Sounds like Elizabeth is making fun of Black folks.
Posted on 10/11/2007 10:12:08 AM PDT by dr.zaeus
FARMERS BRANCH -- Some residents of this Dallas suburb that tried to ban apartment rentals to illegal immigrants now want the city to regulate which colorful hues people can paint their homes.
Although the City Council hasn't decided whether to consider any house paint restrictions, Hispanic leaders say it's yet another effort to target Latinos in the city.
"I believe controlling the color you paint your house is basically profiling the Hispanic community," said Elizabeth Villafranca, whose family owns a Mexican restaurant in Farmers Branch. "We all know who paints their homes tropical colors."
Two residents asked that the council discuss mandatory exterior color standards for buildings.
Such paint ordinances are usually set by homeowners' associations in the suburbs. Historical districts also regulate colors in an effort to preserve the original appearance of homes, said Jeffrey Rous, a University of North Texas professor who teaches urban economics.
Farmers Branch resident Tom Bohmier wonders whether there's a way to balance ruling out some shocking colors while keeping individuality. One of his neighbors has a home painted in several colors, including a flashy blue.
"It tends to harm the value of the neighborhood when people are shopping for homes," he said.
But Rous, who's building a home in Farmers Branch, questions whether it's proper for government to decide which color palette is considered garish or beautiful.
"To say that we're going to have government officials dictate what constitutes good aesthetics, I'm not sure local elected officials should be making those decisions," Rous said. "I'm not sure what the need is for this."
Victorian homes are often painted bright blue or peacock green. Buildings in South Beach typically have outside lights in electric purples and yellow. Structures in Santa Fe blend into the desert landscape with earthen reds or dark tans.
But most homes in Farmers Branch are brick, with trim or shutters painted in neutral colors. A handful are more brightly colored, such as one wood home with Kelly green trim and an upscale two-story house with one burnt orange side.
Residents Matt Burton and Robin Bernier proposed the color standards at a City Council meeting this month, presenting photos showing homes with shades they found unsightly.
Burton didn't immediately respond to a message for comment, and a telephone number for Bernier was not available.
But Bernier, who also supported the city's apartment ban, told The Dallas Morning News: "When you paint your house some fluorescent or garish color scheme, you negatively affect my [home] value."
For now, city officials plan no action.
"We're going to look into it and see what the legal ramifications are," said city spokeswoman Nicole Recker.
Farmers Branch leaders have become involved in the nationwide political debate over immigration.
The City Council approved an ordinance that would require apartment managers to verify that renters are U.S. citizens or legal immigrants before leasing to them, with a few exceptions. Landlords would have faced fines of up to $500 a day for violating the measure.
Voters endorsed the ordinance in May, but a federal judge has blocked its enforcement, saying Farmers Branch had attempted to regulate immigration in a different way than the federal government does.
Why don’t we just pass a law officially stating that Hispanics are above the law. They can drive drunk, be in the country illegally, use fake documents, whatever they want to do. Everyone else may have to obey the law, but they simply do not. That’s what “Hispanic groups” want, advocate and insist upon, and what Hispanderers are eager to grant them. Might as well just get it over with.
” said Elizabeth Villafranca, whose family owns a Mexican restaurant in Farmers Branch. “We all know who paints their homes tropical colors.”
If by “tropical” she means the color of those big ugly parrots she could be correct. Bright red,yellow, and blue.
BUMP
Yeah!
“Why don’t we just pass a law officially stating that Hispanics are above the law. They can drive drunk, be in the country illegally, use fake documents, whatever they want to do. Everyone else may have to obey the law, but they simply do not. That’s what “Hispanic groups” want, advocate and insist upon”
EXACTLY!
The question is, were those rules in place when you bought your home? If so, then you had the choice not to buy there.
