So I took the money and they took the land and built the pumping station. So it goes. I guess I could have chained myself to a tree and become a cause celebre but I'm a busy guy and needed to get on with life.
The ultimate use of eminent domain however was when the Europeans settled North American and displaced the native Indians. So if one is opposed to eminent domain, in order to be consistent, they would have to yield up their property to the nearest Indian tribe - or at least start paying them rent.
The neighborhood my mother grew up in during the 1940s was seized, leveled and graded, and now its part of Interstate 93 just before it enters Boston. The property owners were paid above market value and they were able to rebuild elsewhere. And life went on.
Now I understand Trump was trying to build a limousine parking lot or something like that. He offered the owners a decent amount of money (million dollars for some run down shack?) and they refused. So he availed himself of the court system to try and get his way. Maybe he did, maybe he didn't. Either way, Trump didn't "seize" anybody's property. Either the courts decided it was a proper case of "public use" or they didn't.
That sounds way to sane for these threads!
I’ll one up ya...
In the beginning of WW II when the US entered, the land that my ancestor owned from before the Revolutionary War (He was a Rev War hero and entertained Washington) in Jacksonville, NC was seized by the U.S. govt through eminent domain...
It’s now Camp Lejeune Marine Corps Base