From: John De Armond
Newsgroups: rec.outdoors.rv-travel
Subject: Re: RIP Shady Grove RV Park
Date: Tue, 01 Apr 2008 23:51:20 -0400
Message-ID: <atv5v3hshsg8v0rp0ug7i3c0ggbaomdrqf@4ax.com>

On Tue, 01 Apr 2008 15:44:42 -0500, "John A. Weeks III" <john@johnweeks.com> wrote:


>In reality, nobody is ever forced to sell to a developer.  And in
>cases where the developer is the government, you still get paid a
>fair market price.

If you believe that then I have a bridge to sell you.  The only folks who say such
things are the takers, those who've never been through a condemnation and the
myopically naive.

Much more mundane but vastly more frequent example than the one Steve cited.

Tinsley's restaurant, outside Benton, TN on US411.  Been there for 40 years.  Owned
by friends of mine.  Guv decides to widen 411.  Empty pasture owned by a county
councileman on one side, his restaurant on the other.  They take his restaurant and
half his property and don't touch the empty pasture.  Corruption #1.  But it gets
worse.

They pay him the so-called "fair market value" - as determined by a government
appraiser - for his land and building as valued at the moment and NOT what it would
be worth after the 4-laning.  They also paid him nothing for the fact that he was in
the path of town growth that will reach his property in a few years even without the
4-laning.  Corruption #2

All that pales next to his losing the family business.  They paid him NOTHING for the
value of his ongoing business.  Had a private individual come in to buy his
restaurant, the majority of what he would have paid for would have been "good will",
what the value of the established and operating business with a good reputation was
worth.

The paltry amount they paid him for the land and his "old" building didn't make a
dent in the cost of building a new restaurant somewhere else.  Even if it did,
customers' habits and patterns were interrupted so he's be, in effect, starting over.

Oh, did I mention that they took his property over 4 years ago and no widening is in
sight yet?

If you think that any of that was either fair or equitable then I have another bridge
to sell you.

John

From: John De Armond
Newsgroups: rec.outdoors.rv-travel
Subject: Re: RIP Shady Grove RV Park
Date: Wed, 02 Apr 2008 17:50:27 -0400
Message-ID: <ckv7v3l478tqv8csri71lkhnenkoj8u3lq@4ax.com>

On Wed, 02 Apr 2008 14:59:02 -0500, "John A. Weeks III" <john@johnweeks.com> wrote:

>In article <atv5v3hshsg8v0rp0ug7i3c0ggbaomdrqf@4ax.com>,
> Neon John <no@never.com> wrote:
>
>> If you think that any of that was either fair or equitable then I have
>> another bridge to sell you.
>
>Being the bridge guy, I'd be happy to buy all the bridges that you
>have for sale.  In the case of the story you told, you didn't discuss
>the appeals process or the court appearances.  It sounds to me like
>the guy was up to his neck in debt, and he was happy to take the money
>and run.

Folks around here don't do debt.  Him included.  He's one of those $1million net
worth country folks the news sometimes blabbers about.

>If there really had been some value there, he would have
>hired an attorney and filed an appeal.  Everyone has the right to
>make a poor deal if they so choose.  That doesn't mean that all
>deals are bad deals, or that other people would turnover and play
>dead.

What's to appeal?  The government gave him the "fair market value" as defined by
them.  He could have spent a lot of money on lawyers and probably come away with even
less.  It's a little different out in the real world from what you see on the toob.
Oh, and BTW, it's not "taking a deal" when the only option is to have men with guns
physically remove you from your property.

Nah, I won't sell you any bridges.  It's probably immoral to take advantage of the
weak minded.

John