Dallas Suburb Votes to Ban Illegals from Renting
In Saturday's special election in the Dallas suburb of Farmers Branch, voters passed an ordinance prohibiting landlords from renting houses or apartments to illegal aliens. They passed the measure with a 68% margin of victory over the opposition of the town's mayor whose house was vandalized by supporters of the bill during the election campaign.
Farmers Branch is the 88th community nationwide to attempt to exclude undocumented immigrants through rental restrictions. The ACLU and other civil rights organizations have already sued Farmers Branch over a similar ordinance passed by the city council without voter approval and they are expected to pursue further legal action over this new ordinance.
Objections to the ordinance center on the provisions of the Fair Housing Act which provides equal access to housing regardless of race, with no consideration of citizenship status. There will be a fight, and the city councilman who sponsored the resolution promises to fight for the rental ban all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary.
For more see the New York Times and the Houston Chronicle
Texas Legislature Considers Lowering Gas Tax
With gas prices climbing to over $3 per gallon before the high-usage summer months have even begun, concern is growing about what impact the high cost of gas will have on consumers and, by extension, on the economy in general. Never wanting to miss an opportunity to pander to the public, the Texas House this week passed a measure to provide what's being called a gas tax 'holiday' by lowering the state gas tax by 20 cents a gallon during the three months of summer.
In a time when conservation of natural resources is an increasingly high priority, lowering the price of gas may be sending the wrong message to consumers, gas companies, auto manufacturers and even the federal government. The long term solution to our energy problems is much more likely to be raising gas prices, rather than lowering them. The short term relief of a 20 cent savings for three months is far less meaningful than the long-term benefits of higher gas prices encouraging consumers to use public transportation or demand more fuel efficient vehicles.
Several other states are considering similar measures, and it wouldn't be surprising to see the championship panderers in DC jumping on the band wagon. Ironically, the measure will take almost $500 million out of the state budget at a time when other measures are raising questions about how to fund necessary highway improvements, the work for which gas tax money is supposed to be earmarked.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - georgio
Dave in regards to the gas problem I want to throw this out there and see what ppl think of it..I am now living on Skidaway Iland in Savannah Ga a community of about 10000 ppl..every home owner owns a golf cart and we have a village shopping center..there are golf cart paths leading everywhere and residents use them to do thier shopping etc etc...
Why can"t suburbs redesign there streets and sidewalks to accommadate golf carts to at least do thier local shopping..ppl don"t use thier sidewalks for walking anyway..I came here from the midwest and I know this idea would not work in a city or super populated areas but there are plenty of suburbs where this idea would work..what do you think ?
2 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
If the Texas legislators are indeed in such trouble by being held over by the governor, can't they impeach him. I mean, a president in your country was impeached essentially for allowing a young ambitious woman to suck on his dick. This has got to be worse than that.
Of course, if the Texas governor is willing to provide young ambitious women to suck on the dicks of the legislators in Austin (or the equivalent for the ladies), it might be worth the extra stay and lost income...
3 - Dave Nalle
Why can"t suburbs redesign there streets and sidewalks to accommadate golf carts to at least do thier local shopping..ppl don"t use thier sidewalks for walking anyway
I can't speak for the whole nation, but I know the answer for neighborhoods around here. Our local government doesn't require developers to put in sidewalks, hence neighborhoods have no sidewalks. That's one problem.
The other problem is that a lot of neighborhoods are now in residential clusters which are fairly distant from shopping areas. My neighborhood is 10 miles from the nearest real grocery store, and that's not at all uncommon. Getting there involves travelling on roads where a golf cart would be suicide.
Your idea is certainly appealing, but it would virtually require specially designed communities to work.
Dave
4 - Dave Nalle
Ruvy, you have to prove 'high crimes and misdemeanors' to impeach a governor or a president, and Clinton was impeached for lying in court, not the adulterous act. All Perry is doing is bullying people with the power of his office. It sucks, but it's not a crime.
