A Judge has ruled that Galveston County can seize the popular fishing spot, Roll Over Pass, on Bolivar Peninsula. Closing it and Giving it the Go Ahead to make a "Park". BOHICA Recreational Fisherman.....which includes The Young, the Elders, and the Handicapped.
Due to the causing of severe erosion and affects Marine Life in Galveston Bay,not only the Millions spent each year for dredging. The Gulf Coast Rod,Reel,and Gun Club owns the property and has been given 7 days to vacate the premises.

I'm for shutting it down. Very trashy area, I was so excited to go to years ago, but when I got there...huge disappointment. Nasty place. There other great places to fish in Galveston.

it's a lot better now than it was before Ike. not near as much BS goin on, and much cleaner. I've been hearing about this closing for a couple years now, that it was a done thing, but it's still there. we'll see. Remember the real old days with the old bridge?

It was combat fishing at it's finest.

The couple of times I went, trash everywhere, few years back....

The "pass" has been opened by mother nature more than once in history. They "built" the pass finally to make it more visitor friendly. They never planned it correctly with long jettys extending out to keep the sediment from washing through the pass so bad. Simply poor planning on engineers part and they did not plan it to be maintained for many years like it has been.
It will not hurt the fishing in the area but there will be less "big fish" in the bay area behind it after they close becasue the big fish would have to enter the Galveston jetties and make their way to Rollover.
I didn't mind it being there and thought it was great for people with no boats or less money or handicapped for fishing. But people will be people and trash the area. You need people to maintain it daily like SWP. If they were fix it and charge it would be better AND they would have money to dredge or other maintenance issues with the amount of people that fish there daily.
As it is, they will close it, fill it in, build a park with piers that wont catch fish becasue there is nothing there for them to be there as the pass is now closed, and then the next storm will wipe it out and open the pass again naturally.
I love mother nature. She can make man miserable at times...hehe

That pass was never a "natural" pass. Mother nature had nothing to do with it. It was built by man and never should have been.

Wrong. Look at the history for that area. It was closed when they used to roll barrels of spirits across to load them in another boat but it was opened by Mother Nature a couple of times over history. Check your facts.

if closed it would hurt the tourism, about the only means of income in the area and from all i've learned could have a pretty bad effect on the booming oyster business in East Bay by changing the salinity of the bay. i believe it has been opened naturally a couple times in the past by storms. one of the biggest problems with it is the erosion it causes to beach front property on either side of it. if you've ever waded the surf around there, you'll know how strong the out going tide ebb effect is.

Argue the merits of the pass being there if you will, but what we're seeing is a land grab by a government entity of legally owned private property. This is about nothing but money (as things these days always are), with no effort put into how they might otherwise be able to deal with the problems of erosion. Like said above, putting in some jetties would help emmensly but that isn't even being considered.

Whether or not you agree with filling in the pass, the way all this is going down is simply wrong, therefore I disagree with it happening.

Is the judge requiring that Texas compensate the property owners?

My understanding is, the whole deal is now on hold until an agreed valuation of the property is reached. The problem here is, the owners of the property do not want to sell at all, never did. The state is pushing this starting with, you guessed it, someone with the last name Bush. They are forcing a sale against the owner's will.

You must realize that government implements and defines concept of ownership. So, basically when you own land it means that:
- government protects your rights as owner
- government defines your rights as owner
- and as part of that definition government reserves right to seize (in exchange for fair compensation) any land you may own

Basically, government backs your owner rights in exchange of certain things. And eminent domain is one of them.

First. Private property is a myth. It was abolished when property taxes were imposed. Stop paying your rent (property taxes) you will find out who owns the property. In many cases you dont even own the improvements you paid for, say your house because you pay taxes on it.

Second. I hate it. However, it is how things work just like C.M. said.

Third. Dont start a civil war just yet, I am not ready to sacrifice the lives of my children for this matter of principle. (just to make sure we keep a big picture perspective)

Fourth. You can make good arguments for eminent domain, but I think the government has taken way to many liberties with it.

> First. Private property is a myth. It was abolished when property taxes were imposed.

:-) Well before that. In fact, if you check the history -- you never had it:
- americans started as subjects of european kings -- coming into new world as serfs of their rulers, massacring indians and taking their land. Guess what -- those kings owned lands early americans took from natives
- then yoke of king's rule was replaced with yoke of local government. There might have been a short transition period where land was really yours -- as in you can have it as long as you can defend it. But it was quickly fixed as government gained power through popular support from populace.

The only way to actually own anything in this world -- is to be able to defend it from anybody. Which is possible if you are sitting on a nuclear bomb, for example. Even better if you have means of delivery.

Sorry for popping your cherry...