Good book on Eminent Domain - Little Pink House


I just finished reading Little Pink House by Jeff Benedict which was a very interesting book since it was written more as a non-fiction novel than as some boring legal treatise. I find it frightening that it is so easy for a municipality to decide to "blight" an area for purely economic reasons. The topic seems more appropriate now that we have moved back to mid-county which is "eminent domain" central in the St. Louis area since we are located just a few miles from both the failed Hadley Township efforts in Richmond Heights and also the languishing McKnight and Manchester redevelopment plans in Rock Hill. We used to live in Brentwood, and I remember back in the mid 80's driving down Brentwood Boulevard south of Clayton Road and actually seeing these lovely brick structures known as houses. First they removed the neighborhood that is now the southern parking lot for the Galleria, then they took down a nice little street of homes behind the old Brentwood Square. Finally they completely wiped out all the homes east of Brentwood south of Eager Road for the Promenade. It is hard to believe we really need that many shopping centers in the Richmond Heights/Brentwood area, but the truth is many of those lots are still pretty crowded all the time (even during this recession.)

However the same cannot be said about the new development efforts in Rock Hill. The Hollywood Video has closed down on the southeast corner, so we find the biggest draws are the new eating establishments: the Amighetti's, the Bandana's, the Baskin-Robbin's and the frozen custard place (my son would add the new Wendy's too). The giant parking lot on the southwest corner is hardly used and there are not any stores there worth visiting (Stein Mart?). Since there used to be a DMV station there, it seems appropriate that the lot is now empty enough to be a good practice lot for high school students to learn driving!

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