Weekend links: Eminent domain is imminent

by Eric Fidler • September 17, 2011 1:50 pm

Photo by dr5 on Flickr.

Eminent domain hits the big screen: Brooke Shields will star in a movie about Susette Kelo, a woman made famous by her Supreme Court case against New London, CT. The city wanted to use eminent domain to sell her house to a private developer. (Hartford Courant)

Skyland still pie in the sky: Will Skyland Town Center be a similar eminent domain experience for DC? It took properties and evicted successful businesses but funding or an anchor tenant for the promised town center development is still elusive. (City Paper)

Smart Growth can save Marylanders billions: If Maryland fails to adopt the Smart Growth plan for 2035, Marylanders will have to pay $11 billion extra to construct new roads to accomodate sprawl. (Atlantic Cities)

Pay for parking by phone in MoCo: Montgomery has added pay by phone to parking in Bethesda, North Bethesda, Silver Spring, Wheaton and Mongomery Hills. One thing this system has which DC's doesn't: QR codes. (Post)

Should MoCo join the power business?: Many US jurisdictions own several, if not all, of their utility companies. Montgomery County's desire to operate it own electric utility may have a lot of merit, especially considering county dissatisfaction with Pepco. (RPUS)

DC has surplus: DC has an $89 million surplus for FY 2011. Will they salt away the money, try to cut taxes, or use some for programs like affordable housing which got cut and which they previously voted to put at the top of the list to restore? (Post)

The high cost of required parking: A Seattle grocer closed; one blogger suspects minimum parking requirements helped push it. (Orphan Road) ... Cleveland's warehouse district once had a nice urban texture; now it's surface parking. (Cleve Scene)

Danish peds step up: In a city where 55% of residents commute by bike, Copenhagen is seeing the omnipresence of cyclists upsetting pedestrians. (NYT) ... Interestingly, many people in the story identify themselves as regularly using different modes of travel.

Electric car drivers upset over fees: 25 miles of HOV lanes in LA will become HOT lanes. The change will also reverse a long-standing policy by requiring solo drivers of electric and alternative-fuel cars to pay to use the lanes. (LA Times)

And...: The intensity of rainfall on Sept. 8 may have been a once-in-a-millennium event. (Post) ... DC revenue collection exceeds expectations by $89 million. (Washington Times) ... Seattle's bus stop signs are so much better than ours. (Seattle Transit Blog)

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17 comments

Tags: affordable housing, bike hate, budget, California, Cleveland, Connecticut, Copenhagen, DC, DC Council, Denmark, development, east of the river, eminent domain, HOT lanes, HOV, links, Los Angeles, Maryland, Montgomery, Ohio, parking, parking minimums, pay by phone, pedestrian safety, Pepco, QR codes, retail, Seattle, Skyland, Smart Growth, sprawl, Ward 8, Washington State, weather

Eric Fidler has lived in DC and suburban Maryland his entire life. He likes long walks along the Potomac and considers the L'Enfant Plan an elegant work of art. He also blogs at Left for LeDroit, LeDroit Park's (only) blog of record.

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RE: Copenhagen

Something I'd quickly noticed was that the city really is exceptionally bike-friendly, but comparatively not ped-friendly. Now granted, it's far more ped-friendly than many cities around the world... but in many areas there's only a 1m sidewalk which is also cluttered with the usual urban fabric of steps, stairwells, trash cans, trees, and illegally parked bikes (while bike racks are plentiful, w/ at *least* 2-3 on many street corners; they're always packed). Not to mention a slight lack of benches.

I absolutely praise Copenhagen for being bike-friendly & it's ahead of many cities for being ped-friendly, but with a 1m sidewalk adjacent to a 3m uncluttered bikeway and 13m road... I wouldn't mind a bit more room to walk. I also kind of wish Tivoli had a couple more entrances; it's a long walk to get to those gates only to backtrack to the other side to catch the sound/light show!

by Bossi on Sep 17, 2011 2:15 pm

The intensity of rainfall on Sept. 8 may have been a once-in-a-millennium event.

Sure. That in the weeks after the once in a century earth quake and a once in a lifetime Mid-Atlantic hurricane. And (almost) two years after a once in a life-time Snowmageddon. And ten years after the largest terror attack in American history.

The government should stop raving about the rarity of these events and take measures to handle these calamities. I am not asking for perfect safety, but for prepared emergency responses. What else is DHS for?

So that emergency response people know what to do, and not keep crowd *out* of buildings during earth quakes for fear of after shocks. So that we have sewer systems that can handle not just average rain, but heavy rain. So that we have power systems that don't black out with ever bristle of wind or flake of snow. So that we have working escalators in metro and we can evacuate stations quickly in case of emergencies. So we don't loose entire cities to predictable weather effects.

