Land grabbers

Cities 2010 | Post-Kelo laws were supposed to stop the use of eminent domain for the benefit of private developers; in New York and elsewhere, the taking continues | Alisa Harris

Associated Press/Photo by Kathy Willens

BROOKLYN—On Dec. 27, 2009, Brooklyn staged a revolt. Standing next to a 9-foot-tall guillotine made of Pabst Blue Ribbon cans, the manager of Freddy's Bar and Backroom read a screed from a scroll. He excoriated a developer who is using eminent domain to claim private property in the surrounding neighborhood, then stood aside as an executioner with a hood and a scythe read a death sentence: "Eminent domain, you are hereby condemned, having become a thief and a traitor." Spectators cried, "Off with its head!" as the guillotine blade fell and a head (or more precisely, a white ball with "Eminent Domain Theft" painted in red letters) rolled.

The message was clear: Don't mess with a neighborhood dive bar, or with New Yorkers who have saved to buy their own homes in a city where two-thirds of the population still rents. Forest City Ratner Companies (FCRC) is planning to put a $4 billion development project where Freddy's Bar and Backroom now stands. FCRC predicts that the Atlantic Yards development project will generate $5.6 billion in new tax revenues over the next three decades—but homeowners and bar-goers believe it will just seize their homes and gut their neighborhood.