Demonstration Rules Change Near Manassas Women’s Clinic

MoonHowler

Manassas City Police Chief Skinner has changed a few rules for demonstrators along the Sudley Road/Forestwood Corridor. Over the summer, Chief Skinner had several complaints about signs and protestors blocking the line of vision of drivers attempting to pull out onto Sudley Road. As a result, the chief, in conjunction with the city attorney and city manager, devised some new rules, with safety as the main goal.

The demonstration site was moved so no one’s vision was blocked. Additionally “City ordinance limits the number of signs demonstrators may use at any one time to five. The signs must not exceed 24 by 36 inches and may be attached to wooden handles with no sharp ends, Skinner said. ”

Protestors requested to go down onto private property. Skinner explained that the property owner will not permit demonstrations there.

As long as everyone has to go by the same rules, no one should mind these safety conscious rules. Chief Skinner appears to have gone above and beyond the call of duty. He has contacted the people who demonstrate most frequently and explained why he arrived at the decision he did. Some folks have complained to the City Council about first amendment rights. That seems like quite a stretch. I would hate to think someone was in a automobile accident because I just had to exercise my rights.

Full story in the Manassas News and Messenger @ www.insidenova.com

Crunching the Numbers…and Extrapolating

MoonHowler

Number of Hispanic Students Enrolled Sept. 30

School System

MC

MP

PWC

2008

2,760

1,016

17,775

2007

2,686

1,098

18,306

2006

2,565

1,036

17,214

About the only quantifiers we have as far as immigration goes come from schools. Immigrants generally have children. The Virginia State Board of Education keeps data on ethnicity as set by the federal government.

The above data shows the number of Hispanics enrolled in the 3 school systems on Sept. 30 of the given year. It looks like MC gained 74 more Hispanic students. MP lost 82 students between 2007 and 2008. The county lost 531 students from 2007 to 2008. I can just see Corey Stewart and Greg hi-fiving each other. It appears, however, that Help Save Manassas, didn’t (Save Manassas, that is.)

So much for the great plan that was supposed to save us all that money.  Many of us will be waiting for Corey to turn that savings over to the school system.  Pony  up Corey Stewart!  Where is that money we supposedly saved?

In the grand scheme of things,in a school system that has just under 74,000 students,  losing 531 students is , to quote Mr. Stewart, a ‘drop in the bucket.’

[NOTE:  Many of these students could very well be from families of legal immigrants. Additionally, they very well might not be involved with any LEP classes.  Some could have lived here for generations.  There is no way to tell exactly.]

T.C. Williams, City of Manassas Have High Drop Out Rates

MoonHowler

High school drop out rates have been growing by leaps and bounds, to the point of being called a national epidemic. Exactly what is the cost of dropping out of high school? According to the video captured from the Washington Post, dropping out is a million dollar mistake.

In an era when having a diploma is a bare minimum; many of our young people are selling themselves real short very early in the game. As budgets are finalized, it seems prudent that these stark, staggering statistics should be in the back of everyone’s mind.

Earlier in the week I put up a thread about Hispanic high drop out rates, much to the chagrin of at least one ‘regular’ here. I was accused of quoting some pro-Hispanic groups. Truthfully, I was gathering my information from the VA Dept. of Education. I would say that is a fairly ethnically neutral agency. It’s their job to disaggregate data.

So without apology, here is part 2 of the drop out phenomena. What I didn’t know earlier in the week is that City of Manassas has an even higher drop out rate than Prince William County. Critics will be happy to know that this video does not break down data by ethnicity. It speaks about all kids.

Pardon the mini-mercial.

Surely with statistics like these, right here in our own backyard, we should be rethinking the ‘business as usual’ for high school students. Will everyone go to college? Should everyone go to college? What is being done educationally for those who probably have no intentions of going to college, at least not right after high school? What kinds of job training can a high school student get? Should it be the job of public schools to prepare students for jobs out of high school? If not, where will the student aquire those skills?

