City tells 103-year-old: We’re buying your parking lot, like it or not

[Ptarmigan]

City tells 103-year-old: We’re buying your parking lot, like it or not
http://q13fox.com/2013/10/22/103-year-old-ordered-to-sell-parking-lot/#axzz2iVbDb83S

SEATTLE — The city is forcing a 103-year-old Spokane woman to sell her parking lot in Seattle to make way for, well, a parking lot.

The Seattle City Council voted Monday to take the lot near the waterfront by eminent domain, using a portion of the $30 million provided by the state to take care of parking issues around the waterfront. Hundreds of public parking spaces will be lost when the state begins dismantling the Alaskan Way Viaduct for the digging of the tunnel. The construction will last until 2020.

The lot is owned by Spokane resident Myrtle Woldson.  She doesn’t want to sell, so the City Council voted unanimously to use it’s power of eminent domain to take it after paying Woldson “fair market value.”

The government uses eminent domain to buy a parking lot to build a parking lot. What a waste! 

[DLR Pyro]

sounds to me like the city is bullying the old woman.