Olga Anastos’s Candidacy in Stamford Highlights the Outrageous Kelo Decision
The State Should Not Be Able to Seize Property to Serve Corporate Interests
A special election occurs on February 28 in Stamford between Republican Olga Anastos and Democrat Anabel Figueroa. Voters should cast their vote for Ms. Anastos as she comes from a courageous family that stood up to Stamford’s municipal corruption and arrogance.
The 43-year-old Ms. Anastos is the manager of Curley’s Restaurant, a Stamford institution since the 1960s when it was established by her mother and aunt, Greek immigrants.
Ms. Olga Anastos
In 2002, the City of Stamford decided it wanted to confiscate the property where the diner resided to build a luxury apartment complex. City Attorney Bruce Goldberg told Anastos’s mother and aunt “We’re taking your property and we’re giving you $240,000 for it.”
He messed with the wrong hombres. Anastos’s family fought back and the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled that the Stamford cannot bully its citizens to pander to rich developers. They were even reimbursed $100,000 in legal fees.
But government arrogance and greed never end. In New London, Pfizer was upset that land near its complex was inhabited by working class denizens and wanted it replaced with a conference center, resort hotel and luxury condominiums. The city agreed, knowing that such changes would bring in more real estate taxes, and offered to buy out the home owners.
Suzette Kelo was perfectly happy in her pink Victorian house overlooking the Thames River and refused to sell. Her lawyers argued that the Eminent Domain clause in the American Constitution allows seizure of private property for projects such as road and bridges, not to increase the municipal tax base by caving to corporate interests.
And in one its most outrageous decisions, Connecticut’s Supreme Court agreed by a 4-3 vote with Justice Zarella (full disclosure - Justice Zarella is my friend and patient) writing in his dissent:
“The constitutionality of condemnations undertaken for the purpose of private economic development depends not only on the professed goals of the development plan, but also on their prospect of achievement.”
“The test is premised on the concept that if you build it they will come, and fails to protect adequately the rights of private property owners.”
Unfortunately, the United States Supreme disagreed with Justice Zarella and ruled 5-4 to rubberstamp Connecticut’s Supreme Court’s decision. And thus, the powerful began to bully the weak.
For example, Columbia University - who masquerades as a champion of the downtrodden - used Kelo to seize property from politically-powerless Blacks in Harlem to expand. None other than former president Donald Trump, who routinely bullied property owners to sell for his development schemes, stated he agreed with Kelo vs. New London “100%.”
And what happened to Ms. Kelo’s house. It was moved to another location and the rest of the neighborhood was bulldozed. But then Pfizer decided Connecticut was too expensive of a state to do business and departed. Nothing was ever built on the land New London seized and today, it is a fallow field. Connecticut government at its best.
This is why we need people like Ms. Anastos in our legislature. She runs a business and speaks to dozens of customers daily. She is even fluent in three languages – English, Spanish and Greek. But most important, she and her family have been subject to incompetent government abuse. And she will be a voice of the people, not the powerful.
AMEN for Ms.Anastos.
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