Posts Tagged → Eminent Domain
ALRLC Secretary to hear eminent domain testimony with US Civil Rights Commission on Wednesday in Montgomery
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Stephen Gordon
stephen@forwardfocusmedia.com
(256) 874-2985
(BIRMINGHAM, ALA. – April 27, 2009) On Wednesday, April 29, the Alabama Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights will be conducting a panel entitled “Civil Rights Implications of Eminent Domain Policies and Practices in Alabama.”
“The Commission’s current focus on the ramifications of eminent domain abuse regarding minorities and other protected classes touches on an issue that effects most residents in Alabama,” said ALRLC Secretary and Alabama Advisory Committee member Shana Kluck. “Property rights are a bulwark of a free society and it saddens me that these rights are often ignored or even threatened by the very government that was created to protect them. Considering this is the state where the Civil Rights movement began, it’s time for Alabama to eradicate one of the last bastions of racial inequality and at the same time ensure the protection of property rights for all Alabamians.”
In addition to serving as a member of the Alabama Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and as Secretary of the Alabama Republican Liberty Caucus, Shana Kluck also serves on the state GOP executive committee and is president of the Alabama Republican Assembly. She recently served as the Alabama Field Director and the national Homeschooling Coordinator for Ron Paul’s presidential campaign.
Confirmed speakers include State Senator Scott Beason, Birmingham community activist and City Council candidate Kim Rafferty, Rev. John E. Smith of the Evergreen Missionary Baptist Church, representatives of the Alabaster Alabama community, Montgomery business owner Jim Peera, Montgomery business owner Jimmy McCall, Montgomery attorney Norman Hurst, ADECA Compliance Officer Paula Murphy and Jefferson County Land Development Department representative Michael Morrison. Members of the community negatively impacted by Alabama’s eminent domain policies will be providing testimony to the panel.
The panel will be conducted from 9AM to 5PM on April 29 at the Montgomery Campus of Troy University in the Gold Room of the Whitley Conference Hall. The street address is 231 Montgomery Street, Montgomery, AL 36104.
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A new approach to an ignored civil liberties issue in Alabama
Racial minorities and the socio-economically disadvantaged are the people most likely to be taken advantage of during eminent domain issues.
ALRLC Secretary Shana Kluck is also a member of the State Advisory Committee of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. They will be conducting a panel in Montgomery on Wednesday to investigate the “Civil Rights Implications of Eminent Domain Policies and Practices in Alabama.” The event is open to the public. If you may be interested in attending, additional information is available here.
University of Alabama history professor David Beito chairs the committee. His op-ed in the Tuscaloosa News highlights how serious the problem truly is. Here’s but one of the cases which will be reviewed by the upcoming U.S. Commission of Civil Rights panel:
For almost five years, [Jim Peera] has fought a pitched battle with City Hall over his plan to renovate a strategic parcel of 121 apartments in the heart of the Rosa Parks Community and rent them to low-income senior citizens. Montgomery has a multimillion dollar development plan for his 8-acre site and is using ‘blight’ to condemn and demolish it.
Peera has withstood multiple setbacks on his investment, including unfounded criminal charges by the city and mysterious fires on his solid block structures. He has repeatedly tried to sell to or partner with the city for a much needed affordable housing development, but it has rebuffed him.
‘They’re used to forcing black folks to give their properties up via imposing hefty demolition liens, as opposed to buying land at fair market value’ he said.
Most recently, the city tried to further devalue Peera’s property by reducing the density from ‘multifamily’ to single family, thus making it impossible to provide affordable low-income housing. Though Peera won in two courts, local bureaucrats, much like they are doing with McCall, meet his legal victories with appeals and other delays.
Peera, who had to flee from his native East Africa after Idi Amin expelled its Asian population, does not easily intimidate and is extremely determined to fight property abuse in Alabama. He is trying to mobilize other Montgomery property owners who face the same plight. Through the state’s freedom of information act, he has obtained the names of over several hundred individuals, mostly from minority neighborhoods, who have had their homes summarily demolished under the blight law.
The former owners have related to him a litany of arbitrary mistreatment, but most were too poor or lacked the necessary information to fight back against the city. ‘What this City Hall is doing is criminal towards blacks and property owners, and it must be stopped’ Peera said.
Press Conference
Title: Press Conference
Location: Alabama State House
Link out: Click here
Description: State Senators Scott Beason and Quinton Ross will holding a press conference at the Alabama State House to discuss the Evergreen Baptist Church Eminent Domain Protection Act and The Elizabeth Swain Property Protection Act.
NOTE: This press conference will probably be rescheduled for the week of April 20th.
Please contact Senators Scott Beason at: (334) 242-7794 and Quinton Ross at: (334) 242-7880 with a resolute vote of encouragement for their stand for private property protection.
Start Time: 11:00
Date: 2009-04-07
