More Of My Favorite Issue

Doug Petch points me towards another abuse of "Eminent Domain" this time in Chicago.

As the Supreme Court considers the Eminent Domain battle in New London, Connecticut, another battle is shaping up in Chicago -

As the U.S. Supreme Court debates the issue of whether the government can evict people from their homes or businesses to create "economic development" in Connecticut, Donald Zordani is wondering where the City of Chicago gets off trying to condemn his Sportif bike shop.

His thriving business has been operating at its site in the heart of Jefferson Park for 35 years.

Now the city is using real estate taxes collected from him and other local businesses to hire lawyers to clear him out of the way so developer Demetrios "Jimmy" Kozonis of Mega Properties can build a seven-story condominium.

In this case, the Chicago City Council declared the neighborhood in question to be "blighted." Let me ask you, though - does this sound like a blighted neighborhood?

That puzzles Zordani and angry neighbors who see customers streaming in to Zordani's store and the Ideal Pastry bakery around the corner, nearby homes selling for $500,000 or more, and thousands of people crowding the streets for the "Taste of Polonia" across the street at the Copernicus Center or the Jefferson Park Street Fest every year.

Sure, the exterior of this 75-year-old former Jewel store that houses his 850 bikes on display and a thousand more in storage could do with a lick of paint. Still, generations of Northwest Siders have bought and continue to buy their bikes here, Zordani said.

It didn't sound blighted to me, either, even though the city used a formula that includes the number of vacant storefronts in making that determination.

I can tell you right now that the "vacant storefront" formula is bogus. Using the number of empty storefront as your criteria would force the city of Washingto, D.C. to declare Georgetown, one of the toniest neighborhoods in the entire nation, blighted. Then again, maybe this formula is just what D.C. needs to move out all the mom and pop businesses in Georgetown and move in a few more GAP stores.

*grumble*