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CBS News
18-03-2025
- General
- CBS News
San Jose mayor pushing for eminent domain use on abandoned church
San Jose's mayor is proposing a legal battle to buy back a dilapidated, historical church left abandoned for years after a failed restoration plan. Matt Mahan asked the city attorney to pursue eminent domain over First Church of Christ, Scientist, a move that would allow the city to buy the property back from the current owners, Z and L Properties. The church was built in 1905 and passed through a series of hands before shuttering completely in the 2000s. Chinese property developers, Z and L Properties, purchased the lot in 2014 with the intent to preserve the church and build two high-rise towers next to it. Plans for renovations never started and the building, exposed to rain, heat and winter weather, began to fall apart. Locals who walk past the crumbling structure often told CBS News Bay Area that deterioration was sad to witness. Pamela Dibattista said she wants to see the building restored. "It's part of San Jose's history," Dibattista said eyeing the church. "It's a beautiful structure. It should be, you know, alive and vibrant and being put to good use." Under city ownership, a new developer could buy the site and continue the original plan for the lot. Mahan said converting it to housing is still a priority. "My big concern is there's just been no willingness on the part of the company to take responsibility," Mahan said. The city fined Z and L properties up to $100,000 for blight, which is the limit for base code enforcement violations. But the mayor told KPIX none of those fines were ever paid. "The lack of movement has led me to believe that we need to take legal action," he said. CBS News Bay Area covered the church's decline over the last couple of years. In 2023, a San Jose contractor and his crews took it upon themselves to remove the scaffolding and tarp, with the hope that exposing the holes in the stucco and the rotting wood would spur the city to take action. It's unclear how much it will cost San Jose to buy this church. The city council will consider the proposal for an eminent domain proceeding at its meeting this week.
Atlantic
09-02-2025
- General
- Atlantic
Jasmine Clarke for The Atlantic Poem Jethro's Corner A poem for Sunday By Reginald Dwayne Betts February 9, 2025, 12 PM ET Share Save
I Maps The corner of Ashmun & Grove & the sometimes When the only evidence is a map; the disappearing English of old: plat, a funky word that exists most In memory, meant to make a plan or map of; To draw to scale; to plot. A man who cannot read coordinates can still plot On his freedom. Imagine a rectangle on the oldest Map in these nine squares of geography Once called a wilderness. Quinnipiac Pequot Paugussett To plot freedom is to leave the words that matter Written across everything you own that matters, As in leave the names that your loves call you All the places that you traverse. As in, to name is to announce worthy of remembrance. II Property Some evidence of this life is always measured By the weight of La Llorona's weeping. Jethro Jethro Jethro Jethro Jethro Jethro Jethro Jethro owed his name. Left This world owed his name. Who enters heaven Owed their name? Who enters nameless? Historical Catalogue of the Members of the First Church of Christ in New Haven, Connecticut, A.D. 1639–1914 Compiled by Franklin Bowditch Dexter CATALOGUE OF MEMBERS, 1726–28 May 15. 875. Patience Mix (John) Alling *May, 1786 Daughter of Caleb and Mary (494); born March, 1699; wife of 1052. 876. Mary Atwater (Isaac) Dickerman *17— Daughter of 421 and 338; born Dec., 1686; wife of 605. 877. Experience Perkins (David) Gilbert *May, 1748 Daughter of David and Deliverance (354); born Dec., 1699; wife of 1111. 878. Jethro Luke (colored) *1760–61 Franklin knew his name enough to count Him more than 3/5ths, To list his surname & call him colored, To be counted & named, the fourth member Whose lineage included a slave ship. The first non-European with a surname listed, From an old English variant that sounds like luck, Or happenstance, which in the land of cotton is a variant For the word irony, for deliverance, think Luke Of the Gospel, Luke the liberator, Luke as English variant of Lucas, Lucius, bright, light For a plot listed in the corner of a map. Jethro Luke was colored, cast in shadows Of manacles—or, in the parlance Of Marx & Pareto: Jethro was owed, Left owning little, beyond whatever he held When his eyes searched the freedom of a night sky: Brown coat … old great Coat … brown Jacket … white Jacket, 1 check shirt … black stocking … old ax … small tongs … old gun barrel … great Bible … 8 round bottles … candle stick … old mare … pair of oxen … plow share III Freedom Is one way to name this story. Sometimes only maps be evidence. In 1748, a corner mark confesses: Jethro a Black man farmer. Corner of Ashmun & Grove, a small city park Cradling the Grove Street cemetery, & all the freedom not permitted to rest there— Jethro Ruth Mindwell Sampson Betty Joe Jinny Mingo Sanders Sabina Sibyl Phyllis Dinah Pero Sume Pompey Gad Rose Rhoda Phyllis Pompey Williams Newport Amasa Silva Cesar Rose Cato Leah Socoro Peter Alice Little George Jack York Pressey Polly Cesar Peter Simeon Joseph Bristol Nando Jeff Congo Pompey Benjamin Cuff Phillis Sharper Rogers Jack David Gardiner Dinah Bet Alling Jack Geff Ruben Ruth Cambridge Cuff Edwards Amy Belfast Fowler Primus Tim Lenard Eli Harry Sue Daggett Gain Amey Joe Place Jane Cesar Jin Daniel Thomas.
