Downtown Memphis: Slum and Blight?
“Community Redevelopment Agency members will vote Thursday morning on whether 1,483 acres of downtown Memphis are a slum constituting a “menace to public health, safety, morals, or welfare.” The vote would advance the Heritage Trail Redevelopment Plan, which calls for the use of eminent domain for private development.
“Stakeholder” Lawrence Migliara tells The Memphis Daily News:
I don’t know if you were around in the ’50s where Housing Authority came in and used the power of eminent domain to wipe out about half of what was Downtown. A lot of that land is still vacant. It was a very traumatic experience for a lot of people. I was here and I was involved in that at the time. Housing Authority just ran right over people.
Some 200 vacant lots and dilapidated buildings are on the acquisition list—but all of the 4,000-plus private properties in the redevelopment area will be subject to condemnation.”
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Ross, John. Reason.com 4 December 2012.