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  •  The original 1984 case in Hawaii (4.00 / 4)

    FYI

    In Hawaii HA v. Midkiff, SCOTUS decided that it was OK for the housing authority to take property from the huge royal estates and sell them to the residents of that land.  

    Something like 90% of the land was owned by a very few landholders who leased the land to people to build houses on.  This made life difficult for the peasents in many ways.  Providing decent housing for Hawaiians made it essential that the government be able to take private property for sale to other private parties.  

    As much as I hate this decision, I don't know how they could have structured this decision to prevent the New London-type abuses and still allow for legitimate public interest actions.  

    DLC=RNC-30years

    by hardleft on Thu Jun 23, 2005 at 10:47:29 AM PDT

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    •  speaking from hawaii (4.00 / 5)

      Not an expert on this matter, but here is another view. The 'royal estates' maintained leashold ownership over the property and used it for perpetual charitable funding, like schooling of native Hawaiians.

      When the property was split up and its sale was forced, it was snapped up by rich outsiders who then REALLY removed it from the grasp of the locals.   You should see some of the huge houses (eg, chair of Sony Corp) built where formerly middle class people lived.

      The problem here is outsiders buying up land and pricing locals right out of market.  I don't think that this forced property sale was for the benefit of the poor. I really don't.

      by tritium on Thu Jun 23, 2005 at 12:28:34 PM PDT

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      •  Racism! (none / 0)

        The royally-funded schooling for native Hawai`ians really is rather rediculous, though.  Hawai`i is a very racially diverse state that was given its jump into a functioning economy by the large number of Chinese, Japanese, and Portuguese immigrants who came to the island, and they're decendants are still largely economically disadvantaged.  However, they cannot attend Kamehameha.  Boo.  The money would be better spent on a school for the gifted children of the economically disadvantaged.

        homo homimi lupus

        by correon on Thu Jun 23, 2005 at 05:33:26 PM PDT

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