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Title: Eminent Domain (Displacing the Poor) Post by: Phoenix on 2005-10-03, 16:38 Quote Florida's Riviera Beach is a poor, predominantly black, coastal community that intends to revitalize its economy by using eminent domain, if necessary, to displace about 6,000 local residents and build a billion-dollar waterfront yachting and housing complex. http://www.washtimes.com/national/20051003...22623-2136r.htm (http://www.washtimes.com/national/20051003-122623-2136r.htm)This really, REALLY burns me up! The Constitution of the United States was written to protect INDIVIDUAL CITIZENS. It was written to control the government to ensure it did not trample on the rights of the people. Now, thanks to the freaking US Supreme Court, government and businesses officially have the right to conspire to displace you from your very home - for the simple reason of wanting more money! "Got a problem with unsightly low-income neighborhoods? Here's your answer - eminent domain! Just displace those nasty, poor minorities so you can build your sparkling new play center for the rich! Nevermind the fact that you're destroying lives of people who have nowhere to go, think of your image. After all, they're just the poor, right? They're not contributing the the economy so they have no worth anyway!" You want a reason to want to believe in God? How about hoping that someday soon He'll blast people who pull this kind of crap straight to the abyss! If it were up to me I'd personally damn all bureaucrats straight to the lowest level of hell. They're the most heartless, apathetic excuses for living things I have ever seen! :wall: Title: Re: Eminent Domain Post by: Kain-Xavier on 2005-10-20, 19:54 That is rather sporked up. My high school was in Riviera Beach actually. There are parts of Riviera that are definitely run-down, but from what I can recall, there was a lot of community effort to resolve that. They made an utterly badass park for children to play at (the community pool they were developing when I left had a water slide.) I also seem to recall reading about cheap housing being developed to address the cost of living for low-income families present in the area.
Creating a yacht club and such isn't going to solve the issue in my opinion. There's a fairly recent entertainment complex called City Place filled with restaurants, clothing shops, and night clubs that was built near Riviera Beach/West Palm Beach, and the slums that surround City Place are still slums. The city of Tequesta near Jupiter Island (where several yacht clubs and fancy condos reside) is still run-down. The town of Abacoa (which is much in the vein of City Place) hasn't really brought anything to the town of Jupiter other than deforestation and more traffic. I don't see why Riviera Beach would be the exception to the rule. Title: Re: Eminent Domain Post by: Phoenix on 2005-10-21, 01:18 That's just it though, it's not about solving problems at all, it's about thuggery on the part of government officials who want to remove a "blight" from their districts and replace it with something that fills the public coffers (and thus their own). It is deprivation of property without due process of law, with no crime committed other than being poor and (most likely) the wrong race. It goes against every principle this country was founded upon, and in one sweeping gesture counteracts decades of progress in the area of civil rights. It is as abominable as it can get.
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