Dave
5 - Clavos
Why can"t suburbs redesign there streets and sidewalks to accommadate golf carts to at least do thier local shopping..ppl don"t use thier sidewalks for walking anyway
Besides the lack of sidewalks Dave pointed out, there is also a financial question; golf carts cost nearly as much as low-end cars these days, and even in a "golf cart" communities (we have several in Florida), you still have to have one or more cars to commute to work, etc. This is one reason why most golf cart communities are very upscale, like Skidaway, and Fisher Island in Miami.
How much oil would the use of golf carts save?
They have to be recharged each night, and in Florida at least, most of our electricity is generated by burning oil.
6 - Zedd
georgio,
Texas is big and HOT. When we say down the street we mean something totally different than what most people mean. Golf carts would work in some rare instances but not most.
Also our suburbs are becoming mini cities and golf cart traffic would be dangerous. However for my suburb it would work. The ride would be long and HOT intolerable for Dallasites actually. Remember we do our hair and full make up to go the the grocery store. We need air around here. Three minutes out doors in the Summer and you have to bathe to be considered among the civilized in society. Also, we are very impatient in these neck of the woods. If that cart had a turbo engine built on it it may cut it :o)
7 - Zedd
Dave
Texas a huge and you know that we rely on intrastate travel business in the Summer. When you are in save mode, its easy to hitch up the kids and to the capital or to Galveston and call that a vacation. However with these gas prices, people are talking about staying home AGAIN this year.
The oil refineries are still in record profit mode. I realise that you believe that this all even out but these profits for so long are unheard of. If they could be better regulated as opposed to approaching the halls of our legislative branch with arrogance as they did a few years back, we would see some reasonable prices filtering to the consumer. As it is now small gas station owners are boarding up because they are having to make concessions to keep prices low for their customers while refineries are having a ball.
The tollway thing is getting out of control. Its clear that Perry has no further political aspirations and is in full blown banana republic mode. He is simply riding the wave at a time when Americans have become accustomed to being screwed by the government and are in sort of a trance state. He has no real ideology, just his own personal agenda.
8 - Dr Dreadful
I hesitate to comment on the Farmers Branch story, because if Arch reads this it might set him off on another one of his death-to-illegals diatribes, but here goes.
While it may seem wrong that illegal immigrants may legally rent, any attempt to prevent them doing so does indeed risk falling foul of federal law, i.e. the Fair Housing Act. Although the Act doesn't specifically mention illegals as a protected category, it does say that landlords can't discriminate based on familial status. That's usually taken to mean marital status, but it doesn't take much of an intellectual leap to consider that it could also cover things like sexual orientation and immigration status (especially if the kids were born here and are therefore legal).
Even if you limit your interpretation to marital status only, it can still get contentious: we've had one or two cases at the Housing Authority where I work in which it's been an issue because of the landlord's religious objection to allowing unmarried couples to live together.
I digress slightly. I suppose my point is that the Fair Housing Act has a lot of wriggle room. The good citizens of Farmers Branch are about to find out which way the courts want to wriggle.
9 - georgio
I am a little shocked that you guys who are so smart on the political issues can not expand your imagination outside of Texas..I lived all of my life in suburbs near Chicago and every suburb had a mini shopping center no more than a mile from your house and since most driving other than going to work where you do need a car is to go buy groceries or the hardware store so a golf cart is all you need..
I also realize that suburbs would have to rethink their street and sidewalk use but it could be done in many places lol maybe not Texas but believe me there are other states in the union....c"mon you guys ..expand your minds...
10 - Dave Nalle
The oil refineries are still in record profit mode. I realise that you believe that this all even out but these profits for so long are unheard of.
This isn't quite what you present it as. Oil profits are based solely on a percentage of the price per barrel. So if the price per barrel goes up the profits go up. It's not a matter of profiteering or trying to jack up prices.
If they could be better regulated as opposed to approaching the halls of our legislative branch with arrogance as they did a few years back, we would see some reasonable prices filtering to the consumer.
Better regulated? As in forbidden to make a fair profit? That seems like a really bad idea. Their profit margins are tiny as it is compared to other businesses. The problem is the high price of oil. The only way to address that is to increase supply or reduce demand. That either means putting a hell of a lot more pressure on the Arabs or changing how we use gas.
