CAMPUS

Columbia University Abusing Eminent Domain

Damon W. Root over at Reason has a shocking article on Columbia University’s abuse of eminent domain. According to the article, Columbia, in collusion with the state of New York, is using eminent domain to clear out a nearby neighborhood it wants to expand into.

For those who don’t know: Eminent domain is the government’s right to seize private property for public projects – things like highways, public works, etc. The property owner must receive “just compensation” (however the government deigns to define it), but that’s it.*

The article lays out Columbia’s slimy practices very clearly. For example, it’s request for eminent domain was approved after the neighborhood, Manhattanville, was declared “blighted.” This is a recognized justification for eminent domain (per the Supreme Court case Berman v. Parker), but municipalities often use it subjectively. What makes it unacceptable in this case is this (from Root’s article):

In 2006, the [Empire State Development Corporation] hired the planning and engineering firm Allee King Rosen & Fleming, Inc. (AKRF) to perform an “impartial” neighborhood blight study. AKRF was certainly a bold choice, given that the firm was already on Columbia’s payroll and actively working on the contested Manhattanville plan. According to billing records [...] as many as six AKRF employees worked on both the blight study and the redevelopment project, which is practically the definition of a conflict of interests.

The article goes on to note that 76 percent of the “blighted area” was already owned by Columbia. This is another standard practice: allow an area mostly under their control to fall into disrepair; then use the “blight” excuse to raze the whole area. For example, when New York City wanted to “revitalize” the area around Shea Stadium, it first allowed it to decay into what looks like a third-world country.

Sadly, things have been going this way ever since the Supreme Court decision in Kelo v. City of New London, which made it legal for municipalities to use eminent domain for “economic development.” For example, the University of Oregon was approved to use eminent domain to seize land for its new basketball arena.

And property owners have little chance of winning a challenge against an eminent domain ruling. They must pay their own legal costs, while the university has the whole force of the state behind it.

Eminent domain is necessary for certain things, but for public universities to use it with such wanton abandon is disgusting. Private property must be respected, and if a property owner doesn’t want to sell, universities should just have to develop elsewhere.

*Seriously, the whole legal basis for eminent domain rests in the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment: “nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.” That’s it.