CTRSVP
Connecticut, Post Kelo New London, Fort Trumbull & Eminent Domain
The President Addresses a Joint Session of Congress
| The President Addresses a Joint Session of Congress from White House on Vimeo. |
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will be carried out with full transparency and accountability -- and Recovery.gov is the centerpiece of that effort. In a short video, President Obama describes the site and talks about how you'll be able to track the Recovery Act's progress every step of the way. |
SHOW ME THE NOTE!
| Homeowners' rallying cry: Produce the note AP Enterprise: Homeowners stave off foreclosure by demanding the bank produce the note ZEPHYRHILLS, Fla. (AP) -- Kathy Lovelace lost her job and was about to lose her house, too. But then she made a seemingly simple request of the bank: Show me the original mortgage paperwork. And just like that, the foreclosure proceedings came to a standstill. Lovelace and other homeowners around the country are managing to stave off foreclosure by employing a strategy that goes to the heart of the whole nationwide mess. During the real estate frenzy of the past decade, mortgages were sold and resold, bundled into securities and peddled to investors. In many cases, the original note signed by the homeowner was lost, stored away in a distant warehouse or destroyed. Persuading a judge to compel production of hard-to-find or nonexistent documents can, at the very least, delay foreclosure, buying the homeowner some time and turning up the pressure on the lender to renegotiate the mortgage. "I'm going to hang on for dear life until they can prove to me it belongs to them," said Lovelace, a 50-year-old divorced mother who owns a $200,000 home in Zephyrhills, near Tampa. "I'll try everything I can because it's all I have left." In interviews with The Associated Press, lawyers, homeowners and advocates outlined the produce-the-note strategy. Exactly how many homeowners have employed it is unknown. Nor is it clear how successful it has been; some judges are more sympathetic than others. More than 2.3 million homeowners faced foreclosure proceedings last year and millions more are in danger of losing their homes. On Wednesday, President Obama will unveil a plan to spend at least $50 billion to help homeowners fend off foreclosure. Chris Hoyer, a Tampa lawyer whose Consumer Warning Network Web site offers the free court documents Lovelace used to file her request, has played a major role in promoting the produce-the-note strategy. "We knew early on that the only relief that would ever come to people would be to the people who were in their houses," Hoyer said. "Nobody was going to fashion any relief for people who have already lost their houses. So your only hope was to hang on any way you could." | Tom Deutsch, deputy executive director of the American Securitization Forum, a group that represents banks, law firms and investors, dismissed the strategy as merely a stalling tactic, saying homeowners are "making lawyers jump through procedural hoops to delay what's likely to be inevitable." Judges are often willing to accept electronic documentation. And lenders are sometimes allowed to produce other paperwork to establish they are the holder of a loan. Still, assembling such documents to a judge's satisfaction takes time, which to homeowners is the point. Lovelace filed her produce-the-note demand last fall after the bank acknowledged that her original mortgage document had been lost or destroyed. Since then, there has been no activity on the foreclosure -- no letters from the lender, no court filings.
The law firm handling the foreclosure for the lender refused to comment. A University of Iowa study last year suggested that companies servicing mortgages are often negligent when it comes to producing the documentation to support foreclosure. In the study of more than 1,700 bankruptcy cases stemming from home foreclosures, the original note was missing more than 40 percent of the time, and other pieces of required documentation also were routinely left out. The first big success of the produce-the-note movement came in 2007 when a federal judge in Cleveland threw out 14 foreclosures by Deutsche Bank National Trust Co. because the bank failed to produce the original notes. "From the perspective of the person who's in the home, you may have kept them in the house another 10 or 12 months," he said. "If I can get a result with economic benefits to a client, then I think I won." Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur of Ohio endorsed the strategy in a fiery speech on the House floor during debate on the federal bank bailout last month. "Don't leave your home," she said. "Because you know what? When those companies say they have your mortgage, unless you have a lawyer that can put his or her finger on that mortgage, you don't have that mortgage, and you are going to find they can't find the paper up there on Wall Street." | April Charney, head of foreclosure defense for Jacksonville Area Legal Aid in Florida, said the strategy has been so successful for her that she now travels around the country to train other lawyers in how to use it. She said she has gotten cases delayed for years by demanding that lenders produce paperwork they cannot find. "This is an army of lawyers getting out there to stop foreclosures so we can get to the serious business of creating solutions," Charney said. "Nothing good is going to happen as long as we continue to bleed homeowners." |
‘Kennedy Onassis’ Watch, Gandhi Pocket Watch and Henry Graves Watch on the Auction Block in Antiquorum’s March Sale New York, February 6, 2009 – Antiquorum Auctioneers announces a special spring watch auction at its US headquarters in New York City on March 4 and 5 that will include a collection of over 400 important timepieces from across the globe. Of particular interest for collectors include: a watch that belonged to President John F. Kennedy and later Aristotle Onassis; a pocket watch that belonged to Mahatma Gandhi; and a superb selection of Patek Philippe wristwatches -- including a unique piece made for Henry Graves | Live Penguin WebcamOh baby - new penguin chicks have just hatched here! During the first 40 days, watch these little ones seek warmth under their parents, take food from them, grow and slowly venture on their own into other areas of the room, which is off public view. Once they are weaned, observe our trainers teaching the chicks to feed from them. These little birds will be fledglings within four months, so tune in often to witness their amazing development. The camera will be on daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., with occasional breaks when the chicks are taken out of the room. |
Supporters of allowing liquor sales on Sundays in Connecticut say their proposal may have a chance at legislative approval this year, because it would give the state extra tax revenue in a time of big budget deficits. The plan is being pushed by owners of package stores along the state's borders, but they're facing opposition again from owners of stores in Connecticut's interior who say many stores can't afford to open for a seventh day each week. |
STATEMENT FROM THE NEW LONDON | The best organic food is what's grown closest to you. Use our website to find farmers' markets, family farms, and other sources of sustainably grown food in your area, where you can buy produce, grass-fed meats, and many other goodies...more from Local Harvest
Contact Information Mike & Elisha Riley 860-535-1157 
Contact Information
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Fiddlehead's Natural Foods Cooperative
