TELECOM Digest Editor noted in response to Lisa Hancock:
The Supreme Court recently upheld liberal interpretations of eminent domain. "Benefit" could simply mean the new commercial use will kick in more taxes than the prior use. So there could be a perfectly nice and well kept modest neighborhood in place, but if some developer wants to put in a shopping mall, the existing people are "S.O.L."
Interestingly, there are several exhibits in NYC on the works of master builder Robert Moses, who figuratavely or literally bulldozed anyone or anything in the way of his projects. But at least his projects were of public use, such as highways, parks, education, public housing, and hospitals. (The relative merits of his projects and methods is under debate). If one has any interest in public works or urban planning they should read the stuff on the various websites of the museums.
See:
In the South Bronx of NYC, where much of it is now a wasteland, I wonder how NY Telephone handled the situation. Do they have old exchange buildings with mostly empty space or unused gear reflecting the loss of subscribers? Do exchanges serving the wasteland have lots of empty numbers? Sometimes one new development project -- which there are -- can eat up lots of lines for Centrex and other modern stuff.
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: South Bronx, in New York City is the rough equivilent of Lawndale, a Chicago inner-city neighborhood, which is telephonically served by 'Chicago-Kedzie', a west side central office. Lawndale was in the midst of the 1968 riots in Chicago, and to this day, there are still blocks and blocks of vacant lots and much wasteland, never repaired or rebuilt following the fires, etc. The Lawndale community, in the 1920's, used to be majority white and mostly Jewish, given the number of buildings in the area which formerly were synagogues, and similar.The Jews grew very fearful of circumstances around there in the
1950's; by and large they all relocated to the north side Rogers Park neighborhood or many of them to Skokie. Lawndale was the supplementary 'downtown Chicago' with all the department stores having branch stores there (much like 63rd/Englewood on the south side); about a dozen large movie theatres; all the synagogues of course, and several restaurants. As the Jews and other white people moved out, middle class blacks moved in. Soon, the neighborhood got even too rough for middle class blacks and they mostly moved away, leaving (or making room for) the lowest class black residents. Then came the riots and fires of April and August, 1968. Of course City of Chicago promised to rebuild the entire area and make it a 'showcase' once again. The stores which had not been burned out in the riots quickly saw the handwriting on the wall, took the hint, and split. Please tell me whatever happened after the riots in South Central Los Angeles in the 1990's? I know that El Lay promised it would all be rebuilt, nicer than ever before. Did that really happen, or was it just another example of a 'Walmart promise', like Chicago?Chicago-Kedzie CO always had plenty of armed guards around the place, so the riots did not cause them anything other than a nuisance. At that point in time -- 1968 -- Kedzie still had a large Traffic Depart- ment operating room on the second and third floor of the building, and on the three worst nights of the riots, the _only way_ they could get operators to come to work (and back home safely at the end of the evening shift) was by sending _everyone_ in a cab. As a matter of fact, I was working overnight at Amoco/Diners Credit Card at the time and took a cab downtown myself.
All the way downtown from my home in Hyde Park, the taxicab radio dispatcher was like a radio evangelist, with his constant pleadings to drivers: "Kedzie Bell! Kedzie Bell! I want at least twenty _more_ cabs for Kedzie Bell! Drive down the alley and park at the loading dock; the security officers will give you each two or three passengers. Each operator will have Yellow Cab scrip as payment. Don't ask for money! Just take the scrip and turn it in to your garage cashier. Kedzie Bell!" (then, after a pause as someone was talking to him, he starts again; "um, no, Kedzie Bell, not Kenwood Bell! Kenwood Bell lets out at midnight; but now we have to get Kedzie Bell; they let out at 11:30 pm. Don't ask me again for a passenger's name! I do not know their names! Security officers at Kedzie will load your cabs. Three or four riders each cab; mark down the fare on the scrip and add fifty cents each rider for your tip. Pull up in the alley by the loading dock; report to the security officers! I need a commitment from twenty more drivers at Kedzie Bell!" By the time I had arrived at work at the credit card office, the dispatcher had changed his tune, now he was asking for cabs at Kenwood Bell, but with the same terms and deals.
Telco later said it cost the company about a hundred thousand dollars to get operators to work and home after work those two or three nights of the riots. The last time I was in the area, in 1999, entire blocks were still sitting totally empty, except for here and there a combination cut-rate liquor store and Illinois State Lottery agent. Kedzie Bell totally automated all their operator positions to TSPS out of some remote point, somewhere. No more operators there at all. Kenwood followed shortly behind them. What is El Lay South Central like these days? PAT]