Post-Kelo Reforms Aren't Strong Enough

July 20, 2006 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

by Timothy Sandefur

Adrian More of the Reason Foundation argues that

Local officials’ grand redevelopment schemes emanate from a vision in which community needs trump individual ones—on everything from public safety to how a privately-owned building should be used.

…It may seem reasonable to allow eminent domain to deal with "blight," because we all picture scenes of the worst of inner city Detroit—burnt out shells of buildings and empty lots piled high with trash—when we think of blight. But in fact, blight is in the eye of the beholder. Everything from an empty desert to a row of successful businesses to a neighborhood of modest but clean homes has been declared “blight” by people who have an alternative vision of how their community should look.

Well said! (Read the rest…)