6 The Hampton Roads Messenger Land Auction FROM PAGE 4


State and local… government units…” and “consider the availability of real property for public purposes on a case-by-case basis...”


An open auction can advantage unfairly private bidders because


public buyers like the Park District face legal limits to how high they can bid.


The desire for a simple public sale also overlooks the legal complexities that underlie public-private transactions.


In this case, the sale of the


property to Tim Lewis Communities has not yet been completed because the site’s easement rights under McKay Avenue, necessary for the developer to connect utilities, are owned by the state, which does not support the sale and threatens to withhold these rights if it goes through.


The GSA has responded with a


threat to seize these rights through eminent domain.


Here again the sale of this


property is trapped by the question of the best ‘public use,’ which is a legal standard that would be debated in an eminent domain case. Is maximizing profit for taxpayers, in this case less than $2 million dollars between the developer’s and Park District’s offers a more compelling good than providing the space for public use as a park?


widely include


While the Supreme Court has interpreted


‘public interests, it use’ to


development and economic is unusual for a Federal


agency to threaten to use this power to take land away from the state for private development.


The federal government is “using federal tax money to sue the State of California for the benefit of a private developer,” Doug Siden, a Board Member of the East Bay Regional Park District who represents Alameda, remarked, somewhat incredulously.


The GSA declined to comment


Volume 8 Number 7


for this story, citing ongoing litigation. Housing Advocates Weigh In


Housing advocates have a third vision for the


affordable units in a community where many are


property: feeling


as wealth disparities across the San Francisco Bay Area increase. The current proposal from Tim Lewis Communities is to include 15 percent moderate and low-income units.


Laura Thomas, president of


the group Renewed Hope Housing Advocates said that she would much rather see the property go to housing than to park space, adding that she doesn’t necessary support Tim Lewis Community’s specific site plans.


for


In her view, there is a greater need affordable


housing in Alameda


than there is for additional parkland and points out that a large portion of the Park District’s plan is to add additional parking for the beach and visitor center, not open space.


“If you really look at their original plan for what to do with that land they were going to create a parking lot, not a park but a parking lot,” she said.


“The irony about this whole thing


is that that neighborhood is the perfect place for affordable housing,” adding that the proximity to Crown Beach is a plus in itself. “Low income people get to go to parks too,” she added.


The mediation currently underway is closed to the public as well


as outside advocacy groups.


What started in an open auction may be resolved only through private negotiations.


may provide insight into the GSA’s system of auction-based


public good rather


listings. If the property is sold to maximize


profit, this could open the floodgates to other competing uses that provide public benefit.


Yet ignoring the politics implicit


in the sale of public property is also proving untenable. A sale that aimed to be efficient is turning out to be anything but.


You are cordially invited to attend...


City Council meetings... Norfolk - regular meetings are held on the first and fourth Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. and the second and third Tuesday at 2:30 p.m.


Chesapeake - regular meetings are held on the second, third and fourth Tuesday of each month at 6:30 p.m.


Newport News - regular business meetings are held on the second and fourth Tuesdays of each month at 7:00 p.m.


Suffolk - regular meetings are held on the first and third Wednesday of each month at 7:00 p.m.


Hampton - typically take place on the second and fourth Wednesday of every month at 7:30 p.m.


Virginia Beach - meets on the first four Tuesdays of each month. In July the meetings are scheduled on the first two Tuesdays only. Formal session begins at 6 p.m.


Portsmouth - meeting dates are the second and fourth Tuesday of each month at 7:00 p.m.


But the complexity of this issue property than


creating squeezed


March 2014 Who Killed the Mayor? BY KIRSTEN WEST SAVALI


Hinds County, Miss. supervisor Kenny Stokes believes late


Jackson mayor Chokwe Lumumba was assassinated


and


he wants an autopsy performed to


Lumumba, rule out


foul play, reports the Clarion-Ledger.


a


legendary human rights activist


and attorney


who was elected mayor of Jackson last June, died of alleged natural causes on February 25.


that he was killed because of his platform


for


Speculation has been rampant of self-determination


the black community and his refusal to tap-dance around issues of white supremacy and systemic racism in the Deep South.


Hinds County coroner Sharon Grisham-Stewart insists that Lumumba, who previously battled cancer, died of


natural causes, but


valid suspicions can't be soothed with words. Lumumba's supporters want proof.


"We gonna ask a question: Who


killed the mayor? We'd feel a lot better if there was an autopsy," Stokes said at the beginning of his speech. "First they say it's not a heart attack and not a stroke, then what was it? You don't just die like that and you're healthy."


"So many of us feel, throughout


the city of Jackson, that the mayor was murdered," Stokes told a WAPT reporter


after his speech. "I'm not going to sugar coat it. I'm not going to try to say it in a way where the people feel, you know, that we should have said it in another way."


"I believe that someone killed


him. Now I can't prove it, but I'm going to say it," Stokes said. "That's how I feel in my heart, and a lot of other people feel he was killed."


As previously reported by


NewsOne, Lumumba served four years on the Jackson City Council before running for mayor. He was elected on June 4, 2013, winning the general election with 86 percent of the vote.


"I'm just delighted. I feel


wonderfully well about the people and their vote. Our slogan has been the people must decide and the people gave us an outstanding


mandate


today for positive change in the city of Jackson," Lumumba said after the results were announced. "We intend to work diligently and put all our hearts and efforts into that and we're going to be calling upon the people to work with us. We're not working by ourselves."


'70s and '80s as vice-president the


Lumumba Republic


organization of New Afrika, the


United States and reparations slavery.


spent part of the of an


"an independent predominantly black government"


which advocated for in


southeastern for


"The provisional government of Republic of New Afrika was always a group that believed in human rights for human beings," Lumumba told The Associated Press in a recent


interview. "I think it has been miscast in many ways. It has never been any kind of racist group or 'hate white' group in any way.... It was a group which was fighting for human rights for black people in this country and at the same time supporting the human rights around the globe."


represented legendary activist,


As an attorney, Lumumba poet,


actor and hip-hop artist Tupac Shakur in several cases, and his godmother, Assata Shakur, whom Lumumba called a "Black Panther heroine."


Lumumba was also founder of the


Malcolm X Grassroots Movement and his platform called for a move towards black self-determination in the Deep South.


Lumumba referred to himself as a "Fannie Lou Hamer Democrat," a nod to the fearless civil rights leader who organized the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party to challenge the White supremacist Dixiecrats that ruled the Land of Jim Crow at the time.


The National Conference of Black


Lawyers is coordinating fundraising for the costs of an independent autopsy.


Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan announced during his recent Saviour's Day Address that fundraising would not be necessary because he would pay for the autopsy:


Chokwe, I've known him for nearly 40 years. He passed away about a week ago. His funeral will be on the 8th of this month. And he died under circumstances that we don't know what it was. He became the mayor of Jackson, MS. And any of you who know Mississippi and know Jackson...a Black man being mayor and trying to do right by all the people is not a mayor that those people want.


He was in the hospital. He was on the phone doing mayoral business. He was laughing. He was in good spirits and within a few hours, he was dead. I understand that they're guarding his body and I was so happy to learn that they are getting an independent pathologist


because


circumstances.' They lie


medical


examiners...we can't trust them when our babies are dead and they make it seem as if


it were under 'natural to protect the


government. We have to have our own independent pathologists and whatnot to look after us, so I understand they're trying to raise the money. I told them don't even waste time, call me. I will give you whatever it takes to get our own forensic specialist to go in and make sure that our brother died under the right circumstances.


A special election to replace


Mayor Lumumba has been scheduled for April 8.


that


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