We received word via Mary Cortes of Camden and www.stopEDA.org today about Susette Kelo. We feel compelled to share it with you. Also note that the developers who have destroyed Susette's former neighborhood and caused all that grief seem to have NOT built anything yet and how is that possible? They drag this woman through hell and back, they win in the U.S. Supreme Court and do nothing? So in the end, what will this be? Just another Detroit? Just another Poletown? That's a heck of an Aesop's fable if so, eh? The tale of the developer who pushed, shoved, won, yet did not build?

I reached out to Susette Kelo the other day because I wanted to be able to give the current status to the class yesterday. I had remembered she sent me a copy of a card she sent to the people that were taking her home and that she was not content as she was portrayed with her home being moved. I received the contents of the card today and her status. I thought I would share this with you as the Kelo decision anniversary is approaching:

Hi! I've been working closely with Susette since the beginning of this mess. She has been very busy and, since I'm the person who designed the card, she asked me to respond to you.

First, the verse inside the card reads and the front is attached.

Here is my home
That you did take
From me to you
This spell I make
Your houses, your homes
Your family, your friends
May they live in misery
That never ends
I curse you all
May you rot in hell
To each of you
I send this spell
For the rest of your lives
I wish you ill
I send it now
By the power of will

Thankfully, the "little pink cottage" still stands but in a different location and Susette no longer lives there. The smell of New London got too bad for her and she moved across the river to Groton.

I might mention that all 7 of the Kelo plaintiffs have left New London and are now paying their taxes in other towns.

There is still nothing standing in Fort Trumbull. The developer, Corcoran-Jennison-has just missed another, and hopefully last, deadline to come up with financing for the proposed hotel, etc.

Susette gave her pink house to IJ and, together, they made arrangements for a local property owner to move and restore the home to it's original condition. There will also be a plaque on the house recognizing it's importance to the American people.

There will be a celebration on June 21 and, as you no doubt know, the third anniversary of the Supreme Court's decision is this June 23.

There is an article in our local paper The Day, regarding Fort Trumbull, NLDC and CJ which you might be interested in reading and even adding a comment to.

Developer Misses Fort Trumbull Deadline
Corcoran Jennison is unable to meet financial criteria for $18.7M proposal
By Kevin Dale ,Published on 5/29/2008

New London - The Corcoran Jennison company will not meet today's critical deadline to secure financing for its $18.7 million proposal to build housing on the Fort Trumbull peninsula, company President Marty Jones said Wednesday.

But Jones said the Boston company still wants to bring residential development and future projects to the Fort Trumbull area, even though it may have lost its right to do so by missing the deadline to sign a ground lease with the New London Development Corp.

In December, the two sides signed a six-month extension agreement that called for Corcoran Jennison to start the roughly three-acre housing project by this summer or lose its exclusive rights to build the housing and develop two commercial buildings and a hotel north of Walbach Street....The company has already invested more than $1 million to prepare for the housing project, and Joplin has said he doubts other developers would rush to adopt the project in the slowed housing market.

Joplin declined to discuss the NLDC's response to the missed deadline. But he did say that, as of Wednesday evening, the NLDC had no plans to meet with Corcoran Jennison officials before today's 5 p.m. deadline.

Jones said Corcoran Jennison will look to revise its long-delayed plan to build a rental complex of 66 apartments and 14 townhouses, but she said the company needs to “finish our discussion internally” before it is ready to submit a detailed proposal to the NLDC.

”The project will need to take a new direction,” said Jones, who declined to comment on the significance of violating the December agreement....