Eminent Domain

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What do I think about the government taking someone's property because a well connected developer wants it?

A couple of years back, I ran a friend's mayoral campaign because of this issue. In response to a Friday morning court setback, the city of Greenville attempted to throw us out of campaign headquarters by condemning it that evening with blue lights flashing. We backed them down for two weeks, operating behind barricades until city personnel entered and threatened us with immediate arrest if we failed to leave. The candidate decided, against my judgment, that under the circumstances discretion was the lesser of two evils. His building was seized and subsequently demolished.

I take a dim view of such things.






addendum:
The jury has spoken. The "Spanish Steps" (right) are going to cost the taxpayers of Greenville a total of six million dollars, roughly a quarter million per step. And I'm not making that up.

Lacking anyplace else to write this, I'd like to say that the whole sorry South Main affair was like something from the third world. Everybody, everybody who had their dirty little fingers on it, mayor Knox White, Diane Smock and Michelle Shain and the rest of the city council, the Hughes brothers, all those who had a hand in it and all those carried it along by their silence, all of them should be ashamed of themselves, and if they collectively possessed the integrity of a mustard seed, they no doubt would be.



addendum to the addendum:
Did I say six million? Make that seven.
The lawyers alone are getting quite a bit more than Knox originally thought he would stick the taxpayers for on the whole deal.

I see Knox is doing his usual transparent stuttering. Knox, Knox ... you can spin until you're dizzy, you can glad hand and get your picture took, you can get your name on every plaque from here to Charleston, but this knife in the back fiasco is your signature achievement, what you'll always be known for. Get used to it.