Spinning: SCOTUS on Atlantic Yards, and a Skyscraper
by Sanford Ikeda
Sat, 5 Jul 2008 at 7:45 PM
The last time I blogged about Atlantic Yards, a group of local residents in the footprint of the project had petitioned the Supreme Court to halt the use of eminent domain to evict them from their property, on the grounds that the proposed complex is not sufficiently oriented toward public rather than private use.
Last week the Brooklyn Paper reported, in "Supremes Sing the Blues to Yards Foes," that the High Court
denied without comment the 11 property owners' request that the High Court take up case, which has been rejected by two lower federal courts — though the court did reveal that Justice Samuel Alito, a known skeptic of eminent domain, voted to hear the case.
Too bad! However, the SCOTUS Blog suggests that Justice Alito's vote to hear the petition indicates that opponents of the use of the government's takings power in such instances have at least one sympathetic ear on the Court.
***
In another example of how the United Arab Emirates have become the dreamland for architects and engineers, the BBC reports that Dubai plans the world's first "moving" skyscraper, an 80-story tower each of whose floors can rotate independently of the others. You can read about it and see a video of it here. It's enough to make your head. …well, you know.
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