Update on the Manassas “Wedge”

MoonHowler

I was so tempted to type wedgie….

It sounds like things are moving right along with the Fernandez Wedge, according to the Washington Post. The injunction will be heard tomorrow by a circuit court judge. All the City can do is go through the process, regardless of what all the dark screen quarterbacks want to happen. It appears that the motive this time is to send a message to VRE riders.

[More updates: I hope Sr. Fernandez is not superstitious. Poor Richard has let us know that the hearing will probably be Friday the 13th.]

From today’s Washington Post:

A Circuit Court judge will weigh in as soon as tomorrow on the structure, after Manassas officials filed an injunction against Fernandez on Monday when he refused to stop construction. That came after Brian Smith, the city’s chief building official, issued two violations to Fernandez on Sunday, including a stop work order and a building code violation. Both notices threaten to bring criminal charges against Fernandez, 48, who immigrated to the United States from Mexico in 1979.

“Let them put me in jail. I’m not going to remove my message,” Fernandez said this week, after spending $1,600 on lumber, plywood and white, waterproof vinyl panels that are typically used on bathroom walls but have provided Fernandez with a durable canvas for his thoughts.

If Fernandez receives a court order to remove the structure and fails to comply, he might end up in jail, but it’s not clear whether the city would be able to remove the installation after that. Then again, Fernandez said that his current message is temporary and that he might dismantle it in two months — unless, he said, Manassas officials “make it difficult for me.”

[UPDATE: Current wedge and sheet signs at 9500 Liberty Street  2/9/09.]

Close-up

Folks Just Need to Behave!

MoonHowler

Today’s MJM is just full of stories about misbehavior and vandalism– basically, people not having respect for other people’s property or other people’s opinions. Major vandalism happened in the Virginia Oaks neighborhood in Gainesville, where spray paint was used to write all sorts of unattractive epithets about Senator McCain on people’s homes. The vandals also spray painted Target, Giant and Best Buy in the nearby shopping center.

Back in Manassas, the vandalism went the other way(see picture above):

Residents in and around the city on Friday lamented that this year’s presidential race has drawn such passion that placards are being destroyed or snatched from yards under the cover of night.
Charlotte Boynton, who’s lived at the corner of Fairview Avenue and Tudor Lane in Ma-nassas for the better part of three decades, erected a handmade sign bearing the message, “Real patriots do not steal signs,” after thieves swiped an Obama-Biden sign from her front lawn.
A Quaker, Boynton had previously put up an anti-Iraq war sign that stated, “War is not the answer.” It fared better than the Democratic candidates’ sign, which she noticed Monday was missing.

Is this vile behavior just kids doing a little pre-Halloween vandalism or is this nastiness rooted in partisanship? I would like to think it is just kids out who need far more supervision. Surely adults don’t think this is the way Americans act or that their candidate will fare a bit better by stealing a yard sign.

PWC NEW Adult Detention Center Opens

MoonHowler

Thanks to Chris for this guest post and picture.

We have a new ADC for Prince William County, Manassas, and Manassas Park. It will begin to house inmates next month. The new ADC is long overdue, and finally complete.

One of the best things about having the new facility is that inmates who are currently “farmed out” out to other jurisdictions will be returning to the area. This will be a big savings to us the tax payers. We’ve been spending a fair amount of money on our inmates to be housed in other facilities. We aren’t able to farm out any person with an ICE detainer.

The new facility was also featured during yesterday’s Board of Supervisors meeting. It showed the project from start to finish. The presentation will re-air on Channel 23 or Channel 37 the next three nights at 7:30, and then on Saturday and Sunday at 10am.

One of the neatest features is the “video visitation.” PWC is the second jurisdiction in the Commonwealth to use this technology, Virginia Beach was the first. One of the big benefits of this new technology is there’s less possibility of contraband getting in the hands of the inmates.

