Owners of Bruce's Beach, once seized from
Black family, to sell land back to L.A. County

California taxpayers fleeced - again!!

This IS a good thing and almost certainly would not have happened were it not for the current political pressure for reparations. I am generally not in favor of rewarding people for the sins committed against others with like skin color two centuries ago. But specific injuries warrant specific remedies. This is one.

A black family in racist America 100 years ago own water front property in California. Hmmmm. Wonder how whitey let that happen. Fact is black families were successful, prosperous and independent of leftist clap trap. That said eminent domain has been a tool used to gain land for public and sometimes private use. I'm thinking their ancestors were paid for the land.

Like many lottery winners, this family will probably spend all the money in a few years.

Eminent domain is used against white people too.

Ditto # 5 the New Deal uprooted families all over Appalachia

Then prosecute all those involved, if they have died dig them up then prosecute and take what is owed FROM their families!!!!

More reparations.

Somewhere I heard that approximately 20 landholders had their adjacent properties taken via eminent domain at that time. The only one that "cashed in" is the black landowner. I have a suspicion on the racial backgrounds of the other landowners and I suspect none of them are black. Now, if the black landowner was paid a lower price for his land than the others (everything else "being equal", there might be a legitimate issue, although the Statute of Limitations obviously had long passed.

I believe this was all set up to provide Democrat politicians a "win". You see, they were never going to be able to develop that land in any shape or fashion, which anyone in CA knows, especially those Democrat politicians taking credit for this exchange. They'd have to get the approval of the City of Manhattan Beach to develop their proposed idea, then they'd have the excruciatingly long process of getting through the Coastal Commission (they successfully delayed a Desalinization plant in Huntington Beach for 30 years where the owners spent around $1 billion trying to develop a much-needed water source for parch SoCal). The Bruce family didn't have those types of resources, so the $20 million will be what they get. Heard there were around 20 family members, so not likely to be the "generational wealth" those same Democrat politicians want to boast now. Another win for the politicians.

FTA: "The seizure of Bruce's Beach nearly a century ago was an injustice inflicted upon not just Willa and Charles Bruce but generations of their descendants who almost certainly would have been millionaires," Horse Hockey. There are literally thousands of beach resorts built in the same time frame that failed and left the owners bankrupt and destitute. Resorts are a harsh, and cyclical, business and the success of fully private ones rareley survive the original founding generation. The odds are that the family would have gone broke with everyone else in the 30's and either sold the land for pennies or had it reposessed by the banks. Beachfront property was not considered valuable back then, it was desolate, had little or no water and could provide no income unless you could somehow land a boat for fishing. you could probably not even get a small kitchen garden to grow. I am all for the restitution here since both victims and oerpetrtors can be pretty clearly identified and there is at least a tenuous connection to those alive today but to call this a "Model" system for reparations is a joke. This a single situation with a very unique set of circumstances. Why are all the other people who lost their land to this same eminent domain action (who also suffered the exact same set of unique circumstances) not also recieving "reparations"?

Under both the U.S. and California constitutions, property may not be taken by the government without payment of "just compensation" for the land as measured by the value of its highest and best potential use. The price paid in condemnation is determined either through negotiation or by a jury at the owner's preference. Bruce's Beach, along with neighboring properties, was acquired by the City of Manhattan Beach through eminent domain in 1924. Although it is alleged that the motivation was racial, a number of the other parcels acquired by the same condemnation action were owned by white families. The purchase price paid for the Bruce parcel was $24,500 (approximately $430,000 in today's dollars). Today's media coverage omits whether the Bruce family negotiated the price or went to trial. (At trial, the jury would hear the testimony of experts from each side. "Highest and best use" is partially a matter of zoning, so whether the subject property is zoned residential, commercial, or open space is critical to valuation. The prices paid for neighboring residential parcels also have not been covered in the press.) The decision by the County and the State Legislature to return land acquired by judgment 100 years ago is, to my knowledge, without precedent. Needless to say, it was a political determination, as the Bruce descendants would have had no standing to appeal the final judgment in the courts 100 years later. Such an appeal would also be time-barred by the statute of limitations.. Hopefully, those attorneys who have announced they will be seeking restoration of property rights to minorities whose ancestors allegedly were affected by long-ago condemnation proceedings will not become a popular cause. You can be sure that the descendants of white families making similar claims will receive no traction in the state legislature.

Forgive the additional post. Manhattan Beach has a population of 35,000. The average home price is $1.5 million. That is partly because of its proximity to the aerospace industry in neighboring El Segundo, as well as because it is easily accessible to downtown Los Angeles and the west side (Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, West Los Angeles, Century City), where the highest-paid professional jobs are clustered. In 1924, it was largely open land with a population of fewer than 2,000. The price of land in Manhattan Beach began to soar in the 1970s. In today's dollars, the nearly half-million price the City paid in 1924 hardly looks like the unfair "seizure" characterized by the press.

They probably got the first tax bill on the land and rushed to sell it.