More On Brody's Legal Victory Over Port Chester
by Thomas L. Knapp
“After seven years of litigation, a federal trial judge confirmed last week what Bill Brody has known all along — the government must provide citizens with notice before their right to challenge eminent domain expires. Further, the judge ruled, the Village of Port Chester violated Brody’s rights by failing to do so. …
While Brody was restoring four abandoned buildings in Port Chester, the village issued him permits but never once informed him that in the end it planned to take his buildings, bulldoze them, and hand the land over to a private developer for a Stop & Shop supermarket parking garage.
Instead of mailing Bill notice of the imminent loss of his rights, the village published a legal classified ad that didn’t mention anything about the fact that property owners would be waiving their rights if they didn’t file a lawsuit within 30 days. Now, seven years after his fight began, Bill remains in federal court; proceedings later this year will determine what remedy Bill is due for the Village’s violation of his rights.” (07/22/07)
************
“This is an important decision for the rights of property owners across the country,” said Dana Berliner, a senior attorney for the Institute for Justice, which represents Brody and property owners fighting eminent domain nationwide. “The judge has rejected the village’s dangerous attempt to undermine the Constitution and vindicated a fundamental principle: that the government cannot rely on hints and rumors to warn citizens that their rights are in jeopardy. It is the government’s job to provide citizens with fair notice—not the citizens’ job to chase down the government and ask if it plans to violate their rights that day.”
************
The consultants and volunteer members attending were thoughtful, thorough, dedicated, and professional. But, a tunnel alternative to the bridge is not now being considered in the alternatives under study by this working group, and three other working groups (Traffic/Transit, Land Use, and Bridge Design). At an earlier environmental stakeholder meeting, the higher cost of a tunnel, various impeding logistics, and affect on wetlands were noted as restraints....
... bridge with eight general purpose and two high-occupancy, higher speed toll lanes for BRT between Suffern and Port Chester. 4) Commuter Rail Transit (CRT) in Rockland and in Westchester plus a new bridge 5) CRT in Rockland, Light Rail in Westchester ..
************
Stephen Marc Beaudoin - is a performing artist, writer and director currently based in Portland, Oregon. Beaudoin has performed as soloist or ensemble member with Trinity Consort, Cappella Romana, Opera Boston, King's Chapel, Cantores in Ecclesia and Portland Baroque Orchestra; acted in multiple award-winning productions with New Repertory Theater, Lyric Stage Company of Boston, Hand2Mouth Theatre, Boston Playwrights Theatre and American Heartland Theatre; and stage directed for Opera Omaha, Vox Consort, Opera Boston and New England Conservatory. Beaudoin is currently contributing arts writer/critic for Willamette Week (Portland, OR); staff singer at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral; as well as a nonprofit arts consultant. He is a founding member of the new classical manband, FourScore. Beaudoin is an alum, with distinction in performance honors, of Boston's New England Conservatory of Music.
But the number one thing that stephen is proud of is that someone from Port Chester visited his blog. If you want to get Stephen excited send him an email and tell its from Beautiful and exotic down town Port Chester.
Maybe Stephen will do a blog post that called "Just Got An Email From Port Chester !!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
