Eight and a Half Years After Kelo: Nothing Stands Upon the Condemned Property, But Mayor Has an Exciting New Plan for a "Green" Parking Lot and Micro-Housing Lots!

Thank God we seized these people's century-old homes.

Why, they were standing in the way with progress, which begins with P which rhymes with G which stands for Green Parking Lot, whatever the hell that is.

A "tiny house neighborhood" and a symbolic cleansing of the Kelo ruling "stain" are among the development options discussed for Fort Trumbull by New London Mayor Daryl Justin Finizio in his recent meeting with The Day editorial board. What remains murky is the mayor's vision for how any development takes place on the long barren peninsula and who will be in charge of guiding and promoting it.

The 2005 Supreme Court decision in New London v. Kelo, in which the court by a 5-4 majority constitutionally validated the New London Development Corp.'s use of eminent domain to purchase and raze the homes of Fort Trumbull residents who refused to sell, remains a "black stain" on the city, said its mayor.

... Mayor Finizio said he would like New London to symbolically overturn Kelo by undertaking a true "public use" of the seized private properties. He offered as an example a parking garage, under discussion recently as a means of meeting the parking demands generated by Electric Boat's offices in the former Pfizer buildings, the one major project resulting from NLDC's corporate development vision.

This would not be any municipal parking garage, but one with solar panels to power it, landscaping and design to fit it into the setting, and first-floor shops to generate revenues.

They're also going to build small homes there, which will supposedly be "sustainable" or whatever.

You know who had small, environmentally sustainable homes there? The people whose small homes were condemned and taken from them by the Supreme Court and given to a land developer.

And those homes were more "green," have no doubt. There's a saying among greenies -- the greenest brick is the brick that's already in place. That is, the "greenest" house is the house that's already built, not the one that requires new lumber to be cut from the forest, transported by gas-powered truck, and assembled using all manner of gas- and electric-powered machinery.

Thank to Just the Tip. He means "news tips." I think.

posted by Ace at 05:58 PM

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