More on the Clayton Project

The Post-Dispatch reports that the businesses threatened with condemnation in Clayton are fighting back with an initiative petition. What I found particularly interesting about the story is this:

Centene Corp. plans to build a $190 million office and retail project on part of the 7700 blocks of Forsyth and Carondelet boulevards and on Hanley Road between them. Centene CEO and chairman Michael Neidorff says the corporation's expansion will bring hundreds of jobs and an attractive corporate campus. Advertisement

The property owners along Forsyth say their properties should not be blighted and that they should not be forced to sell. Centene wants to use that land for new retail space.

This is particularly outrageous. Not only are they using eminent domain to benefit private parties, but the taking of these five businesses isn't even necessary to build the Centene headquarters. The board of aldermen (perhaps at Centene's request) simply decided that they'd like different retail establishments adjacent to their property, and so they rolled those five businesses into their plans.

The board of aldermen should be ashamed of themselves for dismissing their citizens' property rights so casually.