Farmer's Market & Grocery Store
13 Broad St. New London, Ct.
All this plus...
#1 ArleneWow! will play your favorite breakfast tunes!
www.cdbaby.com/cd/arlenewow (mp3's)
#2 Perennial Harmony is selling FRESH CUT FLOWERS: She has single red roses starting at $3. And many different and special green Aloha Protea Bouquets starting at $20. Custom arrangements $45. Conveniently located at the front of the store.
#3 Fiddleheads member and friend Jessica James-Carnes along with her daughter Isis are going to sell hand-made Valentine's Day cards!
Reminders…
R NEW expanded HOURS: Wed., Thurs. & Fri.
11:30am – 6:30pm & Sat. 9:00am – 4:00pm
R BULK Dried Herbs & SPICES. Yes Fiddleheads NOW offers a sizable bulk spice and herb section, with about 60 items. Also we have five varieties of dried mushrooms from Maine!
R OUR Very OWN PRODUCE Department. We now carry LOOSE, romaine, spinach, broccoli, arugula, baby carrots, cilantro, garlic, romaine, scallions, celery, green & RED peppers, cherry tomatoes, baby spinach, etc. As well as citrus and other FRUIT like plums & strawberries, avocados, lemons, mangos, grapefruit, oranges, lemons, tangelos
& Bananas (Fare Trade).
Lily
You just can't beat a baby for making you feel better and more hopeful. Ask Reid Burdick and he'll tell you the same. |
If you're wondering what Leslie Caron and Hi Lily Hi Lo has to do with anything, wonder no longer. Charity and Ryan had their baby named Lily Jacqueline Kennedy on December 1, 2008. We're all so happy we could sing!  |
Post Kelo New London
Nov 15, 2008 Post Kelo. Whatever happened to the New London, CT redevelopment project? By Larry GilbertAs a long time supporter of private property rights, and having met Susette Kelo and the Cristofaro’s whose names are known around the globe, I try to stay up to date with the redevelopment project for which they lost their homes based on the disastrous June 2005 US Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision in Kelo Vs. New London. Following is an Op-ed from Professor Gideon Kanner, an LA colleague who has extensive years of experience fighting “eminent domain” takings. In the majority court opinion of Kelo Vs. the city of New London they avoid the question of economic performance of the project in stating: “A constitutional rule that required postponement of the judicial approval of every condemnation until the likelihood of success of the plan had been assured would unquestionably impose a significant impediment to the successful consummation of many such plans. Just as we decline to second-guess the City’s considered judgments about the efficacy of its development plan, we also decline to second-guess the City’s determinations as to what lands it needs to acquire in order to effectuate the project. “It is not for the courts to oversee the choice of the boundary line nor to sit in review on the size of a particular project area.” Professor Kanner’s Op-ed on the current status of New London follows. Yes, Virginia, There is Redevelopment in New London, Connecticut, But It’s Downtown, Not on the Site of the Wretched Kelo Redevelopment Project, and It’s Pursued by Private Enterprise. It shouldn’t be news to the readers of this (Gideon’s Trumpet) blog that the vaunted redevelopment plan for New London, Connecticut, the one that gave us the infamous Kelo case, has been a civic and economic disaster. Using the power of eminent domain, an entire lower middle class neighborhood was taken by the city and razed to the ground in order to . . . what? Maybe we better take a look at the Supreme Court’s Kelo opinion and see what the city had in mind. After all, the project, according to the Supreme Court, was evaluated by a team of consultants who considered six alternative development proposals for the Fort Trumbull redevelopment area. The reader of the Kelo opinion is struck by two things. First, a lamentation over the city’s declining condition brought about by the shutdown of local U.S. Navy facilities and consequent above-average unemployment, and second, the need for urban revitalization through redevelopment. Though couched in restrained judicial prose, Justice Stevens’ majority opinion ultimately depends on the assertedly thorough, carefully vetted redevelopment plan produced by the city, that the court’s majority accepted at face value in justification of the city’s proposed redevelopment project. In the end those city plans were used by the court as a justification for its refusal to provide meaningful review of the issue whether or not the city’s redevelopment plans were really in the nature of “public use,” as required by the Constitution, or whether the city’s own self-serving say-so that they were, was sufficient to deem a purely private, profit-making enterprise to be a “public use.” The court’s (5 to 4) majority concluded that the latter was the case. But guess what? After all the foofaraw and a Supreme Court opinion that roiled the country, brought a storm of criticism upon the court, and made the phrase “eminent domain” a dirty word, the New London redevelopment project went nowhere. We blogged about these things repeatedly, and if you are interested see our posts of July 13, 2007, Nov. 27, 2007, Mar. 25, 2008, and May 29, 2008, telling the story of how New London’s vaunted redevelopment plans for Fort Trumbul did not get off the ground and how its redeveloper could not even get financing for the project. | But all this leaves an open a question that until now has not