PPP "soldiering on":
http://www.newsobserver.com/724/story/480514.html
(Weren't we 'assured' that "it can't happen here"?)
Today's N&O Editorial
N&O wrote:
http://www.newsobserver.com/579/story/482622.htmlEditorial:
Published: Sep 05, 2006 12:30 AM
Modified: Sep 05, 2006 07:28 AM
Still rolling
Tom Darden, former chairman of the Triangle Transit Authority and CEO of Cherokee Investment Partners, still believes in a rail system to serve this area, and he still believes it would be smart to develop high-density, multi-use residences, offices and businesses near the sites of rail stations.
And that goes for Darden even though the TTA has withdrawn its request for $810 million in federal funding for a 28-mile regional rail system.
Darden, whose company is working on other projects around the country involving development around transportation systems, believes calling a halt to dense development around rail station sites just because of hitches in getting started would be a serious mistake.
Time and again in a meeting with News & Observer editors and reporters, Darden said he is confident the system would be built, even though the precise day of beginning and the day of completion can't now be determined.
Read the entire editorial here:
Cherokee Partners has been lauded in "Local Boy Makes Good" stories and other stories about how innovative the company has been in cleaning up contaminated soils by turning it into bricks, but little attention has been paid to the role that Cherokee Partners has played in government land grabs for Redevelopment Areas around the nation. In case anyone failed to notice in the earlier article posted above, Cherokee Partners is going to cash in on land that TTA has aquired by eminent domain or supposed "willing sellers" under the threat of eminent domain.
It seems that Cherokee jumped on the transportation gravy train of corporate welfare a long time ago and this partnership is one that we need to watch very closely with much concern!
Philly.com wrote:
Camden's 'renewal' is really just a land grab
"In April 2004, Cherokee Investment Partners, a development company from North Carolina, submitted to the city both a study of Cramer Hill and a plan for the neighborhood's future. The study explained that Cramer Hill was a blighted area ("blight" and "area in need of redevelopment" are legal terms of art now used interchangeably by developers)."
Philly.com article http://tinyurl.com/phhvs
When the N&O editorial states that their editors and reporters "meet time and again" with Darden, and one of their reporters that I have written to about this partnership says; " I don't know what a 'blight' statute is or whether NC has one, ..." and thinks that whatever a blight statute might be is irrelevant because the land taken "...does not involve property that has been labeled as contaminated or otherwise damaged." , the citizens have to take this very seriously and be their own watchdogs on how this plays out.
TTA and Cherokee both say that they will aquire additional land for the projects. By what means?? Will ED be used or hang like a threat over future deals? Are we already looking at a case of using eminent domain for private redevelopment here?
It looks that way to me.
Posts
It seems everyone is trying to fight this monster on a level playing field......in the court system.
ReplyDeleteThere is a back door, and a way to tip the field in your favor!
The Back Door approach:
Election time is right around the corner for most municipalities...
Simply, if you can't change the idiots' mind...... CHANGE THE IDIOTS!
Use the power of the Polls against them. True you can not vote now, (and hopefully, you will never be able to vote) but you have every other resource available. Campaign against them, AND campaign FOR someone you select/draft that can run and vote in your favor.
There are challengers out there thinking about running for office, find them early, interview them and see where they stand, support and encourage them. Support them and sweep them into office, surgically remove the cancerous vermin that are only concerned about self-promotion with their personal agendas.
Organize all of the potential victims of Force Annexation and have them working the polls on election day.
There are more victims than you think. Not in just the proposed areas under consideration now, but future victims in areas that will be annexed in the next phase using the current phase as a qualifying stepping stone to meet criteria and suck in more real estate and tax money in exchange for little or no compensation.
This is a domino effect and eventually there will be no county area left, only city limit signs saying: Leaving one city and Entering the next.
I am a candidate for the Mayor of Goldsboro and we are having legal battles here that have extended over 3 years, wasting both city tax payers' money and innocent property owners', whose only crime was trying to raise a family and have a life too close to the city's (council) greed grasp!
If I succeed in my efforts in November, I will share my success story with other facing the same dismal fate and help organize them to fight back.
Tilting the playing field approach:
Organize everyone in the proposed Force Annexation area (and future areas) to boycott all businesses within the corporate limits of the offending municipality. This can be done for a specified period of time or until the Annexation is dropped. Change insurance companies, shop and eat out of town, and let them know what you are doing and why.
The business owners will in turn contact their councilmen and complain about their loss of revenue. There is power in numbers, let the numbers speak!
Let them know that you MEAN BUSINESS!
More information about my endeavors to dismiss the Goldsboro Forced Annexation can be found on my campaign website www.VoteForStuart.com
I hope this has been informative for you and in some way gave you a small breath of inspiration in your uphill battle.
D. A. Stuart
Goldsboro, North Carolina