Another Expropriation/Eminent Domain Warning Sign

This time it's useful to draw a lesson from the condemnation of a VFW post in Milwaukee, as outlined in the case City of Milwaukee VFW Post No. 2874 v. Redevelopment Agency - as in Kelo, the razed lands sit idle after being seized by a government entity:

There is a special wrinkle to this case. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports (Tom Daykin, Former Hotel Site Remains a Vacant Lot, Oct. 27, 2009) that after spending some $856,000 on acquisitions in 2001, and after blowing another $970,000 on remediation in 2003 - a half-dozen years ago - the city has done nothing with all that land that, being now publicly owned, has presumably been removed from public tax rolls, and is just sitting there. The debt of $3.69 million that is “tied to” the now-vacant site (as the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel puts is), now has to be paid off by city funds diverted from tax revenues while the subject site just sits there, doing no one any good.