Public Advocate Ronald Chen should be praised for his valiant attempts to stand up against eminent domain abuse in N.J. He has come to the aid of property owners in three major eminent domain abuse cases in Long Branch, Lodi and Paulsboro.
He is the “public advocate.” He is watching out for the public’s interests, unlike many of our elected officials.
Everyone should be outraged by Senate Majority Leader Bernard Kenny’s (D-Hudson) statement that Chen’s attempts to change the law of eminent domain could create endless litigation that would paralyze urban revitalization. Imagine an elected official with such a narrow mind, to be more concerned about litigation than protecting his own constituents’ homes from being taken for anything other then a “public use!”
Kenny should be concentrating on trying to make the laws tougher in this state so that they actually protect property owners, instead of having the laws help destroy the lives of hard-working, tax-paying, law-abiding citizens by allowing our homes to be taken so luxury condos, townhouses and business districts can be built. That is not what our forefathers wanted.
Our legislators have lost sight of what they were elected to do – help the average Joe. Public Advocate Chen is doing just that! He doesn’t have to worry about being elected, he doesn’t have to worry about who and how much someone is putting into his campaign fund, he only has to worry about protecting the interests of the citizens of N.J., which he is obviously doing very well if so many of our legislators are in an uproar.
The solution to all this is very simple, and may be too simple a concept for some of our legislators to understand. Eminent domain should be used as it was originally intended – for public use only!
Lori Ann Vendetti
Long Branch