"We're definitely in Tiananmen Square: one little guy in front of all
of those tanks," Babson said. "We've slowed them down, but we haven't
stopped them."
Ready to saY this when the National Guard moves in?
No, the only way to stop these people is by CIVIL WAR. ***** America.
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A BURNING CROSS OF LIGHT TO WARD AWAY THE FILTH OF THE WH*RE
Land-use battle rages in Florida
By John-Thor Dahlburg
Los Angeles Times
RIVIERA BEACH, Fla. - It's across the inlet from Palm Beach, but this
town - mostly black, blue-collar and with a large industrial and
warehouse district - could be a continent away from the Fortune 500
and Rolls-Royce set.
But Riviera Beach's fortunes may soon change.
In what has been called the largest eminent-domain case in the nation,
the mayor and other elected leaders want to move about 6,000 residents,
tear down their homes and use the emptied 400-acre site to build a
waterfront yachting and residential complex for the well-to-do.
The goal, Mayor Michael Brown said during a public meeting in
September, is to "forever change the landscape" in this municipality of
about 32,500. The $1 billion plan, local leaders have said, should
generate jobs and haul Riviera Beach's economy out of the doldrums.
Opponents, however, call the plan a government-sanctioned land grab
that benefits private developers and the wealthy.
"What they mean is that the view I have is too good for me, and should
go to some millionaire," said Martha Babson, 60, a house painter who
lives near the Intracoastal Waterway.
"This is a reverse Robin Hood," said state Rep. Ronald Greenstein,
meaning the poor in Riviera Beach would be robbed to benefit the rich.
Greenstein, a Coconut Creek Democrat, serves on a state legislative
committee making recommendations on how to strengthen safeguards on
private property.
With many Americans sensitized to eminent-domain cases after a
much-discussed ruling by the Supreme Court in June, property-rights
organizations have been pointing to redevelopment plans in this Palm
Beach County town as proof that laws must be changed to protect
homeowners and businesses from the schemes of politicians.
"You have people going in, essentially playing God, and saying
something better than these people's homes should be built on this
property," said Carol Saviak, executive director of the Coalition for
Property Rights, based in Orlando. "That's inherently wrong."
"Unfortunately, taking poorer folks' homes and turning them into
higher-end development projects is all too routine in Florida and
throughout the country," said Scott Bullock, a senior attorney for the
Institute for Justice, based in Washington, D.C. "What distinguishes
Riviera Beach is the sheer scope of the project, and the number of
people it displaces."
In June, a divided U.S. Supreme Court approved a plan by New London,
Conn., to force some homeowners to sell their properties for a private
development that was supposed to generate more jobs and tax revenue.
That ruling has led to moves in Congress and at least 35 states,
including Florida, to restrict the use of eminent-domain seizures of
private property.
In Florida, the law allows local officials to take private land for
redevelopment if they deem it "blighted." In May 2001, a study
conducted for the city found that "slum and blighted conditions"
existed in about a third of Riviera Beach, and that redevelopment was
necessary "in the interest of public health, safety, morals and
welfare."
A skeptical Babson, who lives in a single-story, concrete-block home
painted aqua that she shares with parrots and a dog, did her own
survey. For three months, she walked the streets of Riviera Beach
photographing houses classified as "dilapidated" or "deteriorated" by
specialists hired by the city.
The official study, she said, was riddled with errors and
misclassifications. Lots inventoried as "vacant" (one of 14 criteria
that allow Florida cities or counties to declare a neighborhood
blighted) actually had homes on them built in 1997, she said. One house
deemed "dilapidated," she found, was two years old.
Mayor Brown and Floyd Johnson, executive director of the Riviera Beach
Community Redevelopment Agency, did not respond to repeated requests
for an interview.
The redevelopment agency's Web site says the plan will "create a city
respected for its community pride and purpose and reshape it into a
most desirable urban (place) to live, work, shop, and relax for its
residents, business and visitors."
In past media interviews, Brown has said that his city was in dire need
of jobs, and that if officials weren't allowed to resort to eminent
domain to spur growth, Riviera Beach could perish.
The redevelopment project designed to bootstrap Riviera Beach to
prosperity is supposed to take 15 years. It involves moving U.S.
Highway 1 and digging an artificial lagoon to serve as a yacht basin.
In September, the City Council chose a joint venture between a New
Jersey-based yacht company and a builder of condominiums in Australia
to serve as master developer. The developer, Viking Inlet Harbor
Properties, and the city now must agree on a contract.
Residents affected by the plan are supposed to be eligible for new
homes elsewhere in Riviera Beach and compensation for business damages.
But the uncertainties have been maddening for some.
For 25 years, Bill Mars has sold and serviced luxury sportfishing boats
in Riviera Beach. He hasn't been told yet, he said, whether a place in
the redevelopment zone has been kept for him.
Under the plan, his sales and service center is supposed to make way
for an aquarium.
"If you look at our business, we're one of the shining stars of Riviera
Beach," Mars said. "Yet no one has come to us to say, 'We're going to
take care of you and relocate you.' " That despite the plan's
incorporation of a "working waterfront," including boat sales and
repair.
Babson said she was counting on the Florida Legislature, as well as
public interest kindled by the recent Supreme Court case, to halt the
developers.
"We're definitely in Tiananmen Square: one little guy in front of all
of those tanks," Babson said. "We've slowed them down, but we haven't
stopped them."
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