And Just Who Is Harming Prince William County?
By Greg L | 2 May 2008 | Prince William County | 40 Comments
Opponents of the Rule of Law Resolution have been telling the press that local efforts to deal with the illegal alien issue in Prince William County are harming our image. A news brief in today’s Washington Post reveals why this is the case, to the degree that this might possibly be true: that detractors are actively engaged in an effort to trash the county’s image. How convenient that they can complain to the electorate about a problem that they themselves are causing, and demand that we change our behavior in order to fix the problem they are responsible for.
Who did they get this idea from, Marx or Lenin?
Illegal-Immigration Policies Protested
An activist group that opposes Prince William County’s illegal-immigration policies said it distributed hundreds of leaflets yesterday to those on a commercial real estate bus tour of the area, warning them to “think twice before you or your clients move to Prince William County.”
Alexandria-based Tenants and Workers United said it held up banners and blanketed the sold-out, nine-bus tour of the region’s office parks and industrial areas with the fliers. The warning was directed at high-tech and biotech companies, which the county has been trying to lure to Innovation Technology Park and other areas.
“We understand that many high-tech and bio-tech companies depend on foreign workers to carry out their intellectual work,” the flier said. “We doubt their foreign-born workers will want to locate in a county that is rife with racial tension.”
Prince William’s policies have “helped to create a hostile environment for all who ‘look’ like immigrants,” the flier alleged.
The Northern Virginia chapter of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties, which organized the tour, could not be reached to comment.
Tenants and Workers United, for those who might thankfully be unaware of these folks, they’re an affiliate of the Virginia Organizing Project along with Mexicans Without Borders, and are part of the National Capital Immigrant Coalition. Their funding is provided by Theresa Heinz Kerry’s Tides Foundation and the Unitarian Universalist Veatch Program, along with a handful of other “charitable” organizations that typically finance leftist causes.
One of the recent activities of Tenants and Workers United was to appear in front of a graduate class at George Mason University along with failed Neabsco District candidate Aracely Panameno, where they photographed the students in the class, many of them teachers at Manassas City Schools, and told them that Help Save Manassas was founded by the KKK. As an aside, GMU has been entirely uninterested in providing any alternative viewpoints in their dedicated quest for academic excellence. What a surprise.
When the far-left rants that the reputation of Prince William County is being harmed, now it’s pretty clear why that’s happening. They’re the ones actively engaged in the effort to harm the very community for which they feign such deep concern. You’d think that if someone was actually interested in the quality and vitality of a community, they’d do something other than erect billboards saying how terrible it was, lie to graduate students about how the klan is controlling local politics, or hand out fliers to potential business investors about what a bad idea it would be to do business in Prince William County. They care nothing for the residents of Prince William, caring only for their agenda, and display a willingness to sacrifice the interests of each and every county resident in order to achieve it.
Despite this coordinated propaganda effort to harm the county, the reputation of Prince William County as a place where communities stand up and defend themselves seems to be attracting, rather than scaring away homebuyers and investors. All this will likely do is harm the individuals and organizations that engage in this reprehensible and outrageous behavior. It should.
UPDATE: The AP has picked up the story as well, which is being reported in the DC Examiner.
UPDATE 2: DC Indymedia has an interesting first-person account of this action:
On May 1, some commercial real estate group had foolishly schedlued a bus tour for prospective corporate bosses featuring avaialbe sites in Prince William County.
Tenants and Workers United saturated all 9 busses with fliers warning hi-tech and biotech firms NOT to locate in Prince William County as immigrant workers would not want to move there.
The Washington Post reported banners as well as the fliers, leading to the possiblkty that Prince William County might lose even more potential business as a result.
Yeah, these folks really have our best interests in mind, don’t they?