been reported in the national press. What has happened in New London after its Supreme Court victory, given that the Fort Trumbull redevelopment project proved to be a failure? We now have a fascinating answer. While the vaunted redevelopment project has gone nowhere, there has been some revival in New London by – are you ready? – private enterprise. The New York Times (Lisa Prevost, In Connecticut, Developers Change Tack, N.Y. Times, Nov. 9, 2008, p. 13 (Bus.Sec.)) informs us that in contrast with all the gloom about its future, that was successfully peddled by the city to the U.S. Supreme Court in the Kelo case, there are signs of revival in New London – not in the area that had been chosen by the city for the Fort Trumbull redevelopment project (so much for all those fancy, expensive studies), but largely in the downtown area. It turns out that several downtown and waterfront buildings are being privately renovated and converted to condominiums with some success. What this article makes clear is that New London’s problem is that it is, well, New London – an old, tired city, much of whose population has moved out over the years, and not some sort of hip place with a scenic, historical, or commercial cachet that is likely to draw visitors and trendy, affluent would-be residents. The city boasts that it is located mid-way between Boston and New York. Which comes close to a definition of the proverbial middle of nowhere, where these days it’s hard to make a living and even harder to make a municipal silk purse out of that sow’s ear. Those charming sidewalk cafes in yuppified areas of hip cities that boast of successful redevelopment projects can be fun, but you won’t enjoy one on the Connecticut waterfront in, say, February. But there is life in New London. Condominiums are being promoted by their developers with varying degrees of success. “Downtown rentals, on the other hand, have done well,” says an owner of 65 rental apartments in six renovated buildings in the center of city. And here you thought that without that Fort Trumbull redevelopment project, New London was about to roll up its sidewalks and shrivel up. So while urban prosperitywise things may nor be beer and skittles in New London, neither are they as dire as the city represented to the Supreme Court. The important part is that progress is being made in New London, and it is being made by private enterprise — the people best qualified to make it: locals whose lives and fortunes have been invested in their city, not an out-of-state redeveloper who moves in, pockets a generous municipal subsidy, wreaks havoc on a community targeted for redevelopment, cleans up (or tries to), and then moves on to wreak havoc on some other community. So are those New Londoners going to live happily ever after? A definite maybe. It appears that along with the moderately good news there is also a cloud on the horizon. The state of Connecticut is blowing $750,000 on a study of how to maximize the economic potential of New London’s downtown transit facilities. Uh-oh. Will it be another case of “We are from the government and we are here to help you”? We shall see. Stay tuned.
Oh yes, we almost forgot. What about Pfizer pharmaceutical company, the industrial giant that had built a $300 million research facility across the Thames River from Fort Trumbull. The one whose presence in the community was going to vitalize this redevelopment effort on account of all those well-paid Pfizer employees moving into the community and freely spending their money on upscale housing and merchandise that would become available on the site of the taken lower middle-class homes?
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Delocate your city
Why "Delocate" and what does it mean anyway? It is a very interesting concept and one designed to put and keep small businesses in our city. As many of you know, Parade News, a "historic" establishment in New London recently closed due, mainly, to the competition of chain stores. Somewhere on the Delocator site are these words-"Corporate industries invading American neighborhoods, from coffee chains to bookstore chains, music chains and movie theatre chains, pose a threat to the authenticity of our unique neighborhoods." If you agree, as I do, then take some time to add local businesses to this database.
Non-corporate bookstore, cafe and movie theater locations are entered into our database by any interested user and automatically annotated using Google Maps.
Delocator.MapYourCity.Net enhances the original Delocator.Net web service. Delocator.Net initially launched on April 1, 2005. By September 2005, over 5000 entries had been posted to the Delocator.Net database, and over two million users had viewed the web site. Over a thousand emails from participants across the country were emailed to Delocator.Net. The most common complaints were the inability to edit the results page, and the fixed distance of the search radius.
Delocator.MapYourCity.Net addresses these concerns and also adds new features to the site:
a) In addition to coffee shops, bookstores and movie theaters have also become part of our database.
b) You can now enter and retrieve locations on your cellphone, while on the go in urban environments! Any SMS enabled phone will be able to communicate with our Delocator.MapYouCity.Net database.
Find sex offenders near meEvery Mailbox in New London The Payphone-Project.
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