Kelo v. City of New London neighborhood today. Eight years after the Supreme Court allowed the city to steal private homeowners’ property, the homes have been bulldozed but the development that was supposed to replace them never happened. So now the mayor wants to build a parking garage and some “tiny house neighborhoods” with “small environmentally self-sustaining homes that are low up-keep [and] energy self-sufficient.” Tiny government houses with windmills – what could go wrong?
This post was last modified on December 11, 2013
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If some of those people had patented their land, this wouldn't have happened. Of course, that's why the people in charge don't want you to know about land patents.
That's the second time you've mentioned that. Guess I need to Google land patents and figure out what you're talking about.
I'd sue the town, the company who pushed it, the mayor and city council for approving it. SCOTUS really F-d up with this one. And the ObamaCare one.
Pretty hard to sue them for something the SC said was kosher.
It was "Kosher" as long as they were doing it to build something that would take in more revenue. But to let it lay idle, then replace it with a parking garage and a future ghetto....
So, the city is bitching about losing tax ratables, and they want to build "green" housing instead?Is this going to be a low income housing project? Who else would settle for the "tiny houses"?
WHo will be responsible for the lawsuits when the vanes from the windmills fly off and kill someone?
It would be better to rebuild what they tore down and give it back to the original residents.
To be clear, they don't say anything about windmills. I was just extrapolating since I don't see how solar panels in Connecticut would be capable of doing the job by themselves. Connecticut has clouds and snowstorms and night. If they do try it with only solar panels, they will need a lot of them plus a bunch of battery storage which is going to make for one of the ugliest neighborhoods in America.
Darn you and your editorial privilige! You had me convinced about the windmills! I guess I should ahve read the article more closely.
U.S. is set to soon overtake Germany as global leader in solar capacity.. Grim, sunless Germany. Photovoltaics don't care if a photon had to slip through clouds. There just won't be as many of them, so output drops
I think what's happening here is that some businesses are figuring out how to lease the equipment. I talked to a guy at some dev expo a couple months back, and he said it was cheaper then his usual electric bill. I don't think that would be the case for our house though
" Photovoltaics don’t care if a photon had to slip through clouds."
You're wrong about that. Sounds like you've been talking to a solar panel salesman. While they still work on a cloudy day, the amount of power they produce decreases as the amount of light decreases.
Another thing the salesmen don't mention is that solar panels age. Not dramatically, but output does decrease as they get older. Newer solar panels, like newer cars, age better (slower) than the old ones that had a plastic substrate that turned brown from the sun. You would think a lining that turned brown in the sun would have been a red flag for designers but...
Sorry, maybe wasn't clear--like poppa pointed out I know output drops
The dude I talked to was just another software guy, and a customer. Though he did sorta have the zeal of a salesman, i suppose. People pay for shit, then they've got to justify it to everyone around them. I think equipment maintenance was part of his deal though
Its not for me for a long while. I just thought the business model was interesting. But I don't want to enter into a leasing contract until prices drop a lot and i've seen how others deal with it. They'd have to beat Xcel on price, and right now that electricity suits me just fine (mostly coal & natural gas, i believe).
My reading comprehension slips when I get in a hurry. Sorry. Missed the whole next sentence somehow.
While they still work on a cloudy day, the amount of power they produce decreases as the amount of light decreases.
That's what he said:
Photovoltaics don’t care if a photon had to slip through clouds. There just won’t be as many of them, so output drops
Disgraceful.
This is the case that caused me to lose any faith in the Supreme Court. When you can seize private property to give to another private owner because you think you can make some extra tax revenue, the raping of the treasury has begun.
You mean the raping of individual Americans.
I agree JP, cause we're way past raping the treasury!
I've seen the damage greedy city fathers have done to what they would call eyesore neighborhoods. While I was stationed in San Angelo, Texas I saw a part of the northern section of the town that had been "condemned" and bulldozed to allow a thoroughfare for a proposed federal highway. When the gubmint changed its mind and decided to scrap the proposal all together, the city was left with egg on its face, the greedy speculators took a bath, law suits abounded in Tom Green County for a couple of years and then all was forgotten. The people who lost their homes were still homeless...sad.
SCOTUS Douche bag David Souter and the rest of the Supremes who voted for Kelo should have had their houses "appropriated" by local government, for legit funding increase purposes, of course.
Kelo was the plaintiff and one of the people who had their home stolen but I understand what you are saying. When the housing bubble collapsed and wiped out the project that was going to be built on the seized property, some of the pols from the city were publicly whining about how the city was going to lose all that tax revenue thanks to Kelo and the other plaintiffs and if only they had shut up, gone away and let the project be built on time, everything would've been fine (for them, anyway.) And I thought to myself "these guys got what they deserved. For once, justice was served." Karma.
Yeah, but look at all the lives they disrupted and the damage they did, before they were served their Karma!
They should change their name to New Moscow.
"Tiny government houses with windmills – what could go wrong?"
Smurfs, that's what. And there goes the neighborhood.
"Tiny house neighborhood" - isn't that what they had before the land grab? And, naturally, the renewable energy mandate they will impose will keep the riff-raff from buying into the new neighborhood, so it will be safe for wealthy Progressives.
No, those were small houses. These are going to be tiny houses. Big difference.