June 12, 2004
Brooklyn’s Proposed Stadium: A Bad Idea (II)
What a pass this country has come to when writers like Martin C. Pedersen can say that the effect of losing 50-60 businesses and 140 homes is minimal? (“Brooklyn’s Proposed Stadium: Not Such a Bad Idea”) All over this country, private properties are being lost to eminent domain, and the definition of public purpose has […]
What a pass this country has come to when writers like Martin C. Pedersen can say that the effect of losing 50-60 businesses and 140 homes is minimal? (“Brooklyn’s Proposed Stadium: Not Such a Bad Idea”) All over this country, private properties are being lost to eminent domain, and the definition of public purpose has become so skewed that it doesn’t have any specific meaning any more except to say, “We want your house for the strip mall, sports arena, racetrack, bike trail, New York Times building, blah, blah blah.” Why in the world does this country even recognize the concept of private property any more? Property taxes, I guess.
An architect friend told me once that he thought all the spaces in town that weren’t privately owned should be reserved for the exclusive use of people like him, who could design the urban fabric of the city. To quote Dennis Hopper: “What a total load of crap, man!”
Ray Gibson
