6/29/2005

Not My House..."Hotel New Hampshire"
With the negative social and urban policy implictations of Kelo v City of New London swirling around the local and national blogosphere, a truly innovative response to this disasterous ruling has been placed in the lap of the Weare, New Hamphire Board of selectmen (there are 5 members and 3 of the members are women) and home to Supreme Court Judge David Souter.
You Can't Take My House!
The innovative response - build a hotel on the site of Justice Souter's house! Call it - Lost Liberty Hotel and instead of Gideon bibles in the bedstand the developer will place copies of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged.
On Monday June 27, Logan Darrow Clements, faxed a request to Chip Meany the code enforcement officer of the Towne of Weare, New Hampshire seeking to start the application process to build a hotel on 34 Cilley Hill Road. This is the present location of Mr. Souter's home.

Clements, CEO of Freestar Media, LLC, points out that the City of Weare will certainly gain greater tax revenue and economic benefits with a hotel on 34 Cilley Hill Road than allowing Mr. Souter to own the land.
Weare is just a little southwest of NH's capital, Concord. Here's a map showing where Justice Souter lives and the site of the proposed hotel.
Clements imagines liberty loving hotel guests and supporters of the Institute for Justice and the NH based Free State Project - check it out - will flock to the hotel.
Yesterday, Clements proposal was all over talk radio in the afternoon...Dr. Laura shamed her listeners for knowing more about the "runaway bride" than Kelo. Rush and Drudge were all over it. Locally, Carleton from Graduate Student Maddness commented about it in my previous Kelo post and Nancy Mingus just posted the link to Buffalo Issue Alerts.

Tomorrow afternoon I have another sit down with Buffalo City Planner, Allita Steward. I'll get the sense of where "Strategic Planning" sees this development.
Btw...for those of you more knowledgable than me about development issues here in Buffalo let me know what "eminent domain" condemnation hearings have been held recently here in Buffalo...
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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

No hearings I'm aware of, but negotiations are ongoing viz. the site of the new Federal Courthouse. The Verrastro lawfirm just sold their building to the US for 370,000.

Anonymous said...

A day after the Kelo decision was delivered, Freestar Media LLC submitted a proposal in the town of Weare, New Hampshire where majority opinion writer, Justice Souter, owns a farm house. They requested that the town board condemn the land and give it to them, as private developers, who promise to construct the Lost Liberty Hotel in its place. Their tax revenue would no doubt be higher than the reported $2,500 that Justice Souter paid in property taxes last year. It would create employment and attract tourism. The town has a website, and an economic development committee, which has identified its two main goals: 1) Encourage the formation of new businesses, and 2) Promote tourism. However, contrary to its stated goals and the legally sanctioned purpose of economic development, the town’s board turned down the proposal.

So much for poetic justice. Justice Souter’s influence in his community shielded him from his own ruling. No other rational justification can be found.

Thankfully, the legislative branch is now busy at work attempting to shield private property rights from the Supreme Court ruling. It seems that the two may have switched roles, with the House defending the Constitution, and the Supreme Court writing new laws.

I thought I saw Alice the other day! Or maybe it was Justice Souter –skipping in Wonderland, immune to and above the laws he passes.