District of Columbia Mayor Anthony Williams has one year left on his second (and final) term, but his legacy has already been cemented–as a man who stole his own citizens’ property to give it to Major League Baseball. The Washington Post reports:
The District government filed court papers yesterday to seize $84 million worth of property from 16 owners in Southeast, giving them 90 days to leave and make way for a baseball stadium.
By invoking eminent domain, city officials said last week, they hope to keep construction of the Washington Nationals’ ballpark on schedule to open in March 2008. The city exercised its “quick take” authority, in which it takes immediate control of the titles to the properties.
Under law, the property owners and their tenants must vacate the land within three months unless a judge declares the seizure unconstitutional.
In papers filed in D.C. Superior Court, city attorneys said: “The Properties subject of this action . . . are taken for an authorized municipal use, namely the construction and operation of a publicly owned baseball stadium complex.”
A spokeswoman from the D.C. attorney general’s office did not respond to a message left for her yesterday evening.
In all, 23 property owners control 14 acres at the stadium site near South Capitol Street and the Navy Yard along the Anacostia River.
Perhaps the only bigger outrage is that the D.C. media–including the Post’s sports department–conspired with the Mayor to get the stadium deal approved that led to this theft at gunpoint. Columnists from the Post, the Washington Times, and local radio and television outlets did everything they could to squash public debate on the stadium last year. Opponents were ruthlessly demonized by so-called “journalists” who salivated over the prospect of covering a Major League Baseball team on a daily basis. The baseball beat reporter for a local sports talk radio station even co-hosted a pro-stadium rally paid for by the mayor’s political action committee. The media was every bit a bought-and-paid-for subdivision of the city government on this issue.
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This is also the mayor who supports the incredibly draconian gun laws there.
What do you expect after Kelo vs New London, now every municipality is stealing property and handing it over to wealthier folks.
Demented, sickening, disgusting.
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