Suzette Kelo was just trying to rebuild her life when she purchased a falling down Victorian house perched on the waterfront in New London, CT. The house wasn't particularly fancy, but with lots of hard work Suzette was able to turn it into a home that was important to her, a home that represented her new found independence. Little did she know that the City of New London, desperate to revive its flailing economy, wanted to raze her house and the others like it that sat along the waterfront in order to win a lucrative Pfizer pharmaceutical contract that would bring new business into the city. Kelo and fourteen neighbors flat out refused to sell, so the city decided to exercise its power of eminent domain to condemn their homes, launching one of the most extraordinary legal cases of our time, a case that ultimately reached the United States Supreme Court. In Little Pink House, award-winning investigative journalist Jeff Benedict takes us behind the scenes of this case -- indeed, Suzette Kelo speaks for the first time about all the details of this inspirational true story as one woman led the charge to take on corporate America to save her home.
A true-life David versus Goliath story, LITTLE PINK HOUSE turns an eminent domain case (Kelo v. City of New London) into a gripping read, filled with corporate villains and working-class heroes. After leaving her husband, Susette Kelo bought a small cottage in the economically depressed city of New London, Connecticut. Soon after, the city began trying to squeeze and strong-arm her out of her home, to make way for a facility for Pfizer, the pharmaceutical super-corporation. Jeff Benedict recounts the battle with flair and heart, and delicately handles the complex moral questions involved when economic development stampedes the rights of the individual.
- Genre: Freedom + Security / Law Enforcement
- Subgenre: Land Use
- Publisher: Grand Central Pub
- Pages: 356
- Language: English
- Format: paperback
- Release Date: October 30, 2011
- Date Published: April 30, 2013
- Author: Jeff Benedict