In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled, in case of Kelo v. New London, that the U.S. Constitution is no bar to cities seizing property from one private landowner and giving it to another. Following that decision, a number of states changed their laws to restrict the powers of eminent domain.
Minnesota was one of those states, though it allowed existing projects to proceed. One of those was the Cedar Grove project in the south metro suburb of Eagan.
In the words of mayor Mike Maguire, who recently wrote an op-ed on the subject,
“The area went into a steady decline over two decades. Restaurants became engine repair shops, a gas station became a truck rental facility, a grocery store became a paintball range and the old mall housed fewer and fewer shops.”
My first thought upon reading this was “what’s wrong with engine repair shops?” In recent years, some members of the city council have complained that the city’s northern section has “too many” trucking companies and not enough “quality” development.
City government has invested seven years in an effort to redo the area. It used its power of eminent domain to forcibly acquire properties in the area. Together with a commercial developer and community activists, it developed grand plans. In other words, it substituted the political process for the free market.
American Enterprise Institute President Arthur C. Brooks has an op-ed in today’s Wall Street Journal about the “major cultural schism” happening in America over the value of free enterprise. 
Politics in Minnesota 
