Listen to excerpts of interviews with local residents and leaders affected by eminent domain

CURL worked with Richard Wasserman to capture the firsthand account of displaced residents and community leaders who have been affected by eminent domain. CURL interviewed displaced residents and community officials and documented an oral history of the sites through individuals who reside there.

Hear excerpts from interviews for select sites here:

Boston, MA: Dudley Square

• Diane Dujon, current Dudley Triangle homeowner
  • “…this house is a blessing….” (excerpt Dujon below)
• John F. Barros, former executive director of DSNI and life-long neighborhood resident
  • “…neighbors talking to neighbors….” (excerpt Barros1 below)
  • “…creating a vibrancy….” (excerpt Barros2 below) 

 

Delaware Water Gap

• Pete Pappallardo, former resident whose family farm was taken through eminent domain.
  • “…I see my father’s spirit floating around….” (excerpt Pappalardo3 below)
  • “…emotional effects on me were huge” (excerpt Pappalardo2 below)

 

Detroit, MI: Jefferson Village

• Gary Sands, Professor Emeritus of Urban Studies and Planning, Wayne State University
  • “…is there a public benefit, sure….” (excerpt Sands2 below)
• Ken Walker, Local resident who sold his house to a developer knowing it would otherwise be taken by eminent domain.
  • “…a lot of people would not have gone, they loved what they had…” (excerpt Walker1 below)

 

Norris, TN: Norris Dam

• Jerry Crossno, lifelong resident (77 years old at time of interview) and former mayor of Norris, TN
  • “….the poverty level was high….” (excerpt Crossno1 below)
• Tommy Mariner, local resident and Vice Mayor of Norris, TN
  • “….eminent domain has been a net positive….”  (excerpt Mariner1 below)

  

Bensenville, IL: O'Hare Airport

• Barry Soskin, a Bensenville business owner who was displaced by the O’Hare Airport expansion.
  • “…the stores… they all felt this was devastating…” (excerpt Soskin1 below)

 

Lake Buchanan, TX

• Alfred Hallmark, a local historian whose great-great-great grandfather Billy Davis established Old Bluffton in 1854.
  • “…we might not see this lake very full very often…, because of the demands on water…”(excerpt Hallmark1 below)
• Karon Milam, family owns a local charter fishing business along Lake Buchanan.
  • “…old man… just had to come down and try to see… the old home place….” (excerpt Milam2 below)
  • “…its really like a ghost town…” (excerpt Milam4 below)

 

Los Angeles, CA: Maurice Sendak Elementary School

• Larry Gross, the Executive Director at the Coalition for Economic Survival, a Los Angeles community-based advocacy organization.
  
  • “…eminent domain is a double-edged sword…” (excerpt Gross1 below)

 

Celilo Falls, OR

• Wilbur Slockish, Member of the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation
  
  • “…it makes me feel like I’m not of consequence…” (excerpt Slockish1 below)
  • “…I miss hearing the roar of those falls….” (excerpt Slockish4 below)
  • “…in the name of the greater good of who, the corporation or the people?” (excerpt Slockish2 below)