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Vienna neighbors form group
A group of Vienna citizens have joined together and created a new Web site to draw attention to what they say is the biggest issue in Vienna that no one is talking about.
"Our quality of life in Vienna, Va. has declined. With the influx of what we believe are illegal aliens, there's been an increase in crime and gang activity, vagrancy and day laborers, and overcrowded apartments and flop houses in Vienna," reads the introduction to the Vienna Citizen Group's new Web site, www.viennacitizens.com.
The new group is made up primarily of people who live in the Vienna Woods neighborhood, an area of Vienna that in recent years has seen a demographic shift toward a Hispanic population. The neighborhood has changed, and not for the better, at least according to the Vienna Citizens Group.
"I live in a million dollar home in the middle of a ghetto, " said Vienna Woods resident Colin Knowlan, one of about eight members of the group who spoke to The Times and the only one who agreed to be identified.
Vienna Woods is just behind the Cedar Park Shopping Center, which is Vienna's largest gathering point for day laborers seeking to rendezvous with employers. A recent change in ownership at the shopping center has made it more difficult for landscapers and construction companies to pick up workers on the actual shopping center grounds, but every morning the area around the parking lot is filled with apparently Hispanic men waiting to be picked up.
According to the citizens group, such visible differences are accompanied by a lot of hidden ones, such as an increase in crime and overcrowded houses. The group's Web site targets these problems, publishing photos of homes they say are "flophouses" and lists of crime reports in their area.
Their aim is to bring more publicity to the problems, to get public officials to do something about them.
"They're dumbfounded," Knowlan said. "They don't know how to handle it."
"We had [county Supervisor] Cathy Hudgins come to our meeting and she told us there was nothing she could do for us," said one member of the group who declined to be identified for this story.
Vienna's leadership sees the issues in the Vienna Woods area differently. For instance, a big target for some members of the Vienna Citizens group is the Vienna Park Apartments, one of Vienna's few sites of low-cost housing. The group has singled out Southern Management, owner of the apartments, on its Web site, and claims that the apartments are home to overcrowding and zoning violations.
However, Town of Vienna Planning and Zoning manager Greg Hembree and Town Administrator John Schoberlein both reported a good relationship with Southern Management, which they say is quick to address issues of overcrowding and other violations on the property.
"Southern Management are doing a wonderful job. ... They are very aggressive in making sure there's no overcrowding; they have always cooperated with us on that," Schoberlein said.
Similarly, Vienna Police Chief Robert Carlisle has a different view on crime in the Cedar Lane area than the citizens group.
"I think we have a crime issue down there, but a lot of what we see is alcohol-driven in evening hours. ... The morning when the day laborers gather is not when those calls come in," Carlisle said.
There are increased patrols in that area of town and that there is some gang activity, Carlisle acknowledged. He thinks the problem in Vienna Woods is partly one of perception.
"Because of that perception, we have devoted extra resources there ... But take loitering – would they have the same reaction 25 years ago when you'd see bunch of kids doing the same thing?" Carlisle asked.
For its part, the Vienna Citizens Group members are careful to make clear that this is not a race issue for them.
'That's ridiculous," Knowlan said. "I don't care who's doing this stuff, I just want it to be safe. ... I don't want to wait for something to happen; I want to be proactive."
Mostly the group seems to want elected officials to pay more attention to the issue.
"We don't know what to do, we don't do this for a living. We're looking for guidance," said one group member.
Every suggestion given to Cathy Hudgins to resolve the illegal immigration issue " would cause a tax increase" but low and behold, her ideas would not. She didn't have a clue to the cost to the county the illegal immigration impact was having. Shame shame. Ignorance is no excuse Cathy. And for God's sake Bob Carlisle, give me a break!
Posted by notalicia
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