>All these paeans to urban planning in the abstract
>-seem indifferent to its actual history in the US.
>
>So you want the whole world to be Houston-- no urban planning?
-Because I think that eminent domain is often used not for the public -good, whatever exactly that is, but rather to enrich developers at -the expense of working class people and their neighborhoods, you want -to paint me as some sort of libertarian or an apologist for -nefarioius right-wing schemes. -Everything you've said on this topic sounds like it was written from an altitude -of 36,000 feet.
Hardly-- I'm writing from the shared experience of lots of communities and activists around the country trying to save their communities from both urban decay and suburban sprawl and eminent domain has been a key tool in that fight. Of course there are abuses -- and I listed specific legal reforms to avoid those problems but that was the post you chose not to respond to. You want to have abstract historical discussions, but when it comes down to competing reforms, you're the one who wants to remain at 36,000 feet and not take sides in actual struggles. Because you might have to dirty your hands with actual political alliances.
The reality is that those passing STATE restrictions on LOCAL powers, usually white legislatures in places like Texas taking away powers from black and latino-dominated cities, are based on a corporate-funded agenda. Instead of fighting the specific abuses you worry about, you've promoted the campaigns to disable all use of eminent domain for changing who owns what among private property.
It's not insignificant that one of the key precends for using eminent domain to transfer property between different private landowners was land reform in Hawaii. With all this chest-beating around the horrors of eminent domain to transfer property, all land reform around the world would be illegal under such principles -- and example of the intellectual bankruptcy of flatly calling for banning such uses of eminent domain.
As I've said, I'm all for reforms to end abuses of eminent domain -- banning political contributors from receiving any land from eminent domain, requiring all eminent domain decisions to be put to votes by elected leaders, and so on -- but the fight RIGHT NOW is over these state laws to strip cities of home rule powers altogether over most uses of eminent domain.
The fact that you are talking about this stuff in the abstract and not paying attention to the concrete goals and legislative details of these battles reflects who is flying at 36,000 feet.
Nathan Newman