Letter to Editor: Parking Garage Protest

Editor's Note - This letter is written in response to the city of Hyattsville's efforts to acquire D&E Auto Repair Service on Hamilton Street by eminent domain to build a new parking garage to serve motorists coming to the city's downtown Route 1 corridor. 

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I am appalled at the shabby treatment David Samuel is receiving from the city of Hyattsville. My wife and I have been customers of his for more than 20 years. He provides superlative car-repair serveice, and always with a friendly smile. We have the highest respect for Mr. Samuel's integrity and expertise. 

Yet the city of Hyattsville seems to be intent on forcing him and his small shop out of business, and doing so in bully-boy fashion, beginning with a bad-faith, far-below-market-price purchase "offer" contained in an eminent domain "condemnation" lawsuit. Eminent domain is supposed to be used only for a "public purpose." Here, the city intends to use Mr. Samuel's property "for off-street public parking." But the city has already condemned the property across the street for use as a parking lot or garage which can accommodate some 1,500 cars; there is another parking lot  nearby; and there's plant of street parking in the vicinity. Could the real motive here be not "parking but "beautification" - driving out a local, black-owned small business?

Actual beautification (as distinguished from racially-tinged gentrification) can be achieved at far less expense to both parties simply by shielding the entrance to Mr. Samuel's car-repair shop from public view with a tall hedge. This would also preserve a valuable resource for local car owners.

The city touts the "Hamilton Street Artway" as "an arts-based economic development area" in which "numerous projects are planned or in development." However, contrary to expectations, gentrification does not inevitably result in higher tax revenue for the municipality: higher costs for infrastructure such as roadways and (as in this case) public parking frequently outweigh any higher taxes. Indeed, in the landmark Supreme Court case of Kelo v. City of New London, the situation was even worse: the developer to whom the city turned over the condemned property went out of business, leaving the land as an empty lot that was turned into a dump.

As a former federal judge (US Bankruptcy Judge for the District of Columbia) and a former professor of law at American University, I consider this condemnation lawsuit to be an abuse of the legal process. The city is represented by a high-priced Baltimore law firm that advertises itself as specializing in "civil rights defense", bu which it means, not defending civil rights, but defending against civil rights "discrimination [and similar] claims." And in this case, they're going on the offense. Mr. Samuel has had to incur large legal and other expenses, which he can ill afford, to defend against this unjust lawsuit.

David Samuel and his family have their home in the building next to his small business. That business supports six families, and it has served the neighborhood for over 14 years. And now,  only after his supporters have protested against this unjust taking, his shop has for the first time been vandalized - twice! 

This decent man and upstanding citizen deserves better from the city he calls home. 

George Eason

Bethesda