Sept. 13, 2004 - 21:00 MDT

THE WONDERING JEW

Monkey

A block in the middle of the article in today's Rocky Mountain News. "The U.S. Supreme Court will soon decide whether to hear its first case on whether eminent domain can be used for private instead of public purposes."

And the headline for the editorial which is quoted in part.

Aurora again abusing small businesses

"It seems there's no rest or relief for the cluster of small businesses near the new Fitzsimons medical complex in Aurora. Once again, the biggest threat is from their own predatory city government."

"Last year they beat back Aurora's effort to amortize their businesses, a scheme that would have allowed the city to close them without compensation for not conforming to the view of what the neighborhood should look like. After a barrage of negative publicity, the city council rescinded the amortization ordinance. The state legislature added a punctuation mark by making such moves illegal."

"But now the city is back with a more traditional condemnation plan, based on a "blight" designation, that may be legal but is just as outrageous."

"The first targets are the 30-odd owners who occupy 17 acres on the southwest corner of Colfax and Peoria. They would get something as in compensation, but it would be whatever lowball figure the city offers and a court adjusts. The price would not be set by free negotiations between willing buyers and sellers."

"It's the worst kind of condemnation, since it's not for a legitimate public good like a road or an airport. Instead private property would simply be transferred through force of law, to another private owner, invariably a politically connected developer. "In this case, the developer will be selected from two applicants, who would build a shopping plaza, PRESUMABLY WITH MORE UPSCALE STORES. The city is hoping for more sales tax revenue than it gets now from the auto-body shops and other blue-collar enterprises struggling to survive."

The "blight" designation usually means big problems for owners. Once your property has been so designated -- and the city has designated plenty of acreage beyond the 17 acres at issue -- your property is almost impossible to sell no matter how ripe it might be for development."

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The article mentions, "Last March, for example, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled unanimously against the Arvada Urban Renewal Authority's effort to condemn a popular lake, which it wanted so a Wal-Mart could be built. And a month ago the Michigan Supreme Court overturned the infamous 1981 Poletown decision that allowed Detroit and Wayne Country to seize thousands of homes and dozens of churches and businesses so that General Motors could build a new plant. Within a few weeks the U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether to hear its first case on whether eminent domain can be used for private instead of public purposes."

Also mentioned in the article, "The takeover scheme has been temporarily delayed by an incident that would have been embarrassing, if Aurora were capable of embarrassment. The developer it originally selected was entering bankruptcy. Worse is that he took it upon himself to personally bully the owners into selling at what they complained were unreasonably low prices."

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Aurora is a peculiar place, after World War Two many men coming out of the service settled there in economically built homes so as to be near Fitzsimons Army Medical Center and the Post Exchanges on Lowry Air Field and Fitzsimons where once groceries and other things could be bought at prices commensurate with the income of military folks.

Now the government gave up Lowry Air Base (much of which is in Aurora) and it is now almost completely developed with high price houses and such. Not too long ago the government decided to pull out of Fitzsimons Hospital. Now Hospitals from Mid-Denver are building at the former Army Hospital site and making their moves. So it seems that Aurora wants to pretty up the area around the new medical center while allowing old Aurora to slog along like it always has. Some of the homes and businesses occupy buildings built long ago, but still quite servicable and habitable.

Not too long ago Wal-Mart was trying to pressure Denver into condemning property inhabited by a variety of businesses (Mostly owned and operated by people of Asian extraction) One corner of the property once had a fantastic pizza parlor housing a full theater pipe organ, which seemed to fall out of style and was boarded up for a long time. The rest of the property was once a mall type thing and the buildings are still there and in good repair. But the businesses on the rest of the property are functioning and may not be bringing in the sales tax dollars that a Wal-Mart might, I can see no reason that the property be taken, by eminent domain or "blighted" designation or any other reason, from the people who are using said property in a legal manner and paying sales taxes on the amount of their sales.

It is bad enough that when a city expands, by ordinance junk yards and dumps and such are arbitrarily forced out often by tactics such as discussed in the News article, but realistically for health reasons the junk yards and such have to move as well as landfill areas be finally developed also.

So in an area designated "blighted" the biggies want to head 'em up and move 'em out. Thus conducting designated Business - Monkey . . . . . . . . . . .

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