Abuse of Power—How the Government Misuses Eminent Domain
Steven Greenhut
Seven Locks Press 2004 http://prfamerica.org/bookreviews/BookReviewAbuseOfPower.html
A quote from Aristotle, “We make war that we may live in peace” introduces the last chapter. Greenhut notes that the first reaction to abuse is despair, but despair should not be allowed to last long. The key to success is to not feel overwhelmed by the powerful forces. Four main approaches that have yielded success are identified.
The first — community organizing,
the second — adopting a legal strategy,
the third — political,
the fourth revolves around the media!
Some of the success stories are reviewed in detail, including:
“Illinois Stops One Stop Shopping,”
“California Dreaming,”
“The Constitution State Rediscovers the Constitution,”
“Colorado Supremes Slap Down Wal-Mart,”
“The Way From San Jose,”
“Atlantic City Officials Gambled and Lost.”
Much is to be learned from these anecdotes. Greenhut concludes with the “Organizing ABCs” — Build Broad Coalitions, Go On the Offensive, and Be Positive, Not Just Reactive, Know What You Want to Do, Don’t Lose Sight of Principle, Keep It Simple.[/quote]
No offense, but I think you’re going to be swimming upstream….If in doubt, just ask the folks that bought a home near Palomar Airport.
Anytime you move into a place where there are such “landmarks”, I think the expectation should be that don’t expect things to change. There’s a reason why things those landmarks are there, and why property prices are what they are because of it. If it’s really bothersome, don’t live there just because it’s cheap(er). And if price is all that matters, well then accept that those landmarks are just going to stay there.[/quote]
Good point flu, but really, the Board of Supervisors needs to listen to the people of Santee. This is an old building/comlex left over from the 60s. There are many places to put this jail, and there has been a lot of redevelopment in Santee to support not plopping the new expansion jail in the middle of it all.
The City of Santee doesn’t want it, and I know there are many NIMBY antagonists out there who will say then why did you move there.
I still would move to Sky Ranch even with the jail there, yet the way the City of San Diego is handling this is probably not the most professional way, in my opinion. I mean, you have numerous law suits against you on building/expanding this jail, numerous people in opposition, so you just say, wham, eminent domain. How do you like them apples, city of Santee?
The main problem is that the City of San Diego is probably going to loose the funding for the expansion unless they start moving forward soon. So, they think by eminent domain, they can fast track the process and get by the lawsuits stopping them.
If you haven’t been out to Santee recently and seen all the new development, you probably wouldn’t understand why everyone is so passionate about not expanding the jail here.
