The Miriam Webster dictionary defines the word arrogance as “a feeling or an impression of superiority manifested in an overbearing manner or presumptuous claims.”
The City Council and the administration of Long Branch, fully aware that their ordinance necessary to use eminent domain is under appeal at the State Supreme Court, along with claims brought against the development plans of the Katz family and Pax Construction, forced the Pandays, owners of Rainbow Liquors on lower Broadway, into a negotiation whose only end is to sell.
They forced the Pandays to the table under the threat of eminent domain, even though the right to apply it has yet to make it through the judicial system. Our government from Long Branch to Washington, D.C., is founded on a democratic system. It is composed of three branches. The executive, which in Long Branch is Adam Schneider’s administration; the legislative, which for the most part is the elected City Council; and last but not least, the judicial, which are the courts.
This system ensures that democracy works. It protects the people when one or two of the branches of government are wrong and indifferent to the masses, whose voices are sometimes muted by heavy-handed politics and bully personalities.
Well aware that the use of eminent domain and the plans of Broadway Arts have been challenged in the courts, I find Adam Schneider and the City Council’s persistence to push people out of their homes and properties beyond ‘arrogant.’ It is condemnable.
The city relies on history to accomplish their conspiracy. They also are fully aware that such forced takings in the past took many years for the courts to finally rule on. In the historic “Wounded Knee” matter, it took the United States Supreme Court 90 years to rule the action by the government over the Lakota property was wrong and awarded $91 million in damages; all too late to benefit the damaged individuals.
In more recent history, we have the case of ‘Pole town,’ a Michigan eminent domain case that wiped out an entire ethnic community – homes, businesses and places of worship. That took over 20 years to be ruled on and again the court found that government was wrong.
Long Branch, may take 20 to 90 years to discover that what Adam Schneider and his council have done is wrong, only where will the Pandays be then? Where are you now? Why are the people of this state so silent, as government continues to act in a wrongful manner?
Eminent domain abuse is destroying liberty and the American dream of property ownership, as we all sit back and do nothing.
I pray that the people wake up and act before it is too late. Nov. 6 is Election Day, vote out all incumbents who did nothing to correct what is wrong with eminent domain in New Jersey and specifically Long Branch. Call Mayor Adam Schneider and tell him how you feel about private property rights as if it were your home or business you were being forced to go to City Hall to sell! Go to City Council and demand that they end the use of eminent domain in all future projects or at least provide evidence that makes it necessary to remove someone from a perfectly useful home or business.
I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving and please remember some may have nothing to be thankful for this year, as their property was forced from them, at prices that cannot replace what was seized.
The Rev. Kevin Brown
Lighthouse Mission
Long Branch