Opinion

It’s time to knock out National City, California’s eminent domain abuse

Nick Sibilla Writer, Institute for Justice
Font Size:

A working-class gym helps inner-city kids stay out of gangs and fight childhood obesity. It’s a success story that should be celebrated. But in National City, California, the Community Youth Athletic Center (CYAC) was declared blighted, along with 691 other properties.

Officials there want to use the power of eminent domain and bulldoze a youth gym.

Ever since it began as a backyard boxing ring, the CYAC has helped more than 1,000 kids and teens since 1991. Today, the gym trains and tutors dozens of at-risk youth, completely free of charge. Even more are on the waiting list.

Thanks to grants from UPS and the Barona Band of Mission Indians, the CYAC was able to expand, transforming a gun store into a 3,500 square foot community center in a predominantly Latino neighborhood of San Diego. Teens who would have joined gangs and become enticed by a life of crime are now going to college and becoming police officers.

But if National City had its way, this inspiring “little platoon” would be down for the count. In 2007, the city council approved a new redevelopment plan, labeling the CYAC and almost 700 other properties as “blighted.”  As this video makes clear, the CYAC and nearby homes are not slums. Even more appalling, National City has been “blighting” properties since 1969. Two-thirds of the city actually has been declared “blighted” for over three decades.

National City keeps itself under a blight designation to be able to use eminent domain to transfer property to private developers for economic development.  In 2005, National City promised the CYAC’s land to a developer who wanted to build luxury condos after kicking the kids out.

Yet the CYAC is not going down without a fight.

The gym has teamed with the Institute for Justice, a public interest property rights law firm, to sue National City. On Thursday, the California Fourth District Court of Appeal will hear oral arguments in what will be the latest battle over this abuse of redevelopment powers. Back in 2011, National City lost big time. The trial court found the city not only failed to prove blight actually existed, but held that National City violated both a California freedom of information law and the Due Process Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

Sadly, the CYAC hasn’t been the only victim of attempted land grabs and bureaucratic bullying in the Golden State. Redevelopment agencies in California were notorious for wasting taxpayers’ money on boondoggles. The Institute for Justice documented more than 200 cases of eminent domain for private gain in California alone over the past decade alone.

In San Diego, a renowned cigar bar was seized to build a new Marriott. But the hotel never materialized and a once-thriving business is now a parking lot. Over in Sacramento, a nightclub, a pizzeria, a and “mermaid bar” “where costumed men and women swim in the giant fish tank above the bar,”  all received over $5 million from that city’s redevelopment agency. So it’s no wonder redevelopment agencies racked up $30 billion in debt.

Thankfully, the California Legislature abolished the state’s almost 400 redevelopment agencies in 2011, which was the main condemner of private property. Later that year, the California Supreme Court upheld their dissolution as constitutional.

Yet politicians, realtors and municipal groups are determined to bring back eminent domain for private gain. California’s Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg has twice introduced a bill that would have partially revived redevelopment. In 2012, the first bill overwhelmingly passed the state legislature, but was ultimately vetoed by Gov. Jerry Brown. Steinberg’s second attempt for the most unnecessary reboot since The Lone Ranger will be back on the agenda when the state legislature reconvenes in January.

A decision for the CYAC would set an important precedent in favor of property rights in California.

Nick Sibilla is a writer for the Institute for Justice.

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel