Unintended Consequences: Eminent Domain - Izzit.org

TRANSCRIPT2002 Filmore AvenueErie, PA 16506Phone: (888) 242-0563www.izzit.org© 2007, 2013 izzit.orgV. 01/13

Unintended Consequences:Eminent DomainTranscriptFor a list of additional resources to use with this video go towww.izzit.org/products and click on the Eminent Domain video.Chapter One: What is Eminent Domain?CUSTOMER: The citizens have a deep concern about eminent domain being misused.BRUCE BROADWATER: Well back up, we’ve never taken anybody’s home.MANNY ROMERO: They were scared, they were afraid; you mean were going to loseour job?STEVEN GREENHUT: Abuses such as these happen and it’s important to understandthat.SUSETTE KELO: When you go home that’s your place of refugee, that’s yoursanctuary. That’s sacred to them.PRINCESS WELLS: It should be over, but it’s not.CARRA: “A man’s home is his castle.” Okay, I know it sounds kind of cliché, but foranyone who actually owns a home, it really is true.Homeowners take great pride in the fact that they can do whatever they want with theirhomes without interference from anyone else, including the government. But are theyright?In fact, there’s something in the constitution called eminent domain that givesgovernments the power to take your property even if you don’t want to sell.PERSON ON STREET: Eminent Domain?PERSON ON STREET: Define Eminent Domain?PERSON ON STREET: Eminent Domain?PERSON ON STREET: I’m going to let him speak first.1

PERSON ON STREET: (Blank look, says nothing)PERSON ON STREET: Like this is mine right here right now.PERSON ON STREET: (Blank look, says nothing)PERSON ON STREET: Do you know what eminent domain is?PERSON ON STREET: Is that where the government can take what they want?PERSON ON STREET: Is that like Eminem, like “Eminem’s Domain?”PERSON ON STREET: Eminent Domain is the concept that allows the government totake property and pay you for it.CARRA: The Founding Fathers wanted to create a nation of free people, and they wrotethe Constitution to protect individual rights from government power. The Foundersbelieved that one of the most important individual rights is the right to own property.But the Founders also made an exception to this rule. The 5th Amendment to the U.S.Constitution states that governments may take private property, but only under certainconditions—the property must be put to a “public use,” and the property owners must beprovided “just compensation.” This practice is called “eminent domain.”An example of this is the construction of the Interstate Highway System. Eminent domainwas used extensively whenever property owners would refuse to sell their property to thegovernment.Throughout most of our country’s history, local governments have used the power ofeminent domain to take private property in order to convert the property to “public uses”like schools, hospitals and roads.But in the 1950s, the city of Washington, DC made plans to use eminent domain for adifferent reason. The city wanted to force out property owners and tear down oldbuildings and houses in order to build a nicer community.Some property owners objected, arguing that this kind of urban renewal project was not alegitimate “public use.”In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court voted in favor of the city, and Washington, D.C.officials used eminent domain to rebuild the run-down neighborhood from scratch.Ever since then, governments have used eminent domain for more than just “public uses”like roads and schools; they’ve also used eminent domain to transfer property from oneprivate owner to another private owner, in the name of “economic development.”2

BRUCE BROADWATER: I think a city has a responsibility to maintain their housingstock and to make sure that people live in good quality homes.CARRA: Bruce Broadwater is a city councilman and former mayor of Garden Grove,California.BROADWATER: Redevelopment feeds on itself; I mean basically it pays itself back.And it’s just such a great tool to use and eminent domain is a part of that.STEVEN GREENHUT: Unfortunately, over the history of our country governmentshave taken to use eminent domain for private uses.CARRA: Steven Greenhut is a journalist in Southern California who has writtenextensively about eminent domain use.GREENHUT: To take private property from homeowners such as these and give it to bigdevelopers. And due process means reading about the project in the newspaper after it’s’already been approved. And just compensation, well cities often short-change theowners, they give low ball offers, they don’t pay the lawyer fees. They call it a tool intheir arsenal, which is kind of like calling a machine gun put to someone’s head a tool,but that’s the basic idea.BROADWATER: The use of eminent domain is a delicate tool, but it is a tool and ithelps keep a community clean, it helps keep a community vibrant. It’s a good tool and itdefinitely; I don’t think it should be taken away.GREENHUT: We’re not talking about unsafe, terrible neighborhoods; we’re just talkingabout neighborhoods that some developer might covet to build something that pays morein tax revenue than is currently existing.CARRA: If you think eminent domain sounds complicated, you’re right…it is. So let’slook at how it works in real life.Chapter Two: Arcadia, CaliforniaCARRA: We’ve met a few people whose lives have been affected by eminent domainand found out how much they care about their homes and businesses. To them, the ideaof property rights is more than just a legal concept, it’s also very personal. All across thecountry cities are using eminent domain for redevelopment.In Arcadia, California, Manny Romero has owned a popular 50s-style diner for the past10 years. The city wants to use eminent domain to tear down his diner so that aneighboring Mercedes dealership can expand its parking lot, which would increase taxrevenues for the city.3

