National &
Eminent Domain News
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NATIONAL & EMINENT DOMAIN NEWS
PDN Civil Rights Project sues Homeland Security for violating property rights to build border wall
By YOUTUBE
"This wall is an erosion of freedom."
Texas Borderland Residents Take Homeland Security Chief to Court Over Land Seizures for Border Wall By NARCO NEWS
When Chertoff began wielding his power to build a border wall along the
US-Mexico border, border residents knew it was an abuse of his power
and that he was violating human rights and the Constitution.
Eminent Reality
By THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Does restricting "eminent domain" -- the power of government to seize
private property -- harm economic growth? A new report from the
Institute for Justice looks at the evidence and concludes the answer is
no.
The worst is still to come for down-and-out REITs
By USA TODAY
After trouncing the market for the past seven years, REITs have turned
into one of the bloodiest corners of Wall Street amid the recent stock
correction.
Neighborhoods for Sale: Community Input is an Illusion
By CHICAGO TRIBUNE
As neighborhoods are transformed, advisory groups frequently offer no
more than the illusion of community input. But the political cover they
provide for aldermen is very real.
Land Seizures and Eminent Domain on the Border: The Bush Legacy Sours
By COUNTER PUNCH
In Texas, where Bush likes to claim he is a real Texan, he will be
remembered as the president who filed lawsuits to seize private lands
to build the US Apartheid Border Wall and opened the floodgates to a
militarized zone of violence.
NEW VIDEO: Chertoff says It's "Civic Responsibility" to give up land for anti-immigrant border wall
By CNN
"It's part of their civic responsibility to accept a certain amount of sacrifice."
The Homeland Security Land Grab: Eminent Domain not for a Wal-Mart but for a Wall
By PDS
Indigenous communities are calling on the U.S. government to stop this
land grab and respect the rights of migrants, Americans and indigenous
peoples at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Movement for Justice in El Barrio: Latino neighborhood in NY fights displacement under guise of "redevelopment"
By THE INDYPENDENT
“They want to displace us to bring their luxury restaurants,
their large expensive clothing stores, their supermarket chains. They
want to change our neighborhood. They want to change our culture. They
want to change that which makes us Latino, African-American, Asian or
Indigenous. They want to change everything that makes us El
Barrio.”
Indigenous Communities Call on Homeland Security to Stop Border Land Grab
By LA NUEVA RAZA
"Our lands are not for sale. The U.S. government must stop its illegal
attempts to intimidate us. The Department of Homeland Security cannot
take away our homes and neighborhoods for border militarization."
Locked Outside the Gates: The Struggle Against Demolition in New Orleans
By DISSIDENT VOICE
A woman’s scream pierced the chaos as police fired tasers into
the crowd. Medics wiped pepper spray from fallen people’s eyes. A
young woman who was tasered in the back went into a seizure and was
taken to the hospital.
 The Scenes You Didn't See on CNN about the New Orleans Demolition Vote
By YOUTUBE
"Let us in now! Housing now!"
The Master Narrative of Displacement: Disaster Capitalism and the New Orleans Demolitions
By NAOMI KLEIN
One of the most shameless examples of disaster capitalism has been the
attempt to exploit the disastrous flooding of New Orleans to close down
that city's public housing projects, some of the only affordable units
in the city. Most of the buildings sustained minimal flood damage, but
they happen to occupy valuable land that make for perfect condo
developments and hotels.
Not Getting it About New Orleans - Mainstream Media Backs Developers Instead of Residents
By COUNTER PUNCH
The reality of similar programs around the country is that they seldom
provide even a fraction of the affordable units promised by officials
when older housing complexes were demolished. Housing activists are not
against programs that create more and better affordable housing, but
they correctly point out that people should have a say in what happens
to their current homes.
New Orleans Police Pepper Spray Protesters Seeking to Block Public Housing Demolition
By DEMOCRACY NOW!
Hundreds of people were turned away from the City Council meeting.
Police shot protesters with pepper spray and tasers. We go to New
Orleans to speak with two local community activists and a former SWAT
commander.
