Housing + Eminent Domain: New Research on Kelo v New London
Photograph courtesy The Day.
Francine S. Romero, professor of public administration at the University of Texas at San Antonio, will discuss her recent book Not for Sale: Kelo v. New London and the Modern Debate over Eminent Domain (2026). Through legal scholarship and first-hand accounts, the author reexamines one of the most notorious chapters in New London history, showing how the city became the site and symbol for a national property rights movement at the turn of the millennium.
FREE.
“Kelo v. New London was a rare United States Supreme Court decision that sent shock waves through American society. In Not for Sale, Francine Romero tells an engrossing tale of how the fate of one little pink house engaged the nation in an epic battle over how to define the public interest—whether as the responsibility to do anything to redevelop an economically struggling city or instead, to safeguard the unassailable property rights of a homeowner. This is the best treatment of the ongoing controversy over eminent domain that I have ever read.”
—Lizabeth Cohen, author of Saving America’s Cities: Ed Logue and the Struggle to Renew Urban America in the Suburban Age
“An engaging account of one indomitable small city’s tumultuous turn on the national stage, with a welcome focus on the local. The book deftly weaves legal scholarship with historical narrative to present events and issues in their full ‘no easy lessons’ complexity.”
—Anna Vallye, editor of Urban Renewal and Highway Construction in New London, 1941–1975
“The Supreme Court’s Kelo decision in 2005, resulting in the bulldozing of an entire neighborhood to make way for a fancy new development project that never materialized, outraged Americans of every political stripe. Francine Romero’s fine new book, revisiting the controversial 5–4 ruling twenty years later, lays out the complex legal issues as well as the heartbreaking human issues. It’s the no-win story of a dying New England city trying desperately to reinvent itself economically versus homeowners of modest means who wanted only to stay where they were in the neighborhood they loved.”
—Charlotte Allen, author of The Weekly Standard article “‘Kelo‘ Revisited”
Speakers
-
Francine S. Romero
Professor of Public Administration, University of Texas at San Antonio
Dr. Francine Romero received her Ph.D. and M.A. in Political Science from the University of California, Riverside, and a B.A. in Political Science from California State University, San Bernardino. A New Jersey native, she has lived in San Antonio with her husband David for almost 30 years. As a scholar, she has focused on the institutional determinants of public policy, with an emphasis on land use. In addition to numerous publications in academic journals, she is a frequent contributor to Planning Magazine, published by the American Planning Association.
Dr. Romero was selected as the Northwest Quadrant Trustee for City Public Service Energy (CPSE) Board of Trustees in the Fall of 2021 and in January 2025 was elected Chair of this governance board of the largest gas and electric public utility in the United States. This continues her record of public service to the community, which includes past terms on the City of San Antonio Planning Commission, Zoning Commission, and Charter Review Commission. She also recently ended a 15-year term as Chair of the city’s Conservation Advisory Board, which guides purchases of land and conservation easements through the Edwards Aquifer Protection Program.