[Flipside]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/27/AR2005122701216.html

There had been a complaint, he said. The city needed to know not just how many people lived there but how they were related. He handed Leyla Chavez a form and explained that she could be prosecuted for lying.

"Okay," she said and, in a mild state of shock, began filling it out.

There was Chavez and her husband. Their two sons. A nephew. The man who rented downstairs. His girlfriend.

"Your nephew, under our law, is considered unrelated," Purchase said, then delivered the verdict: Two people had to go.

Parrish said he understands why some people might think the ordinance is racist, but he disagrees. "In my heart, I believe that is not the issue," he said. "The issue is the impact of overcrowding in our community. It looks as though that issue is a direct result of illegal immigration."

But Chavez and her husband, Juan, are U.S. citizens. They came from Honduras in the 1980s, worked more than one job -- she at two laundromats, he as a cook -- and eventually saved enough to buy the house on Liberia Avenue in 2003 for $270,000.

Now, faced with the loss of rental income and with a $3,500 monthly mortgage to pay, Chavez said, they are going to sell. The family will never buy a house again, she said.

I really cannot find words to define my feelings about this, I wish I knew a foreign language well enough that I swear my way across the planet.... utterly unbelievable...

[vyper]

Bastards pretty much sums it up.

[karajorma]

And Fairfax County is seeking authority from the state to impose criminal fines and jail time on landlords who rent houses to more than four unrelated people, typically immigrants.

Well that's going to **** up student housing isn't it?

Unbelievable. If I buy a house what ****ing business is it of anyone's who I choose to live with.

[Ghostavo]

Why has everyone started taking measures to stop illegal activities that limit ever more the freedoms of those who have done nothing wrong?

(going a bit off topic) - Seriously, from the "war on terrorism" that seems to aproximate us ever more of 1984 through "piracy protection" that may or may not damage your computer and now this...

I'm sick of this planet...

[karajorma]

I'm not. I'm just sick of the people in charge.

[Kosh]

So......why exactly are they doing this again?

[vyper]

Because they're ****ing morons? Seriously there's no deep meaning to be read into it - people really are this ****ed up in the head.

[an0n]

Beaurocracts have to be seen to be doing something so they don't lose their jobs.

So they just churn up all this **** from the dregs of their imagination and decide they might as well do it.

[Descenterace]

Which leads to the conclusion that maybe things would be better if bureaucrats' job performance was judged based on number of good ideas minus number of bad ones, instead of quantity of paperwork generated.

Or maybe it's easier just to get out the flamethrower.

[pyro-manic]

Let me see if I've read this right - these people are being told that there are too many people in their house? Their own house? Not a rented house, or social housing, but the house they actually own?

I think I'm with Flipside on this one - I can't even start describing how that makes me feel...

[Rott3]

Let me see if I've read this right - these people are being told that there are too many people in their house? Their own house? Not a rented house, or social housing, but the house they actually own?

Yep. It's their house. And it is unbelievable what people are allowed to do. How can someone decide that there are too many people living in someones house?

[NGTM-1R]

Yep. It's their house. And it is unbelievable what people are allowed to do. How can someone decide that there are too many people living in someones house?

Pretty easy, actually...although that's if it's considered unsafe. (Stuffing twenty-plus people into your average house for example.) Which this isn't.

What the hell happened to Northern VA since I left? How did it get so screwed up so quickly?

[Scuddie]

What the hell happened to Northern VA since I left? How did it get so screwed up so quickly?

It's The South.  Did you expect anything less?

[Rott3]

Yep. It's their house. And it is unbelievable what people are allowed to do. How can someone decide that there are too many people living in someones house?

Pretty easy, actually...although that's if it's considered unsafe. (Stuffing twenty-plus people into your average house for example.) Which this isn't.

What the hell happened to Northern VA since I left? How did it get so screwed up so quickly?

Thats what i mean. It is ridiculous. Me and my family (6 people) are living in a 3 room flat + kitchen + WC and we manage it just fine and nobody complaines. They have 7 people in a 2 floor house.
And besides - what sane person complaines about 7 people living in a 2 floor house?

[Taristin]

The issue is that white southerners [I say southerners, but really it's all over] don't like imigrant families, particularly from south america and mexico, living with them. SO they make up bull**** laws like this to force these people out of their communities. They did it with blacks, found that they couldn't get away with it so directly, and now are doing it to the latinos.

*> people.

[NGTM-1R]

What the hell happened to Northern VA since I left? How did it get so screwed up so quickly?

It's The South.  Did you expect anything less?

If you're calling Northern VA the South, you're on crack. To really qualify as South, you have to head down to Carolina. Northern VA is pretty much the same as Maryland or Pennslyvania in the local attitudes.

[Mefustae]

Wait wait wait, this happening in the US?!

[Kosh]

What the hell happened to Northern VA since I left? How did it get so screwed up so quickly?

It's The South.  Did you expect anything less?

If you're calling Northern VA the South, you're on crack. To really qualify as South, you have to head down to Carolina. Northern VA is pretty much the same as Maryland or Pennslyvania in the local attitudes.

The South refers to all of those "ex-confederate" states. Virginia was one of them.

[WMCoolmon]

Wait wait wait, this happening in the US?!

Hell, what with this, imminent domain, wiretapping, et al, it's not that surprising.

[NGTM-1R]

The South refers to all of those "ex-confederate" states. Virginia was one of them.

You counting Maryland too then? Because you ought to. If not for some constitutionally questionable actions on Lincoln's part Maryland would have seceded. Much the same could be said about Pennslyvania.

There's South and then there's South. If you honestly believe that local attitudes towards minorities are the same in Atlanta, GA, and Fairfax, VA, you have some serious issues.