Conversations on the FWOB interview with Graham Richard

I've talked to several people about the FWOB interview and most of the converstions somehow get steered to this part of the interview.

Nathan Gotsch
I asked him what he would say to a private business owner who wonders why he or she should invest in downtown when, through the City's use of eminent domain, they could end up having their property seized and used for another use, especially another private business like the hotel, as happened in the past with Belmont Liquors.

Graham Richard
"I would say that, number one, the tools that were available to us in state law were the tools that we used. Fortunately we didn't have to use it for the acquisition of all the property for the Grand Wayne expansion. At the time, we felt it was the prudent thing to do, to acquire that property," he said. "Since that time, the state law's been changed, and [that] probably could not happen again in the future."

Some people don't think he answered Nathan's question at all and kind of side stepped it.

Another person had an interesting perspective to it. Their take was that the city won't do any more eminent domains such as the Grand Wayne Center only because it can't due to the change in law. This person thinks that if FW could it would do such eminent domains. This person feels that businesses don't feel the protection of the law because if their is a desire to do something they will find a way to do it no matter how creative they need to be.

I think he implyed an answer without actually stating one. Its a trick used more often than not by politicians.