Quote:
"Prohibiting the use of eminent domain for slum clearance would certainly be inconvenient for urban planners. But it would be good for low-income residents."
Response:
In Timothy B. Lee's article featured in The American his story Bulldozing the American Dream covers a small community in St. Louis which was deemed a slum. Lee does a great job of portraying how the government's expectations of their planning and intervention to assist the people occasionally backfire. This quote is near the end of his argument, explaining that eminent domain (reposession of property by government without proper reimburesment) did nothing to assist low income families. Rather than the assistance to the neighborhood it was expected to give, it removed families from their homes and destroyed all local business. Lee gives a deep story of the lives of an immigrant dentist who did pro-bono work for this community who worked incredibly hard to open his own firm. Within the first five years of his successful dentistry business, the government took his current location without any reimbursement. Shortly after this, the man died, and his family removed from their beloved home due to lacking income. Lee's story of this immigrant family gives a heartfelt view into the dangers of allowing the government to assist in things such as housing or business.
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