Kelo Report

[TackleTheWorld]

Woman Allowed To Stay In Fort Trumbull Unit Little Longer

Published on 7/10/2006 in The Day

New London ? For 11 Fort Trumbull residents living in a brick apartment building at the corner of Smith and Walbach streets, Sunday was eviction day. The building's owner, Bill Von Winkle, who has settled his eminent domain fight with the city, had given his tenants a July 9 deadline to clean out their things and leave. By Sunday afternoon, the building was almost empty.
Lauren Canario was still there, perched in her third-floor apartment scanning the empty remains of the neighborhood.

?Abandoned houses (are) like fallen soldiers on the battlefield,? said the slightly built Canario, seated, hands in her lap, at her kitchen table.

She asked for an extension to July 15, she said, and Von Winkle granted it. He gave her the New London Development Corporation's paperwork to fill out so that she could be reimbursed for moving expenses. She threw it out, she said.

A self-proclaimed property-rights activist, the Las Vegas transplant and her husband moved to the apartment a year ago to join the fight against eminent domain. The location was perfect as the balcony outside her kitchen overlooked the area dubbed ?eminent domain central,? where a message board announced upcoming events in the neighborhood's eight-year fight to save their neighborhood. From there, she could act as self-appointed press agent to the reporters and photographers who frequented the neighborhood. She was jailed for 15 days for refusing to leave a City Council meeting.

Now, even with most of her neighbors out or on their way out and nobody left to join the fight, Canario is pledging to stay in Fort Trumbull ? even if it means sleeping in a tent. She isn't going to chain to her to her apartment, she said, because Von Winkle is her friend and would have to wait for her to leave before he could receive his settlement.

?There'll be plenty of time for chaining and stuff after all those guys get their money,? she said.

She is hoping the Dery or Cristofaro families will offer her a place to stay, she said, and after the last of the Fort Trumbull neighborhood leaves in October, she said, she'll get out the camping gear.

?I guess you can't expect people to hold out forever,? she said. ?If I were them, I'd be as far away from New London and Connecticut as possible.?

Reached by phone Sunday, Matthew Dery said his family has not invited Canario to stay with them.

Canario's husband, Jim Johnson, is staying with her ? even if, she said, he thinks she is a little crazy. The couple said they have been slowly moving their things to a barn in New Hampshire that they someday plan to turn into a house, after they are finished with their Fort Trumbull battle.

If there was any steam left in the neighborhood's fight against eminent domain, it was visible only in the ?Not for Sale? signs still in the windows Sunday of the now abandoned buildings and in a cardboard replica of Susette Kelo's home, still visible from Canario's balcony.

?It's really lonely,? Canario said. ?It's desolation.?

A few people drove by and yelled, ?Eminent domain sucks,? Canario said, as she sat on her porch to watch the fireworks sparkle over the Thames River this weekend. The neighborhood is scattered, she said.

Everyone else in the building has moved out, according to Von Winkle.

?Lauren's not done with Fort Trumbull yet,? Von Winkle said.

New London

[Dreepa]

Lauren you Rock!

People come digg it!

http://digg.com/politics/Fighting_the_Kelo_case

[Russell Kanning]

[Russell Kanning]

Maybe we should have a Shorty Dawkins fireside reunion at Lauren's campsite after she gets settled in.

[Pat K]

Shorty Lives.

[TackleTheWorld]

Hi, Lauren here, resident of the embattled Ft. Trumbull neighborhood of New London, Connecticut.  Day 334.

Status of utilities:
electricity     On
gas             Off
water           On
phone           Off
cable           Off

Going underground today.
My web servers going offline, so no more Ft. Trumbull webcams for a while.
Working on getting back online soon.

Can be reached at 702-858-8730.

[Russell Kanning]

Hi, Lauren here, resident of the embattled Ft. Trumbull neighborhood of New London, Connecticut.  Day 334.

Status of utilities:
electricity     On
gas             Off
water           On
phone           Off
cable           Off

Going underground today.
My web servers going offline, so no more Ft. Trumbull webcams for a while.
Working on getting back online soon.

Wow ..... well it was probably going to happen sometime.
Keep in touch with us somehow.
Lucky cell phones still work.

[Kat Kanning]

Our first Undergrounder who's gone underground!  Go Lauren!

[Tom Sawyer]

They have been secretly tunneling for the last 6 months. The subterranean fortress is now complete... shhh, don't tell anyone.

[Kat Kanning]

Someone should write a song about tunnelling porcupines.

[Pat K]

Someone should write a song about tunnelling porcupines.

Tunnelling along with Tunnelling Porcupines, could be the title.

[TackleTheWorld]

You can see for yourself
New London Web Cam

The properties of Rich Beyer and the Cristofaros on Goshen Street have been cleared of occupants and utilities are being cut off.
There are still people living on Smith and East streets, not much happening there.

The web cams watch Smith St.

[mlorrey]

After hearing the latest about Lauren's Gitmo-like treatment at York Detention Institution, being held under 24 hour bright lights in shackles in the psych ward, without a lawyer, with the state not appointing a lawyer, all on charges of 'trespassing' on property she had a valid lease to be on, I've made some calls to the prison and to Governor Lynch's office to see what the PTB have to say in response. I've also written an article at IntLib that we should get digged.

http://digg.com/politics/Eminent_Domain_Protester_Canario_Held_In_Gitmo_Style

Lets get the word out that a peaceful woman is being treated like a terrorist prisoner.

[error]

My next package to Lauren will be addressed to Guantanamo Bay, Connecticut. That's horrible.

[FrankChodorov]

all on charges of 'trespassing' on property she had a valid lease to be on

huh?

she wasn't arrested for being on the property she had previously leased...