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Take a drive on Route 1 in the Marumsco area of Woodbridge. Pay attention to jay-walkers, groups of men hanging out at both 7-Elevens, restaurants and now throughout Marumsco Plaza and construction trash lining both sides of the road. None of that has anything to do with the Rule of Law Resolution. It does, although have everything to do with 20 years of a clueless supervisor and now her protege and a police chief that obviously never makes it to this part of the county.
This county’s reputation is being tarnished because folks outside of the county are beginning to see what a trash-hole PWC (specifically Woodbridge) was allowed to turn into by self-serving elected officials more concerned with trying to get it known as a “premier community” than a well-functioning community!!
Can the County sue them for libel and slander?
Soon the slums of Woodbridge will spread out to embrace the rest of this county. The BOCS should be very proud of themselves.
Marumsco Hills sure isn’t what it was when I was growing up there.
I take Montgomery Ave (off of Opitz) to get to my mom’s house and you want to see a third world look-alike - whoa!
I must say that it has gotten a little better — only because of the foreclosures/empty homes. Certainly not because of Hilda or Frank.
Marumsco Hills - the forgotten community.
Had Enough and manassascityresident
I agree with you completly. I live in Mar. Hills and the last 10 years we have seen it go down hill. I constantly called Bargs office and all she did was sweet talk. I got so I went through other Supervisors to at least get some reaction.
This bunch at 7-11 grows each day and it also grows along Rt. One.
It seems we don’t have a Loitering Law(especially for this group). But I remember when the youg kids would hang around,the Police were there to scatter them home. Why the difference now?
We need to get rid of Frank, I can not believe how many people believed his lies,as Barg endorsed him.
Perhaps we can in this next year,Get a HELP SAVE WOODBRIDGE and be ready to clean up this place.
Frank Principi only got a plurality of the vote, less than 50 percent. Had Steve Keen not siphoned votes away from Chris Royse, things would be a much different story.
I reminded Frank that the majority of Woodbridge voters did not support him on Tuesday night. I thought it essential to remind the entire BOCS that Frank’s support is not all that deep.
Plus Frank lied about his position on illegal immigration — what else is new.
I moved to Belmont Bay in 2001. At that time I heard about all the planned cleaning up of Route 1, a Gordon Rd/Rt. 1 interchange and stone bridge, and development between Rt. 1 and Occoquan Rd that would spruce up the area. Hilda is a liar. Seven years later and the area is at least 10 times worse than when I moved. So, the difference between what I was told would happen and what actually happened is outrageous.
I am embarrassed to tell people I live in Woodbridge. I demand that Belmont Bay get a separate name and zip code — just like Hilda said we would.
I have a question — how come the only border - Mexicans Without Borders denies is the southern border of the United States.
My ancestors were here before the Revolutionary War — as far as I am concerned my ancestors did not fight for this country in order to have it be taken over by criminals — if you are here illegally you are a criminal — if your parents are here illegally — they are criminals.
We complain about our do nothing elected officials now, but when it is time to vote, we will vote them right back in again. Not just some of them, but all the way across the board, from the Board of Supervisors to County Sheriff.
So who is to blame? We are.
We love you, Hilda and Frank!!!
:) …take a hike, ok?? 
:)
AsIseeit said on 2 May 2008 at 12:26 pm:
But I remember when the youg kids would hang around,the Police were there to scatter them home. Why the difference now?
Because they may be Latino’s and they have their OWN laws.
