I was disappointed to read comments from one of the city's eminent domain lawyers, in news coverage marking the 10-year anniversary of Kelo v. New London, that one of his biggest regrets was not hiring a marketing person who could have better sold the public on the idea of the city taking a neighborhood.

It was disappointing because, apparently, all these years later, many of the people involved still just don't understand the depth of the outrage, not just here, but eventually around the country. 

Good public relations was never going to sell people on the concept of taking a neighborhood from people who live there to create what you think of as a better one.

Indeed, the city-empowered agency that took all those homes by eminent domain had lots of paid public relations professionals throughout the takings and it didn't help.

If I were that lawyer I would feel satisfied knowing that I did the legal work I was hired to, that I won a difficult case at the U.S. Supreme Court and that my client's will prevailed. That's what you hire lawyers for.

The Day's thorough coverage of the anniversary this week also reminded me of the excellent work on the issue done 10 years ago by former Day Staff Writer Ted Mann, who, several months after the Kelo decision was announced, reported that the clearing of the historic neighborhood at Fort Trumbull was done because Pfizer asked for it.

Indeed, Mann reported then for the first time that plans for a wholesale makeover of that neighborhood began even before Pfizer said it was coming to New London.

Apparently, clearing the neighborhood was a condition from Pfizer.

Mann interviewed state officials who were involved in the talks in which Pfizer demanded a better neighborhood around its new office park.

He also uncovered from public records a 1997 sketch by Pfizer's design firm for the pharmaceutical company's planned New London facility. Labeled a "vision statement," it illustrated how the existing neighborhood could be replaced with a "high end residential district."

Mann quoted sources who said it was clear in negotiations with Pfizer about their developing in the city that eminent domain would be needed to clear some of the properties around the proposed new office center.

And yet Pfizer, even right before Mann's reporting appeared, continued to deny that it had anything to do with the taking of homes in Fort Trumbull by eminent domain.

It was former Gov. John Rowland, the enabler for all the state bond money that made the Fort Trumbull transformation possible, who said from the start that clearing the neighborhood was the deal, Mann reported.

"They wanted a good quality of life," Rowland said in 1998 about Pfizer's intentions in New London. "So they wanted to know what was going to happen to the surrounding property. It was an easy sell once they saw what was going to happen."

And then, of course, Pfizer eventually left town, despite the state spending as much as $160 million to bring them here. They left practically the same time the generous tax abatements expired.

Of course there is a lot more blame to go around these many years later. I do think that many of the people who signed off on the deal thought they were doing the right thing for the future of the city, however misguided that may have been.

It didn't sound, from Staff Writer Colin Young's recent interview with Susette Kelo about the loss of her pink house, that she is ready to forgive. I don't blame her.

On the other hand, the inclination to move on, an instinct which seems to prevail in the city, seems healthy.

The only shameful Fort Trumbull-related behavior I've seen lately comes from Mayor Daryl Finizio, who seems determined to use the issue for his own self-serving political purposes.

Oddly, he blames his opponent in the current mayoral race for the fact that he failed to keep his own campaign promise to abolish the agency behind eminent domain. Indeed, Finizio hired and put in his administration big supporters of eminent domain.

Kelo, in her interview, just about spat on the mayor's misguided notion to make her old house lot into a park. She obviously took it for the stunt it was.

The city is so badly mismanaged, she said, it can't even take care of the parks it already has.

This is the opinion of David Collins

d.collins@theday.com

Twitter: @DavidCollinsct