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Baltimore, We Support Condemnation     When the Supreme Court recently delivered a sucker punch to the notion of private property, Baltimore residents were reminded that the local goverenment has a track record of pushing the little guy aside in the name of "progress". While Justice Sandra Day O'Connor wrote "Nothing is to prevent the state from replacing any Motel 6 with a Ritz-Carlton, any home with a shopping mall, or any farm with a factory", Justice John Paul Stevens said city planners should be given wide deference to make decisions about the best way to reverse New London's economic troubles.
    City Planners? Baltimore has those, and had them when the Inner Harbor was revitalized. So, when you visit Bawlamer and trudge along the Innter Harbor, remember that this is the city that is held in high regard by the "progress" camp for trampling the rights of individual property owners.
    Baltimore is so eager to condem private property that it even filed a brief with the Supreme Court supporting the notion that private property can be taken by the government from private owners and given to a connecial venture.
    In a Baltimore Sun Article, Baltimore's assistant city solicitor, Joshua N. Auerbach, praised the decision and said it did not create a radical change. Instead, he said, the court recognized the importance of allowing local governments to make their own determinations about how best to turn around economically depressed areas.
    "The question is, what's in the public interest - and that's the sort of question that generally city councils and state legislatures ought to be deciding," Auerbach said.
    Come to Baltimore and visit....just don't buy any property, you might lose it to someone who convinces the City that the tax base will increase by taking your property!.

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