Posted on 06/24/2005 8:35:12 AM PDT by Happy2BMe
Some Homeowners Vow To Stay Despite Ruling Against Them
But few options seem available
New London — Drive by Michael Cristofaro's home at 50 Denison Ave. tomorrow; he promises you'll see this sign: FOR SALE.
“I'm out of here. I'm selling my home,” Cristofaro, a New London resident for 43 years, said Thursday. “I'm a white-collar worker, a computer engineer. Who do they want living in this town?”
The Cristofaro family owns a second home, at 53 Goshen St., in the Fort Trumbull neighborhood. On Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the city's right to take that home, and the homes of six other property owners, by eminent domain.
The decision came as no surprise to those fighting to save their homes.
“I sort of figured it would go that way,” said Byron Athenian, who lives at what used to be 78 Smith St. before the street in front of his house was demolished. “That's the way the government works.”
But there was anger nonetheless.
“Those justices made the wrong decision,” Cristofaro said. “Four of them protected our property rights; five threw them out the door. I hope their property is chosen next for eminent domain so they know what it's like to be thrown out into the street.”
And even though, after six years of fighting the city, the group seemed to have run low on options, several promised that they would never leave.
“I'm not going anywhere. I'm here,” said William von Winkle, who owns three buildings on what remains of Smith Street. “I'm going to fight until they give up. They can do their little development around here with us here or they can do no development and try to take it, because until they stop trying to take my property by eminent domain, they will not build anything at Fort Trumbull. It's simple as that.”
“I don't know how they're going to get us out,” Cristofaro agreed. “We're going to keep our homes to the bitter end, because what they've done is wrong.”
And they warned every citizen of New London and the nation at large that the court's ruling stripped them of their right to own private property.
“One of the most fundamental rights that the country was built upon has been pretty much obliterated,” said Scott Sawyer, a lawyer who represented the homeowners. “Owning property doesn't seem to amount to much in the United States anymore. Certainly, none of us own our property anymore.”
Richard Beyer, a plaintiff who owns two homes at 41 and 49 Goshen St., agreed.
“We've pretty much lost our right to have private property,” he said. “Everybody that owns homes, their homes are at risk for eminent domain.”
And that, said Beyer, Cristofaro and von Winkle, now translates into giving the land of small property owners to big corporations.
“As one gentleman that I just got off the phone with said, ‘Welcome to Russia,' ” Beyer said. “So it's scary. I just feel bad for my kids when they get to be my age and own their own home. They don't own it. Either the bank owns it or a private corporation's going to own it.”
The homeowners predicted that more land in the city would end up in the hands of private corporations.
“I guarantee you that just about every house from Howard Street to Shaw's Cove is going to be targeted,” Beyer said. “I see that whole district in New London as being Pfizer's business park. It'll be like Avery Point minus the houses. You'll have access to Fort Trumbull State Park and that'll be it.”
Beyer, who with a partner had renovated one of his two houses and was working on the second when the city took them, said one bitter lesson he had learned was never again to do business in New London.
And he pointed out the city has never delivered on its promise that Pfizer's arrival in the city would mean lower taxes.
“The city of New London promised all the residents of New London that all your property taxes will be reduced,” he said. “That promise was never fulfilled. The taxes keep going up ... When is enough enough?”
And who, several asked, would want to build in the Fort Trumbull area now?
“They're taking the properties for an obsolete plan,” von Winkle said. “Today, who would build a hotel in New London, Connecticut? And they certainly wouldn't build an office building. We have half the city empty now. So what are they taking it for?”
For Cristofaro, the home at 53 Goshen St. is the second the city has taken from his family by eminent domain. The city took the first house, on Woodbridge Street near Shaw's Cove, in 1972.
It was a home, Cristofaro said, that his father had lovingly surrounded with fruit trees, grapevines, yews and rhododendrons.
Today it is a parking lot.
We get to pay skyrocketing home prices . . .
And we don't even own what we bought.
"The Waco Before Waco"
http://www.newsmax.com/articles/?a=1999/9/22/85323
Maybe in the "ownership society", we are what's owned.
Yikes, I sound like a DUer. Sorry.
I mean a protest as a WARNING shot across their bow. And not just a mamby-pamby sign holding protest. Thousands of pissed-off men with rifles slung over their shoulders, holding flags, or not.
And I don't give a rats ass about losing my job, and neither should you, when the fabric of our way of life is on the line. You can get another damn job or move somewhere else, but you can't let them usurp our God-given rights.
It is a helluva lot harder to regain rights after they are lost than to fight for them when threatened. This 'battle' hasn't been fought yet. They just launched a salvo. If we sit passively, full of fear, they keep rolling.
The men who died rebelling against England put everything on the line, not just their 'job' to start this experiment in freedom. Now the fat lazy bastards who inherited it are meekly whimpering as the new breed of tyrant takes their inheritance away.
If I were a dozer driver on that day, I think I'd call in sick.
took that one to freep mail.
ciao for now!
Look around - WHO is in power!?
Meanwhile, Pfizer funnels 70%+ of its political contributios to Republicans.
" Coming soon to lots of American Cities."
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Legal progress is one thing. Confiscation is entirely different (but now new). The Nazis were master of it.
This is just the latest manifestation.
I think the best would be to mount scopes to canoe paddles! A loud message with no chance of arrest:)
" The Second Amendment."
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They are working on that also. They just haven't figured out a way to 'legislate' that one yet without dire consequences to (oligarchic) family fortunes.
Besides, we would be wide open for China to rape us like a virgin at port call.
The first love of such people is not their homes, but money and business.
They would sell their own grandmother if it made them enough money.
Besides, they can take the zillions they make in profits and buy a new and better place.
Connecticut needs to change their name from The Constitution State to the ANTI CONSTITUTION STATE! And thank God the Base Closings Commission is closing down the New London Sub Base. That town definitely deserves to go under!
"I wouldn't be surprised if we see a Waco situation arise for some of those people who don't want to sell their homes."
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Take an American's home (forcefully) away from him with the broad powers this ruling now affords and you will have a revolution on your hands.
You'll see Little old ladies coming out of the wood works with double-barrelled 12 gage shotguns.
They would sell their own grandmother if it made them enough money.
Besides, they can take the zillions they make in profits and buy a new and better place.
The profit motive is the only thing which makes the world go forward. Destroy that and say goodbye to any progress.
I'm not sure who these "such" people are that you are talking about.
"Is this the same President Bush who's always talking about an "ownership society"?"
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And a private Social Security Account. Will it be safe from the oligarchy?
History says that imprisonment rarely comes to tyrants, the lucky ones get a firing squad or guillotine. On this continent ropes have done well too. I pray it doesn't come to that, but history says that slope is mighty slippery.
and people here at work are amazed at my anger.
I got called to jury duty in a week or two. I may just sport a new Kelo vs New London t-shirt of some sort...
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