RIP, Neild Oldham: The Man Who May Have Forced the Kelo Settlement

The original obituary of Neild Oldham is in the New London Day, where it will only be accessible without a paid subscription for a short while. Fortunately, it is also available at the Some Things Considered blog. Don’t fail to read it.

Mr. Oldham’s name appears at three posts (here, here, and here) relating to what became known around here as Kelo Crunch Time, the period during mid-2006 when it appeared that the City of New London would exercise its newly-minted Supreme Court-granted power of eminent domain to evict and impose an onerous settlement on Susette Kelo and the remaining Fort Trumbull holdouts.

What Oldham did during Crunch Time may very well have been what forced New London’s recalcitrant City Council to negotiate with Connecticut Governor Jodi Rell after it had previously refused.

Council had voted to begin initiating the eviction process when Oldham and his Coalition to Save the Fort Trumbull Neighborhood, in a space of less than 2 weeks, gathered and submitted 586 signatures (over 200 more than needed) to call a voter referendum on whether the properties of the final holdouts should be taken. Though I doubt you’ll ever get them to admit it, I think it is very likely that because they knew that the petitions would be ruled valid, that the desired referendum would therefore be held, and that the city would almost certainly lose badly at the ballot box, Council decided to bargain again with Governor Rell, leading to the ultimate settlement.

I read Oldham’s obituary and came away with this thought: What a piece of work. And though we certainly would not have seen eye to eye on every issue, that’s meant as a compliment. I must believe that he is dearly missed.