Washington Post
reporter Stephanie McCrummen remains camped out in Manassas, covering the fall-out from her exposure of the city’s restrictive zoning ordinance. There’s a lonely protester and suggestions that the ordinance may be challenged in court by organizations such as the ACLU.
Bacon’s Rebellion will continue to follow this story.
(comments below)
Under the city’s former zoning ordinance, about 400 people were relocated from June 2004 to June 2005; under the new rule, that number is expected to rise by about 100, officials said.
All that trouble to get 100 more people to leave Manassas? Incredible!
In Manassas, a suburban town of 40,000 that is about 72 percent white, 15 percent Latino and 13 percent black, the ordinance is the latest step officials have taken to combat problems they associate with people assumed to be illegal immigrants.
15% – 6,000 latino people in a town of 40,000… Assumed illegal? Have they even checked to see how many of these people are actually illegal? So far, the 2 mentioned in the newspapers that were evicted were NOT illegal and were NOT guilty of overcrowding. So it doesn’t make sense when they say they are trying to control illegal immigration or overcrowding. Looks like plain ole’ racial discrimination to me.
Interesting new fact in today’s story… occupancy limits for residences and other structures are set by the state building code to which localities are bound by the Dillon Rule.
If the state building code sets occupancy limits based on health and safety concerns, and the owners/renters of buildings aren’t exceeding the occupancy limits, why is it called “overcrowding?”
If Manassas wants to lower the occupancy limits, guess they need to ask the legislature for permission to deviate from the state building code.
But, this isn’t really about “overcrowding” is it?
Does anybody here actually live in Manassas, most particularly in one of the neighborhoods with several houses full of “cousins”?
What I see here is a case of what I call “Saint Elsewhere”.
We know what a “Chicken Hawk” is, right? It’s a person who is willing to fight to the last drop of other peoples’s blood just as long as he, his family, and his friends are not affected.
A “Saint Elsewhere” is somebody who wants to do good works and be saintly as long as the down side of those good works falls elsewhere, as in somebody else’s neighborhood. If you happen to live in a neighborhood where the housing is so expensive and exclusive that it is impossible that a houseful of “cousins” could show up there, then you just might qualify!
Anon,
I’m not sure I understand your point. Are you saying that if we don’t live in Manassas that we should not comment?
A different anon here –
Perhaps, Lucy, the first anon is saying that if you don’t live in the city of Manassas and aren’t experiencing what the citizens there are, then perhaps one cannot fully appreciate the circumstances.
One can still criticize or emphathize, but perhaps never truly understand.
I don’t fully understand all of the workings of the Dillon Rule, but I believe cities such as Manasssas have certain powers that counties do not – perhaps this is why the city can set a standard more stringent than that dictated by the state.
However, given the definition of who consanguinuity (sp?), it certainly sounds like this nephew fits the definition of the second degree. Unless of course, the nephew is the child of the wife’s relative – and the city would have to determine that the husband was head of household – and then it would be third degree. Of course, it seems to me that the family should get to decide who is “head of household” but the laws of Virginia probably state that it is a man, if one is present.
Perhaps something on the order of square footage per person would have been the wiser move to eliminate overcrowding. Honestly, if you’ve got an 8000 sq ft house, you’re not overcrowded with this number of people, but if you’ve got 1200 sq ft, then you are. And of course the law could be written that direct bloodlines and adoptions (and “steps”) are exempted from the square footage rule.
Alas, when has common sense ruled in any government so far in history?
I feel for the woman and her family. It’s not fair to them no matter what race they are. She is not an illegal and she is not guilty of overcrowding.
I don’t live in Manassas but I do live in Virginia. Richmond, Prince William and some of the other locals are also considering these restrictions. If it sticks there it will come to my county too. We have 5 generations living in one very large home and we would be in the same boat with her.
There are laws and ordinances already on the books to handle overcrowding and illegal immigration. They should be used instead of government setting ANY standards on what a “family” should consist of.
None of us should forget that with the exception of the American Indians, everyone in the US is an immigrant. If you are here legally, and living within safety regulations you should have the right to live where you please whether your family came over on the Mayflower or through the Mexican border.
My “Saint Elsewhere” post is not meant to suggest that people who don’t live in Manassas shouldn’t have the right to post on this subject. I myself live over 200 miles away from Manassas.
But I don’t think that people in Manassas are racists or xenophobes for wanting to bring order to their lives and that is the tone I’m getting. I don’t think that the ethnicity of the people in the houses is a factor. I firmly believe that the houses could be full of blue-eyed blond Swedes and still pose a problem to the community. I don’t believe that Manassas is any more racist than any other locality.
I believe it was Mark Twain who said, “Any man can stand adversity; another man’s, I mean.”
Anon 10:00, you are onto something important that could make us uncomfortable.
There is a certain ethos, lifestyle, or whatever you want to call it in suburbia. Residents with too many cars/trucks/service vehicles, residents with odd hours who are noisy, residents who party a little too much and a little too loudly, residents who don’t trim their bushes, manicure the lawn, or paint their trim–all disturb this carefully nurtured lifestyle of suburbia. These “disturbers of the peace” can come in all flavors.
Would we want a group of 13 individuals of any kind with 10 cars and 24/7 combinations of working hours moving next door to us? I wonder. Suburbanites fight the siting of group homes for the mentally challenged all the time.
