Corruption Clippers Intuit Arena

ABUSE OF EMMINENT DOMAIN BY THE CITY OF INGLEWOOD?
​A private ownership of your house or commercial property should be given the highest value in our democratic society. The power of eminent domain should be used only for the PUBLIC USE (such as freeway or railroad construction). A city or state should not be allowed to use the power of eminent domain for its own profit making real estate transaction. In our case, we believe that the city of Inglewood, California abused the eminent domain as an agent of a billionaire (Steve Ballmer) to build his basketball facilities (Mr. Ballmer’s private business). The local media often reported that the city was almost bankrupt before Mr. Ballmer’s money was infused into the city’s treasury. The media reported that the city received $100 million from Ballmer’s entity and used eminent domain to take our property for Mr. Ballmer’s private business. The value of our property began skyrocketing after the Ram’s So Fi Stadium construction started in late 2016. Mr. Ballmer probably made a substantial gain by using the city to take our property for him.
​I bought a nice concrete warehouse building in 2003 near Los Angeles Airport (‘LAX”) for a long term investment. For the initial 10 to 12 years, my family simply could not find decent commercial tenants due to the safety and security issues. My sons and I spent endless hours to secure and maintain our warehouse building for our tenants. Our building was often broken in and our tenant had to hire a security guard at the gate 24 hour/7 days.
​The city owned many vacant lots in our neighborhood and the city was creating nuisance to the nearby property owners. The homeless often moved into the city owned property. Since we were paying expensive real estate property taxes, I wrote many letters to the city asking to improve the security and clean up the large furniture, toilet bowls, etc. dumped on our front yard. I even asked the city if I could purchase a vacant lot adjacent to my property so that I could secure our warehouse. My letters were often ignored and I received almost no response. Without really knowing the city’s plan, we were simply trying to conduct our leasing business. About the time So Fi Stadium construction began in late 2016, our property became safer and finally we started getting decent commercial tenants. Then, on December 1, 2020, the city sent us an offer letter to buy out our property. We had no desire to sell our property and declined the city’s offer. Two months after their offer to purchase our property, on 1/29/21, the city sent us a 90 day information notice demanding us to vacate our property. The letter stated that “The City of Inglewood is considering the construction of the Inglewood Basketball and Entertainment Center Project. I believe the city was simply acting as an agent of a private sport business for Steve Ballmer or his entity. Again, we didn’t want to sell our property.
​As a fruit of our family’s hard work, we were receiving over $33,000 a month rent from a financially strong tenant until July, 2021. Then, the city evicted our tenant and our warehouse was demolished in or about September, 2021. Our building and rental revenue are gone. We received nothing so far and were sent to a poor house. My family is struggling financially and we cannot pay our legal fees to our eminent domain law office. If our building was taken by the city for public use, we would have felt a little easier. Once the safety issue is gone, our property, located only several miles away from the LAX, would have become such a valuable real estate attracting many commercial tenants. I decided to write this article hoping that a public entity should not be allowed to abuse the eminent domain for a private business.