Education
Waste of the Day: Texas School District Tried To Take Senior’s Home For Parking
The Aldine Independent School District in Harris County, Texas tried to take a senior’s home for a high-school stadium parking lot.
In the name of building a parking lot, the Aldine Independent School District in Harris County, Texas tried to intimidate a 79-year-old man into selling his home, which his family has owned since 1916.
The school district is spending $50 million to redevelop its high school football stadium, which has parking lots on three sides of the one-acre property where Travis Upchurch’s house sits, Reason Magazine reported. The district has been trying to acquire Upchurch’s property to expand the parking.
Waste of the Day 11.24.23
Open the Books
When Upchurch indicated that he didn’t want to sell his property, the school district hired a third party to send a letter that the district would seize the property using eminent domain if he didn’t agree to a voluntary sale.
Tara Upchurch, Travis’ daughter, said the idea of forcing her father to relocate was terrifying. The family made repeated efforts to work out a deal with the district that would allow the senior citizen to live out his remaining years in the home, but the district seemed set on taking the property as soon as possible, Reason reported.
Then, all of a sudden, the district changed course, saying the property wasn’t necessary for the stadium project and that the district had been concerned about the liability issues of having someone live so close to its construction projects.
Finally, the school board voted to stop efforts to acquire the property.
While Tara Upchurch says that she’s grateful, she doesn’t trust that the school district won’t take up the eminent domain efforts again after the election.
“We don’t put anything past Aldine right now. We are nervous,” she told Reason.
Eminent domain shouldn’t be used to bully old men into leaving their house so that a high school stadium could have a larger parking lot.
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This article was originally published by RealClearInvestigations and made available via RealClearWire.
Adam Andrzejewski (say: Angie-eff-ski) was the CEO/founder of OpenTheBooks.com. Before dedicating his life to public service, Adam co-founded HomePages Directories, a $20 million publishing company (1997-2007). His works have been featured on the BBC, Good Morning America, ABC World News Tonight, C-SPAN, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today, FOX News, CNN, National Public Radio (NPR), Forbes, Newsweek, and many other national media.
Today, OpenTheBooks.com is the largest private repository of U.S. public-sector spending. Mission: post "every dime, online, in real time." In 2022, OpenTheBooks.com captured nearly all public expenditures in the country, including nearly all disclosed federal government spending; 50 of 50 state checkbooks; and 25 million public employee salary and pension records from 50,000 public bodies across America.
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Andrzejewski's federal oversight work was included in the President's Budget To Congress FY2021. The budget cited his organization by name, bullet-pointed their findings, and footnoted/hyperlinked to their report.
Posted on YouTube, Andrzejewski's presentation, The Depth of the Swamp, at the Hillsdale College National Leadership Seminar 2020 in Naples, Florida received 3.8 million views.
Andrzejewski has spoken at the Columbia School of Journalism, Harvard Law School and the law schools at Georgetown and George Washington regarding big data journalism. As a senior policy contributor at Forbes, Adam had nearly 20 million pageviews on 206 published investigations. In 2022, investigative fact-finding on Dr. Fauci's finances led to his cancellation at Forbes.
In 2022, Andrzejewski did 473 live television and radio interviews across broadcast, major cable platforms, and radio shows. Andrzejewski is the author of The Waste of the Day column at Real Clear Policy. The column is syndicated by Sinclair Broadcast Group, owners of nearly 200 ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX affiliates across USA.
Andrzejewski passed away in his sleep at his home in in Hinsdale, Illinois, on August 18, 2024. He is survived by his wife Kerry and three daughters. He also served as a lector at St. Isaac Jogues Catholic Church and finished the Chicago Marathon eight times (PR 3:58.49 in 2022).
Waste of the Day articles published after August 18, 2024 are considered posthumous publications.
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