Following Up on the Emiment Domain Rally
From the Brooklyn Downtown Star
Shedding Blight: Condemning Condemnation
Dateline : Thursday, July 05, 2007 By Shane Miller
Several groups fighting the use of eminent domain joined together for a rally on the steps of City Hall last week, charging that the seizure of private land in New York City is no longer an extraordinary step to further public projects, but rather a matter of public policy meant to further large private development.
The rally was organized primarily by Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn (DDDB), which is fighting the use of eminent domain in the Forest City Ratner arena project in Prospect Heights. It also brought together residents facing the loss of their homes in Harlem due to a planned expansion of Columbia University, as well as entrepreneurs from Willets Point in Queens, who are facing a similar fate with regard to their businesses. The rally officially marked the debut of the citywide coalition New Yorkers Against Eminent Domain Abuse.
“The mayor is fond of saying, ‘we can’t let one guy stand in the way of development,'” said Dan Goldstein of DDDB, whose home is in the proposed arena’s footprint. “Well, we’re not one guy.”
Later on in the article, I’m reported to say “It isn’t just the use of eminent domain, it is the threat of eminent domain hanging over us like some mythical beast waiting to swoop in.” Does that make a thermonuclear warhead a mythical beast? City Hall rallies in the summer are tough….