Kelo Report, Part 2

[Michael Fisher]

http://all-streaming-media.com/record-video-stream/record-streaming-video-realmedia.htm

???

[Kat Kanning]

Here's the second segment from the next night.

http://fox61.trb.com/news/wtic-news-920eminentdomain-video,0,4179634.realvideo?coll=wtic-home-1

[Russell Kanning]

could you capture it for us?

[Kat Kanning]

Oh that was the same one.  Here's the first one:

http://fox61.trb.com/news/wtic-news-919eminentdomainrally-video,0,3394541.realvideo?coll=wtic-home-1

[Michael Fisher]

 

http://www.theday.com/eng/web/news/re.aspx?re=8E00CA2E-30B4-4D9A-A17C-B7979FA50051

City Faces Legal Maze To Cut Ties With NLDC
Uprecedented Move Would Place Existing Contracts In Doubt

By TED MANN
Day Staff Writer, Politics/Government
Published on 9/25/2005

New London ? When Mayor Jane Glover told a delegation of state officials last week that the city could no longer work with the current leaders of the New London Development Corp., she likened the situation to the end of a marriage.

?We're in a divorce,? Glover said.

If only it were that easy.

The City Council threatened this week to strip the NLDC of its authority over the $73 million state-funded redevelopment of the Fort Trumbull peninsula, an extreme step that the councilors called the culmination of a series of frustrating disputes and run-ins with the agency's leadership.

But before the city and NLDC can divorce they will have to figure out how.

The NLDC has guided the project since its inception in 1998, and replacing the agency will mean disentangling nearly a decade's worth of contracts and agreements with everyone from Corcoran Jennison, the private developer that signed on to develop the hotel complex planned for the neighborhood, to the state itself, which has poured virtually all of the funding into the project since it began, to the federal government, which transferred the former site of the Naval Undersea Warfare Center free of charge.

At the very least, Councilor Rob Pero said, such a move would require revisiting ?pretty much five years of contract language and the amended agreement? with Corcoran Jennison.

And then the city and state would have to decide who would take over what was taken away from the NLDC, everything from legal liability to the ultimate duty of finishing the economic development project.

Most of the people who will make those decisions didn't want to talk about the possibilities, although last Tuesday the council gave the NLDC a week to dismiss its two top officials or be replaced as the city's development agency.

Thomas J. Londregan, New London's law director, refused even to outline the legal questions that have to be decided.

?I am not going to give that legal opinion out to the public,? he said.

And whatever that opinion is, it is almost certainly tilling new soil: The state Department of Economic and Community Development has never had to dissolve a relationship between a municipality and an independent agency like the NLDC.

Representatives from the DECD largely declined to speculate about the process of disengaging the city from its current partner.

But while state officials have maintained that the decision lies with the city, they have made no secret of their concern about the lengthy and uncertain path that replacing the NLDC with another entity might send the project down.

?Frankly, it is for them to decide,? said Ronald Angelo, a deputy DECD commissioner. ?The City Council needs to decide if they can continue to work with the NLDC in its present form.?

But if the council goes forward with plans to end its relationship with the agency, state officials have said, they should be prepared for ?an administrative nightmare.?

?At the very least, you'd have to change the party to the assistance agreement,? said Michael Cicchetti, the undersecretary of the Office of Policy and Management, which oversees the State Bond Commission and has helped provide funding to state development corporations through the DECD.

?If the city's going take on the responsibility (for the project) itself, that's a pretty simple change,? he said, ?because they're a known entity, a creature of statute. If it's something else, I think that would take a pretty big review.?

?If they change it to some third party, to be honest with you I'm not sure how that would work,? he added.

And there are far more questions than answers.

According to Angelo and others, Friday's gathering of attorneys in New Haven was convened to settle some of the most basic questions about the nature of the relationship between city and agency.

Would the title to the homes and businesses condemned by the NLDC at Fort Trumbull be controlled by the city?

How about the title to the NUWC property, which was conveyed by the federal government to the NLDC?

This week, City Manager Richard Brown and councilors largely referred such questions to Londregan. And Londregan still wasn't talking.

???

The state poured hundreds of millions of dollars into quasi-public development entities like the NLDC over the last decade, particularly through the ?urban initiatives? of former Gov. John G. Rowland.

In Hartford, the Capital City Economic Development Authority was formed in 1998 to administer state funding throughout the capital region, particularly in the relocation of Capital Community College to the former G. Fox Department Store building, construction of Rentschler Field in East Hartford for the University of Connecticut football team, and the construction of the $500 million Adriaen's Landing convention center and hotel complex.

In Rowland's hometown of Waterbury, the Naugatuck Valley Development Corp. (now the Waterbury Development Corp.) poured state funds into major downtown projects, including a massive state office building, an arts magnet school and a $30 million restoration of the historic Palace Theater.

In New London, the state helped revive the dormant NLDC in the mid-90s, infusing it with bond funds and charging it with the task of spreading improvements across the city, from the Fort Trumbull project to revitalization of the sagging downtown office core.

The use of quasi-public agencies, said Cicchetti, allowed the state to channel funds to urban projects without overburdening city officials or allowing the monies to become stuck in existing municipal bureaucracies.

?You create an entity whose sole purpose is to do these development projects, so their sole purpose is getting these projects done, and done on time,? he said. ?Instead of having city employees take on that responsibility, setting up an entity whose sole purpose is getting these done just streamlines the process.?

But those entities ? set up as independent non-profit corporations, with their own boards and employees not directly answerable to city or state officials ? were not designed to be easily dissolvable, which was at least one point on which city, state and NLDC members seemed to agree this week.

However it might be done ? if it is done ? this divorce would be an ugly one.

Despite the continuing rancor, however, Angelo struck a confident tone.

However it is done, and by whom, there will be progress at Fort Trumbull, he said: ?We will find a resolution.?

[Michael Fisher]

Okay, I've got the video working.  I'll see if I can rip it somehow.

[Russell Kanning]

check out Lauren's smile especially as they are taking a step up the staircase

[Michael Fisher]

Hehe.

Here are two video captures from RealAlt player.

Lauren in the stairwell on that evening immediately prior to her arrest.  She is absolutely calm in a storm of fury:


Lauren being dragged off by the police:

[Russell Kanning]

Kat was thinking of sending a package to the city hall.

Teddybear
note "Free Lauren Canario"
copy of the Bill of Rights

I sure hope they don't think it is a bomb

[Michael Fisher]

Lauren in the stairwell on that evening immediately prior to her arrest.? She is absolutely calm in a storm of fury:

Man... they really didn't see that one coming.   

[Michael Fisher]

In my opinion, Lauren's brave actions, though calm and harmless to others, shattered the completely shameless atmosphere of the police that evening.  They initiated aggression against an innocent woman.  Shame on all who touched her with the use of force, and shame on all who continue to do so.

[Michael Fisher]

I had to find an I420 decompressor for the Realtime Convertor, but I've managed to extract the video.

Unfortunately, it's 936MB without compression.     I'll try a compressed version next.

[Michael Fisher]

Realtime converter is sucking.? I can't get the video under 48MB.?

[Michael Fisher]

Alright, now the video is down to 6MB, but the quality is pretty low.  Let me know if you want the video clip.

[Tom Sawyer]

Thanks to all who made the trip!
I wish I could have been there.
You guys and gals are the type of people I can align my family's future with. It will give other people hope for a brighter tomorrow for our freedoms.

Thanks Lauren for taking a stand for others to be inspired by.