[Enterprise]

There was an area in Fresno County that the Deputies patrolled that they called "Hells 40 Acres" and "Dodge City." Roughly in the 1960's the State bought up a lot of homes bounded by Belmont/First/McKinley/Maple. After the State bought the homes, it then sold them for a dollar each with the provision that the new owner would bear the expense of moving them. I heard that a man bought a lot of the homes, then rented them out, making hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars. It took about 20 to 30 years or so before the freeway through that area was finally built. So it doesn't surprise me if this is still going on elsewhere in the State.

[goldstategop]

Proposition 90 would fix future abuses of this nature. Unlike Oregon's Proposition 37, its not retroactive in effect. But the point is still a valid one: if the government takes your property and fails to put it a public use, it must restore it to you at the value that existed had it been bought on the open market. A lot of people whose homes were condemned by Caltrans to make way for freeways that were never built have been harmed financially. If this is not eminent domain abuse, then I don't know what would qualify as eminent domain abuse. That's why its so essential to protect property rights or there will be more victims of government's endless takings power.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II