Little Pink House_ A True Story of Defiance and Courage - Jeff Benedict [168]
Notably, Connecticut, the Constitution state, is one of the few states that haven’t changed their eminent-domain law in any way.
As of the fall of 2008—more than three years after the Supreme Court approved the City of New London’s plan to take private homes and replace them with buildings capable of generating higher tax revenues—the NLDC still has not broken ground. In the summer of 2008, the NLDC announced that its developer, Corcoran Jennison, had failed to secure adequate financing for the building project. Nonetheless, every home in the ninety-acre redevelopment area has been demolished. The former Fort Trumbull neighborhood is a barren wasteland of weeds, litter, and rubble.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
What took you so long?”
That’s how Susette Kelo greeted me the first time I knocked on her door. It was November 28, 2005, and I had come to introduce myself and seek her cooperation on a book I was contemplating about the Supreme Court case bearing her name.
She invited me in, saying she had been hoping I would look into the dispute that had played out in her neighborhood. That afternoon I questioned her for three hours, sizing up her ability to recall facts and probing her motives for waging a battle that had lasted eight years. Before I left, Susette confirmed she would fully cooperate—no strings attached and seeking nothing in return—if I decided to go forward.
Her willingness to submit to relentless questioning and constant prying over a two-year period was a vital key to writing this book. Some of my questions probed very sensitive personal matters well outside the scope of her case. I am grateful for her trust and the privilege of chronicling her story.
Another key to telling this story was cooperation from the Institute for Justice. The attorneys and staff bent over backward to accommodate my never-ending requests for information. John Kramer was machinelike in his ability to crank out documents, photographs, and video footage in response to my queries. And Scott Bullock, in particular, was extremely patient and forthcoming.
Similarly, Bullock’s counterpart, Tom Londregan, New London’s city attorney, also went out of his way to assist me in my reporting. He too was candid and open. In addition to granting repeated interviews and requests for follow-up information and clarifications, Londregan did it all with a wonderful sense of humor. While adversaries throughout this case, both Bullock and Londregan were nothing but gentlemen and true professionals in their conduct toward me.
I am also very grateful to Claire Gaudiani and George Milne for their willingness to be interviewed, along with Claire’s former secretary Claudia Shapiro, who is undoubtedly one of the sweetest human beings I’ve ever met.
Likewise, I’m very appreciative to some key players who opposed—to one degree or another—some of the initiatives led by Gaudiani and Milne. They include: Tony Basilica, John Markowicz, Fred Paxton, Steve and Amy Hallquist, and Kathleen Mitchell.
Others whose positions didn’t necessarily line up in this saga were also generous with their time and forthcoming with their words: Reid MacCluggage, the former publisher of the Day; Wesley Horton, the attorney who defended the city’s use of eminent domain before the U.S. Supreme Court; former New London Mayor Lloyd Beachy; and Pfizer’s point man on real-estate development, Jim Serbia. Of course, a book like this would not be possible without the cooperation of many. Ultimately, almost everyone