Code words
“Cities use code words,” explained Supervisor Chris Norby, a longtime foe of eminent domain abuse. “In the 1950s and 1960s, governments used the term ‘urban renewal,’ but critics knew that it was widely called ‘Negro removal.’ These days, we’re looking at forced gentrification,” as cities try to redevelop poorer areas into wealthy areas.
Well, I think it’s more poor removal.
March 26th, 2007 at 10:41 am
We will see what happens in Knoxville. Two projects come to mind on the subject of “poor removal”.
The South Knox Waterfront project and the I-275 corridor project.
Over in progressiveville I observed the same “poor removal” issue. The natives were not pleased. The compassion for the working poor ends when the working poor don’t paint their house or fix a roof leak. The solution, get them out.
What really pissed them off was this statement, “With a new wave of Urban Renewal an old lesson must be learned again. If the government wants your property you are pretty much screwed.
Might makes right, on the shining City on the Hill.”
When a conservative has any compassion for the working poor it is seen as some redneck property rights thing. Liberals have a better idea, move them out. But the liberals would like a State Income tax so the sales tax on groceries could be removed. They are not completely compassionless.
March 26th, 2007 at 10:59 am
But Uncle, I thought code words didn’t exist! I thought they were a boogeyman! After all, nobody would ever sugar-coat a concept for political gain!
March 26th, 2007 at 10:19 pm
A question: Does private property exist without government?
March 27th, 2007 at 11:09 am
Metulj: Sure it does. Keeping it can be hard, until you get together with your neighbors and agree to help each other fight off the thieves.
The problem is, about 5,000 years ago this simple concept began to go haywire. First, the local militia needed a commander. Then, some ambitious village militia commander got the idea that instead of just fighting off the bandits, they should follow them home and steal from them. Or if you couldn’t be sure just where they came from, go find someone that looked like them, kill them, and loot their village. I suppose in most places folks would tell such a fellow that he was nuts and they were going to elect a new commander, but somewhere one sucn man finally got his way, and turned his militia into an army conquering other villages. This meant other villages had to expand their militia commanders’ power, and even chip into a pot to allow him to buy better weapons and hire full-time warriors to guard the village. And those soldiers worked for the commander, not the town, so eventually the commander became a king. And kings came to claim to own everything within the reach of their troops…