As it is now small gas station owners are boarding up because they are having to make concessions to keep prices low for their customers while refineries are having a ball.
Gas station owners are boarding up because of overregulation which hits them hard and because a lot of them rent their properties and are losing their leases because of inflated real estate prices. Their profits have nothing to do with the price of gas or the profits of the oil companies. Gas is a loss-leader for stations. They essentially make no or next-to-no money on it. Their money comes from secondary sales.
Dave
11 - Dr Dreadful
The Texas legislature is like a chicken with an electric prod up its cloaca
So that's how you get that special fried chicken taste in Texas...
12 - Zedd
georgia
You don't know what hot is do you? Spend a summer in Texas and you will OPEN YOUR MIND. There are plenty of neighborhood markets in the central area of Dallas.
However again, you don't know what distances we are talking about in Texas. Open your mind.
In my development we have a intradevelopment shopping plan in the works but again, ITS HOT here. Getting on a golf cart and driving for 2miles parking and getting the seats nice and scorching, doing groceries while you are sweating and broken by the heat and loading the cart and driving back in the heat is not progress. Its simply torture. What for? At least scooter can be parked in a shaded area, and can be fast.
I've seen kids go to their freinds houses in golf carts... does that make you feel better?
Talk to someone whos lived around here in the summer. You have no clue............. Open your mind! I live in a golfing community and that still isn't practical unless the trees that line the walking trails grow by leaps and bounds in the next year or so.
I am sure there are communites like that in East Texas. Off course there are tons of retirement communities like that too but come here first, feel the heat and then talk about opening minds. You have to brace yourself to go from your house to the car.
13 - Zedd
Dave
We cant have a say in what goes on in Nigeria to affect oil prices. What we know and should affect is how the refineries have increased the percentage of their take in the past 2yrs while they are experiencing record high gains and the state and local authorities have decreased their taxes in order to try and offset the huge expense.
No one ever said that they shouldn't profit. Why did you make that up? You really know how to dilute a discussion by adding unnecessary statements that have NO relevance. Stay on topic.
The issue is making record profits and increasing your percent of the take when the consumer is being affected adversely. In he end, the consumer pays for it ALL. You act as if they are paying for it some how. When the cost per barrel goes up, WE pay for it true but why do they need to increase their costs too especially when their profits are obscene and unknown in recorded history.
Its called rape and you obviously like it because it falls in the parameters of your small theories about life. It doesn't work. Some guy is laughing while you struggle everyday to hold your head above water, not doing any more work than you, just holding you hostage because he has a product that you NEED. They must be regulation. Who is to keep them in check?
Its funny how farmers are regulated......
14 - Zedd
Dr.
What Farmer's Branch is saying is, we act as if its impossible to get rid of illegal aliens. Its not. Don't accommodate them.
I was in hospital this past week and the lady next to me did not speak English, she spoke Spanish exclusively. Because of my insurance status I HAD to share a room. The entire time she had the TV on Spanish TV. She had at least 3 nurses and care givers in there all of the time trying to understand what she wanted. She wouldn't punch the button for help so she kept asking me (screaming "senora!!!") all night to punch the button for her. She would disobey the nurses instructions even with an interpreter then something would happen, she fell a couple of times. I GOT NO REST!!! Then the signs in the hospital say "no more than two visitors and no children under 12". She had her mega family in and out and grand children 3, and 4yrs old. The cell phones were going off every 10minutes with "Bueno". None of her relatives spoke English. Her husband had his chair on my side of the room staring at me. I had a procedure in the nether parts of the bod and a catheter. You can imagine having a male watching my urine pour from my cath to a tube and just smiling. I couldn't walk so I couldn't move the curtain. There was much more but it was ALL toooooooooo much.
What was interesting is that all of my nurses were foreigners. I had 2 Indians, 2 Nigerians, an Ethiopian and a Filipino. They all had accents and came from FAR FAR away but they all spoke ENGLISH. None of their native languages even resemble English but they knew it. However because they were busy with madre in the next bed, they forgot about me quite a bit of the time. I requested to be sent home to recoup because I was just exhausted from all of the traffic, ring tones, crying babies, dancing talk shows and "senora!!!". I miss the pain pump but I'll suffer waiting for the next time I can take my meds, which is in 10min (hallelujah!!)
