Holding out!
 

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/dayart...acefield_4.jpg
Little old lady held out till the end. Just amazing people can hold out even under these conditions! Kudos to the lady and everyone in support!

She's in my neighborhood... Her house is about a five minute drive from our home. It wasn't about the money--"a million dollars"--but about the fact that she *had* what she wanted, her home. And no amount of money could provide what she wanted but didn't yet have, the chance to die in the same home where her mother died. She did get that, eventually.

In a refreshing show of humanity, the project manager of the huge construction project that *dominates* her property, befriended the little old lady. He eventually cooked meals for her, checked in on her daily, drove her to the doctor. I'm gratified to learn that there are people, still, who can be civil while being on opposite sides of a given situation.

The picture above does not do justice to the claustrophobic mismatch of these two properties. I'll take some pics if anyone's interested.

I'm also relieved that this situation didn't devolve into an eminent domain/takings debacle. Not everything has a price. Or, perhaps, some prices are so dear that all parties agree they're too high.

I think the mismatch is a debacle. The officials who greenlighted the commercial project like this should be ashamed of themselves. There should be setbacks from her property, and the commercial building should be stepped away from her property so that it's only one or two stories where it adjoins her propery.

This is a textbook example of how not to do development.

bigv,

I would love to see a few more pictures of you could. Maybe one that could be blown up a little. I find the story very heart-tugging!! ;-(

Part of the plan (after they realized she wouldn't sell) was to wait and acquire her land after she died. There was a quote in another article from the developer, saying specifically that they had left open holes in the construction for the appropriate beams to be inserted when the land was inevitably absorbed. The project manager who befriended her may or may not have had completely altruistic intentions... but the fact remains that now she has passed on with no living relatives, and only one close friend who was there with her until the end. The will hasn't been made public, but I bet I can guess who she left the land to.

And so they made the poor old lady endure that construction and aggravation up until she drew her last breath.

Edit: You expect a commercial developer to behave this way, but what excuse do the Seattle zoning/building officials have for their behavior? They approved this development. They approved what was done to this old lady.

It's only a house. If people would put less emphasis on material goods like houses, oil, television etc., this world would be a tree hugger's paradise.

*looks around* is this the non-sequitor thread?

Bless her soul - certainly one of the last of a dying breed - Those without a price...

Well there goes todays IOtD. :haha:

This makes me think of Poletown, where, in 1981, General Motors and the cities of Detroit and Hamtramck, Michigan, used eminent domain to take over 1,300 homes, plus numerous businesses and churches, evicting about 4,000 people. They then leveled the whole area and built a Cadillac plant.

The plant was supposed to employ 6,500 workers, but most of the land was turned into parking lots and the plant only employed about 3,000 workers.

Funny, I just assumed this was an IOtD.

Well.. I forgot that posting in IOtD was left to anyone now and was late and tired. oops. If someone wants to move it.
Yea I would love to see more pics of this. Maybe BigV could post more in IOtD.

Excellent Idea, for Big V to do an IOtD with better pictures.

Hear, hear!