Illinois officials wrong to force eminent domain at Peotone
I don't care how you slice it—government trying to seize people's property for their own amusement is just plain wrong.
Yet that is just what is happening in Illinois, about 40 miles south of the City of Chicago as the Illinois Department of Transportation continues the folly of advocating for a new airport near Peotone.
Illinois officials are shameless as they try to coerce people out of their homes and property. It seems they especially like to target the elderly, going after those whose will has been worn down through the continuous struggles of everyday life during the past sixty, seventy, and eighty years. Aren't these the very people state officials should be fighting for rather than against?
Illinois Department of Transportation's Aeronautics Director Susan Shea is the state's mouthpiece who continues to rave about the benefits of a new airport; its need has never been proven. This is despite the efforts of five different state administrations at the helm—Governors Thompson, Edgar, Ryan, Blagojevich, and now Quinn. All of them have used their lieutenants to sell the project to the public, to the airlines, and to the Federal Aviation Administration. None of those crucial agencies or people have bought into the state's rosy information.
Eminent domain should be used for real projects
For Shea to threaten to use eminent domain to take people's property, for a project that hasn't even been approved by the federal government, seems almost criminal.
Susan Shea should be fired for bragging to newspapers about how this is a great time to go after property since the real estate market has been depressed and property values are lower.
Isn't the government supposed to work for the people, not for the whim of government authoritarians? The country and the state are struggling financially so it should invest wisely, but at the expense of shaking down the taxpaying public? The state is trying to usurp its power in every way it can to muscle people out of their property.
Hedging their bets
One of the state's ploys is to destroy neighborhoods. They have been doing it methodically since they demolished the first home in 2001. Perfectly good dwellings on beautiful land are being decimated for no good reason other than to further depress the property values. I wonder what one of Illinois' struggling homeless families would think if they saw the giant steel jaws rip into a perfectly livable home, turning it into a pile of rubble.
Anyone who lives in the State of Illinois should clamor for an end to the state's folly and the terrorist tactics to the people who live there.
Wouldn't the state be better served to rent properties rather than destroying them? And as the homes are leveled, the neighborhood continues to lose value, which plays into the state's hands as well.
The only benefit to actually building an airport would be to finally wipe it off the books with a check mark under 'look what we can do!' Wouldn't a bottle of white-out be more prudent?
Hundreds of millions of dollars have already been spent to try to sell this idea, not to mention the gazillion man-hours using highly-paid political operatives, consultants, lawyers, planners, map-makers, and so much more dating back to 1987. All this is for a little runway among the cornfields in eastern Will County—despite the same thing that already exists and is underserved at Gary and Milwaukee airports. I would think there are better ways for Illinois officials to spend the people's money.
Categories: Quinn, South Suburban Airport, Illinois, eminent domain, Peotone Airport, Susan Shea
Tags: Peotone Airport eminent domain South Suburban Airport
"Susan Shea should be fired for bragging to newspapers about how this is a great time to go after property since the real estate market has been depressed and property values are lower." Hi! Great blog...do you have a link to this article?
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Hi! Great blog...do you have a link to this article? "Susan Shea should be fired for bragging to newspapers about how this is a great time to go after property since the real estate market has been depressed and property values are lower."
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Thanks for the kind words and wise observation.
You can link to this article at the following address: http://chblog.ozarkattitude.com/2010/07/02/illinois-officials-wrong-to-force-eminent-domain-at-peotone.aspx or via the shortened url at: http://tinyurl.com/23r6o44
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I'm sorry, I don't think my comment was very clear. I meant the actual newspaper article where susan shea was boasting about the low land prices. Thanks for the quick response!
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I'm sorry, I did a little digging, but wasn't able to find the original story. If memory serves me, it was printed in the Southtown Star neighborhood edition. Older stories are removed from their web site. Sorry I cannot help you.
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I came up with the link for the story you asked about . It was in the June 29 story in the Chicago Tribune by Joel Hood. The link to it is: http://tinyurl.com/2b9uqdh
If for some reason you can't locate the story, the reference is as follows:
Susan Shea, IDOT's director of aeronautics, said using eminent domain in this instance is a difficult decision. The state purchased about half of the roughly 4,400 acres it says it will need for the airport's first phase from families willing to sell. But Shea knows it's going to get tougher.
"I'm about to exhaust willing sellers, and in order to get this done we need to pursue condemnation," Shea said. "This isn't something I take lightly."
And the timing couldn't be better for the state, Shea noted, with land values in a historic slump. That has simply created another hardship for landowners who fear their properties are being taken from them at the worst possible time.
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