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Battle for Brooklyn film poster

You remember Battle for Brooklyn, the documentary which chronicles the eminent domain fight over New York’s Atlantic Yards project? (Read our review of the film here to refresh your recollection.)

Well here’s the latest chapter. Or perhaps “epilogue” is more appropriate, because the former property owners have long since been evicted, the homes have been razed, and the New Jersey Brooklyn Nets are ensconced in the Barclays Center. (The promised affordable housing and “jobs, jobs, jobs?” Eh, not so much, but who’s counting?)

According to this story in the New York Times, preservationists are planning to award the private beneficiaries of the city’s exercise of eminent domain something called the “Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Medal.” Seriously:

The Municipal Art Society is well known for campaigns to save Grand Central Terminal and Lever House and to stop towers that would have cast long shadows over…

Continue Reading Atlantic Yards: How About Calling It The “Jay Z” Medal?

Check out this language from a recent decision by the U.S. District Court for the District of D.C.:

The CityCenterDC development may be a laudable and exciting public-private partnership, and it may entail a more comprehensive level of urban planning and cooperation than the ordinary project, but the exercise will result in the creation of an enclave of private facilities. What is being constructed will be no more for the use and benefit of the population of the District than any other condominium or hotel: members of the general public will be welcome to enjoy the surrounding sidewalks, and possibly the lobby, and they can spend their dollars in the nearby shops and restaurants, but at the end of the day, they will not be permitted to go upstairs. CityCenterDC is not a public work of the District of Columbia, and the ARB’s decision to the contrary cannot be sustained.…

Continue Reading “Incidental Public Benefits – Such As Employment Opportunities, Increased Tax Revenue” Does Not Make A Project “Public”

We often jokingly suggest that in eminent domain, “it’s good to be the King!” quoting that eminent eminent domain scholar Mel Brooks. We think this catchphrase aptly describes the “most awesome grant of power,” City of Oakland v. Oakland Raiders, 220 Cal. Rptr. 153, 155 (Cal. App. 1985), under which the condemnor has a very nearly unfettered ability to take property.

But in recent decision from the Missouri Court of Appeals it was good to be the landowner — the owner of a Burger King restaurant — because it had the good sense to hire Robert Denlow, our Owners’ Counsel colleague (and occasional Sunday golf partner) (that’s Bob in the above video, a 2013 interview). In City of North Kansas City v. K.C. Beaton Holding Co., No. WD76068 (Jan. 14, 2014), the Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District, held that the city, a …

Continue Reading Sometimes, It’s Good To Be The (Burger) King: General Power Of Eminent Domain Does Not Include Blight Elimination