City Brings Home Three State Neighborhood Awards

Alanna

A Special Congratulations to Cindy Brookshire

For immediate release

Contact: Kisha Wilson-Sogunro
Neighborhood Services Coordinator

City of Manassas
703-257-8240

City Brings Home Three State Neighborhood Awards

MANASSAS, VA – The City of Manassas, one of its neighborhood organizations and a local youth have won three state neighborhood awards. They are:

State Neighborhood Youth Individual Effort of the Year

Michael Sensale, Cannon Ridge Community

State Neighborhood Youth Group Effort of the Year

Week of Hope Program, City of Manassas Neighborhood Services

State Neighborhood Project of the Year

Weems Neighborhood Watch/Week of Hope Cleanup

The awards were presented on Saturday, September 20 at the 9th annual Virginia Statewide Neighborhood Conference, held at the Hilton McLean Tysons Corner.

The City of Manassas has been stepping up efforts to build strong neighborhoods and increase civic involvement since it hired Kisha Wilson-Sogunro as Neighborhood Services Coordinator in November 2006. Sogunro has put her extensive knowledge to work addressing critical needs in the community,

“This was truly a city government-citizen group partnership,” said Cindy Brookshire, whose project had the support of more than a dozen Weems Neighborhood Watch members to organize a four-day cleanup of Landgreen Street, where Manassas Cab Company driver Khawaja Ahmed was murdered in February 2008. More than 30 youth and adult church volunteers, including the general manager of the cab company, worked with Watch members to fill four City trucks with trash and yard waste, mow 12 lawns, haul away a trailer load of hazardous household waste (used motor oil, paint, car batteries, TV and computer monitors), reinstall a mailbox and spread a truckload of mulch. They ended their labors with an ice cream “party in the park” at Byrd Park. “Our Neighborhood Watch could not have pulled this project together without the encouragement of Officer Scott Stallard of the City of Manassas Police Department, Kisha’s in-field guidance of the Week of Hope volunteers, and the Public Works Department, which supplied us with courtesy trucks, wheelbarrows and other tools we needed to get the job done. I’m grateful to the City and to the church youth for their help in our crime prevention and community building efforts.”

The City is planning to host its own Neighborhood Conference on Saturday, November 15 from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the Carteret Mortgage Branch Boys & Girls Club on Dean Drive, complete with workshops, a marketplace of exhibits, a block party lunch with “divine desserts” from local churches and their own Best of Neighborhood award winners.

To register for the City’s Second Annual Neighborhood Conference, go to www.manassascity.org.

Settlement on the Horizon?

Alanna

Apparently a settlement is in the works for the case brought against the City when they attempted to redefine a family.

ACTION ITEM: Consideration of Resolution #R-2009-38 as Full and Final Settlement Agreement and Release of the Equal Rights Center, Et Al. v. City of Manassas and City of Manassas Public Schools and City of Manassas School Board, Case No. 07 CV 1037 – TSE/TRJ before the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. (Staff: Lawrence D. Hughes, City Manager.

Manassas’s Week of Hope

MoonHowler

What a heart-rending story in the Washington Post this morning about the volunteer work of local people, mainly kids, and youngsters from as far away as Tennessee.  Manassas City neighborhood services director Kisha Wilson-Sogunro is to be congratulated for her efforts orchestrating this tremendous effort. 

 

Approximately 900 volunteers participate in the Week of Hope Program.  Most of the worker bees are kids.  Talk about team work.  Many of these kids came from out of town, hours away. 

 

I certainly hope that the City of Manassas has evening activities such as swimming available for these welcome guests.  Last year this program saved the city over $35,500. 

 

Let’s also hope some of the whiners I have heard on both blogs went out and helped these kids.  This effort is definitely an example of what friends, neighbors, and even outsiders can accomplish in the face of adversity.  Now HERE is a solution!

 

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/27/AR2008062703586.html