Law Commons^™

A Wall Of Hate: Eminent Domain And Interest-Convergence, Philip Lee

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

Donald Trump is no stranger to eminent domain. In the 1990s, Trump wanted land around Trump Plaza to build a limousine parking lot. Many of the private owners agreed to sell, but one elderly widow and two brothers who owned a small business refused. Trump then got a government agency—the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority (CRDA)—to take the properties through eminent domain, offering them a quarter of what they had previously paid or been offered for their land.

The property owners fought back and finally won. Although the CRDA named several justifications, from economic development to traffic alleviation and additional …

Side By Side: Revitalizing Urban Cores And Ensuring Residential Diversity, Andrea Boyack

Faculty Publications

Fifty years ago, the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. expressed a hope that someday people of all races would “live side by side in decent, safe, and sanitary housing.” Residential patterns in America today, however, remain highly segregated by race and income. The Fair Housing Act outlawed overt housing discrimination and unjustified discriminatory impacts, but zoning laws and housing finance structures have continued to impede housing integration, leaving communities nearly as racially homogenous as they were in the mid 20th century. These separate neighborhoods are far from equal. The majority of people who reside in financially distressed city-center neighborhoods are …

Residential Zoning Regulations And The Perpetuation Of Apartheid, Janai S. Nelson

Faculty Publications

In January of 1996, the South African Parliament ratified the long-awaited Land Reform (Labour Tenants) Bill, which has engendered heated controversy since its inception. For many, the success of the Land Reform Bill portends the economic and political future of South Africa and is a gauge of apartheid's vital signs. Without land, most South Africans would remain in the same impoverished and disenfranchised conditions that they were in under the apartheid regime. With land, however, South Africans have an improved chance to achieve economic equality. Land reform and land use have become particularly crucial issues in light of President Mandela's …