Overturning the Kelo Decision

A reader writes to The Corner with a brilliant suggestion to overturn the odious Kelo decision:

The quickest way to reverse Kelo is to find some conservative town in Utah somewhere to shut down an abortion clinic in order to make room for a Wal-Mart. Also, that would be the most fun way to get Kelo reversed.

I bet that would do it.

Seriously though, I've been looking at this decision from a very negative viewpoint since it basically turns all private property over to the State to do whatever it wants with it. However, if this is going to be the law of the land, then why shouldn't some cities use this decision to do a little urban renewal. If they have an area in their city full of porn shops, strip clubs and seedy bars, why not buy those folks out and turn the property over to a developer who can bring in a nice mix of retail and commercial space and clean the area up. And although the idea proposed by the reader above sounds farfetched, there may well be some conservative city officials somewhere thinking about doing just that.

I still don't like the decision, but if we're going to be stuck with it, we might as well make lemonade out of the lemons the Supremes handed us.