City planners beware: the backlash against the Kelo decision continues.

Back before the Kelo decision, Alderman Thomas E. Bauer was pushing a plan for the city to use eminent domain to acquire several commercial properties (from owners who didn’t want to sell) which would then be turned over to a private developer to build a QuikTrip gas station and minimart at the corner of Manchester and McCausland in the Dogtown neighborhood of St. Louis. Dogtown residents didn’t like the use of eminent domain, despite Bauer’s promise that sales taxes from the mart would pay for road-widening. They were concerned that their homes could be next. They instituted a recall against Bauer.

It takes a lot of chutzpah for an alderman to think it’s up to him to decide that a certain corner should be awarded to a certain business firm, existing property owners be damned. And Bauer did not lack for chutzpah. He filed a $2 million defamation suit against five of his critics. After Kelo he accused his political opponents of exploiting the "hysteria over eminent domain", and called them "dissident crazies." (More on the dispute here.)

On Tuesday, in a special election, 60% voted to oust Bauer.

A special election will be held later in the year to fill Bauer’s seat. I happily expect the candidates to outdo one another in their opposition to using eminent domain for private redevelopment.