Kelo Eminent Domain Taking Site Abandoned

Suzette Kelo and her neighbors once had homes on the site in New London, Connecticut, known as Fort Trumbull, until the city of New London used eminent domain to take their neighborhood for the benefit of Pfizer, which had a nearby research facility.  Suzette Kelo, with the help of the Institute for Justice, took the case to the Supreme Court.  They argued that eminent domain was for public use, not the private benefit of a company such as Pfizer.

Five of the Supreme Court justices thought that whatever the city of New London thought benefited that government, even if it was pleasing a private company, was adequately definable as public use.  The precedent was set for state and local, and presumably the federal, governments to take land and property for any purpose they had a whim to do so for.  Indeed, despite the unpopularity of this kind of eminent domain, more and more such takings have been occurring since the Supreme Court ruling in favor of this tyranny.

The land once occupied by the homes of Suzette Kelo and her neighbors is now a wasteland.  Pfizer, according to the Hartford Courant, is shutting down its New London research and development headquarters and transferring most of the 1,400 people who work there to Groton, Connecticut.  Pfizer is looking to sell or lease its New London facilities.  This move results from a recent merger with Wyeth and a decision to reduce their combined research budget by 35%.  There is no need for so much innovation now that ObamaCare is on the horizon, with its intolerance for research and innovation in medical procedures and in drug development.  Most of the rest of the developed world is already intolerant of innovation with their socialized medicine schemes.

The city of New London is left now without the tax base provided by the 1400 Pfizer workers and without Suzette Kelo's neighborhood.  The brilliant central planners have served the taxpayers up a much smaller tax base and lots of vacant, undeveloped land.  Pfizer had initially built the facility in New London after buying a 24 acre lot from the city for $10 and being given tax breaks on top of that.  Then Pfizer complained that the Fort Trumbull section of town near them was not as up-scale as Pfizer would like its neighborhood to be.  The New London Development Corporation, headed by a Pfizer executive's wife and with a Pfizer vice president on its board, moved to seize the Fort Trumbull area.  That Development Corp. wanted up-scale condos and a high-rise hotel built there.  That has not happened over these last several years, but Pfizer should be able to sell its 24 acres of land for much more than $10!  Pfizer sure did a great job of taking New London!

Sometimes those who do evil things to others in order to please evil people, come to feel the brunt of evil on their own heads.  It is rather delicious to see.  Though I am sure there are some New London residents who did not deserve to share in the consequences.