As an immigrant who knows many illegal immigrants who don't fall into any of the categories that drain society, I understand the need to work. Were I in Mexico, I'd be here, BUT, must we SUFFER!! Should there not be a clear acclimation process so that the culture is respected? Everyone else does who comes here.
15 - Dave Nalle
What we know and should affect is how the refineries have increased the percentage of their take in the past 2yrs while they are experiencing record high gains
Except that they haven't. Refinery operating costs have increased, and that's reflected in the price, but the actual percentage of profit has NOT increased.
and the state and local authorities have decreased their taxes in order to try and offset the huge expense.
Which they certainly shouldn't have done.
The issue is making record profits and increasing your percent of the take when the consumer is being affected adversely.
I agree that this would be a problem if it were happening. But every bit of data I've seen shows zero change in the percentage of profit of all the major oil companies.
In he end, the consumer pays for it ALL. You act as if they are paying for it some how. When the cost per barrel goes up, WE pay for it true but why do they need to increase their costs too especially when their profits are obscene and unknown in recorded history.
Again, their profits are NOT obscene. Their profit margin is low compared to other businesses. They make money off of volume not off of price per gallon.
Its called rape and you obviously like it because it falls in the parameters of your small theories about life.
Zedd, if it were actually happening I'd be the first to object, but the facts DO NOT SUPPORT YOUR CLAIMS.
They must be regulation. Who is to keep them in check?
Well, you could do like I did and switch to biodiesel. As for regulation, it's the most heavily regulated industry short of medical research in the world.
Its funny how farmers are regulated......
Not terribly, actually.
Dave
16 - Zedd
Dave
Okay, you've drifted into Dave world and I know there is no pulling you out. Look up the distribution of cost by component from the tank.
Sigh.... We'll move on again.....
I like your picture by the way. Meant to say that last week.
17 - CCK in Texas
Everybody talks about the price of gasoline, but no one even mentions how much water costs. If you buy your drinking water, it often costs more per gallon than gasoline.
18 - Dave Nalle
Okay, you've drifted into Dave world and I know there is no pulling you out. Look up the distribution of cost by component from the tank.
Zedd, all that data and more can be found on this convenient government website and as one might expect, I don't see how any of it supports anything you've been saying here. Oil industry profit margins are tiny compared to other industries and have not increased significantly natonwide.
I like your picture by the way. Meant to say that last week.
Thanks. It's newer than the others I've used and I look a bit tired in it, but it's kind of friendly.
Dave
19 - Dr Dreadful
Hey Zedd,
I understand where you're coming from. First, mitigating circumstances: it's hard for adults to learn a new language, and the older you are the harder it is - especially if you spend most of your time surrounded by people who speak your own language.
Yes, it's frustrating when people immigrate to a country and don't make the slightest attempt to learn the lingo. But in the case of the US I hardly think it's that big of a deal: the English language is still overwhelmingly dominant and won't be going away any time soon. And even if such people do refuse to learn English, their kids will - and will probably speak it as their first language. In the meantime, in order to get things done we're just going to have to work with them - by providing services in other languages among other things.
This kind of thing becomes more of an issue when the "natives" speak a minority language. Take Welsh, which despite legislative efforts to mandate its teaching in schools is suffering from the overwhelming influence of the neighboring English-speaking culture - exacerbated by the influx from across the border of English people who make no effort to learn Welsh, usually on the grounds that everyone speaks English anyway.
I forget the exact number of living languages which are estimated to be dying out each year as a result of such incursions, but it's a lot. And humanity is much the poorer for their loss.
