Eminent Domain Puzzle Paragraph One

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Eminent domain - the power of the government to take private property for public use - is used in order to make our communities better. Its basic function is to take land from one person to make the life of everyone better. One of the best example of eminent domain working occurred in the Freetown neighborhood in Greenville. Once upon a time, the houses were "little more than shacks, [and] cracked sidewalks and worn pavement were the norm" (Porter). However, with eminent domain, the community was able to turn around. Today, a community center is in place instead of "a small U.S. Army barracks" (Porter). This case proved the rhetoric of the U.S. government. Despite this instance, eminent domain isn't a perfect solution from a perfect world with fairies and pink elephants. Many times eminent domain can destroy a community. For instance, Detroit used eminent domain to "[displace] 4,000 people" in order to allow General Motors to build a new factory. This damaged the economy by destroying many important buildings: homes, businesses, schools, and churches. This led the city to bankruptcy and probably had many city leaders saying "Jesus, what happened?!" Eminent domain has become one of the main ways that the U.S. expresses its economic philosophy: corporatism. Corporatism essentially means the government and businesses working together. This has contributed to the loose definition of "public use" (U.S. Department of Justice). Now citizens may lose their land to "Wal-Mart" with the government hoping that it benefits the community (cartoon). This results to "several million people" being displaced with most of them being "poor and racial minorities" (Somin). In order for eminent domain to work as intended the government has to be very careful when they use it and cannot use it abundantly. 

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Comments

  1. LanceDecember 14, 2019 at 4:14 PM

    I really like your take on eminent domain and how it was used in our community to better the big companies. Your use of various sources allowed great consistency throughout your story. I completely agree that eminent domain must be regulated. Good Job.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Kyle JungDecember 15, 2019 at 9:50 PM

    Good work Sohil. I like how you started off with the Freetown example as a way of showing how eminent domain could be beneficial but then also talked about Detroit and the government's ideals of corporatism. I also really like the image you included to show what eminent domain is really like.

    ReplyDelete

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