Ilya Somin notes an aspect of the Daryl Hannah squatting that the media has ignored. By protesting and suing over the revocation of an “urban garden” by a landowner that let the community use the land gratis for fifteen years, Hannah and her compatriots ensure that future landowners won’t dare allow urban gardens in the first place to avoid future litigation expenses if they try to close them down. (LA Times columnist Steve Lopez has some acid comments about the hypocrisy of the limousine liberals involved.) I noted a similar paradox about heritage commissions last year on Point of Law.
Daryl Hannah and squatting
Ilya Somin notes an aspect of the Daryl Hannah squatting that the media has ignored. By protesting and suing over the revocation of an “urban garden” by a landowner that let the community use the land gratis for fifteen years, Hannah and her compatriots ensure that future landowners won’t dare allow urban gardens in the […]
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One of my biggest pet peeve is rich celebrities “supporting” causes in name only. By that I mean, they’ll show up, talk to the press, maybe do a benefit concert. But they never actually open their own checkbook and pay their own money.
I’d guess that Miss Hannah could more than afford that hunk of land and give it to the neighborhood. Thus the problem would be solved and everyone would be happy. But, no. Why spend her own money when she can force someone else to do it for her?!
Ima Fish nails this one. Perfect!
One of the most unfortunate aspects of the coverage of this case is that the landowner is portrayed as a greedy developer and the squatters deserve our sympathy because their use for the land represents a higher purpose than that of the rightful owner. In fact, the owner is pursuing a noble goal: protection of his property rights, against the intervention of gov’t. and the emotions of mob rule, as exemplified by the Hollywood airheads. The “greatest good” for this episode is the affirmation that politicians and media manipulators do not trample the notion of property rights for the benefit of a few dozen cactus fruit growers and their customers at the Fairfax farmers’ market.