Here’s more positive news for homeowners, just in time for the holiday season.
Residents of homes in Pleasant Ridge, Charlestown, Indiana, have good reason to celebrate this year. They fought City Hall, and won! A few months ago I blogged about the Mayor of Charlestown declaring the modest neighborhood of 345 homes “blighted” and planning to sell the land to a private developer. That would have meant all the existing homes would be razed to make way for new development of multifamily homes.
I don’t like to go off half-cocked. I have a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science, but for the life of me I can’t get my mind wrapped around this one.
Bankrupted California cities are now talking about seizing hundreds, possibly thousands of homes in California to condemn them, because the owners have troubled mortgages.
Under the controversial practice known as “eminent domain for Public Purpose” (Kelo v. City of New London) cities would be able to walk into essentially anybody’s home and say, “Sorry, you’ve gotta move. This property now belongs to the city!”
