtown Phoenix, there were/are plenty of places that could be considered "blight", ie run-down old houses, where no one lives. I don't know who owns the land, but if it really is "blight", wouldn't the owners be more than happy to sell, and therefore make government taking for "public use" unnessecary?

I don't know the legal issues worth a damn (maybe my legal knowledge should be considered "blighted"), but I just can't see how any of this is allowable.

Also, maybe better for one of Julian's other threads, but the "heap paradox" rebuttle of stare decisis is exactly what I was looking for (as others, I'm sure) when someone like joe (sorry joe) argued that even though they didn't necessarily like the outcome, stare decisis warrented it.

[MP]

joe argued that stare decisis trumped Thomas's dissent, not O'Connor's.

[Anonymous Coward]

This guy looks like he's prepared for a Kelo-invasion (check out the picture).

[Stevo Darkly]

We should coin a term for when a government seizes property from one private party and gives it to another private party in order to boost tax revenues, or to do a crony a favor.

Kelostomy

[Eric the .5b]

"Keloblitz"!
"Kelopocalypse"!

[Jennifer]

Mr. Balko's list left something out:

Connecticut--pretty much every goddamned neighborhood where a person or family earning less than six figures a year can afford to live.