CUSTOMER: I’ve been coming to this restaurant for about 50 years.MANNY ROMERO: I’ve been in southern California for 35 years. I own Rod’s Grillfor 10 years.CUSTOMER: The waiters, waitresses, cooks, they’ve been so good, you know, to notjust myself and my family but to everybody else in Arcadia.CUSTOMER: It’s always been kind of a family place.CUSTOMER: I like their shakes, their shakes are really good.CUSTOMER: The city wants to see this torn down and become a car dealership.CUSTOMER: Because they’ll get more tax money from the bigger business.ROMERO: The fundamentals of eminent domain is it’s supposed to be only for publicuse. And I realized that the city is saying this is to expand Mercedes Benz. And I saidwait a minute this is not the proper way of using eminent domain.And I tell them I’m not going to sell it because they are not telling me they want to usethis property to put a school, a library or any public service use. They want to tear itdown so that they can just park Mercedes Benz. What about us?CUSTOMER: The citizens of Arcadia have a deep concern about Eminent Domainbeing misused.ROMERO: I am in debt for a lot of money. My savings is running out. Most of my staffthat is here, has been here a long, long time. All these people will be out a job. I hope noone ever has to go through what I’ve been going through. This is America; this is acountry with free enterprise. You have all the rights to own your property; your ownhome, your own business. You have the right build your America dream.Chapter Three: Riviera Beach, FLCARRA: Princess Wells owns a home and business in the seaside community of RivieraBeach, Florida.Mayor Michael Brown and city officials are leading efforts to redevelop 800 acres ofwaterfront property where Princess Wells and 5,000 other people live.PRINCESS WELLS: My house, we’ve lived there for over 25 years. Hard work;children; love. We built the house in approximately 30 days. When you build it yourself,its awesome, it’s important to you. It’s a nice, quaint, middle class neighborhood. We arelike prime property, you know, we are so close to the ocean. It’s wrong to be able tocome out and take it, because I worked hard for it.4

If they take it by eminent domain therefore they won’t have to pay us what our house isworth. And they can take that same property and they can sell it for millions.I had no idea that one day they just would not want me to be here, just because I don’thave enough money.CARRA: If redevelopment plans go forth, Princess Wells will lose her home and herbusiness as well.WELLS: If I have to move my business, I’ll have to do everything from ground levelone, all over again.CARRA: Mayor Brown has stated that they are going to continue and that they are notgoing to stop. The threat of eminent domain still looms.Chapter Four: Supreme Court CaseCARRA: Now let’s take a look at the Susette Kelo case. This case made it all the way tothe Supreme Court in 2005. It sparked a huge debate about the importance of propertyrights.The case involves homeowner Susette Kelo and her neighbors versus the city of NewLondon, Connecticut.SUSETTE KELO: When I first came here with the realtor I walked in the front door- itwas like I had been here all of my life. It was just an overwhelming feeling when Iwalked in this place.CARRA: In 1998, the city condemned 115 properties in order to build a private healthclub and office buildings to support the development of a local pharmaceutical plant. 15property owners did not want to sell so the city used eminent domain to seize theirproperties.KELO: There were…if I can count them, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8; there were 9 housesspanning this street here.Everybody knew everybody, if you went to work, the neighbors watched your kids andthat’s the way it was. In the spring of 1998, the City of New London came out with amunicipal development plan that said that the homes in the Fort Trumbull neighborhoodwould be taken by eminent domain. They thought that they could place something herethat would bring more taxes to the city.This was here, the penny candy store. And the grinder shop, this was the Chivals’s deli.5

nothing is to prevent the State from replacing any Motel 6 with a Ritz Carlton, any homewith a shopping mall, or any farm with a factory.”The Kelo decision was a victory for city planners, but many people believe the decisiongave government too much power.KELO: You don’t take stuff that doesn’t belong to you and that’s the way I was raised,and that’s the way I raise my children, and that’s the way most people think. You don’ttake something that doesn’t belong to you, and you certainly don’t take people’s propertyor their homes. These are our homes.Chapter Five: What do you think?CARRA: So what about your home or mine? Is everyone’s home at risk?The use of eminent domain increased dramatically after the Kelo decision.At the same time, concerned citizens across the country began working to reform eminentdomain laws. In fact, after the Kelo decision more than 30 states placed limits on eminentdomain use.GREENHUT: We have to put property rights first, we have to allow people to be freeand live their lives as they choose. And they way to enhance older neighborhoods, andthere are some crummy older neighborhoods, is to free the market.BROADWATER: Because there are people that think that property has more rights thanhuman beings. There’s no reason to let a community become a sewer. We’ve seen somuch of that throughout the United States.CARRA: As the debate rages on, more and more Americans are asking themselves thisbasic question: Who should make decisions about how property is used? The people whoown the property, or the government?So what do you think?For a list of additional resources to use with this video go towww.izzit.org/products and click on the Eminent Domain video.7

We are very interested to learnhow you use our material. Pleaseshare your experiences or lessonplan ideas by visiting usat www.izzit.org.2002 Filmore AvenueErie, PA 16506Phone: (888) 242-0563www.izzit.org