A Chanukah Lesson for Developers

Not once did the very prestigious New York Times inquire if the rule of law had been applied to the Dayton Seaside property tax situation. Not once.

In an editorial criticizing the announcement by the Bush Administration that foreign terrorists will face military trial, the Times declared that ours "is a nation built around the rule of law, not faith in the goodness of particular officials." However, regarding the Dayton Seaside affair—which will reach its conclusion on December 11, the second day of Chanukah—the New York Times has clearly deferred to "faith" in city officials.

Elsewhere in the paper's December 2 editorial, the Times charged that the military tribunals violate the Constitution's principle of "the separation of powers." Where was the New York Times when Congressman Anthony D. Weiner wrote to the bankruptcy judge, making serious charges against the Dayton Seaside owners—and without giving the owners the opportunity to reply? Absent on this violation of separation of powers.

Also on December 2, the New York Times declared that firm measures to protect the country against attack by spy-saboteurs would be an abuse of power. But the Times, along with the rest of the major media, showed no interest in the abuse of power by government officials against Dayton Seaside.

It is time to ask: Whose side is the New York Times on? It is time to recall that the New York Times was not greatly offended when the Clinton Administration stopped the judicial process to hand Elian Gonzalez over to Fidel Castro. If only John Ashcroft had snatched young Elian.

The Chanukah holiday celebrates a victory of national liberation over foreign oppressors. I would not claim that the Dayton Seaside closing on December 11 is a victory over oppression. It is, rather, on one level a victory for a political establishment confident of its power, particularly when the media is too timid to use the power of a free press to force officials to conduct the public's business in public. On another level, December 11 represents, for Dayton Seaside, a form of very rough justice, I think. And there is a lesson, perhaps, for Litchfield County in this form of justice.

Dayton Seaside was an urban renewal development that was one of Robert Moses' projects. Moses never held elective office, but he had the power to bulldoze his projects right over the grassroots.

We consider ours to be a free market society. In this form of society, development should be the product of free choice reached in bargaining between developers and current owners, residents and businesses. When a developer has the assistance of government to bulldoze the public out of the developer's way, we don't have a free market system, but rather, I think, the "ambitious sacrifice of the many"—by the power of government—"to the aggrandizement of the few."

I don't know that all the people who had to move out of the way for Dayton Seaside were happy to do so. I don't know that perhaps some of the people who had to leave to make way for Dayton Seaside asked for Divine retribution to the developers.

That retribution will occur, I think, on December 11, the second day of Chanukah, when the City of New York, by manipulating the Dayton Seaside property taxes, bulldozes off Dayton Seaside the current owners—including my family, which brought the bulldozers to the area more than forty years ago.

Actually, the moral of Dayton Seaside is mainly for would-be developers to take to heart. Don't use government to grab property. Any injustices in the process are likely to be noted by Divine Providence. And any further involvement by government may result in new injustice—to the developer.

If we remain committed to the principles of the free market, let developers purchase land for development by the free market, not by the power of government.

Another great lesson of Dayton Seaside is that we citizens cannot rely on the media to act affirmatively, in reliance on the First Amendment, for the common good. The Constitution makes no distinction between the media's First Amendment rights—and ours. And our First Amendment rights include the right to challenge government and the media when either would place our people in harm's way. I can't think of a First Amendment banner that waves more proudly than The Voice.

Happy Chanukah to all.