It has been a BUSY summer, and will fill everyone in on the various assorted meanderings of my wife and I in a later post.  For now, thought I would weigh in on something that is REALLY bothering me...I might even touch on a few topics that are eating away at the small amount of sanity I seem to have left as I wrestle with the implications of a world gone mad.

Earlier this year as we ALL know, the Supreme Court in a fool's fit of fancy made an earth shattering WRONG DECISION regarding a communities right to take PRIVATE PROPERTY for corporate welfare.

What happen to the concept that our rights to private property were inviolate, and were only to be taken from us for projects that serve the greater public good, such as new highways, or a public school as examples?  I was very disturbed at this horrid development which gave the corporate money changers and robber barons of our time frightening rights and means by which to strip us of our hard earned home and hearth....but, I kept quiet as it did not seem to directly impact me at the time.

Enter a project close to our home known as the Riverfront Development, and a Billionaire developer by the name of GINSBURG, and a middleclass blue collar family by the name of Christian ( I know, kind of ironic) who happen to own .6 of one acre of land RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE of where this man/company wants to build 400 plus LUXURY condo units.  Yes, we are talking a BILLION DOLLAR PROJECT right on the Hudson river.

Now, .6 of and acre does not sound like a lot until you realize this entire billion dollar project is going to only require 4.5 acres of land that provide panoramic views of the great Hudson River as it meanders through our lovely little town of Peekskill, New York.  We''ll say the .6 acres represents around twelve percent of the land mass for this Economic Development Project in this BLIGHTED COMMUNITY...do you love those BUZZ WORDS?  I found this out when I happened to attend a public meeting on the project to make an inquiry about traffic flow issues that potentially could impact on my own place, and was shocked to find out that the mayor of our fine town, JOHN TESTA (can I hear a few boo hisses at this point?) was using the use of imminent domain as a veiled threat to those one or two EVIL PEOPLE that might try to hold up the project for their own personal greed!  Hmmmmmm.....so, property owners accept what the Ginsburg Development Group offers them, or have the city come in and take it at fire sale prices....GREAT CHOICE. 

Where am I going with this...well, after the meeting, I met the Christian's...one of those VILE evil people the major was back handedly referring to when he made his veiled threat...seems they had attended a private meeting, however briefly with a representive from the Ginsburg Development Group who had informed them that a curbside appraisal of their over one half acre of PRIME DEVELOPMENT PROPERTY was worth a MEAGER $120,000!  Now mother Christian as I'll fondly refer to her as, is not exactly the role model of Snidley Whiplash out to visit EVIL and MISCHIEF on any and all unsuspecting corporate big wigs and money changers (think Tom DeLay) who happen to cross her path.  She's a 70 year old, retired GRAND MOTHER!  She's held on to this piece of property for some FIFTY YEARS, seeing it as her nest egg, a place she dreamed about developing one day when time, money and circumstances were ripe.

So, why am I sharing this story with you the reader of my blog?  I am hoping you can help this family out, but getting involved.

1.  You could cut and paste this entry into your blog to help me reach more people!

2.  You could visit one of these two site links, and give the city of Peekskill, and Ginsburg Development a piece of your mind, let them know what you think of Corporate Robber Barons coming in and trying to take advantage of little old kindly grandmothers, let them know you think it is WRONG for them to even think about taking someone's property, let alone coercing the mayor of Peekskill, John Testa to deliver a threat that citizens cooperatively sell their land at the offered price, or risk his filing papers to take your land any way through imminent domain.

The link for Ginsburg Development...they have a really cute contact button you can click on there to leave them a nice thought or two on this subject.

http://www.gdc-homes.com/index.asp

City of Peekskill link...again, you can just click on the Waterfront Project to read all about this, and they again have a wonderful CONTACT THE CITY button you can click on there as well!

http://www.cityofpeekskill.com/

Help me help the Christians...this is not about standing in the way of progress, but being treated fairly when progress wants to come through their land.