Today we will begin covering covenants, and spend most of the class of Village of Euclid v. Ambler Realty.

The lecture notes are here and the live chat is here.

Here is the text of the 5th Amendment:

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

Here is the text of the Section 1 of the 14th Amendment:

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

This diagram will be helpful to explain Euclid.

As best I can tell, the lot is currently bounded by E 196th St and E 204th St, between Euclid Avenue and the train tracks.

Here is the map.

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It seems to be some kind of business park today. Here are some photographs of what the lot looks like today, courtesy of Michael Alan Wolf.

And in case you were wondering (I know you were!) what the Supreme Court looked like in 1926, here it is:

Chief Justice William Howard Taft Associate Justices Oliver W. Holmes, Jr. Willis Van Devanter James C. McReynolds Louis D. Brandeis George Sutherland Pierce Butler Edward T. Sanford Harlan Fiske Stone

Here is some information about Houston’s lack of zoning.

• Changing the plans America’s oil capital is throwing up a few environmental surprises
• Zoning Without Zoning
• Houston, New York Has A Problem (bonus for finding the reference to where I went to high school)
• Land Use in the Unzoned City
• How Overregulation Creates Sprawl (Even in a City without Zoning) – pp. 1-15
• Four Land Vignettes From (Unzoned?) Houston – pp. 1-9, 25-28

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There was massive opposition to the site, which will be completed in Spring 2014 at Bissonnet and Ashby, north of Rice University.

Also, here is a graph that illustrates how eminent domain takings focus on areas of minorities and those with low education. It will be relevant to our discussion on zoning.

Here is a February 2013 Houston Chronicle article on mobility in Houston, based on a Texas A&M report:

• $1,090: Cost to each commuter in Houston, due to congestion, in lost time and fuel.
• 23: Gallons of fuel wasted in 2011, per motorist, in the Houston area because of congestion.
• 5.75: Hours daily that Houston is a “rush hour” commute pattern.
• 6: Houston’s rank for having the nation’s most stressful commute.
• 81.9 million: Number of unlinked public transportation trips, a 20 percent decrease from 2006.

Washington D.C. is ranked with the worst traffic in America,followed by Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York.

Here is a good comparison of New York City & Waco.