This is a partial transcript from “Hannity & Colmes,” December 7, 2005, that has been edited for clarity.
SEAN HANNITY, CO-HOST: I’m Sean Hannity, reporting live tonight from Riviera Beach, Florida.
Now Riviera Beach is a harbor city. It’s located along the shores of the Atlantic Ocean. It is right here that the developers and local officials want to displace as many as 6,000 residents to make room for a 400-acre site that would be turned into a waterfront yachting and residential and condo complex.
Now for the next half hour, we’re going to introduce you to many of the residents of this community who fear that they may lose their homes in what is being called by many some of the largest eminent domain case in the entire country.
Now, we’re also going to speak to the mayor who I had a confrontation with earlier tonight, and we’re going to show you that video in just a few minutes. But earlier today we took a tour of this neighborhood, and we asked the residents what they think about the growing controversy. Let’s take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARTHA BABSON, RIVIERA BEACH RESIDENT: When we bought the house, the fact that I can see the Intercoastal Waterway down at the end of the street, that I can go to the beach, that it’s Florida, that it’s warm and I can grow my tropical plants, I’m in love with it. And I thought how blessed I was to be able to live here for the rest of my life. Obviously, I’m like the Indians, and the white man wants my land.
CHRIS BIE, RIVIERA BEACH RESIDENT: When we got married, we knew that we wanted to live here and we wanted to put roots down here. I was born and raised here. And we just always loved this area. This was the last area of old Florida. And it’s been vanishing. So we decided to raise our family here and put our roots down.
NICKI BIE, RIVIERA BEACH RESIDENT: What are we going to get for leaving? We’re going to get — we’re not going to get this quality of life. We’re literally blocks away from the Intercoastal. We’re about a mile away from the ocean. And what are they going to give us for that? It will never be comparable.
PRINCESS WELLS, RIVIERA BEACH RESIDENT: My husband painstakingly did everything in this, the plumbing and everything, the dry wall. He did everything. And to know that we are going to lose what he has built for us and our family for the rest of our life is a very, very disconcerting thing. We can’t believe that this can happen here in America. Anywhere else, but not in America.
We have so many kids that are losing their lives to keep America safe and everything, and to know that they’re going to and taking peoples’ property here while we have young kids dying to protect us is really, really very sad.
JACQUIE LORIOL, RIVIERA BEACH RESIDENT: When we read this is a blighted community, that — that hurts. That hurts the self-esteem. That hurts our — even how we react to our own grandchildren, our children.
AL LORIOL, RIVIERA BEACH RESIDENT: It’s devastating. It’s — not only just because we raised our children and grandchildren here, it’s this was my parents’ home before. So you know, there’s memories there. But you know, they say memories can only be in the heart and in the mind, but I mean, you take a look around and you see what was done inside the home that my father did or my mother did, and you know, it brings back memories.
And being here, we’re still as a family, so to speak. Not only spiritually, but, you know, we just feel safe here. We feel comfortable. And, you know, this is our home. If we wanted to be somewhere else in this city, we would have moved there 31 years ago.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HANNITY: Joining us now, Rene and David Corie, and they live right here in Riviera Beach, Florida. They are fighting to keep their home. And by the way, it’s a beautiful home, as are a lot of the homes. When you hear that your home is a blighted — in a blighted area, what do you think?
DAVID CORIE, RIVIERA BEACH RESIDENT: I feel like it’s not blighted. I know we do have hurricane damage and stuff, repairs that need to be done. But there’s no way in the world it’s blighted.
HANNITY: Is that just the government’s way of saying, “We want your home and property and we don’t really care what it looks like”?
D. CORIE: I think so. Yes, it is.
HANNITY: Are you worried you’re going to lose your home?
RENE CORIE, RIVIERA BEACH RESIDENT: Of course, we are. It’s come to the point that someone with more money and power has the right to just come in and take your home from you.
HANNITY: Yes.
ALAN COLMES, CO-HOST: Quickly, it’s Alan in New York. You can get a letter of acquisition at any time. Isn’t that true? And you’ve ignored them so far, but you stand to get asked to leave at any moment, right?
D. CORIE: Yes.
R. CORIE: I have received a letter of acquisition, and it did expire. We can receive another one at any time.
HANNITY: Listen, we’re going to hear from a lot of your neighbors in just a few minutes. And you guys were here just moments ago when I had a confrontation with the mayor.
R. CORIE: Yes.
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