i support them. their standing up for what they believe in and doing it legally.

There are instances where the taking of property is necessary for the greater benefit of the community. It seems that any kind of development would be an improvement on nail houses, and I’m sure $500,000 would go a long way towards any kind of activism this couple might wish to take up.

Boingboing has a roundup of many past examples of this http://www.boingboing.net/2007/03/23/cavalcade_of_homeown.html

I’m currently rewatching *batteries not included where tenants are fighting a teardown.

From somewhere in the People’s Republic of Amerika.

Eminent Domain is to be used for the Public Good, (as in Public Works, like bridges, dams, parks), NOT just so some government unit can get more tax money because a developer can build a mall on my land!

It sure is funny to see that Chinese people under a communist regime, actually have more privacy, more civil rights, more freedoms, than do American Citizens, many of whom earned our Rights, through war service and personal trauma/wounds!

You go, Yang and Wu! Get them for a full Million! They will make hundreds of times that amount!

Ha! I love a defiant social stance like this… good on them!

i think it’s good of them for standing behind something so much. they’re being slightly unreasonable, but, i feel, so are the developers. both seem to be very stubborn, and i don’t see why the developers, because they think they’re such a high authority and so much more important than this couple, should meet the demands of the people. even if that is a ridiculous amount of money. and if the people won’t move for no reason at all, then that’s their problem.

Hell’s yes, they are justified. I’d do it just to infuriate the construction people. i just wonder how they get out the front door…

The right of self determination is paramount to all things when it does not harm others. Creative design from the developer could have included the current residents home so it could integrate seamlessly into the development becoming part of , rather apart from the development. Greed, pride and arrogance probably doomed this approach from the beginning. To take without consideration is to wage war by another name.

I would let them keep their land and build around them with very bright lights and make the parking area as close to there house as possible and make the area for shopping, bars, nightclubs, casinos, ect. Then there would be so much noise they wouldn’t be able to sleep. Eventually they would be forced to sell. Then I wouldn’t give the an offer thats pennies on the dollar. They would basically have to give it away. Thats what happens when you are greedy. They had there chance to make a lot of money. More than they ever would had this project not existed.

isn’t this the plot of a bugs bunny cartoon?

“Wu was offered $258,000 in compensation or two higher floors in the planned complex – both of which she turned down because she wanted lower levels in the new building so she could run her restaurant.”
from the SanDiego site you linked to…
I didnt see a mention of the $500000 you were talking about. help me out here

Dear GET FACTS RIGHT PLS,

If you visit

http://www.shanghaidaily.com/sp/article/2007/200703/20070323/article_310118.htm

you will see the following para. That’s where I got my settlement figure.

“Since 2005, Nanlong Real Estate Co, the housing developer of the couple’s neighborhood, has been offering residents’ compensation to sell their homes so the company can carry out a new commercial project in the area. According to the offer, the couple can get 3.5 million yuan (US$454,000) for their 219-square-meter home if they agree to leave.”

I’m actually not sure why I rounded up $454k to $500k…seems like a stretch to me…so I’m changing the post to read $450,000. Thanks for the eye.

their just staking it out until they reach more money than 450grand. although if they took that 450grand…they’d be ultra rich for china!

Seems if they are interested in running a restaurant it isn’t going too well at the moment. Mostly I’m fascinated that in a ‘communist’ country, these folks are able to fight the sale like this. In fact, it’s more evidence of the very changing and new emerging China. Good on them for sticking to their guns (a very capitalistic thing to do), but it seems it may backfire soon.

One couple can stand in the way of a rich developer in Communist China where property rights are frail at best, but in the United States private companies such as Wal-Mart and Target can exercise eminent domain at will to clear out private property owners and make room for their stores. Something doesn’t seem right.

http://money.cnn.com/2005/06/23/news/fortune500/retail_eminentdomain/

Kiljoy, Thanks for the link to the story about the recent S. Ct. case. That’s good to know. Also thought I’d let you know that although the couple in China stood their ground for 3 years, their stand ended earlier this week– http://www.joshspear.com/item/nail-house-gets-nailed/

American eminent domain laws only allow the government to take land for public use. (IE: airports, roads, public bus depots, etc.)

Eminent Domain should never be used to aid a private devloper. American families can and would do the same thing.

good on them. they are doing the corect way that is not the first time that chinees did not move. but this time the international press was to quick so the goverment can not do anything against them. chinees hav like no rights at all. europeans americans and southeast asians just an person out of this regions have more rights then 1000 chinees.

Don’t take any shit from the man! Stand your ground..

These people have nowhere to go. Their lives have been spent in this very small community, which is now gone. They own this property now and its basically irreplaceable. Many Chinese families living in nail houses are supporting multiple generations and they have no income.

Their choice is to leave, move in to an apartment and succumb to the western style of life. There are no jobs for unskilled people except for labor, and my guess is that these people aren’t in any condition to haul dirt all day. How long will they last in an apartment with rent and utilities and no space to grow anything?

This is typical of the “new” China. The businesses can do anything they want to once they have paid the fees to the officials. The residents have no voice. I hate to say it, but there is something fundamentally wrong with our “nice western lifestyles”. Its not cool that we work all day, come home spent, install ourselves in our homes, overtly called a “unit”, to plug in to the mind numbing TV and veg until we fall asleep, waking up in time to do it all again tomorrow.

Why do we want that for the rest of the world? Maybe we could learn something from them?