January 23, 2007
Castle Coalition Director Calls El Paso One of the Worst Eminent Domain Abuse Offenders in the Country
"The
beneficiaries are likely to be those citizens with disproportionate
influence and power in the political process, including large
corporations and development firms. As for the victims, the government
now has license to transfer property from those with fewer resources to
those with more. The specter of condemnation hangs over all property.
Nothing is to prevent the State from replacing any Motel 6 with a
Ritz-Carlton, any home with a shopping mall, or any farm with a
factory."
—Justice Sandra Day
O’Conner’s dissent on the Kelo case.
WHEN STEVEN ANDERSON says our city is one of the worst offenders, he
knows what he’s talking about. He’s the national director
of the Castle Coalition, a grass-roots organization that has been
fighting against eminent domain abuse for the last 15 years. He's seen
thousands of cases where local governments strip citizens of their
homes and businesses to hand them over to super-wealthy developers, but
El Paso is one of the most egregious examples he’s seen of
eminent domain abuse in the United States.
“The El Paso scenario is Justice O’Conner’s
prediction come alive” he told the group of small business
owners, Segundo Barrio residents, and Paso Del Sur activists at a
conference on Monday called “From
Hardship to Victory: Strategies for Winning the Fight to Stop Eminent
Domain Abuse.”
“El Paso is on the verge of becoming one of the worst abusers in the entire country,” the Andreson said.
 “And
if El Paso’s downtown business owners and the residents of the
Segundo Barrio lose,” the Castle Coalition director explained,
“then we all lose. For if it happens to one group of citizens in
this country, it can happen to all of us. No one’s home or
business is safe. After the Kelo case, anyone with money or more
property can say, I want that property and they can get it.”
“People in this city have to realize that it’s not going to
stop with downtown,” Anderson said. “Once they decide
there’s nothing wrong with taking homes from private individuals
so that someone else can make money, they’ll keep on going. Since
the Kelo case decision [that gave cities the right to strip property
from local owners for private development] passed, we’ve seen
eminent domain abuses triple in one year. And it’s not just the
property, it’s the community that these homes and businesses are
a part of.”
"We’ve seen that eminent domain disproportionately affect poor,
minorites and elderly,” Anderson continued. “And the
beneficiaries are always those with influence and power."
“And in the tens of thousands of cases that we’ve
documented, we hear a common message from the victims of eminent domain
abuse: ‘It’s bad enough when homes have to be condemened to
build a school, or a hospital or something for the public. But
it’s absolutely wrong to take my home or business from me and
give it to someone else for their own profit. If my property could be
taken from me, yours could be next.’"
The Castle Coalition director also exposed many common eminent domain myths that are frequently repeated by City governments throughout the country where these kinds of landgrabs take place.
“The first myth,” Anderson said, “is that eminent domain will only be used as a last resort.”
“Municipal politicians attend the same conferences—like the
National League of Cities conferences—where they all learn what
to say. But this phrase means absolutely nothing. It just means that
eminent domain will be the last thing they’ll do to force you to
sell your property against your will. But the threat was there from the beginning.”
“Another myth repeated by city governments throughout the
country,” Anderson continued, "is that economic development
requires eminent domain. In fact federal reserve studies have shown the
exact opposite is true. Eminent domain adversely affects long
term economic health; it is a disincentive to economic development. People don't want to invest in an area where your business might be forcibly taken from you. For
instance, in Scotsdale, Arizona, once their blight designations were
reversed, two billion dollars poured into the city."
But perhaps the most important myth Steven Anderson challenged during
Monday's presentation in El Paso's is the belief that once
redevelopment schemes are set in motion by a coalition of the rich and
powerful, it is impossible for the community to stop them.
“Other cities have fought against billionaires, like you are
doing here in El Paso today, and have won,” he told his
audience. “So don't give up.”
[Click here to view Steven Anderson's presentation "The Eyes of the Country are Upon You," at El Paso City Council on January 23, 2007.]
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photograph by Bruce Berman