I lived the first 7 years of my life off Featherstone Road. The next 12 in Marumsco Hills on Longview Drive (near Montgomery Avenue and the hospital). Then the next 6 years in Lake Ridge before moving to Manassas. I’ve been in Manassas for the last 17 years. I don’t often get back to my ‘old neighborhoods’ but when I do….it’s so disheartening. I recently drove past my old house on Longview where my family moved to in 1972 and if the general shape of the houses didn’t look the same (lol) I’d say this was not where I grew up. It’s so sad. Nothing can ever stay the same, but this should not have happened to what was once considered the ‘high end’ of all the Marumscos (Hills, Woods, Acres…) Sometimes I am so proud of my county government for doing all they’ve done because as you know, most local governments are rolling over and not doing anything. Then there are steps backwards, steps sideways, clandestine steps, confusing steps…I’m still proud that they are hanging in there, sort of, trying to do something about the downfall of our communities but I sometimes wonder if it will ever be enough to fix it. When Frank Principi was announced the winner of the Woodbridge District, I literally felt sick to my stomach. The only thing I knew about him was watching the videos on 9500Liberty. I fervently hoped Chris Royce would win. Certainly there was not enough illegal alien support amongst the Woodbridge voters to make this happen. Were the majority of the constituents so ill informed about what he stood for and blindly followed what Hilda Barg recommended they do? Don’t they live there? Are they happy with what it has become? I wish Chris Royce could have gotten his message out to the voters.
Anonymous said on 2 May 2008 at 2:38 pm:
“I lived the first 7 years of my life off Featherstone Road. The next 12 in Marumsco Hills on Longview Drive”
We lived on Longview Drive for approx. one year before my parents bought a home up by Montgomery Ave. Being a military brat, we would leave and come back, but all six of us managed to graduate from Woodbridge High. I wonder if we went to school together. Class of ‘75 (ancient, I know)….
manassascityresident said on 2 May 2008 at 2:46 pm:
We lived on Longview Drive for approx. one year before my parents bought a home up by Montgomery Ave. Being a military brat, we would leave and come back, but all six of us managed to graduate from Woodbridge High. I wonder if we went to school together. Class of ‘75 (ancient, I know)….
You’re a bit older than I am. I’m a graduate of WSHS class of 1983. But my brother and sister graduated in 1976 and 1977, respectively. Did you know any fun-loving Sullivan kids?
I know a Sullivan family - but they lived in Occoquan. hmmmmm.
Our dates were ‘72, ‘73, 75, 76, 78 and the baby ‘85 - so you may have known her - Trowbridge.
Anonymous said on 2 May 2008 at 1:49 pm:
We complain about our do nothing elected officials now, but when it is time to vote, we will vote them right back in again. Not just some of them, but all the way across the board, from the Board of Supervisors to County Sheriff.
So who is to blame? We are.
My goodness some one finaly acknowledged the true problem with PWC and its immage. You are so right in that the more lies one tells the easier it is for them to be elected localy and nationaly!!!!!
The Public is a SPOILED CHILD and only happy so long as they are told what they want to hear and not the facts and truth…
This is great hearing all of the people who lived in the Hills.
We have been here since late 63 and had two daughters graduate Woodbridge HS. 1983 & 1988.
Keen put a wrench in the last election. He always manages to do this.
I hope Royce will get active and run again. He sure didn’t get the help from the Republica people here in the County.
Maybe we can get him to head up a Save Woodbridge.
I am getting to old to walk the streets and am confined to the house with a
husband that needs constant care.
But we will search for someone,as Marumsco Hills is a great place,it needs to get cleaned up.
I guess it’s the Korean dry cleaners’ fault, right Bobby?
Years ago, parents helped each other, and kept everyone in line. The parents of today, do not want anyone to talk to there kids, let alone keep them in line.
The voting publicalways complains about the quality of the candidates they have to choose from yet how many people get involved early in the process or run for office themselves?
I went to the PWC GOP meeting a couple of weeks ago and although numerically the number of people (I’d say over 300) was impressive, on a percentage basis it was pitiful co compared to the population of PWC. And the percentage of people who vote in primaries is just as shameful.
Complain all you want about the candidates but at least give them credit for putting themselves out there.
I am an independent. Am I welcome?
Che’ said on 2 May 2008 at 4:20 pm:
I guess it’s the Korean dry cleaners’ fault, right Bobby?
