Paterson Too Good to be True? (Probably)

I know he hasn’t even officially assumed the governorship yet, so it’s way premature to judge him. Still, I just assumed I’d easily find a lot not to like about David Paterson, but honestly I’m having a very hard time of it. Turns out he supports reforming the Rockefeller drug laws, reining in trigger-happy cops, and even voting for non-citizens. Now it turns out he is (or at least was very recently) a big opponent of eminent domain:

If David Paterson as governor displays the opposition to eminent domain that he showed as a state senator, several high-profile development projects in New York City could be derailed or delayed, including a Columbia University expansion, the Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn, and the transformation of Willets Point in Queens.As a state Senate leader, Mr. Paterson in 2005 held a rally with Council Member Letitia James and state Senator William Perkins on the steps of City Hall during which he called for a statewide moratorium on the use of eminent domain.

Mr. Paterson said a decision handed down by the Supreme Court in the Kelo v. City of New London case could lead to a “gold rush” of eminent domain use across the state, The New York Sun reported at the time. He said he would gather legislators and introduce legislation to impose a moratorium on its use.

I’m sure he’ll go along with whatever tax hikes Sheldon Silver proposes (but then again he might surprise us), and all his talk at his press conference yesterday about campaign finance reform made me nervous, but so far we could do a lot worse. Heck, we have done a lot worse — in each of the last three gubernatorial administrations.

Do any of our readers have any dirt on Paterson? Leave a note in the comments.

Pfizer Targeted for Brooklyn Land Theft

It seems not all the community activists in Brooklyn are as opposed to eminent domain as those in the Atlantic Yards area. Or maybe it just depends on the “public purpose” for which the property is stolen. At any rate, some “affordable housing”* proponents are seeking to steal a prime piece of Brooklyn real estate from the pharmaceutical company Pfizer.

Ironically, Pfizer had an indirect role in the notorious Kelo v. New London eminent domain case. After Pfizer started building its new Global Research & Development headquarters in the Fort Trumbull neighborhood of New London, Connecticut, the local bureacrats got it in their head to condemn the rest of the neighborhood for new development. Pfizer never directly benefited from the eminent domain abuse or took sides in the argument, although one of its former vice presidents sat on the board of the quasi-public body that led the government-sanctioned land theft.

Pfizer has cut about 1,000 jobs from its Brooklyn plant over the past two and a half years and wants to close the plant altogether. The company would naturally prefer to sell its property to the highest bidder, but the “affordable housing” activists — led by Assemblyman Vito Lopez — would rather just steal the land and give the company “fair” compensation. (What’s fair is decided by the thieves, of course. Like Don Corleone, they intend to make Pfizer “an offer they can’t refuse.”)

* I have always hated the “affordable housing” euphemism. All housing — from Yorkville to Brownsville — is affordable, or nobody would live in it.

Brooklyn Pfizer plant

Hat tip: Rational Review News Digest

What Do the MTA and Al Qaeda Have in Common?

Both destroyed hundreds of downtown businesses for no good reason. Now that the MTA has abandoned its gazillion dollar transit hub boondoggle, some of the business owners who saw their livelihoods needlessly ruined for the sake of some bureaucrat’s petty scheme are rightfully pissed:

Mirza Mamur closed his art gallery, endured 10 months of unemployment, took out loans to make ends meet and then struggled to re-establish his business at a new location.

He was one of more than 140 business owners displaced by plans for the Fulton Street transit hub in lower Manhattan. Now, after the Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced it was again scaling back the project - and scrapping its centerpiece, a 110-foot-tall, steel-and-glass-domed entranceway - Mamur is asking if he was needlessly pushed out.

No need to ask, Mirza. You were.

Eminent Domain: Just face it Bruce Ratner is more important than you are

And the City’s politicians and bureaucrats just like him better.  And why shouldn’t they - he’s providing tax revenue that helps pay for their salaries and their pensions. Of course so does your tax money - but you have no choice and Bruce Ratner does.  Don’t like it? Who cares?  You are just an ordinary citizen.  Bruce has friend’s in the government.

Eminent Domain is no longer about replacing slums with hospitals (if it ever was). Admit it - It’ s now just the latest trick politicians use to feed their unquenchable thirst for more money and more power over every aspect of your life. 

