It seems not all the community activists in Brooklyn are as opposed to eminent domain as those in the Atlantic Yards area. Or maybe it just depends on the “public purpose” for which the property is stolen. At any rate, some “affordable housing”* proponents are seeking to steal a prime piece of Brooklyn real estate from the pharmaceutical company Pfizer.
Ironically, Pfizer had an indirect role in the notorious Kelo v. New London eminent domain case. After Pfizer started building its new Global Research & Development headquarters in the Fort Trumbull neighborhood of New London, Connecticut, the local bureacrats got it in their head to condemn the rest of the neighborhood for new development. Pfizer never directly benefited from the eminent domain abuse or took sides in the argument, although one of its former vice presidents sat on the board of the quasi-public body that led the government-sanctioned land theft.
Pfizer has cut about 1,000 jobs from its Brooklyn plant over the past two and a half years and wants to close the plant altogether. The company would naturally prefer to sell its property to the highest bidder, but the “affordable housing” activists — led by Assemblyman Vito Lopez — would rather just steal the land and give the company “fair” compensation. (What’s fair is decided by the thieves, of course. Like Don Corleone, they intend to make Pfizer “an offer they can’t refuse.”)
* I have always hated the “affordable housing” euphemism. All housing — from Yorkville to Brownsville — is affordable, or nobody would live in it.
Brooklyn Pfizer plant
Hat tip: Rational Review News Digest