Posted on 08/12/2015 4:29:53 AM PDT by Ge0ffrey
While casting himself as America’s new constitutional savior, Trump has shown reckless disregard for fundamental private property rights. In the 1990s, he waged a notorious war on elderly homeowner Vera Coking, who owned a little home in Atlantic City that stood in the way of Trump’s manifest land development. The real estate mogul was determined to expand his Trump Plaza and build a limo parking lot — Coking’s private property be damned. The nonprofit Institute for Justice, which successfully saved Coking’s home, explained the confiscatory scheme:
“Unlike most developers, Donald Trump doesn’t have to negotiate with a private owner when he wants to buy a piece of property, because a governmental agency — the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority or CRDA — will get it for him at a fraction of the market value, even if the current owner refuses to sell. Here is how the process works.
“After a developer identifies the parcels of land he wants to acquire and a city planning board approves a casino project, CRDA attempts to confiscate these properties using a process called ’eminent domain,’ which allows the government to condemn properties ‘for public use.’ Increasingly, though, CRDA and other government entities exercise the power of eminent domain to take property from one private person and give it to another. At the same time, governments give less and less consideration to the necessity of taking property and also ignore the personal loss to the individuals being evicted.”
(Excerpt) Read more at michellemalkin.com ...
And Trump has yet to answer for that.
I’m sure the flames from the Trumpys will follow shortly.
King Ahab.
In a hypothetical general election most uninformed or swing voters won’t care much about Trump’s various flip-flops or the issues that many conservatives have with him. That said when political ad after political ad featuring people who lost their homes or small businesses because the government redistributed it to Trump so that he could get richer start airing, he’ll be crushed. It will make Romney’s 42% comment look like nothing.
The facts don't quite support the narrative.
A little context here might be worth considering.
As a disclaimer, I do NOT believe in ED for commercial growth using government ED condemnation.
Vera Coking prevailed more than once in court and her property was NOT taken, even after having been offered seven figures for its purchase.
She wanted more and kept her right to her property and it eventually sold in an auction for something over $500K less the auction 10% commission fee, nowhere the $5M it had been listed for.
What’s next? You gonna try to sell us the Brooklyn Bridge?
Not all Eminent Domain cases and claims are big bad government forcing little people out. Michelle is about 15 years late since the eminent domain in AC were made in the late 70’s and very early 80’s. There were others since, but where was Michelle and why isn’t she reporting on the generous settlements Trump made in the early 80’s?
Trump has nothing to answer for here. He played the game as the politicians made it. Let’s see, more than a billion in investments, thousands of jobs created, and 100’s of thousands of tourists to AC vs a run down $500k (only because of the surrounding Trump Property) house over 70 years old.
Here’s what Trump said on that particular matter during the 90’s ....
““I give her credit for standing up for what she believed in,” he said. “She didn’t want to leave her home, and money wasn’t going to buy her out. Whatever people think about that, it’s admirable she held her ground and prevailed.””
So, goodbye michelle malkin. You’ve shown your stripes.
Better the flames of the Trumpys than the period blood of the competition. In politics, what is the truth anymore but hack reporting.
So what? Good for her. It’s what Trump will do to get what he wants. That’s the point. Property rights be damned. That’s NOT a conservative principle. Trump is a CINO!
So goodbye anybody who disagreeS with Trump? I suppose you think that anybody who disagrees with Trump is a RINO? Trump is a CINO, conservative in name only.
THE ENDS DON’T JUSTIFY THE MEANS!
I’m not defending him, and I did indicate in my post what my feelings were on commercial profit ED condemnation.
I also am not lock-step condemning him by a piece from MM that tells only the one side and doesn’t give the results of that entire sequence.
I wasn’t expecting disagreement. I was expecting blaming the messenger.
Eminent domain is evil. Using eminent domain is an evil act. Just because it is legal and is in the big business tool box does not make it ok to use. Abortion is legal. Is it ok to perform an abortion. Planned parenthood is claiming selling baby parts is legal. If it is legal and part of there tool box is it ok that they are doing it? Legal does not equal moral.
I was also expecting excuses, and I’m seeing them.
The point isn’t that the elderly woman couldn’t have received more money for the “sale” of her property if she just took Trump’s initial offer. The point is that she didn’t want to sell, and she has every right to not sell if she doesn’t want to sell. At least she should have that right unless a justifiable “public use” reason is present. You know, like building a highway or some such that will be for public use AND held by the local government, not eventually owned by another private entity.
That’s a perversion of the “eminent domain” clause and everyone here knows that (or should). It’s a perversion of it, to take from one private owner and give to another private owner. That’s theft at the force of government. It’s what happened in the Kelo decision. And speaking of Kelo: (from the same article)
“Trump has attempted to use the same tactics in Connecticut and has championed the reviled Kelo vs. City of New London Supreme Court ruling upholding expansive use of eminent domain. He told Fox News anchor Neil Cavuto that he agreed with the ruling “100 percent” and defended the chilling power of government to kick people out of their homes and businesses based on arbitrary determinations:
“The fact is, if you have a person living in an area that’s not even necessarily a good area, and government, whether it’s local or whatever, government wants to build a tremendous economic development, where a lot of people are going to be put to work and make (an) area that’s not good into a good area, and move the person that’s living there into a better place — now, I know it might not be their choice — but move the person to a better place and yet create thousands upon thousands of jobs and beautification and lots of other things, I think it happens to be good.”
Like most statist promises of bountiful job creation, government-engineered redevelopment math rarely adds up. Trump’s corporations have backed casino industry bailouts and wealth-redistributing “tax-increment financing” schemes — the very kind of taxpayer-subsidized interventions we’ve seen on a grand scale under the Obama administration.
“Championing liberty begins at the local level. There is nothing more fundamental than the principle that a man’s home is his castle. Donald Trump’s career-long willingness to trample this right tells you everything you need to know about his bogus tea party sideshow.”
I’m sorry but I think it’s time for everyone here (at least on FR) to put the blinders away and dump Trump. If we are going to even hope to try to claim intellectual honesty here. Until and unless he can explain away this, without sidestepping antics that is.
I think you might be interested in my post #18.
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