Michael White has a great piece “Columbia Pulls a Kelo”in yesterday’s New York Sun (online version) that points out how there is money to be made in the business of seizing what you thought was your property.

A few actually seem to believe the process is moral or productive. Mayor Bloomberg once commented that potential federal limits on eminent domain would limit NYC’s ability to control it’s own future.  Our mayor seemed to miss the point that eminent domain rather limits property owner’s ability to control their futures.   Our mayor is famous for thinking he knows best how we all should live.
 
But even good soldiers in the war against personal freedom seem to admit that the process by which government seizes people’s homes and businesses is flawed at best.  In August, Supreme Court Justice Stevens lamented his Kelo position saying that “the free play of market forces is more likely to produce acceptable results in the long run than the best-intentioned plans of public officials.”   DUH!  Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Dan Doctoroff  - the guy that said the free market and the interests of the city were incompatible -  has now admitted that he never should have agreed to let Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project ignore the City’s ULURP process.   OOPS - None Killed.  A few people lost their homes but who’s counting? We have to assume the government knows best right?  If they don’t like the law - they can just get the Supreme Court to “clarify” it or ignore it altogether.
 
It almost looks as if they aren’t even trying to hide it anymore.  They will take your home or your business - because they can.  Big government costs big money.  Somebody has to sacrifice.  And you can bet it won’t be Bruce Ratner, or the New York Times, or Columbia or Michael Bloomberg or Dan Doctoroff.

Spunk Lads come together

Legendary 1970s punk band The Spunk Lads are reuniting this Wednesday for a special benefit concert for Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn’s legal fund. DDDB is currently fighting legal battles in state and federal courts to prevent Ratner’s Atlantic Yards development from moving forward. The Choke, Seanchai & The Unity Squad, and the Blackout Shoppers are also expected to perform. Tickets are only $15. More details here.

Libertarian Lions

Some Columbia alums and fellow Libertarians are p.o.’d that their alma mater is attempting a land grab:

Columbia University president Lee Bollinger’s plan to use eminent domain to obtain land for a new campus in the Manhattanville section of West Harlem faces new opposition from the Libertarian Party of New York (LPNY) led by Columbia College alumni. State Chair Richard Cooper, Christopher Garvey and Mark Axinn condemn the University’s resort to the Empire State Development Corporation to condemn property-owners who will not sell voluntarily from West 125th to 133rd Streets between Broadway and 12th Avenue. The ESDC designated the area as “blighted.” Cooper responds, “Hands off Harlem!”

Cooper notes that he previously fought SUNY-Stony Brook’s eminent domain grab of Flowerfields in St. James. “Eminent domain is a legalized assault on tenants, taxpayers and property-owners. Moses said to Pharaoh, “Let my people go.” The Libertarian Party says to our modern pharaohs, the politicians and bureaucrats, “Let the people stay.” Bollinger cites our beloved Columbia’s educational mission and the infamous Kelo decision. Is it Columbia’s mission to teach that legalized theft is just and constitutional? Is it to teach that the end justifies the means?”

Mark Axinn, a Manhattan real estate attorney and Manhattan LP treasurer, laments “I am particularly appalled that Columbia University, which already has significant real estate and financial resources far in excess of others is desirous of relying on the thuggery of government to force other real estate owners to relinquish their property rather than simply purchasing any land it desires on the open market. Surely an institution with the power and wealth of Columbia could simply buy property. By seeking to usurp others’ legitimate property rights by eminent domain, a university of which I should be proud lowers itself to the level of the street bully simply taking what it wants from those weaker individuals who might also be on the schoolyard.”

Christopher Garvey, a Long Island patent attorney and former LPNY candidate for Governor,is outraged. “On The Brian Lehrer Show (3/8/07), President Bollinger stated his case for expansion into the Manhattanville section of West Harlem. He described the activities of his private university as “public purposes”, which justified having the government invoke its powers of eminent domain to steal property from existing owners to give to the University. How arrogant! Declaring one’s “purposes” to be “public” is so much easier and cheaper than buying property fairly, from willing sellers on the free market.”

Not bad for a bunch of Lions. Of course, all the really cool Libertarians went to NYU (Julian Sanchez, Chris Sciabarra and yours truly, to name a few.)