NO way . It is just the lies of your politicians who claim to be for the laws of America and the values of America. Free enterprise is what made this country not a government run or approved businesses. I laugh at the stupidity of the public who is the one paying the inflated prices at the dry cleaners when it could be less. that is just plain stupid. Do you think that your PWC BOCS should pass more zoning laws that limit free enterprise so that the public has to pay more for services in PWC. Like to see your answer to that reality.
As to cleaning up US 1 and especialy the shopping you can thank Caddigan for putting a wrench into that happening. Once she got her ” I am too good to shop at WalMart or the Big Box Ordinance” you killed the ability to revamp shoppng centers such a Marumsco Plaza. If a building is more then 80,000 sq ft the parking is to be equal around the building. Of course Caddigan like Stewart has her own set of when we obey the law and if it is a Wageman they pass site plans without that requirement such as the one going in Manassas. The SC along US1 do not have enough depth to comply with the laws on the books.
Woodbridge is not exactly an endearing place as a built environment in the first place. Even if there were no day laborers around would you really want to spend time in Marumsco plaza’s vast parking lot? Strip malls to not create places people care about. They care about their private car and their private house but not the public space. If you want to go to a place that feels good to be in around here you go to the town of Occoquan. A place that was built before the need to accommodate cars dominated everything and strip mallification took over. I lived here a long time and I don’t remember this good reputation that Woodbridge is now alleged to have had. I remember some places that I liked as a kid. But those places were bulldozed for more houses.
I don’t remember Woodbridge being the elite spot either. The route 1 corridor was…not so hot. Sort of like the 28 corridor going in to Manassas from Fairfax has always been fugly. Marumsco Plaza was always …dreadful in my mind. It was dreadful because it was on route 1.
On the other hand, Woodbridge has some very nice spots and some very nice housing. Same with Manassas. It all depends on where you go.
Bobby, you and the Korean cleaners remind me of that bit that Abbot and Costello used to do about the Susquehanna Hat Company. Any time someone mentioned that name, Costello would go into a rage. You react in similar manner.
How thick is your skin?
Yep! Their agenda is the most important thing. They trash everyone who disagree’s with them. Everyone should google these groups and see for themselves what they truely believe in.
Che:
I thought it was “Niagara Falls.” Slowly I turned. Step by step…
But I digress. Getting back to the subject of this thread, I think it’s a good thing to have these communists putting out adverse literature about PWC. The astute businessman (and would we want any other kind?) would recognize that the workforce in PWC is less likely to be made up of types who constantly whine about their rights, file grievances, etc. So their overhead is going to be lower due to fewer complaints to the EEOC.
Che’ said on 2 May 2008 at 10:15 pm:
Bobby, you and the Korean cleaners remind me of that bit that Abbot and Costello used to do about the Susquehanna Hat Company. Any time someone mentioned that name, Costello would go into a rage. You react in similar manner.
How thick is your skin?
Rage? I can assure you that you have no idea of me and Rage :))))
As I have said before it is about the Government and how little they care about the public. Of course I have a family understanding that government does not care if what they do kills you. I just spent 9 years in court and ended up with a law named after my mother because she was too old to be hurt on the job and could not be disabled per Baltimore County Govt. I have no use for PWC BOCS when they take several hundred dollars of your money to hear a zoning variance request for you home knowing full well in advance that they will not and can not grand any variance. I have no use for a government that picks and choose when they want to ovey the law knowing full well that the public is not going to take them to court and spend the money to make them obey the law.
You have no concept how thick my skin is. What I do is deliberate and thought out not emotional. What I will not tolerate or let it just go by is the lies, the bully attitude and shear stupidity of the member or the staff of the government employees.
It takes time but evidentialy even the public starts to ask questions of why some of these things do happen and then there are changes.
Advocator - I think you’ve called it right. The whole point of this exercise was to withstand a bit of population & economic “shrinkage” in order to move toward a more orderly growth plan, right? As far as I can tell, that’s more or less (more in some areas, less in others) what’s happening.
“Marx or Lenin?” How about Milton Friedman?
