Today, as reported in the Sacramento Bee (here and here), the Sacramento City Council voted to move ahead with a threatened eminent domain proceeding to be commenced on property downtown, just 2 blocks from where the Legislature tramples the rights of the rest of California, the State Capitol.
Under previous eminent domain threat by the city, Mr Moe Mohanna had agreed to swap land and buildings with adjacent lands that the city had bought up and allow the city redevelopment gang to do their thing. But the properties the city wanted to deal him caught fire, were ordered demolished, and of course suffered a great loss of value due to its "material adverse change" thereby rejecting the swap without some greater consideration. The city claims to not have money lying around [good, it should be going to pay for cops, fire fighters and fixing streets] to sweeten the threat/deal for Mr Mohanna.
The city position for their vision of the use of someone elses property is "We want quality destination retail…" in the K street area "…a collective mass [we are Borg, you will be assimilated, resistance is futile] of stores so people feel like, ‘I’m going to K Street, I’m going to the 700 block so I can shop’ ". Eeeeeooooo, I can just hear the squealing of excitement for these shoppers to do commerce on seized property.
"We’re looking for a more than a coat of paint and putting a tenant in the existing space" says the city bosses. These buildings "don’t lend themselves to the kind of retail we’re trying to attract."
Excuse me, who are these we? This isn’t a Sacrament-opoly board game here. These are real people, the landowner, the tenants, trying to do business while government makes up, and then changes its mind as to what it will permit existing property owners to do with their land. These are real property rights at stake. Elitist? Abuse of government eminent domain powers? Naw, not here in the United States of America.