[at-l] Maine land prices

[icw39@ncfreedom.net (Clark Wright)]

I, for one, am glad I live in a land where the government's (valid)
condemntation powers are constrained by the Constitutional right to just
compensation.  Governments need powers of condemnation and land owners
need the protection of just compensation and reasonable statutory limits
on how the condemnation process is carried out, and for what purposes. 
Trails, and parks, like roads, are valid purposes.  Where the rubber
meets the road (as recent supreme court decisions vividly indicate) is
in determining just what is a taking when the government does not do it
directly, and just what is just compensation . . . 

Again, thank goodness we live in a place where the debates are about
those finer points - at least most of the time! :)

thru-thinker

p.s.  Happy father's day to all out there - let's face it, there is at
least ONE father in everyone's life! :)

Raphael Bustin wrote:
> 
> At 04:03 PM 6/15/2002 -0400, Weary wrote:
> 
> >There  is  not  a  government  in the world that does not reserve for
> >itself the
> >right  to take private land for what it perceives is the common good.
> >Frankly, I
> >find  it hard to imagine a society that could function without giving
> >government
> >this right.
> >
> >Probably humans first formed governments to regulate the distribution and
> >use of
> >land.  It  is  a  role that continues to this day and will continue until
> >humans
> >finally are eliminated from this earth.
> >
> >Several  European Kings proclaimed their ownership of the lands that we
> >now call
> >North  America.  After  numerous  wars  among themselves -- wars in which
> >nary a
> >king,  but  numerous  land  users  died -- we gradually evolved into the
> >present
> >stand off.
> >
> >Perhaps  12-step  could  explain  how  a  half millennia of wars,
> >destruction of
> >native  peoples,  and  exercise  of  sheer  government  power somehow
> >created an
> >absolute right of untouchable private property rights.
> >
> >I agree a wise government needs to use its powers carefully. But I have no
> >doubt
> >that the power is needed and it's use for creating roads and trails and
> >parks is
> >appropriate.
> 
> I'm not in the habit of quoting posts verbatim, but I have to say:  nicely
> said.
> 
> (And well worth repeating.)
> 
> rafe b.
> aka terrapin
> 
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