History Main / CommunityThreateningConstruction

** This was recycled in one of ''Series/MadTV'''s many ''Sesame Street'' parodies, in which Donald Trump himself (actually Frank Caliendo) becomes new best friends with Gordon, and evicts the residents of the Street so he can build "the most lavish, luxurious, opulent, extravagant Starbucks ever known to man."

* ''Radio/OurMissBrooks'': At the beginning of the 1955-1956 season of the television series, [[CanonDiscontinuity and ''only'' in the television series]], Madison High School is abruptly closed and ordered demolished by Los Angeles City Council. The episode, "Transition Show", sets up Miss Brooks and Mr. Conklin's move to working at Mrs. Nestor's Private Elementary School. This not only changed the location of the school, but without explanation dropped the EverytownAmerica setting of the small city of Madison. This development was unique to the television series. The radio series continued to produce new episodes set at Madison High School. The [[GrandFinale concluding]] [[TheMovie 1956 theatrical film]] pointedly had Miss Brooks at Madison High School. [[spoiler: Miss Brooks finally marries her longtime beau Mr. Boynton and lives HappilyEverAfter.]]

* ''VideoGame/DiscoElysium'': Defied; Evard Claire plans to build a community center across the river from Martinaise, and one of his tasks for The Detective is to have you hand out consent forms to the villagers of a nearby fishing village to make sure they know about it beforehand and that it won't be an issue for them. [[spoiler:Played straight in that Evard knows the noise and traffic from constructing the center is likely to make the village unlivable for its inhabitants -- in fact, he's counting on it because it means he can buy the whole thing for cheap when the villagers inevitably want to move away. If The Detective catches on to this, he has the option of sabotaging the construction by faking the signatures on the consent forms and giving the villagers a legal out if they try stopping it.]]

* ''VideoGame/LoveAndPies'': In the Rival Season Pass, Edwina destroys Appleton's historic gatehouse to build Global {{Megacorp}} [=MegaWarehouse=] under her father's contract, and Amelia has to help Mayor Mei rebuild the gatehouse.

* ''VideoGame/LoveAndPies'': In the Rival Pass Season, Edwina destroys Appleton's historic gatehouse to build Global {{Megacorp}} [=MegaWarehouse=] under her father's contract, and Amelia has to help Mayor Mei rebuild the gatehouse.

-->-- '''Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz''', ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy''

* ''Series/CasteloRaTimBum'' had a villain named Dr. Abobrinha who always wanted to demolish the castle (the show's main setting) to build a 100-floor building in its place.

Compare PredatoryBusiness, GreenAesop, SavingTheOrphanage, RailroadPlot and ChildhoodMemoryDemolitionTeam for similar conflicts, but different victims.

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* Canada was not immune either. The African-Canadian community of Africville in Halifax was wiped out by construction of an access ramp to a new cross-harbour bridge, while the (by then) majority-Chinese neighborhood of The Ward in Toronto was wiped out to make way for the new city hall and public square.

* In the movie ''Used Cars'', the planned freeway ramp doesn't threaten the community but does provide the MacGuffin which the plot revolves around.
* In ''Honky Tonk Freeway'' (1981), a small town in Florida is threatened with disaster when the new freeway is constructed and the town does not get an off-ramp. After various stunts to attract visitors, the townspeople eventually blow up the freeway.

Compare PredatoryBusiness, RealEstateScam, GreenAesop, SavingTheOrphanage, RailroadPlot and ChildhoodMemoryDemolitionTeam for similar conflicts, but different victims.

* ''WesternAnimation/BigCityGreens'': The Greens' farmhouse is threatened to be destroyed multiple times by Chip Whistler starting in Season 2, who wants to run them out of Big City after blaming them for ruining his reputation with Wholesome Foods. The first time he almost did this, Keys interfered and he hit part of the roof instead; near the end of said season, he plots to demolish it and turn it into Wholesome Foods property, which could end all legacy that came with it if the family doesn't fight back to save it.

̈́* The Prefect Georges Haussmann's [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haussmann%27s_renovation_of_Paris rebuilding project of Paris]] under Napoleon III. Basically the whole Medieval Paris was destroyed to make room for new streets and avenues. Compared to other capitals of Europe, Paris has very few buildings which are older than 150 years.

