Abuse of Eminent Domain Results in Nothing But Vacant Lots

An entire neighborhood was uprooted to make way for a big money development which will never be built!

Want to know why people are mad at the nexus between big government and big money?

The Famous 'Kelo House' Property Is Now A Vacant Lot
By John Carney
The Business Insider Law Review
Nov. 10, 2009

What you are looking at above is a monument to government folly.

It is the vacant lot where the home of Susette Kelo once stood.

A decade ago, the town of New London, Connecticut claimed Kelo's house by right of eminent domain. The plan was to demolish the residential neighborhood so that Pfizer could built a massive research and development plant on the adjacent land. Pfizer got the land for next to nothing. Five Supreme Court justices upheld the taking, ruling that although the primary beneficiary was a corporation, it met the constitutional requirement of "public use."

Now Pfizer has announced that it is shutting down the plant.

More from the Associated Press:

New London (AP) - Weeds, glass, bricks, pieces of pipe and shingle splinters have replaced the knot of aging homes at the site of the nation's most notorious eminent domain project.

There are a few signs of life: Feral cats glare at visitors from a miniature jungle of Queen Anne's lace, thistle and goldenrod. Gulls swoop between the lot's towering trees and the adjacent sewage treatment plant.

But what of the promised building boom that was supposed to come wrapped and ribboned with up to 3,169 new jobs and $1.2 million a year in tax revenues? They are noticeably missing.

Proponents of the ambitious plan blame the sour economy. Opponents call it a "poetic justice."

"They are getting what they deserve. They are going to get nothing," said Susette Kelo, the lead plaintiff in the landmark property rights case. "I don't think this is what the United States Supreme Court justices had in mind when they made this decision."

An assualt on the freedom and basic property rights of average Americans has resulted in a scar on the landscape of New London. This abomination was fueled by the greed of big government and big developers. What a shame that the only people standing up for the little people were conservatives!