The liberal Village Voice and I agree: the New York Times’ real estate dealings stink. Journalist Paul Moses reports:

When The New York Times and Forest City Ratner Companies open their grand new office building on Eighth Avenue, it won’t have a Taco Bell, McDonald’s, Wendy’s, or Nathan’s, because they are specifically forbidden under terms of a land deal with the state. But a Starbucks or Cosi would be just fine.

The lease, which is on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission, also bars renting space in the 52-story building for “a school or classroom or juvenile or adult day care or drop-in center.” It forbids “medical uses, including without limitation, hospital, medical, or dental offices, agencies, or clinics.” It gives the New York Times Company “the sole and absolute discretion” to reject United Nations or foreign-government offices, including any “considered controversial” or that are potentially the focus of demonstrations. It bans any “employment agency (other than executive-search firms) or job training center” and auction houses, “provided, however, the foregoing shall not apply to high-end auction houses specializing in art and historical artifacts.” Discount stores are forbidden. And the deal bars “a welfare or social-services office, homeless shelter or homeless assistance center, court or court-related facility.”

In fact, any government office is excluded from the building if it would attract people who arrive “without appointment.”

Lease restrictions that exclude the public may not be unusual in luxury office buildings, but there is an irony in this case. The Pataki administration, acting on behalf of the New York Times Company, condemned the property for a so-called “public purpose.” This is the standard the Fifth Amendment sets for the state to invoke the immense power of eminent domain.

At one time, “public purpose” usually meant a highway, bridge, or utility service—something the public was actually allowed to use. But now it’s routine for the courts to declare it a “public purpose” for the state to seize privately owned land so that another private owner can erect a very private office building where the public can’t even buy an inexpensive taco. In this case, the services many New Yorkers most need—health, education, job placement—are officially locked out of a building that will be heavily subsidized by city taxpayers…

Background on the newspaper’s publicly-funded land grab –dubbed Time$cam by locals–here.
Jacob Sullum connected the dots between the Times’ deal and its cheerleading for the property rights-undermining Kelo decision here.

Speaking of Kelo, word is spreading about this outrageous action against the 7 homeowners in New London. And Ken Masugi reports that there’s a move in Sacramento to ban Kelo-style eminent domain seizures.

Don’t think you’ll be reading about it you-know-where.