Eminent Domain Stuff
New London Update (2/24/06)
Bad NLDC!
Coverage of the Rally at New London's City Hall (w/ pics)
Saturday, July 23, 2005
Like Rats In A Corner
Michael Cristofaro alerted me to this today.
The NLDC (New London Development Corporation) has, in the grand tradition of a cornered rat, decided to get nasty and fight back. They have decided that since they have lost resoundingly in the court of public opinion that they are going to try to personally destroy their main adversary, Susette Kelo.
But, you ask, what skeletons might Ms. Kelo be hiding in her closet? Well, I'll let the NLDC tell you themselves:
I honestly do not know, if this is true, whether or not it's legal, and I honestly don't care. What I do know and care about, is that the NLDC is trying to redefine the debate (and they're not even being original). As I have said before, the issue here is not whether a person is being displaced. The issue is that my property cannot be taken away from me unless it is for the "public good" and I receive "just compensation". Period.
Now, the IJ has indeed played the angle that these people in Fort Trumble are being kicked out of their homes. However, the fact that Ms. Kelo may have declared her primary residence someplace else really doesn't change anything at all with regard to the continued attempt to abuse eminent domain in New London.
None of this changes the underlying truth that the toxic combination of the Kelo decision and 'quasi-public' 'companies' like NLDC adds up to the very strong possibility that your house, investment property, wooded field, apartment building, summer cottage or lake house will be taken from you to 'increase the city's/town's/hamlet's tax base'.
And if you resist? You might want to consider what alleged skeletons could be invented and hidden in your closet by your local 'NLDC'. After all, they're only out for the 'public good'.
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The NLDC (New London Development Corporation) has, in the grand tradition of a cornered rat, decided to get nasty and fight back. They have decided that since they have lost resoundingly in the court of public opinion that they are going to try to personally destroy their main adversary, Susette Kelo.
But, you ask, what skeletons might Ms. Kelo be hiding in her closet? Well, I'll let the NLDC tell you themselves:
“The part that disturbs me is the lie that is told when she stands in front of the house and claims it as her home and says, ‘I'm never going to leave my castle,' when she signed a piece of paper that she is living elsewhere,” said David Goebel, the NLDC's chief operating officer. “I do not like the lie that was told and the lie that the Institute for Justice perpetuated around the country when she clearly didn't live there. If she did, she lied to the mortgage company. Either way, she was not a good woman during that period.”Ah yes, the upstanding, 'quasi-public', 'company' NLDC doesn't like the "lie" that was told. "Clearly" Ms. Kelo does not live in Fort Trumble. Well, except...
Kelo's neighbors say they can plainly see she lives on East Street, not in Old Lyme. They also dismiss as a canard the NLDC's assertion that most of them are absentee landlords, when all but one live there now, have lived there for most of the term of the court case or have immediate family living in the houses.Apparently, Ms. Kelo is in the habit of buying investment property (which, by the way, may become a worthless venture by the time the NLDC and their ilk gets through with us), fixing them up with the help of her son, and then (gasp!) selling them. This would be fine, except the NLDC has found out that Ms. Kelo has (allegedly) claimed that a property in Old Lyme, CT is her primary residence for the purposes of obtaining insurance while it is being renovated.
I honestly do not know, if this is true, whether or not it's legal, and I honestly don't care. What I do know and care about, is that the NLDC is trying to redefine the debate (and they're not even being original). As I have said before, the issue here is not whether a person is being displaced. The issue is that my property cannot be taken away from me unless it is for the "public good" and I receive "just compensation". Period.
Now, the IJ has indeed played the angle that these people in Fort Trumble are being kicked out of their homes. However, the fact that Ms. Kelo may have declared her primary residence someplace else really doesn't change anything at all with regard to the continued attempt to abuse eminent domain in New London.
None of this changes the underlying truth that the toxic combination of the Kelo decision and 'quasi-public' 'companies' like NLDC adds up to the very strong possibility that your house, investment property, wooded field, apartment building, summer cottage or lake house will be taken from you to 'increase the city's/town's/hamlet's tax base'.
And if you resist? You might want to consider what alleged skeletons could be invented and hidden in your closet by your local 'NLDC'. After all, they're only out for the 'public good'.
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