Daniel Goldstein writes about Atlantic Yards at the Huffington Post:
For a project that has indeed been rammed down the public’s throat by executive fiat, it is clearly within the rights and the powers of Governor Paterson to demand that eminent domain not be exercised despite the Court’s controversial ruling.
That’s what Senator Paterson said he would have done.
In July 2005, in the wake of the Supreme Court’s notorious Kelo eminent domain decision, State Senator David Paterson wanted a moratorium on eminent domain. It was reported by the now defunct (and missed) New York Sun:
At a rally on the steps of City Hall yesterday, a State Senate leader, David Paterson, a Democrat, along with a small gathering of Harlem civic leaders and three City Council members, called for a state-wide blanket moratorium on the use of eminent domain following the recent Supreme Court decision that is widely interpreted as expanding the law’s reach.
Over four years and one deposed governor later, Senator Paterson is now Governor Paterson and Governor Paterson has never renewed his call for a moratorium on eminent domain. Instead his administration approved eminent domain for Columbia University’s expansion (which he once opposed) and re-approved eminent domain for Atlantic Yards this past September.
Read the whole article: Governor Paterson’s New London.