Bread and Circuses

So you have a house. It’s a small house, 630 square foot. And the land it’s on is nothing special. But your neighbor wants it.

This particular neighbor has some kids he wants to build housing for. One of them has been in trouble with the law. Under indictment for sexually assaulting a 12 year old girl who some of his friends allegedly got intoxicated. She was dropped a block from her home at 6:30 the next morning with bruises on her neck, scratches on her arms and shoulder.

Not exactly the people you want next to you, but it’s a college neighborhood so you make allowances. Your neighbor has money, let’s just say somewhere around $300 million give or take some spare change (you always find some in the couches and these folks have really nice couches). They offered you $50,000, but you knew they had money so you asked for $89,000.

Normally, this would be a standoff. But your neighbor is a major university and they have decided $62,000 will about cover it. So they go to court and take your land under the right of eminent domain which permits the taking of property by government for a public use.

This is where it gets tricky. The public use the University wants to take the land for is to build a $316 million athletic village. Which will not be open to the public. Just to athletes, including the one under indictment. But it’s a public use. Really.

You can see how people might think otherwise. The college president pointed out in a 2005 release that “Our athletic village, which will be built solely with private dollars, will be nothing short of spectacular.”

So you have a public entity using the authority of the state to take land under eminent domain for a project that does not involve any public money and arguably no public good. All for the noble purpose of promoting what is ironically considered amateur athletics, a non-professional activity that (according to the president) pumps $32 million into the local economy annually.

This past week a lot of people have written a lot of words about Michael Vick and wondered how it could have come to pass that a football hero could wind up involved in a sordid case involving allegations of cruelty. How could it happen?

It starts with universities that build $316 million dollar facilities that isolate athletes from the rest of the campus. It begins when an athlete under indictment for sexual assault is brought onto a college campus to play football. And it continues up to the point where a single private donor writes a check for $165 million to fund a facility that consumes a residential neighborhood. In short, it is the old story of tails that wag dogs and the people who stand on the sidelines and watch it all happen.

There are over two million books in the library of the university that tore down the neighborhood to build the $316 million temple to athletics and admitted the player under indictment for sexual assault. Maybe there are even one or two about ethics. Not that anyone in authority will read them.

I haven’t attached the name of the school to this blog. It doesn’t matter. It could be just about any major university that belongs to the NCAA. And if you don’t believe me, I’ll wager you $62,000 that you’re wrong.