A Call From the Governor

Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell tells the New London Development Corporation, which was preparing to evict the remaining property owners in the city's Fort Trumbull neighborhood, to back off until the state legislature can decide whether eminent domain should be used to facilitate private development.

Comments

[Madog]

That's nice of her, maybe I'll vote to reelect her.

[MP]

I'd vote for a turd sandwich before I voted for that scumbag Blumenthal.

[huh?]

Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell

What's the M. stand for?

[Luca Brasi]

MP,

Why would you vote for a turd sandwich when you could vote for a giant douche?

[dhex]

still working on the design and slogan. no colors yet:

http://dhex.org/pics/pre/pre.png

[Jennifer]

I was so outraged by Kelo that I fired off an e-mail to one of the members of the NLDC. To my surprise, he wrote back, and we kept up a correspondence for a bit over a week, before I gave up. Here it is, for anyone who wants to read it:

From: Jennifer XXXX [mailto:[e-mail]]
To: [e-mail]
Subject: A Connecticut Resident, on the Kelo Decision

As a resident of Connecticut (and one whose tax dollars are presumably helping to pay for the eviction of Suzette Kelo and Wilhelmina Dery), I am writing to express my extreme disapproval of the actions of the New London Development Corporation.? I'm sure you remember the story of the insane Vietnam general who said "We had to destroy the village in order to save
it;" do you not see a correlation with your idea that "We have to kick out the neighborhood residents in order to make the neighborhood a better place to live?"

And while forcing an octogenarian to leave the home she's lived in since birth is vile and despicable enough, charging such a woman over a quarter of a million dollars in back rent as punishment for fighting her eviction orders strikes me as purely spiteful.

I will be buying a house in Eastern Connecticut sometime in the next year, but I dare not do so in New London, knowing how little respect for property
rights the city has.? If you are bound and determined to give the Pfizer corporation some waterfront property, why not give them Ocean Beach??? At least OB is the city's to give away.

If you can only save the city by evicting your law-abiding residents, consider the very real possibility that the city just isn't worth saving at all.

From?:? Dave Goebel
To?:? "'Jennifer XXXX'"
Subject?:? RE: A Connecticut Resident, on the Kelo Decision

Jennifer:

I hope the attached will help you sort through some of the facts about this case.

Dave Goebel
the attached was a typical document talking about how peachy the new development would be.

From: Jennifer XXXX [mailto:[e-mail]]
To: [e-mail]
Subject: RE: A Connecticut Resident, on the Kelo Decision

Mr. Goebel:

I am well aware of the presumed benefits of the development plan; the question is, should cities have the right to take property from one private entity and hand them over to a second private entity who will presumably make better use of said property?? Any large business will generate more jobs and tax dollars than any home or small business.

As a child I read the Laura Ingalls Wilder "Little House" books; in one book, the Ingalls and other white families moved in to Indian Territory and built farms there.? One of the Ingalls' neighbors, Mrs. Scott, explained why
it was perfectly proper for white people to steal Indian land: "It doesn't matter who was here first; land belongs to folks who'll farm it.? That's just common sense and justice."

Of course, Mrs. Scott had a nineteenth-century mindset; to update it for the twenty-first century, perhaps we should change it to "It doesn't matter who was here first; land belongs to folks who'll develop it.? That's just common sense and justice."

From?:? Dave Goebel
To?:? "'Jennifer XXXX'"
Subject?:? RE: A Connecticut Resident, on the Kelo Decision

Ms. XXXX:

Thank you for your comments.? I do not know if it will make any difference to you, but we have already spent over $70 million for public benefits for this project.? In Mrs. Scott's case, she did not do that.? So, the comparison may not be direct.? And, she did not compensate anyone for the taking, whereas we are.

Dave Goebel

From: Jennifer XXXX [mailto:[e-mail]]
To: [e-mail]
Subject: RE: A Connecticut Resident, on the Kelo Decision

No, Mrs. Scott didn't give the Indians any money, but she didn't try charging them back rent, either.? And the Indians were offered compensation in the form of reservations, but the Indians, like Ms. Kelo and poor old
Mrs. Dery, wanted to keep what they had rather than take what was offered.

How can any New London resident feel secure, now that they know their city fathers have no compunctions about taking their property away and handing it over to someone who will "put it to better use?"

From?:? Dave Goebel
To?:? "'Jennifer XXXX'"
Subject?:? RE: A Connecticut Resident, on the Kelo Decision

I can see that I can not gain a convert here.? All I can say is that we are trying to be as fair as possible.? No firm decisions have been made yet, so anything can happen.? But, these are our neighbors, and despite all that has transpired, we will still try to be fair.

Dave Goebel

From: Jennifer XXXX [mailto:[e-mail]]
To: [e-mail]
Subject: RE: A Connecticut Resident, on the Kelo Decision

I see I shall gain no converts either.? But that back rent business absolutely baffles me--I'm trying to imagine the person on your team who came up with that idea, in hopes of determining whether he's doing this as a bargaining chip (so you can tell the last Fort Trumbull residents "get out now and we'll forgive the rent"), or acting out of pure malice, or if he is actually an undercover property-rights advocate trying to make you people look so bad that even those who support the Kelo decision?in principle will start to abhor the development corporation that inspired it.?

Cordially,
Jennifer XXXX

From?:? Dave Goebel
To?:? "'Jennifer XXXX'"
Subject?:? RE: A Connecticut Resident, on the Kelo Decision

Jennifer:
?
Thought you might be interested in the attached.? We prepared it for a lawyer in California who had the same question as you.? It is information not well known.?
?
Dave Goebel

the attached document mentions that--gasp!--some of the evictees, like poor old Mrs. Dery, actually made money charging rent for their properties. I didn't bother writing back by this point--even assuming one can reason with an ED fanatic, one can NOT reason with someone who apparently takes offense at the notion of an octogenarian making money off of rental property when she could be working as a Wal-Mart greeter.

[mtc]

I can't really think of anything exceptionally heinous Rell has done so far. I guess there's a cellphone ban in the cars coming october (is it still legal with headsets?), and her fighting to keep the sub base (pork) doesn't exactly inspire me, but at least she was porking as a govenor and not as a senator. And I'm even kinda sentimental about her efforts to keep the A-10's at Bradley, having lived next to the airport all my life ( in fact I worked at the papa gino's in WL that is about 100 yards from and lined up with the landing strip for those guys).
But in any event, the South Park dichotomy doesn't really hold with someone as vile Blumenthal. Rell, if she runs, will have to do something incomprehensibly horrible to get me to not vote against the attorney general (if he runs).

[mediageek]

Dhex-

Consider using a "grunge" or "lawless" style font for the word KILL.

More info here

[mediageek]

Free Grunge style fonts here.

[Hakluyt]

Jennifer,

You should have told them that you'd never spend another dime in New London.

[Hakluyt]

Jennifer,

I found this boycott petition: http://www.petitiononline.com/g67rta99/petition.html

[Larry Horse]

Yeah, I was pretty pissed when the BRAC voted to keep the New London Submarine Base open. I was hoping the bastards would have some bad karma coming to them after the Eminent Domain and they'd lose their main employer. Then I'd laugh.

[Eric II]

I guess there's a cellphone ban in the cars coming october

There is? Damnit! Why the hell is it that the three states to embrace this noxious form of nannyism are the three that I drive in most frequently?

[Muggs]

mtc, the ban is only on using phones without headsets after October 1.

And anyone's better then 'Rockin' Rowland and his corruption. At least John DeStefano's probably not going to run.

- Muggs, former New Haven Democrat (read: corrupt as the day is long)