Gentrifying Downtown
By COLOR LINES
According to alliance members, Americans are facing a new urban
politics, wherein the word “redevelopment” has come to mean
little more than tailoring every aspect of city life for corporations
and affluent consumers. Those who advocate for the “right to the
city” argue that simple neglect of poor communities no longer
suffices under this new urban politics.
Eminent Domain, Border Walls and Displacement in South Texas: A Plea for Help
By MARGO TAMEZ
My mother and elders of El Calaboz, since July have been the targets of
numerous threats and harrassments by the Border Patrol, Army Corps of
Engineers, NSA, and the U.S. related to the proposed building of a
fence on their levee.
The Zapatistas Help Spanish Harlem Fight Gentrification
By NARCO NEWS
Billed by Movement for Justice in El Barrio as “…a way of
sharing developed by the Zapatistas as another form of doing politics:
from below ,” at least 15 different organizations working against
gentrification from throughout the city East Harlem seeking to create
“…a place where we can all speak, we will all listen, and
we can all learn.”
Tearing out the Heart of Las Cruces: An Unhealed Wound
By DENISE CHAVEZ
In the 70s, several historic buildings--including St. Genevieve Parish,
the Loretto Academy and the Rio Grande Hotel--were demolished to build
a strip mall in Las Cruces as part of a downtown revitalization plan.
It failed miserably. Today the mall area has little pedestrian traffic
by day and none at night. Retail has suffered a slow death. After more
than thirty years, Las Cruces author Denise Chavez writes, the
divisions and wounds this downtown plan created in the community have
not yet fully healed.
Sports Welfare and Eminent Domain
By REASON ON LINE
Sports owners have long used eminent domain as a way to acquire
property cheaply. Sports economists estimate that half of the post-1990
stadium and arena construction has involved eminent domain.
A Plea to El Pasoans to learn from the Past: Revisiting Tucson, Arizona’s Efforts to Revitalize Downtown in the 1960s
By DR. LYDIA OTERA
Destruction
of vital landmarks, and older adobe homes in the name of progress in
Tucson concealed the hostile sentiments that stood at the core of urban
renewal’s objectives. Sites that could have been restored to celebrate
and honor Mexican and Mexican American contributions were destroyed
along with the barrio as city officials attempted to consolidate their
power to cleanse the area of its people and history in order to attract
more commercial projects, and more tourist to Tucson. This is clearly
what is taking place in El Paso.
Magical Urbanism: Latinos Reinvent the U.S. City
By Mike Davis
The City of Los
Angeles—which has thrown away hundreds of millions in tax dollars
unsuccessfully trying to induce middle-class professionals to gentrify
downtown— has never geared its redevelopment programs to support,
rather than displace, inner-city residents. The concept of reshaping
urban space to celebrate Mexican culture or, even more radically, to
stimulate neighborhood self-design, was not well received by a planning
bureaucracy still committed—consciously or unconsciously—to
architectural Americanization.
The Suburbanization of New York
BY THE NEW YORK TIMES
Like the suburbs New Yorkers so long snubbed, the city is becoming more private, more predictable, and more homogenized.
 The Demographics of Eminent Domain Abuse
By THE INSTITUTE FOR JUSTICE
The poor, less educated and minorities are disproportionately targets of eminent domain abuse.
For African Americans in Dallas, Eminent Domain is Jim Crow
By DALLAS OBSERVER
Unlike North Dallas where people see God basically as the first real
estate developer, southern Dallas views developers, especially rich
white ones, with enormous mistrust based on a century of legitimate
grievances, none of which is ever forgotten at all, or should be.
Despite Mayor's Promise, Eminent Domain is Rule, Not Exception
By DALLAS MORNING NEWS
While planning for a new Dallas Cowboys stadium, Mayor Robert Cluck
said the city would use eminent domain only as a last resort to
assemble the needed land.But condemnation has become the rule rather
than the exception.
Zimbalist: "Stadiums Raise Taxes and That's About It"
By PDS
By having a an arena, you don't increase the level of per capita
income, and you don't increase the level of employment. There's no
direct economic development benefit.
Urban Renewal? Why Maxine Waters and John Cornyn Agree on Eminent Domain
By WEEKLY STANDARD
"We aren't just talking about expanding highways anymore," says Hilary
Shelton, director of the NAACP's Washington bureau. "We've moved from
real community need to profit. That criterion becomes even more
exploitive."