It just so happens that the Manassas ordinance, in the way it was written and the way it is enforced, has a disproportionate effect on immigrants because immigrants are probably the biggest “threat” to the suburban lifestyle that can be easiily categorized. They are also the least powerful. But they are not the only threat–every neighborhood has residents who defy the established “order” in some way. Complaining to the police about a motorcycle gang in the neighborhood might be considered a risky option, just as going next door to an immigrant family and asking them to be more quiet or park their cars elsewhere is also considered risky.
We should be careful about offering judgements that are too harsh against Manassas officials, even as we rightly question the tack they have taken. There is a reason for gated communities, McMansions on large tracts of land, and rigid homeowner association requirements. It’s not necessarily noble, but it’s real.
Lucy: you have five generations in one home? You are incredibly lucky, bless you.
I don’t live in Manassas but I have business there frequently. It has improved my Spanish considerably, and there are some wonderful Pollo a Braso restaurants there.
My Spanish speach is better than my comprehension so I make a point of eavesdropping whenever I can. Considering the different national and regional dialects, it’s a real challenge to understand what is going on, particularly in a noisy environment like a restaurant or a store.
Frequntly, hispanics will notice that I am listening, which is usually an occasion for the lowering of voices and furtive, possibly distrusting glances. At this point I always say excuse me for listening, I’m just practicing my Spanish.
Invariably, this is met with a big smile and sometimes a comment on my pronunciation. Sometimes it results in an exchange of business cards.
At my home in Alexandria I have neighbors whose activities are inconsistent with suburbia. It took a while to get to know these people as there were signifigant cultural differences and language barriers. One day, on my way to the dump I saw them out in the yard and stoped and asked if they had anything that needed to go.
They still work odd hours, and have numerous vehicles, but their homes have cleaned up nicely, once they understand what is expected. At least noise is never a problem, except from the paging loudspeakers at the car lot several blocks away.
I have friend who lives nearby wh has the opposite problem. His neighbor is Vietnamese or somewhere from Southeast Asia. His yard is an oriental paridise of gorgeous shrubbery, fountains, and flowers. My friend travels a lot and his home is pretty unkempt. He feels embarrassed about it, and vaguely annnoyed.
My own earlier neighbors were beside themselves when I was restoring a 35 ft boat in the driveway. Eventually I was able to invite them sailing, and then they got over it. They eventually moved farther out in the suburbs.
I understand why people do it, but I could no more live in a gated community, or one with strong covenants, or one controlled by a homeowners association than I could live on the moon.
I couldn’t say if Manassas is more racist than other places, but the place has clearly seen a lot of change. People don’t like change, probably even more than they don’t like people who are not like themselves. Maybe it’s not racism as much as it is extreme self identification, or egocentricity.
Not that long ago there were modest homes on back roads and dirt lanes with the occasional race car in the yard. Those are mostly gone now. I’m not sure that what replaced them is any better, but it is certainly more consistent, kind of like Wonder Bread.
Yes, 5 generations and loving every minute of it!
The only reason I say this ordinance is racial is because of the people that we are seeing it has been used against. I think I also saw another article where the board stated they were trying to do something about the illegal aliens in their area and this was the only way. (I can’t put my hands on the link but I’ll post it later if I can). Anyway, the family in the article evidently was not guilty of overcrowding or illegal alienship. Since the ordinance is only enforced when a complaint is received, I wonder what the original complaint was… Were they being loud, messy, too many cars, etc? I wish the reporters would dig a little deeper and reveal the family make-up of those that are affected and the original complaint that brought the police to their door. The proof would be in the pudding there.
The bottom line for me is that it doesn’t really matter who they are aiming at. Our family would be in violation of this ordinance should it ever come to my county. I can immediately think of one way an ordinance like this could be abused. One man in our neighborhood has wanted our few acres for over 30 years. He has tried all sorts of things to get all the land that joins his, not just ours. Would he stoop so low as to complain on something like this to get it? Yes he would! It would be a devastating blow to our family. Our older family members can not live on their own and we will not put them in nursing homes. It takes all of us to keep this wonderful lifestyle.
I hope the good folks of Manassas and Prince William County can stop this before it goes any further!
One reason we have need of so many new homes is that we have so few families like yours. I tell anyone who will listen to invest in nursing home chains. They are going to own everything by the time baby boomers expire.
You are probably right. I actually know of a man who joined the masons because they have one of the finest retired living centers. I guess that’s one way to plan for retirement!
Just a few questions on relevancy–
Isn’t it the responsiblity of our federal government to regulate immigration? Hasn’t the federal gavernment “preempted” the field? Why don’t we demand that the federal government act to address the problem at the source in an effective way? Then our city adn state governments can go about other and legitimate functions.
I am interested as well in the laws that can be used for the illegal immigration problems. Are there any that the local gov’s can use?
Living in Manassas, AND in a large immigrant neighborhood, AND living in a less than 1000 square foot home, I feel I can say with conviction that this is a situation that can and will go bad very quickly.
One thing that most people don’t realize is that most immigrants form the Latin Americas and Asian countries, live in their home countries exactly as they are living here! Often they are living in smaller homes than I am currently living in now.
And of course there is the whole financial question that BEGS to be brought up.
Ed Mattison
Manassas, VA
five generations of a family would have complied with the now suspended Manassas ordinance. Por ejemplo: Me (head of household), my mother (1st degree of consanguinity), my mother’s mother(2nd degree), my daughter(1st degree) and my granddaughter(2nd degree). five generations
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