More Anti-Preservation Rants in Queens
From the Queens Gazette – it’s important to hear the myths & mis-truths, however painful, that are being promulgated – so that we can fight back against them better.
Unconstitutional
To The Editor:
Imagine a group of strangers so infatuated with your home that they demand you not change the color of your door or a single shingle or brick without their permission. To enforce their demands, they urge unelected bureaucrats to determine that you do not own the exterior of your home; restrictions are imposed with fines of up to $15,000 per day for non-compliance; you are deprived of an opportunity to vote on the matter but encouraged to attend “public hearings”.
All of the above will be reality if the NYC Landmark Commission imposes landmark designation on our neighborhood [Broadway- Flushing].
“Infatuated strangers” who wish to own and control the rights to the exterior of our properties should offer fair market value for those rights, perhaps tax deductions, abatements, or other consideration; anything else is expropriation.
Individual rights (property rights) are inalienable. When you begin making conditions, reservations and exceptions, you admit man’s rights may be violated at someone’s discretion. The Constitution protects our individual rights, limits the power of society over man and provides a moral code for a civilized society; you cannot demand any action from another man, except through his free, voluntary consent. The alternative is mob rule.
Letters from Councilmember [Tony] Avella reveal his obliviousness to the principle enshrined in the Fifth Amendment. His response to my concerns is, “You will have an opportunity to present your views at a number of public hearings” and assures me, “If enough property owners oppose the designation, it will not occur”. Instead of affirming and asserting Constitutional protection of our property rights, his alternative is to consign them to the mercy of those who may or may not attend a public hearing.
Have “public hearings” superseded the Constitution?
Ed Konecnik, Flushing