This is something I learned about just today:
My dad's parents have a nice little house, near Fort Wayne, Indiana, with a beautiful yard that is huge by city standards. They were recently notified that the county government wants to expand the road that marks the edge of their yard to accomodate three lanes of traffic. In order for the road to be expanded, it needs to encroach on my grandparents' (and other residents') yard(s). So the county is forcing them to sell part of their land (for less money than it was originally worth) and rent out space in what remains of their yard to make room for the county's trucks during the more than eight months that construction will continue. On top of all of this, the value of my grandparents' land will decrease because their house will have a smaller yard and be closer to a busy road. Why does the county want to widen the road? Because they have the money and they can. There is no particular reason why the road should be wider; the airport that used to function nearby closed years ago. The county is simply afraid that if they don't spend their extra money, their budget will be cut for next year.
After a year or so, it will be much more difficult to walk along the creek that borders my grandparents' yard because the creek will be covered by a bridge. My grandparents and I will harvest only a fraction of the black walnuts that we used to because the trees will have been cut down. My grandparents will have to create a new layout for their flowers, trees, and yard waste heaps, and a couple summers ago they had to spend thousands of dollars to re-lay their sewer piping to make room for the expansion. Is this fair? Is this a justice issue? I have never felt the negative effects of the expansion of industry and transportation personally, but this hit home. My grandparents have done nothing to ask the government for trouble, and all of a sudden they are asked to spend lots of money and recreate their property to accomodate the purposeless plans of the county. This incident makes me think of everyone else who is facing much more dire circumstances: there are people who are forced to leave their jobs and homes because of industrialization and urbanization. On the other hand, advocates say that such unfortunate events are a necessary evil in order for everyone to be housed, fed, transported, etc. Who is right?
