Takings

When 200 residents of the Lindley Court Apartments in Logan lost their homes with two hours’ notice on Saturday, June 21st, the building' fire alarm system didn’t work, raw sewage festered in the basement, putrid garbage piled up atop overflowing dumpsters, and there was no water because the copper pipes had been stolen.

This edited interview will air on WXPN 88.5 on Monday, 3 March 2008 at 8pm. The text below is a transcript of the edited interview. Or click here to listen.Interview 1 "The house on H_ Street is place where I grew up at with my mother and my father; we spent many years there. In fact I was like approximately about 9 years old when we moved in the house…I was 62 when I was put out the house so I've lived most of my life there. They took it under eminent domain. Eminent domain is something that most people do not know anything about and I was one of those people. I came home one evening and it was like a flyer in my door and I picked it up and I looked at it and it says ah, These redevelopment proposals call for the new construction of residential properties in a development known as Millcreek. We would like to meet with you to discuss the relocation process. You may be entitled to relocation benefits under the Federal Uniform Relocation Act. The meeting was to be held at Martha Washington School at 44th and Aspen on May the 29th at 6:30 pm. Well it turned out to be very bad because we wanted to know about our homes and they were telling us about how many jobs this would create and how nice it would be for the people in the area because they needed jobs and we're saying to them we don't want to know about jobs we want to know about our homes. What are you talking about? The next thing I know the police was there and they put us out.

Save Hawthorne Park

Community Rally

12 noon on Saturday, October 20th

At the park (12th and Catharine)

Business owners and merchants of the 1100 and 1200 blocks of S. 9th street responded to a City Council bill that would look to redevelop an area that they say is no longer blighted. A broad coalition of concerned community membersaddressed CityCouncil, TuesdayApril 23rd, to contesta bill that would allowfor the redevelopment oftwo blocks of the Italian Market south of Washington Ave. The project is part of the 9th & Ellsworth Urban Renewal Area. City Council Bill No. 070168 was passed through the rules committee despite the community's resistance.

Opposition to the redevelopment plan centers around the labeling of the neighborhood and business area as blighted. A report compiled by the Mexican community organization, JUNTOS/Casa de los Soles and researchers from the University of Pennsylvania shows that only 1 of the 15 properties listed as vacant on the city's land use map is actually vacant. The rest of the properties are under construction and being prepared to open for business or are newly renovated, recently openedbusinesses. Those opposed to the planned redevelopment point out that this area has been a sucessful location of investment and growth by local entrepreneurs and those that they serve.

One suchbusiness owner addressed City Council and invited them to come visit the area. To read his comments in English followed by Spanish, click here

The Redevelopment Authority (RDA) for the city of Philadelphia authorized the following 47 takings at their board meeting on March 27th, 2007. All 47 properties were residential but said to be vacant and declared blighted. They were taken by the RDA in accordance with provision 12.1 of the Pennsylvania Eminent Domain Code. Funds for the acquisition are being provided by the Neighborhood Transformation Initiative. The total acquisition cost for all properties is $1,671,4000. For a list of takings click

By SuZQ | 03.27.2007

The Budd Street garden, home to beautiful trees and two greenhouses, which has for years been the site of grassroots neighborhood food distributions and community composting, is being bulldozed this week. It was seized via Eminent Domain from its owners, the gardeners, who bought it at a Sherriff's action and have yet to be compensated for it by the city.

More on this:

http://www.phillyimc.org/en/2005/10/16917.shtml

Hey guys I'm sure someone knows about this...there is a proposal to blight all of 9th street from Washington to Federal because there's a 3 block section where he wants to build a mixed-use tall building, where apparently "nobody lives" because much of the property isn't owner-occupied. Some folks want to figure out how to buy the property. They are especially interested in learning about land trusts and cooperative owning that wouldn't fall apart if, say, one person were to leave the country.

This article takes about the city trying to prevent blight in the suburbs of Cleveland.It tells of sub-prime mortgages that low income folks are unable to pay back and the city's foreclosure prevention program. Many interviewed in the story tell of confusion and frustration of losing homes they have lived in much of their lives or homes they bought and expected to live out the rest of their lives in, similar to stories we have heard here in Philly.

By ERIK ECKHOLM

SHAKER HEIGHTS, Ohio — In a sign of the spreading economic fallout of mortgage foreclosures, several suburbs of Cleveland, one of the nation' hardest-hit cities, are spending millions of dollars to maintain vacant houses as they try to contain blight and real-estate panic.

-From the December Newsletter of the African-American Business and Residents Association in Brewerytown

At a time when the city and wealthy developers are creating conditions for the removal of current residents from this historic corner of North Philadelphia, a 40-year Brewerytown resident has saved his home from foreclosure. This is the story of how he was victimized, how he survived, and how you can protect your home.

Carolyn Thomas, featured in the film All For The Taking, after which this blog was named, has been fighting a struggle that hasn't ended over two years after her home was seized through eminent domain.

The city has finally removed the $2,509.92 in back taxes andthe subsequent lienon Carolyn Thomas' new house (back taxes which were owed on the property before she was ever relocated to it), but she is still awaiting notice that the $9,075 demolition bill has also been removed (that's right, she was billed for the demolition of her own house which was seized through eminent domain).