Eminent Domain City of Stamford CT Curly's Diner 2006,2007

http://www.2partyreform.blogspot.com/finding practical ways to move from a republic towards a democracy and holding the media accountable for substantive, critical reporting of important issues....

older articles but this is the first time I've heard about this particular pathetic attempt by local government to seize private property for development, something which falls outside of the constitutionally assigned duties and limits of any local u.s. government body.

Cheeseburger, With a Side of Democracy

By JOSEPH BERGER
Published: July 7, 2006

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/07/nyregion/nyregionspecial2/09ctcol.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

quotes from the article:

For 25 years the revivifying City of Stamford has coveted the site of her plainspoken anachronism of a diner, with its Grecian blue banquettes, the obligatory boxes of miniature Frosted Flakes atop a glass case containing the obligatory rice pudding, and a rooftop sign that promises: "CURLEY'S WELCOME 24 HRS OPEN."

Fighting City Hall, though, was not a piece of cake and cost more than $100,000 in lawyer's fees. And the city pulled some tricks out of its sleeve. It put up a chain-link fence around three sides of the diner, blocking access to her rear parking lot and her Dumpster. Then health inspectors issued the diner summonses for not having a proper garbage outlet, but, hey, why have bureaucracies if you can't have a delicious Catch-22 now and then.

She also noticed that the parking enforcers were ticketing her customers for overstaying the sidewalk meters they were forced to use because her lot was sealed off. She herself got 50 tickets, perhaps a record for the owner of a Greek diner with its own parking lot. Now the city has completed blueprints for three apartment buildings that will wrap around her diner, almost literally since the walls will be up against the diner's walls. If the apartments are built, she won't be able to take garbage out a narrow alley she improvised on the side of the diner.

Although it is hardly the biggest campaign issue, that little diner may prove something of an albatross for Mayor Dannel P. Malloy as he heads into the Democratic gubernatorial primary on Aug. 8. Mistreating little people is never a wise idea for someone seeking votes, particularly if the victim has a story that would make Frank Capra or Preston Sturges salivate. She is not only an immigrant widow and mother of two, but she also raised two boys who were found in a car abandoned in her back lot. She even gives food away to homeless and mentally ill neighbors.

another article:

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fsb/fsb_archive/2007/04/01/8403853/index.htm

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