A Blight-Fighting Solution for Saving Detroiters from Eviction

[rmason]

https://nextcity.org/features/view/detroit-foreclosures-tax-auction-loveland-technologies-jerry-paffendorf

[sokoloff]

> “One way you can look at it, that’s certainly true, is it’s eminent domain by another name,”

No, it's not. With eminent domain, a property owner doesn't have a choice. Here, the property owner can pay the taxes due and keep the property.

[gozo → sokoloff]

As far as I know, in the US eminent domain has similarly been used to "fight blight". You could argue that the property owner in those cases also had a choice by keeping their property in good condition.

[jws → gozo]

"fight blight" has a broad term. In my town they blighted the Ferrari dealer to make way for a mall. Because, well once a Ferrari dealer moves into a neighborhood its all crack houses and ruin from there on out. Also a bunch of tidy, well maintained little brick bungalows whose owners just wanted to die in the houses they lived in their whole life.

[sk5t → jws]

Is this in the US? AFAIK quite a few states have passed laws to curtail such takings, after the _Kelo v New London_ debacle.