Blue Collar Muse has written a couple excellent posts on Eminent Domain abuse in Nashville.  The Supreme Court’s ruling that the government may atke an individual’s property for other another private citizen in Kelo v. City of New London is just over three years old.  The travesty is starting to hit pretty close to home and prove the government does not believe we as citizens have private property rights.  They feel they know what is best for our property (hint:  higher property taxes is what they are shooting for!).  Go check our his posts:

• Will the Circle Be Unbroken, Part I
• Will the Circle Be Unbroken, Part II

Here is an excerpt, but go read the whole thing:

For almost 30 years, Ford and her late husband Sherman, have operated one of the first studios on what would become Music Row at that address. While much of the rest of the Row has gone corporate with multi-million dollar facilities, CIR remains privately owned. This earns CIR the classification of an Independent label or “Indie” as it’s known in the trade. Usually reserved for recent entries into the field who don’t have the juice to or don’t want to compete with the big boys, in the case of CIR, it’s deceptive. Joy and Sherman Ford were making music, writing songs, developing artists and cutting tracks at Country International Records long before many of the current Music Row elite were born. The walls of Ford’s business are filled with pictures of the legends she’s personally worked with. Stars like George Jones, Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, Tracy Lawrence, Tim McGraw and more.

If government has anything to say about it, that won’t be true much longer. Chas Sisk at The Tennessean, who has covered the story since March, reports,

The Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency filed papers in a Nashville court Friday to start a process that would take the offices of Country International Records at 23 Music Circle East.

The action, the city’s first test of eminent domain since the state legislature tightened condemnation laws two years ago, was taken after the agency determined that negotiations with building owner Joy Ford would not work, said Joe Cain, the agency’s development director.

“We’re not having any conversation,” Cain said. “We’re hopeful that now she will meet with us.”

The government is filing papers to take Ford’s property. When they asked her to sell she said, “No”. Problem was, Joe Cain and MDHA didn’t like that answer. Having determined “negotiations with the building owner Joy Ford would not work” (read: this woman doesn’t want to sell her property at any price) they are having her property condemned as “blighted”. If she will not sell, they’ll force her out. With the pressure on, they’re “hopeful that now she will meet with” them. Mr. Cain and the MDHA seem to be confusing conversation with coercion.

Taking one’s property for a school, highway, etc. is bad enough, but it is understandable.  However, taking one’s property to sell to another private entity is ludicrous, even though the Supreme Court says it is okay!  State and local governments need to make very strict, concise, and clear laws preventing this type of behavior.  When one does not have private property rights, one loses most of his freedoms and what makes this country great.