posted on Aug, 23 2008 @ 07:09 AM
Well I'm in one of those "hard hit areas" outside D.C. in a city called Manassas Park. Illegal aliens decided this would be a good place to live
and came in by the thousands during the boom converting the town into a trashed out flop den for all their buddies with the support of the local city
govt. Values are down 40-50% so far and still dropping as all the construction and landscaping jobs dried up and the Hispanics are just moving away
and abandoning their homes in the middle of the night. You wake up one morning and you notice a house is empty that had people in it the day before.
Gangs are rampant in the area and trash is everywhere. We got hit hard. The city still values the homes at 2006 levels for taxes though and I told
them next year I don't pay if the values aren't adjusted to reality, and if they even think about raising the tax rate then I will put on a big show
at the council meeting and toss the council the keys to my home. We already pay the highest real estate tax of any other municipality in Virginia and
for what? The pleasure of being a sanctuary city for illegal aliens and having more foreclosures per block than any other place in the state. Nuts to
that. Things do seem to be getting a little better though as I don't just see Hispanics moving in now, which in this particular area almost always
means illegal aliens or supporters of illegal aliens. Blacks, Whites and a trickle of Asians ARE buying homes again here since the prices have gotten
so much lower than the surrounding areas, but I am seeing a lot of investors buy these cheap homes and then rent them out to bad element with 10 to a
home that cause a lot of neighborhood disturbances.
I am on the rules committee for my association and we are about to start a widespread and sweeping enforcement routine here to weed out the offenders
of any rules. Got a POS house that you aren't upkeeping and are ignoring our letters? Your car gets towed if it is anywhere in the community. Behind
on your condo dues? Car gets towed. I plan on vigorously enforcing the rules starting Sept. 1. If I see so much as a torn blind in a window then they
get a letter to repair within 2 weeks or they get fined and if they don't pay then they get towed. Growing a set of claws is the only way to deal
with troublemakers in your neighborhood if you have an association.
Nobody else will even run in the election this November to replace these clowns because things are so bad now thanks to their incompetence and
corruption. I was going to run for council myself but honestly I just don't want my name associated with this mess when this city loses its charter
viability next year when they can no longer massively inflate the assessments without open citizen revolt. I will most likely walk away this time next
year if things get as worse as I think they will. Some times I kinda think that being laid off would be the best thing for me since I would get
unemployment, would be able to get paid for each year of service, collect all my vacation and sick leave and all of my retirement in one huge check
and then live scot-free for 6-12 months in this place after I stopped making payments but then not having a job in this economy is a scary thought and
moving in with my Dad at my age is a thought worse than death.