This Mayor is on an Illegal Mission to Bulldoze 350 Homes

Charlestown Indiana a small town of 8,000 mayor Bob Hall wants an upscale subdivision but to get it he has to bulldoze the modest Pleasant Ridge neighborhood and force out the residents who rightfully own their land hundreds of homes in a 70 year old southern Indiana neighborhood may soon be demolished that's the goal of Charles town's mayor he and city council members have pushed through resolutions aimed at redeveloping the Pleasant Ridge neighborhood but the plan may have serious consequences for some of those homeowners first you'll have to acquire all 340 home she's going to have to get all the homes at some point now how do you go about doing that is really the question at this point I believe the mayor just does not want anyone from Pleasant Ridge here in the city of Charlestown anymore we're hard-working people up here we come to the aid of each other we we love our neighborhood it's wrong the dupe pool people it works out of their last for their place and then have to come along and take it why some we live in America and what he's doing is very unamerican I'm Jeff rose with the Institute for justice we're a non-profit public interest law firm that defends property rights across America we represent the homeowners there are 350 for properties in Pleasant Ridge which dates back to World War two about 75% are rentals the remainder or owner-occupied home and many owners are elderly or disabled and on a fixed income some of the rundown properties are beyond repair but there are dozens of beautiful homes of wonderful owners the mayor should build around them if he says it's all or nothing they understand that some of the houses up here do need some rehabilitation but I feel like that there can be nice homes and people could live right side by side with us and just keep on going but they don't feel that way I had no idea that him and his hand-picked council people could make resolutions to take private property I thought when your house is paid for you've got it made so here we are Norton Commons a beautiful subdivision and this is what the mayor of Charlestown and the developer want to recreate in Pleasant Ridge as you can see behind me the homes are beautiful but they're not a realistic option for the folks who live in Pleasant Ridge and so when the developer and the mayor say they want to recreate this in Pleasant Ridge what they mean is they want to replace the people of Pleasant Ridge with the kind of people who can afford to live here in Norton Commons okay let me show you something and so here we are in Pleasant Ridge part of the home of Ronald Dobson the kind of home that the mayor in the city of Charlestown want to bulldoze now sure it isn't it's fancy and it isn't as big as some of the other homes we've seen elsewhere but it's a good halt it's good for Ronald and his wife and the mayor can't make it illegal to have an ordinary modest home we got no money to go other places to buy another place and we never find no better place and what we've got here I don't know where the elderly folks will bill I have and I don't think any of them know either it's a situation where there's nowhere for them to go here I'm retired as she's still working there is no way that we can afford a house payment our only option would be to have to move all the way to Florida and live with my brother for a while here's how the cities scheme for getting rid of the low-income homeowners work phase one give them crippling fine to make them sell to the developer think $50 per day for a six inch tear in a screen door Phase two if an owner refuses to sell the city will likely use eminent domain to force the sale anyway phase 1 is already underway and the mayor had specifically refused to take eminent domain off the table I am willing to go all the way to the Supreme Court if that's what it takes why are we and my wife we feel like we're going fighting to the end we will be on this hill when this battle is over we're going to be standing in this yard we will not back down we will continue to fight we will be here for the rest of our lives we have no intentions of leaving our homes the Institute for justice has come to the defense of these homeowners in court to protect them from Mayor Hall his scheme violates at least 5 provisions of the u.s. and Indiana Constitution we are determined to protect these homes [Music]

Channel: Institute for Justice

Views: 629,045

Rating: 4.9039073 out of 5

Keywords: IJ, Institute for Justice, Freedom, Liberty, Individual Rights, Constitution, Constitutional Law, Con Law, Constitutional Litigation

Id: HqJzNPNqXBA

Length: 4min 37sec (277 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 10 2017