* The ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnoldTheMovie'' which has the residents of Arnold's neighbourhood banding together ([[HeelFaceTurn although some later than others]]) to prevent the neighbourhood from being razed and turned into a mall by a CorruptCorporateExecutive named Scheck. This includes Arnold and Gerald going into a quest to find documents that show that the neighbourhood has historical significance.

* In ''Film/DennisTheMenaceDinosaurHunter'', Dennis finds a dinosaur bone in his front yard which brings so much publicity that an amusement park is planned for their neighborhood. Unforunately, said amusement park, Dino Land, means the Mitchells and their neighbors would have their whole neighborhood torn down.

* In ''Literature/{{Roadwork}}'', a Creator/StephenKing novel published under his Richard Bachman pen name, Barton George Dawes learns that his neighborhood and workplace are scheduled for demolition, to make room for an interstate highway extension. Dawes has a mental breakdown and can't bring himself to leave. [[spoiler:At the end, he wires his house with explosives, gets into a gun fight with the police who try to evict him, then blows up the house while he's still inside.]] The real twist of the knife? The highway extension was ''completely unecessary'', the city just needed to build a certain amount of road every year to qualify for federal road funding, making the whole book a ShaggyDogStory.

* In the ScrewballComedy play ''Theatre/YouCantTakeItWithYou'' (and its film adaptation), Mr Kirby, a CorruptCorporateExecutive, buys 12 blocks of a CloseKnitCommunity and forces the tenants to vacate the properties within 10 days. The plot gets complicated when it turns out that Kirby's son is in love with a girl living in one of the blocks. It all ends well.

* Canada was not immune either. The African-Canadian community of Africville in Halifax was wiped out by construction of an access ramp to a new cross-harbour bridge, while the (by then) majority-Chinese neighbourhood of The Ward in Toronto was wiped out to make way for the new city hall and public square.

* This trope was used in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'', when Plankton builds a new highway through Jellyfish Fields.
** Another episode, "Walking Small", has Plankton trying to build another Chum Bucket on Goo Lagoon Beach, but is too small to be taken seriously. He tricks [=SpongeBob=] into driving the beachgoers away under the pretense of "assertiveness training". Eventually, [=SpongeBob=] catches on and stops him.
--->'''[=SpongeBob=]:''' You used me... for ''land development!'' [[AndThatsTerrible That wasn't nice.]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' episode "[[Recap/SouthParkS7E7RedMansGreed Red Man's Greed]]", evil Native Americans want to plow the town under in order to make a freeway bypass that goes directly to their casino.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''. When Sideshow Bob becomes mayor, one of the first things he does is reroute a new freeway to go directly through the Simpson property, seizing their house via eminent domain and forcing them to live under a bridge.
* ''WesternAnimation/RegularShow'' introduced Thomas as the Park's newest intern in an episode where the Park was being turned into a new interstate as a revenge plot by [[spoiler:Garrett Bobby Ferguson]] Jr. because Mordecai and Rigby were responsible for his father's death.
* WesternAnimation/BugsBunny:
** The cartoon "No Parking Hare", Bugs has to battle a construction foreman building a freeway where his burrow is. In the end, the freeway is built around Bugs' home.
** "Homeless Hare" has a similar plot, this one involving a skyscraper.
* On the WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck short "Dragon Around", WesternAnimation/ChipAndDale defend their home from a "dragon" that turns out to be Donald in a steam shovel, who has to uproot their tree to clear the way for a highway.

* ''WesternAnimation/WeBareBears'': In "Occupy Bears", the bears' home is being demolished in order to put up a cell phone tower, and they have to find proof that they have been living there for over five years to stop the construction.

* ''WesternAnimation/WheelSquad'': In "Stay on Track", Enzo intends to build a tunnel that'll grant people easier access to World Mart. Unfortunately, the construction work is causing earthquakes at the community where the heroes live.

* In ''Disney/TheEmperorsNewGroove'', Emperor Kuzco, being a self-absorbed, egoistic teenage jerk, wants to build Kuzcotopia, a giant playground meant for him and him alone, as a present for his own birthday. He intends to build it on top of the hill on which Pacha's village is built, which would mean destruction of the village. When Kuzco is accidentally turned into a llama and brought all the way to the village before he can carry out his plans, this decision becomes the driving conflict between him and Pacha. Kuzco needs his help to find the way back home, but Pacha won't do it unless he'll change his plans.