Yes that will be expensive. But don't pretend that stuff never happens. It does. Quite frequently actually. And that is not free either.

by Jasper on Sep 17, 2011 2:57 pm

As some may already know, Jane Jacobs filed an amica curiae brief in Kelo: (PDF)

http://www.ij.org/images/pdf_folder/private_property/kelo/jacobs05.pdf

by Steve S. on Sep 17, 2011 3:43 pm

The "backlash" (not sure I really wanna call it that) against cyclists is inevitable, and I commend the cyclist in Copenhagen for taking on the task of documenting misbehavior. I've started cycling again and one thing I notice is that it kind of doesn't matter what sort of vehicle you put yourself in or on, the need for speed and nonstopping speed is there. What's actually interesting is that in recent years I started developing a paranoia when I drive a car, so I slow down and drive super cautiously in the city. I'm now actually more cautious driving a car than riding my bike. It's such a HUGE pain to stop at every single stop sign or red light on a bike. I do it much more than I used to, but often there's no real need. Seriously, there's not. The imprudence I began talking about here has more to do with the meetings with pedestrians. It's so easy as a ped to feel put upon by cyclists and to think, 'ok, it is up to the cyclist to stop since I am in the striped zone.' To feel more entitled than a bike. But then, no. I get myself on a bike and start to get annoyed at the pedestrians! oh it's a ridiculous no win back and forth, but we all need reminders to ride our bicycles in a way that is less inconveniencing and indeed dangerous to pedestrians.

by Jazzy on Sep 17, 2011 4:24 pm

@ Jazzy: What you're saying is that we all have big jerks inside us, that rear their heads regardless of the mode of transportation. Who'd have thought that?

by Jasper on Sep 17, 2011 4:58 pm

At the point where electric and hyrbid car drivers feel entitled to special treatment after the initial purchase, the cars have become something other than fuel efficient vehicles. A license for privilege sort of defeats the purpose of mainstreaming alternative energy sources in the first place. Pay the toll like everyone else.

by aaa on Sep 17, 2011 5:32 pm

How eminent domain wrecked a thriving neighborhood in Brooklyn:

http://battleforbrooklyn.com/

by wr on Sep 17, 2011 6:10 pm

Just to be clear, the warehouse district in Cleveland being leveled had nothing to fo with required parking. Ironically, I'd suspect eminent domain.

In terms of rudeness, I got yelled at for the first time since 1997 while biking. A "get in the bike lane". When there wasn't one. I also got hit by a bicyclist this week but didn't have the time to yell "gett off the sidewalk". There is a lot of anger on the streets

by Charlie on Sep 17, 2011 6:20 pm

Re: Eminent domain - I wasn't aware that the Lifetime channel qualified as the Big Screen...

by Brandon on Sep 17, 2011 6:46 pm

Montgomery County should not nationalize Pepco.

Also, Kelo was properly decided...the government can take your property for any reason or no reason. The reasons for the taking are (and should be) beyond judicial review. Elect better politicians if you don't like it.

by WRD on Sep 17, 2011 10:16 pm

The 5th amendment reads: "...nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation..."

I suppose this could be read as only requiring the government to provide just compensation if they take private propery for public use, and if the government takes private property for other private use they don't have to provide just compensation, but that seems a silly interpretation. It seems like the only taking allowed is when there is a public use, and a just compensation is required as part of the taking. If I understood Kelo correctly, the court ruled that the taking was to improve blight, which was enough to consider it a public use? It seemed like a strange interpretation to me, but I'm not a lawyer.

by Michael Perkins on Sep 17, 2011 11:26 pm

My understanding of US practice is that for government: law permits; as opposed to for the common man: law prohibits. In that sense, if the Constitution doesn't specify that the government *can* take private property for alternative private use, then it may not do so at all with or without compensation.

by Bossi on Sep 17, 2011 11:37 pm

I would say the 10th Amendment is important here:

"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

Indeed, blight removal is exactly the reason property was taken in Brooklyn to support property aggregation for a sports arena. However, the definition and determination of blight is far from objective.

by wr on Sep 18, 2011 9:14 am

@ Perkins: if the government takes private property for other private use

The argument would probably be that any action by the government is for public use. Even selling property to a private developer, because that would (presumably) benefit the government and hence the public through the payment of the private company.

It is then up to the courts to determine whether that argument holds up. I think it should not, but I am no lawyer, nor a right-wing judge.

by Jasper on Sep 18, 2011 12:27 pm

Re: Pay for parking by phone in MoCo

Great, so now I need the Parkmobile app for parking in DC and the ParkNow! app for MoCo. Idiotic. Why can't adjacent jurisdictions work together to standardize something as simple as this.

by ontarioroader on Sep 18, 2011 12:31 pm

@ ontarioroader:Why can't adjacent jurisdictions work together to standardize something as simple as this.

Because they (stupidly) choose to contract their stuff out to one single provider. Whereas in other places, governments just hand out GPS coordinates and location numbers and customers can choose their online parking provider themselves. Which creates competition between providers.

Also, jurisdictions (and many locals) in the DC area refuse to acknowledge that other jurisdictions exist, especially across state borders. That's why this is not coordinated, why DC and Arlington are not coordinating their streetcars, and why VA is thinking about an outer Beltway, while Maryland is wasting time on the ICC.

by Jasper on Sep 18, 2011 2:50 pm

@wr

The Atlantic Yards project is badbadbad, but "thriving" might be overstating the case, and misrepresenting exactly what was wrong with the project.

Redeveloping the area wasn't a horrible idea. Far from it. The neighborhood needed some new life breathed into it. However, what got proposed was ghastly.

by andrew on Sep 18, 2011 11:48 pm