Angry Minute 7-27-01

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Boy, if you need a good friend in the courts these days,
the little town of Richfield has flexed some pretty impressive muscle.
Wednesday, the bulldozers ceremoniously made way for Best Buy's new 43 acre complex,
on the former site of two Walser auto dealerships.
In what should have been an open & shut case of eminent domain,
ended up looking more like a kangaroo court than the OJ trial.

Eminent domain is the procedure by which the government can take away
property from owners not willing to sell voluntarily.
Kinda like when a highway needs to go through your kitchen,
but instead of constructing a half circle around your radar range,
they buy you out and you move on.

But in the case of Best Buy, there wasn't a highway, or a subway, or transmission lines…
it was another business. No, make that a Bigger business. MUCH BIGGER!

The city of Richfield obviously sides with entity that will bring more ching,
and by far, no offense Walser, is Besy Buy.
To say the city of Richfield & Best Buy STOLE that land from Walser would be a compliment,
and in some ways it is. Johnny Cochran could use a couple of those litigators for his team.
But, instead of walking away smiling like gentlemen,
a recent issue of Venture magazine quotes Richfield's project manager John Stark with criticism after criticism.

Of Walser, he said "they had a high intensity lighting for their lot"

… yeh, nothing 43 acres of lights won't fix.

The classic confrontation could come today though when Human Rights antagonist MOBY
plays an in-store at the dinky little Best Buy store in Richfield.
One whiff of this assault and Best Buy will never see the likes of Moby
or his giant cash blowing fan-base again.

But isn't THAT just poetic:
money is everything…even in the courts.
Make that, especially in the courts.