This tool of destruction is worse than Level of Service
I'm tired of "the greater good" excuse for ruining people's lives. Eminent domain has got to go.
We're going to continue seeing heart-wrenching stories for as long as eminent domain continues to be used for transportation projects. It's just one of many examples of a community devastated "for the greater good." The cycle goes like this:
✅ Justify a road expansion project based on junk traffic and financial forecasting.
✅ Find alignments that don't interfere with powerful and/or wealthy people.
✅ Build dangerously close to residents. Displace by force anyone who doesn't want to sell their property.
✅ After decades of trying to "solve congestion," decide it's better to go back to the original neighborhood layout.
✅ Issue a public thoughts & prayers statement to all those families who wouldn't be able to move back to those properties now if they wanted to.
Olden day takings for road projects
Here’s what happened to the 15th Ward neighborhood of Syracuse, NY:
In 1950, almost 4,000 African-Americans, eight of every nine in Syracuse, lived there. By 1960, the African-American population reached 11,210, a 144% rise. But black citizens comprised a little over 5% of city residents and lacked political influence. —New York Civil Liberties Union
The Ward, however, was a refuge from discrimination [found elsewhere]. Social cohesion was provided by clubs, churches and the Dunbar Center, the most prominent community institution. But most of all, the ties that bound rested on the camaraderie that blossomed from knowing virtually everyone in the community. —Otey Scruggs, Syracuse University history professor
The urban renewal plan to “clean up cities” had a magic marker line for I-81 going right through the center of Syracuse. The map showed the entire 15th Ward in the highway’s path. Residents and local leaders protested the highway plan, but the entire neighborhood was demolished so that outsiders could drive through Syracuse faster. More than 1,300 families were kicked out. Some were able to find homes nearby. Many couldn’t.
And like all the other highway-through-city stories you can read about, the downtown I-81 didn't even bring the quality of life benefits that were claimed in the beginning. It did, as you might expect, bring health and financial devastation. The highway cut the city in half and made segregation and poverty even worse.
Now, New York State DOT has a plan to tear down the infrastructure that drove out residents of the 15th Ward all those years ago. They finally admit the project wasn’t worth the incredible costs.
It's encouraging that in the 21st century more leaders are considering highway teardowns as a way to restore the physical and social fabric of communities. But if you're one of those community advocates, you've got to understand that eminent domain is a major tool of destruction. It's not about voluntary negotiation between property owners and public agencies. It's about force.
Eminent domain gave New York and every other government agency the legal means to force residents out of their homes and businesses when they didn't want to sell.
Modern day takings for road projects
Even now, in 2023, eminent domain is used to build junk infrastructure.
In California, a county wants to expand a busy road and add a high-speed right-turn lane where the business sits. The owners of the business aren't even opposed to the awful project—they've been negotiating voluntarily. Well, they thought it was voluntary, but they’ve since learned the public agencies don’t have to negotiate a mutually agreed price or terms.
When a public agency thinks the price is too high, instead of modifying the project, they take private property by force. That’s particularly important to remember in the context of transportation projects, because most widening efforts originate from lousy zoning and are justified by faulty traffic engineering assumptions.
We need your land, so you're gonna move.
We're going to add a high-speed turn lane.
We're going to widen the roads.
We're going to speed up traffic.
More people will crash into each other.
More property damage bills will pile up.
More families will grieve.
More hospital bills will pile up.
More funeral bills will pile up.
More people who can afford to move will move.
More generational wealth will be lost.
More air pollution will harm residents.
More noise pollution will harm residents.
And in the end, traffic congestion won't be solved and we reserve the right to take more land by force because if at first you don't succeed, try try again.
Even if only the projects involving the threat or outright use of force were stopped, that’d be progress. Whether eminent domain is the tool to raze an entire neighborhood or to encroach on a small business, it’s an evil practice.
The days will come when traffic congestion is eliminated. Not by throwing the problem over the fence. 1st thru 5th world countries can all have “Panopoly” at 26 3/8 cents per person.
In Australia we have destroyed Aboriginal sacred sites including water holes along with the rock engravings to mark the site just so we can straighten out or widen a piece of rural highway. We have dug up white fella cemeteries so we can widen roads. Nothing is sacred if it is to provide better flow and access to the private automobile.