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A government powerful to give you everything you want is powerful enough to take everything they want.
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Seattle Seizes Private Parking Lot to Build New Parking Lot
Zenon Evans|Oct. 24, 2013 6:25 pm
Citing the need for more public parking, the City Council of Seattle made a unanimous decision this week to force a 103-year-old woman to sell a plot of land that is already a parking lot.
The Puget Sound Business Journal argues that the situation seems like a boondoggle. There is contradictory information that officials have not clarified about whether the city intends to turn Myrtle Woldson's 134-stall parking lot into a multi-level garage or if they simply want seize the lot and operate it themselves:
“It makes no fiscal sense to me to have the city condemn a parking lot to make more parking,” said Gary Beck, president of Republic Parking Northwest, which operates Woldson’s lot.
City Council spokeswoman Dana Robinson Slote said that Seattle doesn’t want to build anything on Woldson’s lot and plans to keep it a surface parking lot “for the foreseeable future.”
That contradicts city and state documents that call for building structured parking along the central waterfront, including specifically on Woldson’s lot. The entities have set aside $15 million to acquire existing garages or build new ones, where short-term parking is to be be offered at $3 to $4 an hour.
Local governments are the largest threat and biggest remover of our freedom that exists. We put up with it because we are conditioned to believe that if its local, it's okay or somehow easy to change - yet its not.
Local governments are the largest threat and biggest remover of our freedom that exists. We put up with it because we are conditioned to believe that if its local, it's okay or somehow easy to change - yet its not.
Agree.
Try opening a business in some of these communites.
The expense and hassle to meet onerous regs is creating a box store mega chain world.
Local law enforcement backed by fed money and its drug war has become a huge problem as well. Just about every hamlet has a swat team now a days.
And to the to the point of the o.p., there should be no such thing as eminent domain, but only private property rights.
Yes, businesses in Seattle are screaming that they can't do business here. Amazon is a particularly vocal on this subject. In protest, they've been hiring thousands of new workers at salaries well above $100k. Many other tech companies have been following in protest by hiring people in those very areas. That'll show those big government types, huh.
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And to the to the point of the o.p., there should be no such thing as eminent domain, but only private property rights.
I take you don't drive on a highway and you've never bothered to buy any goods transported on one. It's almost like you're whining about eminent domain and pretending that you don't greatly benefit from it.
Where would a nation of 314 million people walk or drive if a government had not taken ownership of land at some point in time.
The power of government to take private property has always existed in the U.S. Originally, no compensation had to be paid. The 5th Amendment made clear that the taking had to be for public use and required just compensation to be paid.
I take you don't drive on a highway and you've never bothered to buy any goods transported on one. It's almost like you're whining about eminent domain and pretending that you don't greatly benefit from it.
What an idiotic statement.
I doubt you really believe that one can't oppose something he has benefited from. It would be incredibly easy to turn that logic back around on you.
It was definitely a careless use of eminent domain. Obviously the city was able to justify it for public use due to the construction going on with the highway tunneling going on in the city.
I doubt you really believe that one can't oppose something he has benefited from. It would be incredibly easy to turn that logic back around on you.
Actually, it's an educated statement. As middle-aged mom points out, we're always had eminent domain and it's even covered in the constitution. We're all benefit from it and we wouldn't be where we are without it. Otherwise, there'd be no railroads, highways, pipelines, etc. The tin foil hat wearing morons who complain about eminent domain always forget about those things.
Parking is a big issue in downtown Seattle. Business downtown relies on it. For those of us that live here, we want places to park and we want jobs and all of those crazy things. Instead of whining, you could try thinking about that.
It was definitely a careless use of eminent domain. Obviously the city was able to justify it for public use due to the construction going on with the highway tunneling going on in the city.
I think SCOTUS deferred the definition of " public good" to the state, no?
I think SCOTUS deferred the definition of " public good" to the state, no?
I believe you are right, this is something the woman could challenge if she wanted to, and I do agree that buying a parking lot for parking use because the city is losing parking spots because of the construction isn't a good enough reason for eminent domain.
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