A Beaverton resident, Robert A. Hansen, submitted a letter to the editor of the NY Times Sunday Magazine section in response to their cover story dated 17 April 2005, “Toward an Unregulated America”. His letter was accepted and will be published in the May 1 issue with, of course, the necessary editing to ensure brevity and clarity.

The following is the letter.

To the Editor:

In his article “Towards an Unregulated America”, Jeffrey Rosen asserts
that libertarians are attempting to use the courts to win victories they
can’t win at the ballot box. In case he didn’t notice last November,
voters in Oregon overwhelmingly passed Ballot Measure 37, which
specified that an owner of private real property is entitled to receive
just compensation from the government when a land use regulation is
enacted, if the regulation restricts the use of the property and reduces
its fair market value. The government jurisdiction in question has the
option to pay the owner an amount equal to the reduction in value, or
they can choose to waive or change the regulation(s) in question.

We won fair and square at the ballot box. If such a measure can pass
here in Oregon, then there’s hope everywhere. Our time is coming.

Robert Hansen

While I like the idea of measure 37, I voted against measure 37 for reasons you can read about here.

The Big O has a series of reports concerning measure 37.

I dislike linking to the Big O because of link rot. Once something is in the archives, it’s lost forever.

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2. Heir Days: Hilton Hotels, New York Times Scions Cycle Through Portland
3. New York Times on PDX: A “Nice” Town
4. Strip Club Regulation Might Be on the Ballot
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