Get Offa My Property
The partisan foofaraw that dominated this week's news can be dismissed thusly: Republicans are asshole thugs and Democrats are spineless bag-carriers. Same as it ever was, and meanwhile this country lurches relentlessly toward the Second Great Depression.
Meanwhile, this Supreme Court decision has the potential to screw up the lives of thousands of Americans, certainly far more than Karl Rove's hetereosexual (yet oddly sexless) Roy Cohn imitation. If you own a home near developable land, as I do, you should be afraid.
I live near I-35, and just across the highway is an enormous redevelopment of Austin's old airport. Now what's to stop the Texas Department Of Transportation from seizing my house, at below market value, for highway expansion? More frighteningly, what if Lowe's or Wal-Mart decides that this would be the ideal patch for a supercenter? Eminent domain isn't evil, per se, but rare is the local government that considers the needs of citizens over those of moneyed interests. How far can I trust the city of Austin? Do you think a real-estate developer is going to care about the needs of my family?
But this isn't a Republican land grab. When I lived and worked in Chicago, I saw hundreds of families get kicked out of their homes, or get threatened with the possibility of getting kicked out, because the city had development plans for the University Of Illinois At Chicago. The entire Maxwell Street market district, the birthplace of the urban blues, was steamrolled in favor of a generic "University Village" concept, leaving only a plaque, a church, and a Polish-sausage stand in the wake of the development onslaught.
This Supreme Court decision is the demolition of Maxwell Street writ large. If you are a middle-class or working-class family in this country, and you've somehow scrapped it together to own a home, you'd better hope that you're not close to a major road or near any other "desirable" land. Because suddenly, private property means a lot less in this country. For many of us, our houses are the only real assets we have. They just lost a lot of their value.