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He Easy, I mentioned the GM plant in Detroit, and the Eminent Domain issue with the Polish imigrant neighborhood in an earlier post today. Might be a Hal in Indiana that did too, and if I'm butting in, I apologize. And if I'm wrong about the plant shutting down too, and it appears that I am, I apologize for that too. I guess my overall point though was the Eminent Domain issue, and the two working farms that I mentioned in Illinois that were condemned for developers did happen. Here's a great example, which may not mean much to you, may be unaware. Illinois has one of, if not the busiest aitports in the world, O'Hare on it's northwest side. Also has a very busy airport on it's southside, Midway. Used to have another very small airport in the middle of them on the lakeshore until Chicago's mayor bulldozed it tin the middle of the night a couple of years ago, turning it into a park, because his wife didn't like the view of the airport from their new home -leaving airplanes stranded on the runway. The mayor claimed he did it to protect Sears Tower from terrorist Cessnas after 911, but his wife wanted a park and got it. Here's the big deal in it all. The City of Chicago, and the State of Illinois want a third revenue generating major airport, even though flights are and have been down since 911, and airline after airline is folding through bankrupcy. That isn't stopping the State of Illinois from buying up prime farmland in southern Will County, some 60 or so miles south of Chicago (Cook County), and if the folks down there don't sell, eventually, they're going to lose it through Eminent Domain. When confronted with low passenger statistics, then they claim "will be used by cargo companies such as UPS, FedEx, etc.", although their arguement in the first place was the need of the passengers. So far, the only thing standing in between them and the airport has been the FAA, whom says "nope, don't need it". Closer to the City of Chicago, is Gary, Indiana, which already has an airport, surrounded by shut down steel mills. The land is worthless, those old mills can be bulldozed, everything black topped, and a third unnecessary airport built there, much closer and more convinient for the City of Chicago. I got into a debate a few months ago with a Illinois Senator on a radio station about just that, "Why take prime farmland when can make good use of worthless land where an airport already exists?". His reply was that the Gary airport, which already exists, would be too close to the existing flight lines of Midway and O'Hare, even though it already exists??? Well, I looked at them on the map, and Midway is closer to O'Hare, than Gary is to either of them, and they never had a problem with Migs Field (on the lakeshore before it became a park in the middle of the night) being in between the both of them. The Senator's position didn't hold water. The truth of the matter is that the City of Chicago and the State of Illinois just want more pork revenue than they already have, and whether or not they ever get that airport, they're still going after the land. Is incredible, and is nothing going to stop them. My truck was running real crappy one day on the interstate near gary, so I got off so as not to become a road hazard, and took the local route, US 20 through downtown Gary, and I've gotta tell you there's some scary areas there, in broad daylight. I have never been through any town that had 4x8 sheets of plywood nailed to the sides of residents homes that said "Please bring us jobs so we can feed our families, .... The Mayor of Gary Indiana". I have never seen anything like that in my life, but they're there. The steel mills are gone. So, the State of Illinois still goes after prime farmland so the City of Chicago can have more fat than they already have, even though there's already a closer, existing airport, just over the state border, where the land is cheap, and a home goes for $12,000, because those folks are starving. Is dispicable. Eminent Domain at work. Mark
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