Eminent Domain—Good or Bad?

Lee Ellis

There is a great controversy over the Supreme Court ruling on Eminent Domain. Conservatives, in general, oppose the ruling and the Left seems to agree with it.

As a strong conservative, myself, I am reminded of a recent TV commercial that shows a tennis ball coming down onto the net and then cannot fall off in either direction. I do agree with that old adage that “a man’s home is his castle;” and I do NOT necessarily agree with the “Kelo v. City of New London” ruling as it does allow a possibility of corruption. However, having lived in a small town for the past 21 years, I have seen it, at one time, lose its financial ability to maintain its police officers and fire fighters, thus threatening the safety of its residents. It needed to build a mall to survive. An attempt to do this, back in the 1980s, failed when some owners in the only area suitable for such an expansion refused to sell even though they were not only offered full value but also brand new homes in a better area of town.

This has happened in many small towns across America. Why? Well consider how small western towns developed in the 1800s. Each one was built as a small village with a small downtown and houses surrounding the shopping area. When the gold rush started, pioneers rushed westward. Many stayed in my California town causing it to grow. Many other towns were started five or more miles apart, all the way to the Pacific Ocean

In 1893, my town became one of twelve townships in a new county. Not only was it a main stop on the Southern Pacific Railroad, but also it was a provisioning point for miners heading into the mountains to the east. In 1896 it had 50 inhabitants; today, it has almost 75,000 with hundreds of new homes being built weekly.

As more settlers came west, each town grew. Suddenly, in the 1970s, a combination of freeways, crowding and a backtracking of people from the crowded coastal megalopolis caused people to move to the desert to live. This caused newer cities to flourish and finally abut each other. The retailers who had had chain stores in each small town, could no longer afford this duplication, and started to move to a city that was centralized in these clusters. Thus, my town, at one end of a cluster, as with many other towns in the USA had lost its retail income and was forced to cut back on all services.

Its only hope was to make room to build a large mall and to also rebuild its ancient downtown in order to have the necessary income to provide police, paramedics, fire fighters and all the services needed to serve the public. People forget that local governments need money to not only provide these services but also water, sewers, waste disposal, street repair etc. New residents always cost a city more than they pay in taxes. Where will this extra money come from --- from retail and industry, of course.

Ah, here’s the rub. To provide an area that will attract a Sears, a Macy’s, a major grocery chain or automobile dealers, a city must provide an inviting area. But, there is major competition for business income from all cities in the USA as they face a desperate need to support their residents with important utilities needed for safety and good health. Since a city’s only possibility for expanded retail is generally where houses were first built years ago, it has to buy property. There is always somebody who holds out for double the amount of his property’s value and so eminent domain is the only way that this can be accomplished.

Residents are dying when there is insufficient ambulance service, losing their houses to fire when a fire engine is late to arrive. Building a retail income is not just for the city; it is for the people who reside there! New business not only provides services, but it also provides the jobs that many people need if they are to continue to live in a city of their choice. If this is not for the so called public good, I don’t know what is. It is not just libraries and roads that we need; it is a combination of these plus the means to both work and shop where we live.

So you can see why it is hard for some of us to be swayed by people who say that this Supreme Court ruling is just to enrich some developers when it might be done just to provide a living service for its residents, both the poor and the rich. Who will benefit the most – struggling cities or rich developers? Can city councils protect the majority of their citizens or will corruption instead of safety be the motivation for eminent domain?

My TV tennis ball is about to fall off the net. In which direction?

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Lee Ellis is a retired journalist and narrator, formerly with both CBS and Gannett (USA Weekend). He was also a combat veteran of WWII, having fought in the South Pacific invasions. He had the pleasure of interviewing Ronald Reagan as an actor and then later working to help him become Governor of California. At the age of 80, he is keeping busy writing and doing free lance narrations for radio and television. He is an active member of Rotary and the VFW.

indiolee@dc.rr.com