20 - pleasexcusetheinterruption12
Lowering the tax on gas sounds like a really bad idea to me as well. It probably will result in only wider profit margins for oil producers or gas stations. If you decrease the tax by 20 cents the price at the pump this summer may only be a couple cents lower than it would have been otherwise. So really most of that 500 million loss in revenue to the Texas state legislature is being passed on as corporate profits to gas stations and oil refineries, not to the consumer. Like Dave said, the only way to really lower the price is to increase supply or decrease demand. Plus it's just dumb to encourage people to buy even more gas in summer when demand is already at its highest.
21 - Dave Nalle
Exactly, PETI. Plus 20 cents out of $3 a gallon is hardly going to be noticed. Based on past summer price increases it's reasonable to expect the price to increase by more than twice that much in the next 3 months anyway.
What's more, now that we're getting a more significant number of stations selling E85, most drivers can go to those stations and buy ethanol and save way more than 20 cents a gallon.
Dave
22 - Dave Nalle
I digress slightly. I suppose my point is that the Fair Housing Act has a lot of wriggle room. The good citizens of Farmers Branch are about to find out which way the courts want to wriggle.
From my reading of the act it does't say anything one way or another about immigration status, so I think the courts are likely to side with the ACLU against Farmers Branch on the basis of anti-discrimination elements of the Constitution and its Amerndments. I believe that some of the other towns which have passed ordinances like this have already had them struck down.
Dave
23 - Zedd
Dr
it's hard for adults to learn a new language, and the older you are the harder it is - especially if you spend most of your time surrounded by people who speak your own language.
You are totally right. I used to be the biggest defender of Mexican immigrants including illegal immigrants regarding this issue but its getting to be tooooo much. Asians come here as adults and they sweat to speak English, Africans from non English speaking countries come here as adults and speak English with pain. Spanish is similar to English, they are next door and the desire to speak it is just not there.
Months before we left SA even though we spoke English, we had English only weekends. Meal time was English only. My Dad prepared us for what was to come. To cross the boarder, it takes a lot of saving and preparation, language should be part of the prep.
If you knew the level on inundation you would feel differently. If the Indian and Pakistani community in Britain would not speak English and government signs would be in Bengali, clerical workers (jobs) would be for Indians in order to interpret when the time comes, things would be different. Lord forbid if they were all Nigerian....
Some people complain of taxes going up because of the same group bringing millions of kids into the school system, who drop out in a few years; millions into the county health system and justice system. They say it becomes problematic when 90% when weird driving happens you know who it is. It all points to one group. Communities end up being lumpy and all gerry rigged. Wildly loud signs are put up every where, zoning is overlooked, etc.
I personally understand the desire to be here. I would do it too. I also understand especially after my hospital stay, what Farmer's Branch is saying. It typically takes decades for neighborhoods to turn into ghettos. In illegal communities its within a few years.
24 - Clavos
@#23:
Even the liberal Black South African is a racist when it comes to brown people!
Even to the point of quoting from Dr. D's comment and twisting it around to rail against the "illegal" Mexicans.
You have one of the largest Latino populations in the US in Texas: about 35% of the total population. According to the US Census Bureau, the vast majority of these are legal; in fact most are native-born Texans of Mexican descent. According to USCB, fewer than 1/3 of Texas' foreign-born population is illegal. The raw number is approximately 1.5M, in a state of 24M people.
The "loud" signs and overlooking of zoning laws you complain of are unlikely to be from the illegals; they, for obvious reasons, keep as low a profile as possible.
When I lived in San Antonio, I managed an office of over 300 employees, 95% of whom were Tex-Mex. They were ALL legal; as a Mexican company operating in the US, we demanded proof of citizenship before hiring.
When speaking among themselves, they invariably spoke in a language unique to Mexican-Americans, which is a mixture of Spanish and English, known as "Pocho"; but when speaking to clients or Anglos they could, and did, speak perfect American English.
What's wrong with them speaking to each other any way they want to?
And, of course, until 1836, Texas was Mexican territory.
Unless you work in agriculture or construction, Zedd, the vast majority of "Mexicans" you see in your daily life are not only legal, they're probably Texas born.
25 - Dave Nalle
Not just Texas born, Clavos. They've probably had ancestors in Texas going back a couple of hundred years or more, which few of the rest of us can claim.
Dave