Riviera Beach, FL

As more details come to light in this eminent domain case in Florida, this situation continues to look worse and worse.

A few people sat down and looked at the "study" that declared the area "blighted." Keep in mind -- the ONLY reason for any of these areas to be declared blighted is so the mayor can take it and sell it to developers so he can profit. Many of the areas listed as blighted are nowhere near blighted.

In fact, some areas of the report list empty lots where there are houses. There are parts where ANY mobile home is automatically listed as blighted, without any reason given other than the fact that they are trailers. There are no documented high crime rates or high rates of fires.

Some buildings are listed as "functionally obsolete." That means that someone, somewhere, believes that one building could be replaced by another building that might generate more revenue -- a definition that could literally be applied to ANY building.

I really don't CARE how much the mayor doesn't like the area. He them makes claims of racism (the mayor is black and some of the residents are white) -- the mayor said, "Now, not all of the faces are black. Now, all of a sudden it's tyranny."

Mayor moron Michael Brown, it IS tyranny.

This is NOT a democracy. It never was intended to be. This is a prime example of "tyranny of the majority." People are supposed to have rights. THE prime purpose of government is to PROTECT those rights, not ignore them for financial gain, as is happening in Riviera Beach, FL.

If this country truly were a democracy, then the majority could decide anything. The classic example of this would be a democracy of 4 men and one woman. If they voted to rape the woman, and the vote was 4-1, or even 3-2, they would be "justified" in doing it, right?

Obviously, that's wrong, just as the mayor Michael Brown of Riviera Beach is wrong. It doesn't matter at all that he's been elected four times on a "redevelopment" platform. It doesn't matter that this "action" will remove up to 6,000 people in a city of 34,000.

It makes NO difference that some houses have no sources of heat -- by what right does mayor Michael Brown DEMAND that people have heat or they're not allowed to live in "his" town in SOUTH FLORIDA?

One line that the tyrants and those who will financially benefit from this action keep using is "Nobody can deny there is blight in Riviera Beach." So what? If you don't clean your bathroom today, it's blighted and somehow I can take it and give it to someone else?

It's NOT YOUR DAMN PROPERTY. It makes absolutely NO difference how many people don't like that -- IT'S NOT YOURS.

However, that's the current sentiment in today's government -- a very NON representative republic, which we used to have in this country -- that ALL lands and everything on them belong to government and therefore government can do anything they want.

Look, they are completely, totally, and absolutely wrong in this case. From what I can tell, every single person that supports physically removing up to 6,000 people from their homes so they can be "relocated to better, government-subsidized housing," stands to gain financially from this illegal taking of land.

Martha Babson, a subject citizen who used to have rights is fighting this action -- she's fighting the government physically taking her land. If we don't have the right to own our own property, as the mayor clearly thinks, we have no rights at all.

Martha Babson says, "I'm like the Indians, and the white man wants my land."

Well, Martha, a good many Indians fought the white man. I hope you and your friends are well-armed, because that's the only way -- and the correct way -- to fight this now.

Posted by: Ogre at 04:03 PM

Comments

1 Did you notice the ONLY part of Riveria they are taking is waterfront? (Posting this at Bou's comment section as well)

Posted by: vw bug at December 12, 2005 06:14 PM (SCN6v)

2 Yes -- where the land value is the greatest, of course.

Posted by: Ogre at December 12, 2005 06:36 PM (/k+l4)

3 And the truly blighted are not waterfront. Those will remain.

Sickening, it truly is.

Posted by: Bou at December 12, 2005 09:27 PM (iHxT3)

4 I just can't believe this is progessing with so much support.

Posted by: Ogre at December 12, 2005 10:33 PM (uSCkp)

5 I live in a crummy old trailor park in Riviera Beach. the city has done a very good job of presenting their plan to the people here and we are looking forward to its implementation. The redevelopment has brought many amenities to a neighborhood that had no stores or businesses even. We say butt out.

Posted by: Claire W. Solt, PhD at March 06, 2006 04:23 PM (pYX37)

6 You have every right to do what you want with YOUR property. My problem with you is that you want to determine what *I* can do with *MY* property -- and that's completely and totally wrong.

Posted by: Ogre at March 06, 2006 04:38 PM (/k+l4)






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