Connecticut Agency Seeks to Whitewash Its Role in Kelo
Eminent Domain Abuse
Damon W. Root | April 27, 2012 Reason Online (blog)
http://reason.com/blog/2012/04/27/connecticut-agency-seeks-to-whitewash-it
In 2005 the U.S.
Supreme Court issued its notorious ruling in Kelo v. City
of New London. At issue was New London, Connecticut’s desire to
use eminent domain to clear way an existing neighborhood and put up a fancy new
hotel, apartment buildings, and office towers in its place, all designed to
complement the nearby research and development center being built by the Pfizer
pharmaceutical company. Although this was a classic example of eminent domain
abuse, with the government taking property from one private party and then
handing it over to another for no legitimate public use, the Court let it stand
anyway because it was part of what Justice John Paul Stevens called a
“comprehensive redevelopment plan” that would provide “appreciable benefits to
the community.”
Unsurprisingly,
those appreciable benefits never materialized. Not only was the new development
project never built, which means the existing neighborhood was destroyed for
nothing, Pfizer later shuttered its facility and pulled out of New London altogether. To add insult to
injury, Connecticut Supreme Court Justice Richard N. Palmer, one of the four
justices who voted against the property owners and therefore directly
precipitated the Supreme Court’s dismal ruling, later apologized to Susette
Kelo for his misguided vote.
In the
latest twist to this long and infuriating saga, the New London Development
Corporation (NLDC), the quasi-public agency that orchestrated the original land
grab, is now attempting to whitewash its role in the whole sordid affair. As the New London Patch reports, the agency
voted yesterday to change its name to the vague and self-aggrandizing
Renaissance City Development Association in order to get away from all those
uncomfortable connections with the Kelo
debacle. Here’s the New London Patch:
NLDC
President Michael Joplin said Mayor Daryl Finizio
recommended the change when Joplin and members of NLDC’s
executive committee met with him in January. Joplin said the organization has
also considered changing its name in the past, saying it has been “unfairly
tarred and feathered” due to its role in the Kelo v.
City of New London eminent domain case before
the United States
Supreme Court.
“Everyone in
this room knows we’ve got baggage, and it’s spelled
K-E-L-O,” said Joplin....
“If there’d
been a little more support from the media, we probably wouldn’t have this
public relations fiasco that’s plagued the city for so long,” said [NLDC member
Stephen] Percy.
It’s bad
enough to employ a cute euphemism like baggage to describe the use of
government-backed bulldozers to destroy somebody’s house for no legitimate
reason, but the self-pity on display by the NLDC is just beyond parody. These
people should be ashamed of themselves.