When Public Land Leaves Public Hands: Values Embedded in Municipal Land Disposition Law.

In the wake Of multiple economic crises, many local governments across the country have resorted to selling off their real property. At the same time, advocates and social movements are increasingly calling for municipalities to use publicly-owned land to advance spatial justice in cities-for instance, to develop affordable housing, parks, and other public resources, Brewing conflicts over local land suggest the need to better understand the law that underlies municipal land disposition. In this Note, I survey the tapestry of state and local laws that govern land disposition in fifteen large American cities, and catalogue the values embedded within these laws. I conclude by proposing a pair of new and potentially overriding "stewardship" values that should guide the disposition process, in an effort to countervail privatization and urban inequality in the country's major metropolitan areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]