#eminent-domain

#eminent-domain

Along Eleanor Avenue in Bourne, a small, tight-knit neighborhood with deep roots is about to disappear. The state is taking 13 homes to make way for the new Sagamore Bridge and its network of access roads. Some of the families have called the street home for decades and have established connections with their neighbors - eating at each other's dinner tables, shoveling each other's driveways, and asking about children and grandchildren.

The Takings Clause is a part of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, and it says that if the government wants to take away someone's private property, they have to do it in a way that's fair. Most of us grew up hearing adults say that life isn't fair. And they're right-it isn't. Neither is an authority forcing you to give up your property for whatever they think is fair.

"They've left me hanging," said 59-year-old Lu Nicaj, whose 30-year tile-construction supply shop Eagle Tile is facing closure over the upcoming second phase of the behemoth Manhattan transit project. "I don't know the future. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, but I do not know what's gonna happen," he told The Post. "It's the whole David and Goliath thing," Nicaj said - adding that this time David might not win.

"It is blatantly illegal, improper, and violates the United States Constitution, as well as numerous New Jersey laws and case law," the church's attorney, Harvey York, told NJ.com.

The biggest delay on high-speed rail has been taking 2,270 properties under eminent domain and ultimately getting the environmental work cleared.