I said during this last citizen’s time….the “damaged reputation” doesn’t compute unless it’s the liberals who are doing the trashing. That one guy was priceless. “A Maryland girl told me PWC is where the rednecks are, and it hurt my feelings”. I know of no Maryland resident who is proud of their state’s stance on sanctuary and second amendment issues. MD right now is completely shamed. And let that girl spout her stupidity in front of me…I won’t cry about it.
Bob S. said on 3 May 2008 at 2:45 am:
Advocator - I think you’ve called it right. The whole point of this exercise was to withstand a bit of population & economic “shrinkage” in order to move toward a more orderly growth plan, right? As far as I can tell, that’s more or less (more in some areas, less in others) what’s happening.
If that were true that the Rule of Law was to stop growth then why is growth stopped in the rest of the country that did not have a Rule of Law? Those who demanded no growth have it because of the economics of this country and what has it gotten you? Less taxable for the county income and a raise in your RE Taxes with more to come. You have lost some 25% of the value of your home and you think that is a good thing?
Of course the cost of government has not been reduced by some 25% has it. You will sit in traffic even more because the BOCS will not be able to sell bond from the 800 million bond issue that you passed. You were told by the BOCS that there would be no tax increase to issue those bond but you do so love to accept the lie if it says what you want to hear.
Here are the organizations that support the Tenants and Workers United. Also there is a clip from their website about how they want TAXPAYER funded day labor sites.
AFL-CIO Union Community Fund
Alexandria Commission for the Arts
Alexandria Youth Fund
Herb Block Foundation
Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation
Catholic Campaign for Human Development
Center for Community Change
Common Ground Fund
Community Foundation for the National Capital Region
Consumer Health Foundation
Discount Foundation
Ford Foundation
Philip L. Graham Fund
Hill-Snowdon Foundation
Gannett Foundation
Golden Rule Foundation
Grassroots Global Justice
Department of Housing and Urban Development
Ivakota Association
Jewish Fund for Justice / The Shefa Fund
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
The Meyer Foundation
Charles Stewart Mott Foundation
Needmor Fund
Ms. Foundation
New World Foundation Phoenix Fund
Norman Foundation
Public Welfare Foundation
Spring Creek Foundation
Tides Foundation
Unitarian Universalist Veatch Program
United Way of the National Capital Area
Washington AIDS Partnership
Washington Area Women’s Foundation
-
Day Laborers
Late in 2003, the TWSC joined with the Virginia Justice Center (VJC) to organize and develop the
leadership of day laborers in the Culmore area of Fairfax County. Day laborers are among the region’s most
vulnerable workers, suffering from non-payment of wages and other abuses of labor rights. With strong community
and business support, the TWSC and VJC are working to promote the active participation of dozens of day laborers
in a community-led planning effort to create a county-funded day laborer worker center in Culmore.
Bob Wills - Your point is well taken, except: Is it just a wee bit possible that you’re overreaching when you claim that “Rule of Law” is proved ineffective because other areas are also having slowdowns, while simultaneously claiming that “Rule of Law” is a significant cause of economic slowdown?
Bob Wills - Forget I said anything. I’m sure you’re right. I’m just silly like that.
Bob S. said on 3 May 2008 at 3:01 pm:
Bob Wills - Your point is well taken, except: Is it just a wee bit possible that you’re overreaching when you claim that “Rule of Law” is proved ineffective because other areas are also having slowdowns, while simultaneously claiming that “Rule of Law” is a significant cause of economic slowdown?
Where did I claim that the Rule of Law has proved ineffective ? If you believe that the Rule of Law is what has brought this county to no growth, then I doubt that you know much about the economics of the real estate. This country’s so called economy has been based on Borrowed Money from the equity of our houses for the past many years. There has been no real economy from people increasing thier income. Greed in the mind of home buyers and the Greed of lenders made a perfect storm for what has happened to the housing market. That did more to slow donw housing then any other factor and it is the largest reason for housing starts to fall. It will be a few years before we see much of a real recovery. When the value of your home has dropped from 25 to 50 percent when forclosed on it will be years before many new homes will make economic sense to be buit.
