PGHIMC - Pittsburgh Independent Media Center

Stop Lakewood mayor from evicting elderly couple for mall complex
by pink panther Saturday, May. 17, 2003 at 5:28 PM

Lakewood Mayor uses eminent domain law to evict elderly couple from home, to build mall

THIS MAYOR HAS NO MORALS

LAKEWOOD, Ohio, May 15 � Jim and Joanne Saleet feel as though they
are being forced out of their home of 38 years. The culprit is the
city of Lakewood, which is preparing to condemn it to make way for a
retail mall and luxury condominium units that would bring in more
tax dollars. The city's pretext is that the house is "blighted"
because it does not have a two-car attached garage. The move is also
perfectly legal, even though the condemnation would primarily
benefit a private developer

THE CITY is proceeding under a centuries-old provision of the law
called "eminent domain," which says private property can be taken
for "public use." Eminent domain procedures are intended to let
governments build needed services like bridges, roads and schools,
but the Supreme Court has approved them even if the land ends up in
private hands. "That is the bottom line, is tax base," acknowledged
Madeline Cain, Lakewood's mayor. "But this is also about quality of
life. This is about making sure we also have a vibrant and
attractive community." Homeowners and mom-and-pop businesspeople ask
where in the American Dream it says that they must give up their
lives and homes so the government can improve the tax base.
Nationwide, 10,000 businesses and homeowners have been told to make
way for private development, according to the Institute for Justice,
a Libertarian organization that is leading the fight against the use
of eminent domain for private development. Most of the cases are in
California, Kansas, Maryland, Michigan and Ohio, it said. "In most
of the eminent domain cases going on now, cities want richer
neighbors and bigger businesses instead of middle-income neighbors
and small businesses," said Dana Berliner, a lawyer for the
institute.
`PLAIN-OUT STEALING' To William Minnich of Harlem, N.Y., who could
be forced to abandon the woodworking business his father built 75
years ago, "when you are forced to sell something you do not want to
sell, that's stealing. That's plain-out stealing." "I'm forced into
retirement, in effect," Minnich said. "I don't really know where I'm
going to go." After a six-year battle that he said had cost him a
half-million dollars, Minnich has run out of options. But the
Saleets and 40 of their neighbors in Lakewood's West End
neighborhood promise to put up a fight, even though the city has
offered them $35.5 million in public financing to cover the "just
compensation" called for in the Constitution. "I'm stating our home
is not for sale," Jim Saleet said. "If our home isn't safe, nobody's
home is safe."

I AM CALLING ON ALL PATRIOTS TO WRITE, CALL, AND EMAIL THIS BITCH
MAYOR, AND PRESSURE HER TO ALLOW THE SALEETS TO KEEP THEIR HOME.
YOUR HOME COULD BE NEXT! HOW LOW WILL THE LAKEWOOD MAYOR STOOP FOR
KICKBACK CASH?

MADELINE CAIN MAYOR
mayor@lakewoodoh.net email
phone216-529-6600
address 12650 detroit ave
lakewood, ohio
44107

www.whatreallyhappened.com

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