So-called “Hispanic groups” want:
1. A set of laws that apply to them, and a different set for native born and legal immigrants.
2. They get to do, act, and whatever as much as they damn well please and anyone that disagrees with them is “racist”, “xenophobic”, “mean”, and “not open to multiculturalism and diversity”.
3. They get to take over wherever they please and the hell with everyone else.
4. They will get in everyone’s face, “protest”, “strike”, stamp there feet, hold their breath until they turn blue, turn out en masse with their non-US flags, “boycott” and in general make pains of themselves until they get their way like the spoiled brats they are.
5. They have no intention of learning English or remotely integrating into American culture like the millions of L-E-G-A-L immigrants did 100-some years ago or like L-E-G-A-L immigrants do today that are proud of the USA and proud to become A-M-E-R-I-C-A-N-S.
6. They want to make the USA into Mexico North by any way or means available.
If they don’t like the rules here, they should leave. The USA is not Mexico or wherever. Not yet, anyway.
The neighbors aren't happy, and many of those neighbors are (legal) Mexican-Americans.
My home predates the township. I bought the place after living in it for 4 years as a renter.
There are so many petty little bylaws here it would blow your mind. There is even a per faucet fee for replacing existing plumbing!
Needless to say, many folk ignore most of these laws, but a $3000 fine for not asking permission to cut my own trees is ridiculous no matter when it was passed.
I'm not fond of illegal colonization, but if they are here legally, I don't care what color they paint their home. In fact, I rather like the tropical colors to break up the monotony of uniformity.
I, for instance, have encouraged clover growth in my lawn to the extent that the grass is almost gone. One neighbor (a liberal busybody) thinks it's terrible because it might send seed into his uniform lawn for which he spends a small fortune fertilizing, watering and constantly mowing.
Another neighbor loves it because it stays greener, needs cutting half as often and requires no fertilizer and watering. He's asked for some starter clumps for his yard this fall. As I told him, it is great to live in a 1970's neighborhood built before the lawn nazis took over.
Your story is, I'm afraid, all too typical of what happens when the lawn nazis and local nannies take over neighborhoods.
Where do you live?
The ghettoization of a neighborhood.
“So-called “Hispanic groups” want:
1. A set of laws that apply to them, and a different set for native born and legal immigrants.
2. They get to do, act, and whatever as much as they damn well please and anyone that disagrees with them is “racist”, “xenophobic”, “mean”, and “not open to multiculturalism and diversity”.
3. They get to take over wherever they please and the hell with everyone else.
4. They will get in everyone’s face, “protest”, “strike”, stamp there feet, hold their breath until they turn blue, turn out en masse with their non-US flags, “boycott” and in general make pains of themselves until they get their way like the spoiled brats they are.
5. They have no intention of learning English or remotely integrating into American culture like the millions of L-E-G-A-L immigrants did 100-some years ago or like L-E-G-A-L immigrants do today that are proud of the USA and proud to become A-M-E-R-I-C-A-N-S.
6. They want to make the USA into Mexico North by any way or means available.”
You nailed it!
It happens in good neighborhoods too...
I used to drive through a neighborhood in Huntington Beach on my way to work....very nice houses....some idiot painted his house the ugliest s#!t brown I have ever seen. Sticks out...well....like a pile of s#!t. His neighbors had to be pissed.
“I used to drive through a neighborhood in Huntington Beach on my way to work....very nice houses....some idiot painted his house the ugliest s#!t brown I have ever seen. Sticks out...well....like a pile of s#!t. His neighbors had to be pissed.”
A house like that can murder property values!
I think this falls in the same category as typical zoning regulations. Some regulations are create to protect property rights. If your next door neighbor chooses a paint scheme that looks like a circus, it will definitely have an impact on your property value...likely a negative impact. The same applies to leaving junk cars on the front lawn, lawns overgrown with weeds or covered with garbage.
Sounds like Elizabeth is making fun of Black folks.
sw
Its quite possible that the latinos are acting in a racially charged manner that itself needs investigation.
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