And Another Thing...

In talking about the latest developments in Kelo last night, another issue was raised. Yes, the City of New London considered the properties at issue to be their's all the while the case was going on.

In their eyes, Susette Kelo and the others should have abandoned their homes, allowed them to be torn down, and on the off-chance they would have ultimately won the case, spent the money to have them rebuilt.

Sure.

It really makes you feel good about local government, doesn't it?

It reminds me of what the feds tried to do after the devastating forest fires in Yosemite in, I believe it was, the summer of 1990. The inholding community of Foresta was destroyed (inholdings are parcels of private land that are situated within larger parcels of federally-owned land) - several dozen private homes.

The Park Service had been trying to get these inholders out, and the rumors were that the federal government had sat on its hands when the fires were threatening Foresta. So the houses burned down, and it took some homeowners years go gain access to their parcels, the theory being that the landowners would get so tired of trying to assert their rights, that they would simply abandon their inholding claims.

In this case, however, the property owners won out, and nearly all of the destroyed homes have been rebuilt.