Eminent Domain is Unjust and Dangerous
Daily Nexux- April 10
The
danger is in the limits of eminent domain, in that it does not have
many. In the past year alone, according to the Institute for Justice,
there have been more than 6000 properties threatened or taken with
eminent domain for private development...
The Case Against Big Box Retail Stores
Sprawl Busters- April 2
"Wal-Mart has proven this: They're big and they're greedy. They have no compassion for the community or the individual...
Five Years of Fighting Eminent Domain Abuse
Castle Coalition- March 26
People
were starting to hear ‘blight’ mentioned, and towns were
starting to talk about taking property. We saw the need to have people
who were dedicated to the fight and have the means, know-how and
wherewithal to fight...
The Powerless Have Always Been Victims of Eminent Domain Abuse
The Orange County Register - March 25
In
the 1920s, officials didn't think blacks were "appropriate" for the
neighborhood, and these days officials don't want "working-class
people" enjoying prime land that could be home to upscale condos....
Cities See Vertical Sprawl
New York Times - March 4, 2007
“Smart
growth has an appealing spin, but in most cases when it hits the ground
in working-class urban communities, along transit corridors, it means
displacement and gentrification, often by redevelopment eminent
domain,”.....
Thousands of Protesters at Austin Capitol Chant "Texas is Not for Sale!"
The Palestine Herald- March 3
The
corridor, Maypers said, will not only confiscate a large amount of
property from private individuals, but he also believes it will end up
costing Texas’ taxpayers millions, maybe billions, of dollars....
Downtowns: Where the Lights Aren't Bright
The Economist - March 1
Not
so long ago, downtown shops could at least claim to offer an urban
alternative to the strip malls and boxy stores dotted about the
suburbs. No longer.....
Eminent Domain Race Ripples
The Washington Times- March 2
by Mindy Fullilove
Neighborhoods
threatened with eminent domain abuse are not merely buildings; they
provide social, political, cultural and economic networks that benefit
individuals and society. Their loss is so massive and threatening to
human well-being that I use the term "root shock" to describe it....
This Land is Your Land
The New West- Feb. 27
by HEADWATER NEWS
Numerous
states around the country are retaliating against a 2005 Supreme Court
ruling that gave local governments the power to condemn private
property for economic development.....
A Constitutional Amendment to Protect Texans
U.S. Newswire- Feb. 20
"While
SB 7 provided a legislative fix to some of the problems createdby the
Kelo v. City of New London decision, these additional protections must
now be made permanent by adding them to the Texas Constitution..."
 His Domain to the End
The Star Ledger- Feb. 18
by MARK MUELLER
At 93, with his heart slowly giving out, Viviano was motivated by one thing: the right to die in his home....
What Price Baseball
Austin Chronicle - Feb. 18
by ROBERT BYRCE
Of
all the issues surrounding the stadium construction, the issue of
governmental power and eminent domain is the most troublesome...
Eminent Domain & African Americans (PDF)
Institue for Justice - Feb. 15
by MINDY THOMSON, MD
In
24 years, 2,532 projects were carried out in 992 cities that displaced
one million people, two-thirds of them African American...
= Report Released: Eminent Domain & African Americans (Free Liberal)
= Eminent Domain for Private Development, More Harm Than Good (Institute for Justice)
= Blight is in the Eye of the Beholder (PBS)
= The Highwaymen: Texas Rushes to Privatize Its Roads (Texas Observer)
= Molly Ivins: Eminent Development (Creators Syndicate)
= Supreme Court Refuses to Heart Eminent Domain Extortion Case (Institute for Justice)
= Welcome to the World of Eminent Domain: Courts Pave Over Farmland (Capital Press)
= Court Action Shows Rich Getting Richer and Powerful Getting Stronger
= Chavez Ravine: The Destruction of a Chicano Community Set to Music (by Mike Davis)
= Reform Eminent Domain (Washington Times)
=
Court-OK'D Thefts: When Judges Wink at Politician's Landgrabs (NY Post)
=
Eminent Domain, Being Abused? (60 Minutes)
=
Urban
Planners Are Blind to What Jane Jacobs Really Saw (Wall Street Journal)
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