Proof that we all are just renting from the gov't

This makes me sick...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/23/AR2005062300783.html

Gregg

 

What a horrible decision! This is downright dangerous.

lyo

 

I just read this on Yahoo before I stopped in here. This is only one of the takings cases they were hearing this session. Another was just ruled on at the end of May, and Justice O'Connor wrote for the majority in a very strong finding that there must be compensation for any taking, including for loss of economic value AND for open space. I found that pretty interesting in light of our local land use wars, in that it opens up a whole new area for legal conflict if property is economically devalued through any renewal of forced downzoning, and especially if the justification for the downzoning is to maintain "open space". This decision you posted makes me worry for the older neighborhoods in Loudoun, where if the political pendulum swings widely again we may end up seeing Sterling Park or some other older subdivision being bulldozed for some new-urbanist transit-oriented smart growth collectivist sidestep. It's been talked about before.

Did you see the article in yesterday's Metro about the proposition for vertical density at the current planned terminus of Metro in Fairfax? It seems they want to change county specs on parking places, and develop financial incentives/punishments for using cars: instead of 1.6 spaces per condo, give one and charge like he&& for a second; give people monetary bonuses for using transit (my favorite--it's already subsidized out the wazoo, so the answer to increased ridership MUST be to pay people to take that already subsidized ride!); increase taxes/penalties for having/using cars. It blew my mind: what on earth do they think will ultimately PAY for behavioral economics?

Barbara Munsey, from South Riding.

 

I read the verical density article and also the one where the want Rt 7 in Tyson's to be like a mainstreet...wouldn't that make traffic fun?

The only way to make property more affordablein this area is to increase supply. In Fairfax county, the only way to do that is to build UP.

Gregg

 

Gregg, interestingly chilling quote on the front page of today's Post, about "redistribution" of property. Yikes.

Barbara Munsey, from South Riding.

 

Don't they only have to give you fair market value vs. what they market will pay too? So if your house appraises at $450,000 but will sell for $625,000 and they come take your house, you can no longer buy a house in the area with growing sales? Do I understand this correctly?

 

I understand the need to get rid of slums and crummy property in order to make a city "better", but there are definately alot of questions up in the air.. =)

 

Slums have there place. They support the very low end of society. Where would these people go? Become homeless? Buy a single family home and pack 30 people into it? Maybe we can construct a bullet train from Mexico and just ship all the low wage earners back and forth each day.

Gregg

 

That always fascinates me (buy a single family and pack it), because (IMO) it refutes the belief held by some that you can't have a black market in housing. Supply and demand will out, whether through the sanctioned market or a black one.

I'm still trying to get a handle on the implications of the two takings rulings issued thus far: they would seem to be contradictory, in that they came down hard on "smart" growth takings, but to then issue this ruling and have a justice talk about "redistribution" gives me the willies. The fundamental philosophies of "smart" growth (the few actually articulated and specifically defined by the true believers) have a lot to do with central planning and government control of resources for the Greater Good. If people's homes are to be redistributed for the greater good of built spaces, it may only mean that they aren't yet ready to flat out seize raw property and render it unbuildable as "open space". (I love it when things become part of the lexicon that essentially consist of a negative, or "non" concept. "Open space"--emptiness.....)

Barbara Munsey, from South Riding.