It seems uncharacteristic for Texas, a state all about property rights and refusing government interference except when it comes to women’s bodies
Yeah, victimizing the little guy is what Texas is about.
Like tort reform? How dare the little guy be able to sue after a doctor amputates the wrong leg! All patients have a $250k cap on any possible malpractice suit, eliminating malpractice lawsuits entirely: what lawyer will touch a case that could go for years and bring them a maximum of $83k, and then only if they win.
But doctors… oh no, there’s no cap on how much they can sue for if they are wronged by the hospital. That’s how Christopher “Dr. Death” Duntsch got away with killing 3 and maiming 33 — the hospital was terrified of a 8-figure lawsuit.
The average carbon footprint for a person in the United States is 16 tons, one of the highest rates in the world. Globally, the average carbon footprint is closer to 4 tons.
An uneven distribution of carbon dioxide emissions.
So, the equivalent of 5 years emissions from the average American, 19 years emissions. from the average earthling, and 75 years of emissions from the average person from the developing world. And because there are a billion such persons, the headline writes itself.
A roundtrip economy class airplane trip from JFK to LAX emits 1.3 tons. First class emits 3.9 tons.
Headline misled me into thinking it took a billion people to equal one space flight until I read the fine print, and realized I was off by a factor of a billion.
I’m an appraiser working for a county in CA (think very expensive real estate), and I had to work on a project that was a freeway widening. The county was going all along the existing freeway and taking homes for the project. My job was to come up with fair market value.
I did just that with no low balling. In fact, I was told that the county offered 10% above my value, plus moving expenses and even paid for temp housing.
Musk’s official position was that they were offering 300% of market value of the homes. That was pretty much crap.
Most of the houses in question were modest and old, usually having been in the owner’s families for several generations. Many residents were retired, didn’t have any interest in living elsewhere, or they didn’t have the means. The houses were used as seasonal homes, to give the owners a place near the coast. The homes were often pretty rough: 300% of a shack is still a cheap house. But a place to sleep near the coast is a pretty good thing to have: Texas is a big place. Most of the offers could have paid for another house, but generally not within a few miles of the coast. Musk was raising thee specter of imminent domain from the moment he announce his plans, and many legal specialists believed that it wouldn’t be legal, but that might not stop the Texas government.
I remember seeing one interview with a homeowner in the area: “I heard they based their offers on the value of the houses. Well, most of the houses are crap. It’s the property that’s valuable, and it’s more valuable right now because they want it. The real question is ‘just how bad do they want it?’”
I always wondered why offers in eminant domain proceedings aren’t way over market value. So much that only the most diehard holdouts will accept. Save all the lawyer fees for those few.
How much more? I dunno… 50% over asking? I suspect that shows my naivete, and it will drive the cost of projects up. but is land acquisition really that large on projects at this scale?
I think it’s the psychological weakness of the buyers, who prefer showing dominance over actually paying what the other person is asking. For all of their posturing, there is very little logic involved.
Which kinda fits with the current Texas ruling class. The state was founded by people who seceded twice over the issue of owning other humans: once from Mexico (successfully) and once from the USA (failing), and the last trio of governors seem to have no problem with that. Especially the petty, vindictive asshole currently in office.
Remember how Bush’s Texas Rangers used eminent domain to buy up properly way below market price to build a baseball stadium. That only made the news because middle class people were screwed on the one. Texas loves helping out the wealthy.
I think the proper value is what it was before SpaceX moved in, although adjusted for the general change in house prices. It’s SpaceX that created the increased value.
Since they are displacing people, the proper value is whatever it’s going to cost them to relocate to a similar property, including moving expenses and prorated compensation for changes in commuting expense, if they commute to/from work, school, or child/elder care.
Assuming it is true that SpaceX increased all the property value in the area when they decided to move in, that means that the now-displaced homeowners will have an even more difficult time finding another place in the area to live within the price range SpaceX is offering.
SpaceX is just jealous they couldn’t (or didn’t think to) buy up all the land secretly, and then let people discover that they will never be able to afford to live in that area ever again.
