Posted on 11/11/2014 8:29:47 AM PST by John Semmens
The Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority (PRA) has received court approval of its seizure of the art studio of James Dupree. It plans to bulldoze it and sell the land to a private grocery chain. Despite renovating a dilapidated warehouse and converting it into an attractive and bustling center for artistic expression, Dupree’s property rights are being sacrificed to the PRA’s vision of what the City needs.
“It’s a question of whether the rights of the collective community should take precedence over the rights of a single individual,” PRA Executive Director Ed Covington explained. “Far more people will eat the food sold at the proposed supermarket than will ever see the works of art produced or displayed at Mr. Dupree’s studio. Social justice commands that the benefit of the greater number takes precedence over the rights of one man.”
Covington dismissed the possibility that the supermarket could be built at another location. “I suppose that if we were to search hard enough we might find such a place, but it might not be as conveniently located,” he said. “Should we really undermine the convenience of thousands of shoppers in the name of the abstract property rights of a single individual?”
if you missed any of this week's other semi-news/semi-satire posts you can find them at...
http://azconservative.org/2014/11/08/president-ready-to-use-executive-action-for-amnesty/
Couldn't agree more. I fled after the Fast Eddie regime, when the sales tax went up to 7%.
Thank you, TRD — go Quakers!
Ain't it the truth?
Thank you, PGalt!
You are a friend of truth, justice and the American way! :-)
...sharing...contacting...!
Thank YOU, friend of Philly!
I think this has to be the bitterest pill for James -- that this is happening under a black, Ivy-League mayor who went to the same university James did (University of Pennsylvania) — plus under the first black president and a largely black City government administration.
Their intentions are not anti-black; they are anti-American, anti-republican (small "r"). No entrepreneur nor self-made person may keep their properties unmolested or the fruits of their labors and distribute them as they see fit; no. The Democrat government shall take from the producers — shall in fact punish the producers and regard them as bigots — and shall give to the idle and unmotivated and illegal and criminal classes, in the name of a communist, classless society. Classless in every sense of the word.
I noticed one if James’ posters for sale is about the election of Barack 0bama. I wonder if he voted for him.
If it becomes a national cause célèbre, it’s more likely the Philly government will cave.
Sorry, not going to your link about Isaiah Zagar. Nearly all of the “visionary” art that I have seen inspires revulsion in me, especially the murals with mirror shards.
:)
screw him, no doubt the guy is a leftist in a leftist city, it is what fascists do, he no doubt didn’t care when they were stealing our wealth for his friends in the hood.
Don’t be bigoted. I would not vouch for him if he were unworthy. He is not in the least extremist and mixes with people of all races, including his own family members. My close (Irish-Italian) friends since the early 60s have been Dupree’s close friends for nearly 50 years. I have heard nothing but wonderful things about him, his wife and his daughters. It is embarrassing when white people cannot accept accomplished black people. Would you call fascist if this were happening to a typical Irish-American?
Most visual artists lean left because they are “lo-info” about politics, their early working lives are impoverished and their income stream is irregular. As an artist myself, I was perhaps the only conservative in my graduting class from art school, mainly because I had grown up in DC and was not typically “lo-info.”
Dupree does not live in his studio nor in “the ghetto”. However, he located his studio in a racially mixed area directly next to the residence areas of two nationally major, majority-white universities. Artists of all colors typically find buildings in low-cost, racially mixed neighborhoods when they are starting out, and often are the source of great revitalization when they do so. Most of my artist friends from the 60s bought run-down rowhouses in white ethnic working-class neighborhoods for around $20K, fixed them up beautifully and imaginatively over the years, and are now sitting on $300K to $1.2 million or more in market value as Philadelphia experienced a renaissance, fueled in part by Federal and state grants in various areas. Should all the whites who benefited lose their properties? James greatly improved his studio property in a majority-black mixed neighborhood and now the City is taking it from him.
Signed the petition.
If you need a platoon of well-armed men...well, that’s another story.
Many thanks, HKMk23! Have a blessed weekend!
bttt
bump
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