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TBT: Notes on Eminent Domain and the Housing Crisis

A Reconsideration of a 2006 Take on Takings in the Wake of Kelo v. New London

Hank Kalet Feb 23

The National Low Income Housing Coalition says there are just four affordable housing units for every 10 extremely low-income American.
There is a rental housing crisis in the United States.

As the Associated Press reported over the weekend, rents have been skyrocketing, “causing many to dig deep into their savings, downsize to subpar units or fall behind on payments and risk eviction now that a federal moratorium has ended.”

The numbers are startling:

In the 50 largest U.S. metro areas, median rent rose an astounding 19.3% from December 2020 to December 2021, according to a Realtor.com analysis of properties with two or fewer bedrooms. And nowhere was the jump bigger than in the Miami metro area, where the median rent exploded to $2,850, 49.8% higher than the previous year.

One cause rarely discussed by the mainstream press is capitalism itself.

You can find the original column here, but you will need to subscribe to read my update.

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Grassroots: Fierce Urgency of Now

An Advance Copy of My Next Progressive Populist Column, for Paying Subscribers

Hank Kalet Feb 22

This is an advanced preview copy of my next column for the Progressive Populist. It is for paying subscribers only.

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Edward Abbey has described the American wilderness as our collective home. The radical anarchist/environmentalist erected this metaphor to justify an aggressive program of targeted vandalism, referred to as “monkeywrenching.”

“Monkey-wrenching,” as defined by his fellow anarchist Dave Foreman, is the strategic disruption of commercial systems by individuals gumming up the works, by tossing a “ monkeywrench into the gears of the machine that is destroying natural diversity.”

Abbey and Foreman saw the erosion and destruction of wilderness areas and the natural diversity they contained as an existential threat. Defense of the wild, they would argue, is defense of ecological diversity, of clean air and water, of a livable planet. Corporate interests, Abbey argued, were “bashing their way into our forests, mountains and rangelands and looting them for everything they can get away with,” all for “short-term profits in the corporate sector.”

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Monday Music: The Blue Mask is 40

Hank Kalet Feb 21

The Blue Mask is a brutal album. Dark. Edgy. Nasty. A record that explores domesticity through violence and drugs, that drones atop a dual-guitar assault that sounded like little else when it was released. Reed and fellow guitarist Robert Quine each follow their own singular vision, their squall of sound always threatening to spin off into oblivion, held together only by the nimble, swooping bass of Fernando Saunders and Doane Perry’s drumming.

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This is a free, public post from Hank Kalet’s Channel Surfing. You will continue to receive these email stories and newsletters as long as you remain a an email subscriber. Consider becoming a paid subscriber and get paywall-protected posts, the ability to comment on posts and participate in discussion boards, offers to write guest blog posts, and copies of my books. If you are a $5-a-month Patreon patron, you already are considered a paid subscriber.

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