Unresponsive Government

Our Unresponsive Government   By Frank Schiavone Call me a masochist. I routinely watch my city’s council meetings on cable television. Most of the time, they are uneventful. Sometimes, however, important projects are heard that have the community up in arms. When these projects are on the agenda things get interesting. City staff give their report distilling reams of information into a few...

Tyranny

Tyranny Takes Many Forms   By Frank Schiavone On a cold December night in 1773, some seriously annoyed British subjects held a tea party aboard three ships in the service of the East India Company. Now this wasn’t your typical, genteel English tea party. In fact, it was more like a rowdy masquerade party hell-bent on raising a ruckus. Samuel Adam’s Sons of Liberty, in their amateurish...

Property Rights Myth

The Property Rights Myth   By Frank Schiavone As most of us have experienced firsthand, property rights are not absolute or unqualified. Cities restrict the use of property all the time. Developers tend not to like land use and environmental limitations. To overcome regulation, a common tactic is to threaten “takings” litigation invoking a passage in the Fifth Amendment – “nor shall...