A St. Paul small business owner credits the local development tool with revitalizing his neighborhood, and pleads to others to resist anti-eminent domain campaigns.
"An advocacy group based outside of Minnesota is fueling this so-called 'battle' over property rights. That's an important distinction because none of them stood by me when my customers started falling away to avoid a nearby dumpsite that was heavily polluted. None of them put any money into the neighborhoods that surrounded this dump, so the houses and businesses like mine started to deteriorate. None of them worked to employ my out-of-work neighbors."
"If the St. Paul Port Authority had not been able to use eminent domain on one of six parcels that would ultimately comprise the Great Northern Business Center, we would probably not be in business today.
Cities and redevelopment agencies like the Port Authority need at least to have the ability to use eminent domain to clean up heavily polluted sites like the one two blocks from my store and to assemble tracts of polluted and dilapidated property for redevelopment. Why? Because no one else will do it."
FULL STORY: Kendall Crosby: Eminent domain saved my St. Paul neighborhood and my business

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

Map: Where Senate Republicans Want to Sell Your Public Lands
For public land advocates, the Senate Republicans’ proposal to sell millions of acres of public land in the West is “the biggest fight of their careers.”

Restaurant Patios Were a Pandemic Win — Why Were They so Hard to Keep?
Social distancing requirements and changes in travel patterns prompted cities to pilot new uses for street and sidewalk space. Then it got complicated.

Platform Pilsner: Vancouver Transit Agency Releases... a Beer?
TransLink will receive a portion of every sale of the four-pack.

Toronto Weighs Cheaper Transit, Parking Hikes for Major Events
Special event rates would take effect during large festivals, sports games and concerts to ‘discourage driving, manage congestion and free up space for transit.”

Berlin to Consider Car-Free Zone Larger Than Manhattan
The area bound by the 22-mile Ringbahn would still allow 12 uses of a private automobile per year per person, and several other exemptions.
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