Judges vs.
Private Property
by Doug
French by Doug
French
The
judiciary’s war on private property continues in Las Vegas. To borrow a
line from Rush Limbaugh, the bad guys in the old west used to wear black
hats, now they wear black robes.
This was
proved again earlier this month as the Nevada Supreme Court sided with the
city of Las Vegas over the Pappas family concerning land located in
downtown Las Vegas that the city took in order to build a parking garage
for the Fremont Street Experience. In a 5-2 decision, the court ruled that
taking the property "did not violate the state or U.S. constitutions."
What was that about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?
The late
John Pappas opened the White Spot restaurant on Fremont Street in the
1920’s. Mr. Pappas was famous for feeding the poor free soup from the back
door of his downtown restaurant while the Hoover Dam was under
construction in the early 1930’s.
Upon his
death, Pappas left a 6,000 square foot retail center to his wife Carol, a
Greek immigrant who remembers the Nazi occupation of her homeland when she
was a girl.
The city
of Las Vegas Downtown Redevelopment Agency first took an interest in the
Pappas property in 1990. The city had its eye on clearing a
one-square-block area located at the southwest corner of Las Vegas
Boulevard and Fremont Street, with the intent of handing it over to
developer Bob Snow, who had redeveloped property in downtown Orlando,
Florida into an entertainment center called Church Street Station in the
1970’s.
Besides
the Pappas property, the one-block area contained the Cornet Store, the
First Western Savings building, and a small building owned by former U.S.
Senator Chic Hecht. In 1991, the City Counsel, in a 3-2 vote, decided that
it couldn’t take the block, because the block did not constitute "blight."
Supposedly, the definition of blight is – properties that are boarded up
and are considered a nuisance by the city.
But, soon
after that vote, Jan Jones was elected Las Vegas Mayor, and again the city
block that included the Pappas property was targeted. The city made Mrs.
Pappas an insultingly low $450,000 offer for her property, while at the
same time offering former Senator Hecht over $4 million for his same-sized
parcel. Pappas refused the offer and insisted on meeting with the Mayor.
During
their meeting, Mrs. Pappas explained to Mayor Jones that she had never had
a vacancy in her 6,000 square foot center and that she depended on the
$6,000 per month that she received in rent from the property. Jones would
not budge from the city’s $450,000 offer and stated "Mrs. Pappas, you have
had your property long enough. It’s time to give it up!"
In
early-1994, the city of Las Vegas seized and bulldozed the Pappas
property. A $23 million parking garage was erected on the site and the
title to the property was quickly turned over to the Fremont Street
Limited Liability Company, whose members are the eight largest downtown
casino owners.
But, the
gritty Mrs. Pappas would not go away. She sued the city and won, when
District Court Judge Don Chairez, ruled in her favor in 1996. Chairez
ruled that the city never proved that the area was blighted; it never
proved that the casino owners couldn’t afford to buy the land themselves,
nor did they demonstrate how a privately-owned parking garage constitutes
a vital "public use." Judge Chairez ruled that the property seizure was
null and void.
Of course
the city immediately appealed the Chairez decision to the Nevada Supreme
Court. Another three and a half years later in 2000, briefs were filed,
along with 5,000 pages of documentation from the city’s attorneys.
Now, after
the wheels of in-justice have slowly turned for more than a decade with
the Pappas family never receiving a dime in compensation, the Nevada
Supreme Court rules that the condemnation was A-OK, and "furthers the
public purpose of eliminating blight in downtown Las Vegas," wrote Justice
Nancy Becker in the majority opinion. Becker also wrote that, "the fact
that the Pappas property itself was not blighted does not prohibit its
taking through eminent domain proceedings."
The
majority of the court also found that the garage, "was not built to serve
a single business but to address inadequate public parking in the downtown
area and the need for new parking as visitor volume increased in response
to the attraction [Fremont Street Experience]."
However,
despite city government’s redevelopment nonsense, downtown Las Vegas
continues to languish, because most Las Vegas visitors patronize the
newer, more exciting resort/casinos and shopping malls that have been
built on the Strip [south of downtown], with private investment dollars.
The garage, that the city and the courts believe to be so vital, sits half
empty most of the time.
Carol
Pappas’ son Harry now intends to take their case to the nation’s highest
court. "What we hope to get here is a ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court
that will put an end to this kind of tyranny, this kind of oppression,
this kind of injustice of taking people’s private property and turning it
over to robber baron casinos," Harry Pappas told the press after the
Nevada Supreme Court decision, "We’re hoping this will be a landmark
case."
Unfortunately, looking to the U.S. Supreme Court for satisfaction
will likely prove to be frustrating. As Dartmouth economist William
Fischel told Reason.com, "The Supreme Court clearly does not like most of
these cases and is leery of giving plaintiffs a federal forum. They want
to keep the cases in the state courts."
Without
intervention from the Supreme Court, the value of the property will
ultimately be determined back in District Court. But, for the Pappas
family, money is not the issue. As Harry Pappas says, "My goal is to be
sitting in a bulldozer with a hard hat on and knocking down that garage."
Murray
Rothbard wrote in Power & Market; "The government itself is the
original holder of the ‘right of eminent domain,’ and the fact that the
government can despoil any property holder at will is evidence that, in
current society, the right to private property is only flimsily
established. Certainly no one can say that the inviolability of private
property is protected by the government. And when the government confers
this power on a particular business, it is conferring upon it the special
privilege of taking property by force."
Flimsily
established indeed. With this ruling in their pocket, the guys and gals at
Las Vegas City Hall can run roughshod over property owners throughout the
City’s designated Downtown Redevelopment Plan area. The only thing that
has kept the city at bay to this point has been the heroic Pappas family
and their willingness to fight.
Long shots
don’t come through in Las Vegas very often, but maybe, just maybe, we’ll
get to watch Harry Pappas knock down that garage.
September 22, 2003
Doug French
[send him
mail] executive vice president of a Southern Nevada bank. This first
appeared in the emailed newsletter of the Nevada Policy Research
Institute.
Copyright
© 2003 LewRockwell.com
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