by John Seiler by John Seiler
Your home and business are not safe. Government can grab them at any time using anti-property redevelopment laws, paying you a pittance. Government then can give your property to a private company to develop as a mall or theme park.
That's the frightening story told in Abuse of Power: How the Government Misuses Eminent Domain, Steven Greenhut's new book. LRC readers are familiar with his writing on this site, some of it on eminent domain.
As his colleague on The Orange County Register's editorial page, in his six years at the paper I've seen him diligently cover this issue. His articles have saved the property of thousands of homeowners and hundreds of businesses and churches. The total value of property protected must be more than $100 million.
He describes how, at a Garden Grove City Council meeting to try to stop an eminent-domain grab of hundreds of homes to build a theme park, citizens revolted. "This is the Little City of Horrors, where they see only parcels," one outraged citizen said. "We are the city. We have the right to live in our city and to move when we choose to move. This is wrong. You might have the legal right, but not the moral right. Leave us alone."
Greenhut explains, "That's a sentiment as old as America's founding: Leave us alone. City officials were unmoved. They droned on and on about the city's u2018fiscal deficiencies.' The city manager talked about the costs of running the city and the amount of dollars siphoned from local government by the state."
As Greenhut describes it, this was not a neighborhood resembling one of the burned-out areas of Detroit, but a comfortable, middle-class burg. In 2004, houses go for at least $500,000 – hardly a slum.
But the city wanted to redevelop the land because a theme park would have paid them mountains of dollars in sales taxes, whereas people living happily in their homes pay much less in property tax.
The neighbors won this one, with Greenhut's help. The redevelopment scheme was shelved.
Other property owners, in other cities, weren't so lucky, as with the infamous Poletown demolition in Detroit, which helped make that city less habitable than Najaf, Iraq in August 2004.
He naturally has significant coverage of eminent-domain property grabs in Orange County and California. But his book is national in scope, covering property grabs in Illinois, Michigan, New York, Ohio, North Carolina and other states.
His reporting and analysis derive from a libertarian philosophy on property rights: "Property rights get in the way of Other People's Plans. Governments are beholden to the political winds that happen to be blowing. When the fad is to renew rundown urban neighborhoods, government agencies craft plans to do that. When the fad is to create sales-tax-paying retail centers to help city budgets, they do that, too. Whatever the plan is, it's far easier to use government police powers to scrape away existing properties than it is to follow the rule of law and the rules of the marketplace and negotiate with people in good faith. Sure, it might be frustrating when a homeowner or small-business owner gets in the way of a project that promises to revive an older part of town. But that's the price of freedom."
More than just a description of assaults on private property, Abuse of Power is a guidebook on how to challenge powerful governments and big businesses. Chapter 18 is "Fighting Back and Winning."
It includes chapters describing: "Build Broad Coalitions," "Go On the Offensive," "Be Positive, Not Just Reactive," "Don't Lose Sight of Principles" and "Keep it Simple."
The book ends with lists of organizations and Web sites to help wage the fight and 417 footnotes.
Abuse of Power is a manifesto for taking back the right to property ownership. As Greenhut says, property rights are human rights.
Footnote: For those in Southern California, Steven Greenhut will be signing copies of his book on Tuesday, Aug. 24, at 7:30 pm at the Barnes & Noble Bookstore, 791 S. Main Street, Orange, Calif. It's across Main street from MainPlace Mall.
