Atlantic Yards Report and Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn point to an article by law professor Ilya Somin entitled “Let There Be Blight: Blight Condemnations in New York after Goldstein and Kaur” that will be published in the Fordham Urban Law Journal. The article looks at the blight condemnations used to justify the application of eminent domain for Atlantic Yards and Columbia and characterizes them as “highly abusive.” Atlantic Yards Report notes that Somin says the “extraordinarily broad definition of ‘blight'” used for Atlantic Yards is at “odds with the text of the New York Constitution, which allows blight condemnations only in ‘substandard and insanitary areas.'” Somin also argues that the blight studies were predetermined and concludes that the precedents set by Atlantic Yards and Columbia mean “there are virtually no remaining constitutional limits on blight condemnations in New York state.”
Law Professor on Atlantic Yards and Columbia Eminent Domain Cases [AY Report]
“New Lows in Dubious ‘Blight’ Condemnations” [DDDB]
Photo by threecee.


What's Your Take? Leave a Comment

  1. blowfish – lawyers much more relevant than any “professor” take the opposite position. Those lawyers are generally referred to the NYS Judiciary and the Federal Judiciary – and they have been ruling in favor of ED along the lines of AY since the beginning of the republics founding.

  2. blowfish – lawyers much more relevant than any “professor” take the opposite position. Those lawyers are generally referred to the NYS Judiciary and the Federal Judiciary – and they have been ruling in favor of ED along the lines of AY since the beginning of the republics founding.

  3. that’s not the immediate question, that’s a useless question fsrq. The question is do any other reputable law professors take the opposite view. That answer would shed more light on the constitutional question.

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