Text Box: Osborne’s Auto Service

Text Box: Because Your Car Deserves It!

Text Box:   The decision 14 years ago to mortgage our home and purchase the building on A Street was not an easy one. The property was not only in flood plane, but in a high crime, non-desirable area. My husband questioned whether even his loyal customers would continue to patronize a business in an area they feared leaving a vehicle. The location was neither purchased as an investment nor for the purpose of someday exacting a ransom from the City. Osborne’s Auto is our livelihood; not a hobby, the site of a vacation home or other investment used for speculation. Some have criticized the passion of these 62 property owners (especially those along “A” Street) commenting that they should have “seen this coming” and started looking for other locations before receiving the July 2 letter. If the present argument is about foresight, then perhaps the City of Wilmington should have exercised its foresight and purchased the properties 10-20 years ago when no one else wanted them. If the properties had been purchased and leased by the City, it could have been producing revenue until a development plan was implemented.   Some maintain the property owners should not be allowed to stand in the way of progress. Progress, I caution, is a prism casting its glow in a multitude of directions. At its recent City Planning Commission meeting, Bill Montgomery, on behalf of the City, made a statement that the City has fixed land use boundaries and there are few directions for the City to grow. The same can be said for the small State of Delaware. Land is, and has always been, a limited commodity. Does this mean that property owners in the Brandywine Valley should quietly relocate or be satisfied with fair market value for their homes if one day the State decides that a more ‘productive’ public use could be made of their aesthetically-pleasing, vacant acres, or some other incidental public benefits could be derived from appropriating the parcels?  And what can be said about the throngs of dollar-toting tourists who patronize Delaware’s shores every summer? Could not more taxable income be derived from luxury hotels along Rehoboth’s beachfront than a few dozen private residences? Never happen you say? Berman and Midkiff were U.S. Supreme Court precedents upon which the U.S. Supreme Court relied in deciding Kelo. Both involved eliminating existing property use to remedy harm; in one case, extreme poverty; the other, extreme wealth. Justice Kennedy, concurring in Kelo, and quoting Berman wrote “a taking should be upheld as constitutional with the Public Use Clause (U.S. Constitution, Amdt. 5) as long as  it’s related to a conceivable public purpose.”   I don’t know about you but it doesn’t take a wild imagination to conceive a lovely man-made pond with paddle boats, luxurious condos, hotels and high-end boutiques in the desirable Brandywine Valley.   My husband and I are (and have always been) in favor of riverfront development. We consistently patronize the businesses along the riverfront and have been subscribers and supporters of the Delaware Theatre Company for over 20 years. Contrary to some critics, we are NOT opposed to progress, redevelopment or city revitalization. In fact, we welcome it. Like the Kelo petitioners and the majority of citizens who work or live in the City of Wilmington, we are not hold-outs; nor do we seek extraordinary compensation – only another location in or near the development area.  Kelo opened the door for financially-strapped municipalities seeking to expand City coffers to become ever more “creative” in their approach.    Ironically, our nation devotes extraordinary energy and passion to preserving our 2nd Amendment right to bear arms. The 5th Amendment affords equally important rights in dire need of protection.   They came for the row homes. I didn’t speak up because I owned a single family dwelling. They came for the small businesses. I didn’t speak up because I owned a corporation. They came for vacation homes and property along the harbor. A string of legal precedents have silenced me.     Cyndy Osborne Wilmington, DE

Text Box: Speaking Up …Speaking Out   H ow poignant the words of Martin Niemoller concerning the rise of Nazi power and the purging of one group after another – Communist, Jew, Catholic, etc …“ I didn't speak up … and then they came for me … by that time no one was left to speak up.” To quote former U.S. Supreme Court Justice O’Connor’s dissent in Kelo v. New London, “if predicted (or even guaranteed) positive side-effects are enough to render transferring from one private property to another constitutionally, then the words ‘for public use’ do not realistically exclude any takings, and thus do not exert any constraint on the eminent domain power.”   Mistakenly, many Delawareans believe the controversy concerning the riverfront eminent domain issue is solely about money. When balanced against progress and limited tax dollars on the one hand and individual property rights on the other the discussion is easily diverted to one about the greed of property owners and a perceived "windfall" at the public's expense. But buried in the rhetoric is a forgotten issue. Larger businesses in the Wilmington riverfront area were purchased by the developer before the City proposed the plan to condemn the 62 smaller property owners. Why wasn't the free market system (an interested seller versus a willing buyer) employed for all involved? The implication seems to be that only large and wealthy property owners appreciate and are therefore, entitled to and afforded all the rights and benefits of ownership. I can’t presume to speak for the other 60+ property owners affected by the City’s July 2 condemnation letter but I can attest that neither the developer nor the City ever approached my husband with an offer to buy his property.  It was not until the July 2 letter that the 62 affected businesses were put on notice of the City’s proposal to take properties, if necessary, through condemnation proceedings.  

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