Community Improvement Projects

It starts with city counsels condemning waterfront property in order to redevelop downtown. They say the homes are blighted, regardless of their condition and offer the homeowners enough money to move somewhere else. The amount usually falls far short of what it would cost to buy another house in the same area, most especially the new construction. Sometimes, the community does benefit from eminent domain. Perhaps, a new highway...and, um...I suppose there are lots of other legitimate reasons to seize private property. I wonder though, what sorts of compensation the founders of our country had in mind when they drafted the 5th amendment; because it seems to me, compensation is offered at a level to keep the poor, the lower and even upper middle class out of most new "community" redevelopment projects. It is not the current residents of a "blighted" area that most developers and city counsel members have in mind when they are envisioning new high rises, casinos or gaming venues. Cities and communities will improve when the residents of said area take the initiative themselves to improve it. Elected officials, many out of touch with the lowest of whom they *serve* want to attract money and care little for building and saving a community. It is a slippery slope once we start seizing property to create luxuries for the upper crust of society. Where could it lead I wonder?

Beijing to Evict 1.5 million for Olympics
BEIJING (Reuters) - Some 1.5 million residents of Beijing will be displaced by the time it hosts the 2008 Olympics, many of them evicted against their will, a rights group said on Tuesday, prompting a sharp denial by China.
The Geneva-based Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) said residents were often forced from their homes with little notice and little compensation, as the government embarks on a massive city redevelopment to accommodate the Games.