Temporary Archive: Suzanne Brockmann's Message Board

You would be pleased to known that in one of the small communities in the St. Louis area, the people banded together, attended city council meetings and overruled an emminent domain issue. (homes were to be razed for a shopping center). These people had a common cause that was very important to them. So they took their cause to the city council who actually listened to their constituants. Is this the civil action/awareness/involvement you are looking for?

However, in another suburb a similar issue passed - (homes razed for a shopping center). Interestingly enough, the homeowners wanted the eminent domain. They were paid more for their homes than they would have otherwise gotten on the open market. The protests in this case came from the shopping center down the street. The shopping center owners are now filing suit against the new developer, which in turn caused the new developer to lose his financing, which left homeowners stuck in the middle of trying to close on their new homes but cannot b/c the developer cannot perform on the purchase of their current homes. Quite a mess!

Similar cases - very different outcomes. Both had lots of community involvement.

Kay