Mueller Lake Park Outdoor Amphitheater
Steve Adler and Eminent Domain
RECEIVED Wed., Nov. 19, 2014
Dear Editor,
Eminent domain is Steve Adler's – the developers' dream candidate – specialty. Relatively isolated from the rest of the country until quite recently, Austin citizens may be unaware that, for decades, whole residential neighborhoods have disappeared due to eminent domain, and that most – whose residents had resisted for years – ended up losing their battle in the courts.
Faced with the possibility of seeing Mr. Adler elected mayor of my city, I contemplate my little neighborhood's vulnerability, given its position between a commercial and a health-oriented area. Small houses do not bring big bucks in taxes. Compare that with what commercial buildings, hospitals and doctors' offices, condos, and apartments would bring, and it's a no-brainer.
The really distressing feature of eminent domain is that the property owners end up as losers, because the city does not pay the kind of money that would allow for the dislocated residents to buy housing comparable to what they lost. Consider my case and ask: Where in Austin or the surrounding areas would I be able to find another two-bedroom/two-bath house that I could afford? The answer would probably be a trailer in Elgin.
Unfortunately, Mr. Adler is the candidate with the funds and moneyed supporters who do not fail to vote en masse. It's time for the people of Austin to seriously think about their own future.
Eminent domain is Steve Adler's – the developers' dream candidate – specialty. Relatively isolated from the rest of the country until quite recently, Austin citizens may be unaware that, for decades, whole residential neighborhoods have disappeared due to eminent domain, and that most – whose residents had resisted for years – ended up losing their battle in the courts.
Faced with the possibility of seeing Mr. Adler elected mayor of my city, I contemplate my little neighborhood's vulnerability, given its position between a commercial and a health-oriented area. Small houses do not bring big bucks in taxes. Compare that with what commercial buildings, hospitals and doctors' offices, condos, and apartments would bring, and it's a no-brainer.
The really distressing feature of eminent domain is that the property owners end up as losers, because the city does not pay the kind of money that would allow for the dislocated residents to buy housing comparable to what they lost. Consider my case and ask: Where in Austin or the surrounding areas would I be able to find another two-bedroom/two-bath house that I could afford? The answer would probably be a trailer in Elgin.
Unfortunately, Mr. Adler is the candidate with the funds and moneyed supporters who do not fail to vote en masse. It's time for the people of Austin to seriously think about their own future.
Odette Aguiar
[Editor's note: For the record, and not arguing the campaign issue, most of Adler's legal practice has been defending landowners' property interests in eminent domain cases.]
