Liberalism at its finest in the People's Republic of Seattle.
The Seattle City Council unanimously voted to force an elderly Spokane woman to sell her parking lot so...
wait for it.
so the city can use it for public parking
True story, on several news outlets.
Myrtle Woldson, 103, has repeatedly turned down the city’s offers to purchase the lot near the Seattle waterfront, so the city took matters into its own hands, voting Monday to use its power of eminent domain to force the sale, according to Q13Fox...
Singer Joni Mitchell once lamented in a song that “they paved paradise and put up a parking lot.” But to take a parking lot so the city can put up a parking lot is a new one.
Not surprisingly, none of the Seattle City Council members would talk to the press after the vote, Q13Fox reported. Local property-rights activists were only too happy to offer their opinion, though.
“In this case, the city of Seattle is using eminent domain to seize a parking lot, so they can use it as a parking lot,” said Glen Morgan of the Freedom Foundation, an Olympia free-market think tank. “There’s no public good in that at all.”...
Fox News reported:
According to the Puget Sound Business Journal, the city wants to acquire Woldson’s property to mitigate the loss of other parking lots during the construction of a $2.1 billion tunnel that will replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct.
City officials have said that they plan to keep the lot for surface parking, even though city and state transportation documents call for structured parking along Seattle’s central waterfront area, including Woldson’s lot, the newspaper reported.
Gary Beck, president of Republic Parking Northwest, which operates the lot, told the Puget Sound Business Journal that Woldson once turned down a $20 million-dollar offer
http://www.bizpacreview.com/2013/10/26/abusive-eminant-domain-council-seizes-103-year-old-womans-thriving-business-85937
