Charlie Birnbaum,68, and his Atlantic City house
[From article]
The home, an aging but well-kept relic of Atlantic City's once-thriving past, is owned by 68-year-old Charlie Birnbaum, who has worked as a piano tuner for local casinos for more than 30 years.
Since 2012, his property has been the target of a state agency that aims to use eminent domain to demolish his three-story property to build a yet-to-be-announced tourism village the state says will revitalize the economically struggling area.[. . .]
In 2011, the New Jersey state Legislature passed a law granting the CRDA to clear and build a space that would support the much-anticipated Revel Hotel and Casino, a towering $2.4 billion structure on the north end of the city's boardwalk that, at the time, represented new hope for the struggling city. The investment didn't pay off.
By 2014, the Revel and three other major Atlantic City casinos shut down. This year, an investor bought up the property for a fraction of the cost, but the casino's future still remains uncertain.
[. . .]
In November, a Superior Court judge ruled in favor of the state, saying that the CRDA had authority to seize the property by paying a fair market price. The judge has still not responded to a motion to reconsider the ruling filed by Birnbaum's attorney, which has allowed him to remain there for the time being.
[. . .]
Birnbaum's parents were Holocaust survivors who met while hiding in the forests of Poland. Both of their prior spouses had been killed by the Nazis. They fled to an American-controlled part of Germany, where Charlie Birnbaum was born in 1947, and eventually made it to the United States.
The family had a talent for music, so they moved to Pennsylvania to study piano, where Birnbaum, a prodigy, played a concerto in the Philadelphia Orchestra at age 11. When their Philadelphia home was condemned, they moved out of the city, a decision Birnbaum said sparked symptoms of depression for his mother. As an undergraduate, he suffered a breakdown that led to a failed suicide attempt.
Seeking greener pastures, the family moved to the home near the beach in Atlantic City.
[. . .]
his mother and a caretaker were beaten to death by a drug addict inside the home.
[. . .]
Birnbaum, who lives with his wife in nearby Hammonton, has relied on the property as the base of his piano-tuning business to house his tools, and for rest between shifts. (CRDA's attorney has pointed to the fact that he doesn't live in the home as partial justification for the eminent domain.) But Birnbaum said that it doesn't matter whether he lives in it or not.
"People all their life are looking for a special place to be. Well, I have it in this place,"
http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/11/politics/chris-christie-eminent-domain-new-jersey/index.html
This man won't let New Jersey take his home
By Chris Moody
[From article]
The home, an aging but well-kept relic of Atlantic City's once-thriving past, is owned by 68-year-old Charlie Birnbaum, who has worked as a piano tuner for local casinos for more than 30 years.
Since 2012, his property has been the target of a state agency that aims to use eminent domain to demolish his three-story property to build a yet-to-be-announced tourism village the state says will revitalize the economically struggling area.[. . .]
In 2011, the New Jersey state Legislature passed a law granting the CRDA to clear and build a space that would support the much-anticipated Revel Hotel and Casino, a towering $2.4 billion structure on the north end of the city's boardwalk that, at the time, represented new hope for the struggling city. The investment didn't pay off.
By 2014, the Revel and three other major Atlantic City casinos shut down. This year, an investor bought up the property for a fraction of the cost, but the casino's future still remains uncertain.
[. . .]
In November, a Superior Court judge ruled in favor of the state, saying that the CRDA had authority to seize the property by paying a fair market price. The judge has still not responded to a motion to reconsider the ruling filed by Birnbaum's attorney, which has allowed him to remain there for the time being.
[. . .]
Birnbaum's parents were Holocaust survivors who met while hiding in the forests of Poland. Both of their prior spouses had been killed by the Nazis. They fled to an American-controlled part of Germany, where Charlie Birnbaum was born in 1947, and eventually made it to the United States.
The family had a talent for music, so they moved to Pennsylvania to study piano, where Birnbaum, a prodigy, played a concerto in the Philadelphia Orchestra at age 11. When their Philadelphia home was condemned, they moved out of the city, a decision Birnbaum said sparked symptoms of depression for his mother. As an undergraduate, he suffered a breakdown that led to a failed suicide attempt.
Seeking greener pastures, the family moved to the home near the beach in Atlantic City.
[. . .]
his mother and a caretaker were beaten to death by a drug addict inside the home.
[. . .]
Birnbaum, who lives with his wife in nearby Hammonton, has relied on the property as the base of his piano-tuning business to house his tools, and for rest between shifts. (CRDA's attorney has pointed to the fact that he doesn't live in the home as partial justification for the eminent domain.) But Birnbaum said that it doesn't matter whether he lives in it or not.
"People all their life are looking for a special place to be. Well, I have it in this place,"
http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/11/politics/chris-christie-eminent-domain-new-jersey/index.html
This man won't let New Jersey take his home
By Chris Moody
CNN Senior Digital Correspondent
Video by Alex Rosen, CNN
Updated 10:21 AM ET, Sat June 13, 2015
Updated 10:21 AM ET, Sat June 13, 2015
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