There is no problem if you want to be silly
Down on the Farm there is a saying that fits this RE market.
Pigs eat and Hogs go to slaughter.
Bob Wills - Forgive me. I’m just a dumb ole’ Georgia boy, and misunderstood you when you said, “If that were true that the Rule of Law was to stop growth then why is growth stopped in the rest of the country that did not have a Rule of Law? Those who demanded no growth have it because of the economics of this country and what has it gotten you?”
Of course, you were not implying that growth would have slowed in the county strictly because of outside factors. Sorry! I’m slow sometimes.
Bob Wills - Forgive me. I’m just a dumb ole’ Georgia boy, and misunderstood you when you said, “If that were true that the Rule of Law was to stop growth then why is growth stopped in the rest of the country that did not have a Rule of Law? Those who demanded no growth have it because of the economics of this country and what has it gotten you?”
Of course, you were not implying that growth would have slowed in the county strictly because of outside factors. Sorry! I’m slow sometimes.
If you are from Georgia that puts you way ahead of a W VA boy :)))))
Yes I am saying that growth would have slowed if there were no Rule of Law absolutly. What I also said was the No Growth people like Caddigan, Stewart, Stirrup and May should be jumping with joy over that but they now have to face the reality of what they wished for of no more new housing. where are they going to make up the income it produced and there are no more proffers either aka extortion payments that do not work as well to the county.
there is no county from Fairfax to Spotysavania that has not been hit with the slow down and this is the only county that has the Rule of Law. Bear Sterns failure with the mortgage market is not because of the failuers of PWC but what happened all over the country. Well their own stupidy and greed made it happen more then anything.
Bob Wills - From one Bob to another: I, like you, am pretty annoyed (OK, I’m a hell of a lot more than annoyed!) by the folks who are using genuine problems to score petty political points. I can (and sometimes do) have all kinds of fun pointing out inconsistencies in the passionate but sometimes absurd statements that are flung out into the void here in this forum, but that doesn’t do much to solve any problems.
Ultimately, if the problems were easily solved, they’d have been solved already. Honorable people can (and DO) disagree about how much trouble and cost [I’m gonna use a “Patty-approved” empty phrase here!] political correctness has cost the community in its past openness to illegal alien residents, and (similarly) honorable people can (and do) disagree about the degree to which the long-term community benefits from excluding the illegal alien residents will outweigh the costs.
Hey, it’s an experiment, just like shutting down a nuclear power plant, or a Wal-Mart. Change is painful, but we’ve decided to try to build a smaller, more stable community. It’ll work, or it won’t. But what we had before was demonstrably ineffective.
Bob S.
I believe that it is not that hard to solve problems in general but there is no leadership what so ever in PWC or the BOCS. There is a big ME attitude and no trying to get to the best solution but what sounds good to tell the public to get elected. There is a basic lack of understanding of how to run a business most of all and to be honest and equal in what is done. I don’t look at the Rule of Law as being an experiement but something that needs to be done but without the rancor and flip flop or you will do it my way attitude of Stewart. No one on the BOCS would ever be hired to be a Director of a real business or even as a major officer to run a business.
My biggest question is why was it allowed to get to the point of only the police can solve this situation and not the government of PWC?
I have spent too long over the years dealing with governments local, state and federal to not be fully aware of how they take care of them selves first and the public second if they are lucky.
The other part of the equasion is the public who elect these officials and do it more then not for the one who tells them what they want to hear. Gilmore got elected because he said he would eliminate PP tax and he knew he was lieing when he said that. The public loved it and put him in office where he could not get that accomplished. Stewart is another example of he says what you want to hear now and then changes his tune in a heart beat.