More than 2,000 homes could be confiscated
Florida's Riviera Beach is a poor, predominantly black, coastal community that intends to revitalize its economy by using eminent domain, if necessary, to displace about 6,000 local residents and build a billion-dollar waterfront yachting and housing complex."This is a community that's in dire need of jobs, which has a median income of less than $19,000 a year," said Riviera Beach Mayor Michael Brown.
Plans for the project include creation of a basin for megayachts with high-end housing, retail and office space, a multilevel garage for boats, a 96,000-square-foot aquarium and a manmade lagoon.
A report in the Palm Beach Post said it is the biggest eminent-domain action since 1954, when 5,000 residents of Washington were displaced for eventual development of the Southwest D.C. waterfront, L'Enfant Plaza, and the less-than-successful Waterside Mall.
Read the Washington Times story here.
And check out the Paxety Pages' commentary here.
posted by Jacqueline Dowd @ 5:33 PM
1 Comments:
Sounds like Florida's version of Kelo vs. New London, except unlike Susette Kelo, these poor families don't have the resources to take the fight all the way to the Supreme Court. Ever since the Kelo decision, the Right has been up-in-arms (see the Coalition for Property Rights.)But I've never understood why the Left hasn't been equally upset over the ruling. If anything, eminent domain abuse will have the biggest impact on poor (and often minority) citizens. I was glad to see your feed this morning. More attention needs to be given to this issue.
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