Welcome to the Future!
Large portions of city of Highland, Illinois is blighted, which translates to the city will create 3 business districts.
The economic benefit of the 3 business districts will be:
A federal judge in Indiana ruled that asset forefeiture of vehicles without criminal charges violates the constitution because asset forefeiture laws:
Emails, notes, and text messages document collusion between a city and a developer according to attorneys for home owners.
The emails, notes, and text messages reveal that city inspectors were sent in to enforce city code, and in lieu of issuing fines, home owners were given the choice of selling their land to a developer.
The emails, notes and text messages go on to reveal that boarded up homes will drive down prices. The city can use eminent domain to acquire the homes and then the…
In Jasper Alabama, the mayor and police chief are checking on available options when a black man asked city council if there is anything they can do.
The solutions: The Mayor is going to talk to the homeowner and the police chief is going to check to see if the federal government can do anything.
Issues that got thrown around in the mix- it looks bad (blight?), citizens don’t like the flag, and what about property enjoyment of neighbors?
This is legislation waiting to be written. Flag…
A blight study determined portions of “downtown” Muskogee, OKlahoma are blighted. The sstudy was requested by the city as a means to trigger economic development tools for redevelopment.
The local paper supports th fidning of blight in downtown.
Muskogee Phoenix | EDITORIALLY SPEAKING: ‘Blight’ study critical to downtown
A group of nuns in Pennsylvania own land that the Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline would like to occupy.
The nuns have taken the unusual step of suing the federal government claiming that the interstate natural gas pipeline violates their rights under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
Its a show down between the 5th Amendment (private property rights home) and the 1st amendment (protection of freedom of religious exercise).
2017- the year eminent domain went pop culture. Book reviewing Kelo, a film called Litle Pink House making the film festival circuit, and a play in Nebraska about eminent domain and a pipeline.
Small town hokey play? No. It was a finalist in 2016’s prestigious Eugene O’Neill National Playwriting Competition
A federal court in Houston found Houston’s homeless ordinance against public camping unconstitutional.
The Court opinion includes: “”Enforcement of the city’s ban against the plaintiffs may, therefore, cause them irreparable harm by violating their Eighth Amendment right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment due to their status of ‘homelessness,'”
Texas Lawyer | Federal Judge Halts Houston’s Homeless Ordinance Banning Public Camping
Urban Farms in California could get a property tax cut if San Diego adopts its ordinance to reduce property taxes for urban farming lands.
San Diego Union Tribune | New incentive aims to spur more community gardens