When government wants something, it usually gets it.  That is the power of the gun, the power of force, the power of eminent domain.  Eminent domain is the power that robs people of their homes and businesses.  The City of Saint Paul seems to be on a war-path against its very citizens.  The people who populate and work in the city seem to have become persona non grata to the City Council. 

Whether in their Port Authority schemes or their foreclosure solution, the Council is declaring loud and clear, “the people who are here are not as good as the people who might be here if only we got rid of the pesky people who are already here.”

 The insult was not lost on the people who filled the Council Chambers the other night to protest the taking of businesses in theJackson Street neighborhood of the North End.  It is not so much a neighborhood as a business district.  One made up of businesses that the Council and the District 6 Planning Council (the one made-up of residents in the area), don’t find attractive enough for their taste.  Of course the City Council also doesn’t find it profitable enough either. 

It’s never called greed when government employees want more money, but it is.

In the wake of the Kelo decision, the State strengthened its protections of property owners subject to the whims of greedy governments looking to raise the tax-base to fund their unyielding spending habits.  But the hearing for Advance Companies and the actions of Council (working alone or under the cloak of the St. Paul Port Authority) in wake of the foreclosure crisis, show that their rampage is just beginning.

In addition to stealing property they hope to develop for their own use, Council is …stealing property they hope to develop for their own use.

Scores of buildings are being placed on the fast-track to demolition.  These empty lots will soon become pockmarks and will sadly result in a city that looks like a war-zone.  How do I know?  I lived in Detroit, Michigan.  They did it there, too.  

By requiring vacant houses to be visibly labeled and thus identifiable from the street, and requiring that houses must be brought up to current code before sold, the Council is guaranteeing that unsold houses sit and eventually get vandalized to the point of condemnation. 

Who will fix up these properties?  No one.  The Council will wait until a critical mass is achieved (or better said, destroyed) and then come in with a declaration of ‘blight’ and steal the rest of the homes. 

 “Thank you for your years here, but we have a developer that will give us a higher tax-base.  Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.”

 Ahhh, it’s good to be King.

 Isn’t it time that we do away with all these power-mad central planners and their sweet-heart deals at tax-payer expense? 

 Isn’t it time that the citizens could be confident that their own governments weren’t conspiring to take their livelihood or homes away from them?

 Isn’t it time that we let the people create their own communities like they did decades ago, as free people making their individual dreams come true?

 The time has come, but only if we elect people with a respect for property rights and stop funding these busy-body, heartless egomaniacs.