[extropy-chat] Eminent Mike's domain

Adrian Tymes wingcat at pacbell.net
Thu Jul 28 16:30:23 UTC 2005


--- spike <spike66 at comcast.net> wrote:
> So why couldn't I just go down
> my street and apply to seize every home on it?  Why not
> the entire Silicon Valley?  (cue maniacal laughter)  

I can't speak for anywhere else, but in most Silicon Valley cities,
the city governments would never let you get away with large-scale
seizure of residential property.  (East Palo Alto *might* be an
exception.)  Near-unanimous opposition from the city government would
be enough to label your seizures as "not in the public interest", and
thus defeat it.

For instance, in my own city of Mountain View, there is an ongoing
debate over how best to develop some formerly commercial property that
almost nobody wants.  The one developer who has expressed interest
wants to turn it into more houses, and this is what the city officials
support, but the neighbors want a library, parks, and other things that
will boost the value of their homes.  This seems to be almost exactly
the opposite of the "seize residences in the public interest" scenario.

(If you actually have the funding to buy it and might be interested,
look up "Mayfield Mall".  If you don't have the funding...you can't get
the government to bear all the costs, even for a straight "seize and
resell as is to boost tax revenue"; that would prevent you from doing
as you propose too.)



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