I hope you all enjoyed the lesson on eminent domain. I think you all learned quite a bit, and hopefully you've already gone home and shared with your families what you've learned about this important issue. I hope that understand that anyone can be affected by this government "tool." Now I want you to sound off – I want to know what you think. Here's a little something to get you started:
"This is America. This is a country with free enterprise. You have all the rights to own your property, your own home, your own business. You have the right to build your American dream."
"The use of eminent domain is a delicate tool, but it is a tool and it helps keep a community clean; it helps keep a community vibrant. It's a good tool and, definitely, I don't think it should be taken away."
These are quotes by two of the people interviewed in the film Unintended Consequences: Eminent Domain. Use them to get your thoughts rolling. Does eminent domain have a role to play in our communities? What should government do to protect private property rights? What can we do as citizens to ensure that these rights are protected? I don't expect you to answer the questions directly (but you may as part of your thought process). These questions are intended to help you think about the issue.
This will be an open forum, which means your comments should post immediately. Do not copy the thoughts of those that post before you, but you can certainly work off of them. That means that you can comment on a comment – you can disagree, agree, or just comment on the thoughts of someone else – but give me your ideas.
Here are few links:
An interesting story from CBS News
http://www.reason.org/eminentdomain/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eminent_domain
Your comments must be posted by the end of Saturday, November 19.
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12 comments:
Eminent domain can certainly be useful, as long as it is not abused. It is perfectly okay to take part of someone's lawn to widen a road, or to take their house (if they have lived there for less than 10 years) to build a library or a school. However, "raising tax revenue" is NOT public use. Even though the funds will eventually go to the community, the company or business will keep most of the money that they make. Like in the movie, using eminent domain to make the parking lot in a Mercedes-Benz dealership larger, and bulldozing a restaurant that has been in that location for 50 years, is not acceptable.
Eminent domain has impacted Tallahassee in the recent road-widening and construction. Eminent domain was used for all of the people whose lawns were made into an extra lane in the road or a sidewalk.
I would like to add that it is only acceptable to take someone's house if they receive JUST!!!! compensation. That does not mean givin them $90,000 for their house if they could sell it for $120,000. The compensation should also include an extra bonus for letting the government take their porperty.
I think eminent domain has the capability of being fine, as long as it doesn't take the power it is given by in the Bill of Rights and work off all you can get on that. I've heard of people giving up houses for a large sum of money to build something for the community, and that's fine. The people probably weren't thrilled, but they can understand it's for the greater good. I don't think they used eminent domain on this, but actually with the construction going on on Buck Lake, they have cut people's land short by a lot, but technically, it wasn't "there's". I think it's a terrible that people have to move their houses and shut down businesses for little side projects. It kind of reminds me of the beginning of the movie Up. :) But as long as it is controlled and managed properly, I think it has the ability to benefit societies. It's never fair for the people losing their property though, and a lot of times they don't get what the land is worth, and to me that's the worse part.
I think that Eminent Domain is good for our communities because then there will be more schools being built, librarys, and other really helpful buildings being placed. Also Eminent Domain can help give more money to the government to pay its debts and also help afford all of these new buildings. The only negative situation in doing this is that people will lose their businesses and homes due to the government wanting to take it down and eventually cause mobs and riots but luckily the government givs them money to afford other houses and help establish other businesses.
In my opinion, I think that eminent domain can sometimes be useful. For example, eminent domain is only useful when they build schools, libraries, and widened roads. Eminent domain is not fair to the people that get their property taken away from them when the government doesn't even use it for public uses. EMINENT DOMAIN IS ONLY SUPPOSED TO BE USED FOR PUBLIC USES. In my opinion, I think it sometimes can be fair when eminent domain is used to raise revenue, because then the government would be able to get money to build schools and libraries and widened the roads, but sometimes it is not useful, because the government just takes someone’s private property and just gives it to someone else which is not fair. I think taking one person’s property for building buildings for public use would help the community way more than not having no schools or anything. Eminent domain is always unfair to the person losing their property, but they can't just think of themselves they have to think about the community, because we need schools to get all the students an education so they can get a good job.
Students, you have presented some very thoughtful comments. Whenever I think of eminent domain, I think of an aunt I had in Connecticut.Now this is just anecdotal, not scientific research by any means. Her beautiful, old, historical, Victorian home was to be torn down to build a highway. As it turned out, the highway planners decided on a different route...after her home was demolished.Sigh. Ms. Rod.
I think eminent domain is a tool that governments have a right to use. But they need to use it properly. It was never meant to be used for privately owned businesses. If its taking a strip of a lawn for a wider road, thats fine. If its for a school or a library, thats okay too. Those are all for public use. But using it for private businesses is wrong, and they know that.
My own family lost a large farm in Colorado due to eminent domain. The property is now known as the Boulder Reservoir Recreation Area. Several generations of my relatives from the time of the pioneers in Colorado raised cattle, crops, and livestock on this land. It was taken with little to no compensation all in the name of water storage.
To me, eminent domain could be a good tool to have when it is absolutely needed. Examples of senarios where it would be okay to use eminemt domain would be if there were only like maybe two schools in a town or city, then it would be okay to use eminent domain to build a school. But I believe that instead of picking a place to build something, you should take into consideration the people who live there and how hard they worked to be where they are now. It is not acceptable to just take away someones hard work to build something that you could have built somewhere where the people may not be affected as much. I also think that you should get a fair amount of money for what your property is worth. If they take your whole property away from you using eminent domain, they need to give you the proper amount of money so you could go buy a new home and buy new property. I do not think eminent domain should be used for private use.
eminent domain somehow reminds me of tyranny. it can be a good thing in some ways, as long as the power is not abused. on the other hand, it can hurt people's lives. just like in that video we watched about Rod's resturaunt and the mercedes-benz parking lot thing. now that is downright stupid. if u wanna expand your parking lot, do it somewhere else! anyway, eminent doamin is both good and bad. while it sometimes helps the people as a community, it can also greatly affect people's lives and even rip them apart. so for me enminent domain is not my good friend, but not my werst enemy. THANKS!(:
i really agree with kathryn!!! she does a perfect definition!!!(: nice job kathryn!
Eminent domain is important, but if you use it to build stupid things like a mall or a parking lot because it will make more tax is down right wrong. People work hard for their land and homes, you just cant take them away. How would you feel if you took someone's house away who had five children under the age of 11. They'd be out on the streets until they find a new home, which could be a long time. But if you build a school on that lot or a park it's a different story. Taking away someone's home by using eminent domain is okay if you make something good out of it or help the community.
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