Weld draws line against eminent domain

703.1

Date: Wed, 01 Mar 2006 15:19:32 -0500
To:
From: "Tenant"
Subject: William Weld a tenant ally?


NB - Sure, many believe that no matter what, Elliot Spitzer will be the
next Governor. They may be right. But it's also important to realize
that in eight years as the NY Attorney General, Spitzer has done next
to nothing to help tenants. His family and fortune are real estate.
No wonder like Bloomberg, Doctoroff and Quinn, he supports bulldozing
Manhattan's West Side.

Which is why William Weld's statement against Eminent Domain is very
interesting. It's not necessarily pro-tenant, but it does recognize
perhaps the greatest danger to tenants these days (both regulated and
non-regulated) is the intense real estate pressure that creates
incentives for developers and landlords to push tenants out. With the
weakening of tenant protections, the abandonment of any focus on
Housing Court or DHCR by the so-called liberal politicians, and with
some housing and social justice groups (i.e., Acorn, Jobs with
Justice, Housing Here and Now, etc.) being for sale to anyone that
comes along, it's interesting to see Weld's comments.

One thing about Democratic candidates ... they will go with those who
are the easiest to buy. Usually that means Tenants &
Neighbors/Michael Magoo (who even shilled for Peter Vallone a few
years back). Last year both Ferrer and Perkins did it. Buying off
these groups is cheaper than going to Costco!

Yeah, Spitzer is the odds-on favorite. But then again remember Mario
Cuomo in 1993?

--------------------------------------
Weld draws line against eminent domain
Newsday
By MICHAEL GORMLEY
Associated Press Writer
March 1, 2006, 11:24 AM EST

ALBANY, N.Y. -- Republican candidate for governor Bill Weld on
Wednesday strongly opposed governments' growing power under a U.S.
Supreme Court decision to use eminent domain to take private property
to spur economic development.

"If that's true, government can destroy an entire neighborhood of
homes if they can be replaced by tenants who will pay higher taxes,"
Weld told The Associated Press. "That, to put it mildly, doesn't
strike me as the American way. This isn't communist China."

Weld, a former federal prosecutor in the Reagan administration, was
to detail his attack on last year's U.S. Supreme Court decision in a
speech Wednesday that is closed to the press at the Harvard Club in
Manhattan. He said he's making the issue part of the campaign because
the next governor could seize that power.

"I think the issue cuts very deep," Weld said in an interview before
the speech. "It raises the specter of statism."

The speech underscores Weld's position as a libertarian Republican, a
political approach that helped him be elected to two terms as
governor of heavily Democratic Massachusetts.

In June, a divided U.S. Supreme Court broadened the government's
right to seize private property, and Justice Sandra Day O'Connor said
then it could mean wealthy investors and city leaders were given the
power to run people from their homes to make way for new development.

The high court ruled the Connecticut city of New London could raze a
residential neighborhood and replace it with hotels and offices that
officials say could add millions of dollars to the tax base. But city
officials and developers said that taking property is sometimes the
only way to spur development in cities struggling to pay bills.

In Albany, Democratic Assemblyman Richard Brodsky of Westchester has
proposed a bill that would provide better protections for homeowners
against eminent domain.

Weld quoted American historian Louis Hartz: "`The essence of
democracy is the idea that the individual may not be thrust into a
corner' ... That's right. This (Supreme Court) decision runs 180
degrees in the opposite direction."

Weld is seeking the GOP nomination against John Faso, the former
Assembly minority leader and one-time lobbyist; former state
Secretary of State Randy Daniels, and Patrick Manning, an assemblyman
representing Dutchess County.

Democrats Eliot Spitzer, the state attorney general; and Tom Suozzi,
the Nassau County executive, are also running.

Copyright 2006 Newsday Inc.


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Edited 3/1/2006 4:47 pm ET by Reysmont