Shooting at Wheaton Mall!! (Baltimore, Germantown: 2009, apartments, crime rates)

[Bigbluelandrover]

The more I see and hear the more I see that this whole region is a mess. PG is no better with the high crime,high taxes, illegals (Hyattsville,Takoma,Langley Park) section 8 housing-even people in Bowie are accepting sect 8. Montgomery County has allowed 'parts' of the county to get downright crappy-Wheaton, parts of Gaithersburg and White Oak, northern Kensington, parts of Rockville. Ugh!. This whole place is overpriced for what you get.

[jaindow]

So if MoCo and PG County have been becoming more and more unsafe, I just wonder how long it will take to see all this stuff push into Howard County. I figure that is where it will migrate to next.

[Tom Lennox 70]

Anyone who has been to Wheaton lately knows that it and neigobring parts of Prince George's County are overrun with illegals. MS-13, a major illegal alien gang, has its local headquarters not far from Wheaton in Langley Park. This is what happens when our state government not only tolerates but open embraces illegal immigration.

Oh yeah and Wheaton also has Section 8 housing that has attracted unsavory elements from inner city DC as well, especially with DC's "gentrification". Maryland jsut loves this. Baltimore is also "gentrifying" and whenever I read about this on the news it makes me cringe. Like the areas around Pikesville used to be elderly Jewish people, now it is also starting to be overrun with more and more ghetto people from the city bringing crime and drugs, suburbanites throughout the state seem powerless to stop these policies and trends.

[Tom Lennox 70]

Originally Posted by firefightermom

According to WTOP, MoCo police said it was 2 gangs....no surprise there anymore! Another reason why I left. I really don't think the entire state is going downhill though. MoCo certainly is.

MoCo definitely is going down hill. I moved to the Baltimore area for grad school (live downtown, work part time in Dundalk a few times a month) and it is so refreshing to see an alternative. Like in Dundalk you actually have a blue collar community that is well maintained and where people have a sense of pride compared with Wheaton and Silver Spring which are filled with illegal and ghetto trash. The thing is that many of these people in Wheaton are illegal and do not respect or care about our country. They don't have good values like the honest, hardworking Americans in Dundalk which is a blue collar working class town so it has absolutely nothing to do with income levels. Absolutely nothing. You can make a modest living and have a lot of class and vice versa. I don't think someone who breaks the law to come here has upstanding morals and ethics anyway. They have already messed up their own countries and now they are messing up ours.

Montgomery County's liberal policies of "affordable housing", sanctuary for illegal immigrants, and Section 8 housing will do itself in. There's no "normal" in MoCo anymore...its either rich snobby liberal elite like Bethesda and Potomac or its ghetto (and still overpriced) like Wheaton and parts of Gaithersburg. You only need to see Gaithersburg now vs. 15 years ago to see its decline. Anyone anywhere in this country who thinks illegal immigration is not a problem or who supports Section 8 housing in suburbs or supports ACORN (Obama's old brainchild) should visit these places and see how they have gone downhill.

Very soon parts larges of DC's Maryland suburbs will resemble Los Angeles.

[Skapov]

I wonder if with the downturn in the economy, the illegals will go home? I just hope that with Obama's big Public Works Projects, to stimulate the economy, that it won't be the illegals who get those jobs. But just look at how that pipe burst and flooded River Road, so we need these heavy-duty construction projects to rebuild infranstructure that has been neglected for the past 40yrs, but you just know that it'll be the illegals who are gonna get hired to fix things and then more are gonna come flooding across the borders.

Now I'm all for immigration, and my husband is a immigrant too (educated in Eastern Europe and with a Ph.D.), but I hate when people break the law and then get REWARDED for it! I moved from Brentwood (over near Hyattsville) to Largo area last Spring, because that area was just flooded with illegals, and over there by East-West Highway and Bladensburg it's like a border-town, doesn't feel like America at all.

People think the illegals are good for the cheap labor and they go on about how they are "hard-working" etc., but there's no such thing as a free lunch! The 1st generation may work hard on the cheap, but the 2nd generation is gonna feel entitled, and trust me, they aren't gonna want to scrub toilets and serve as nannies for minimum wage. The tides are already turning, and the children of illegals are now contributing to societal ills by joining gangs, dropping out of highschool, having out-of-wedlock pregnancies and relying on welfare/public-aid etc. We need to stop importing cheap labor and make the investments in the young people who are already here!

[bowian]

You all have touched on two good points -- lack of control of illegal immigration and section 8 housing can bring whole areas down, especially when the people involved don't have the values needed to keep things up. Not all section 8 folks or even illegal immigrants want to shoot, kill, tear up rental housing or act ghetto, but the ones who do give all of them a bad name. PG has taken a hit because of DC's gentrification, and Langley Park has taken a hit with the concentration of folks with questionable values and gangs. Disbursement would help to neutralize the problems, but community leaders have to be really forward-thinking. You know, think about long-haul impact. I'm trying not to paint all of one type of people with a broad brush.

As for the cheap labor, I can't argue with you there. I see entitlement already. I've heard stories about new homes being damaged in some way by the labor (such as urinating on basement walls before the basement is finished, so the urine smell ikeeps coming through the walls). And workers threw a bunch of debris in my sump pump in my first home, which later resulted in my basement flooding. The builder replaced the pump, and luckily the basement wasn't finished (nor was anything valuable damaged). But doggone.

[firefightermom]

Originally Posted by Skapov

I wonder if with the downturn in the economy, the illegals will go home? I just hope that with Obama's big Public Works Projects, to stimulate the economy, that it won't be the illegals who get those jobs. But just look at how that pipe burst and flooded River Road, so we need these heavy-duty construction projects to rebuild infranstructure that has been neglected for the past 40yrs, but you just know that it'll be the illegals who are gonna get hired to fix things and then more are gonna come flooding across the borders.

Now I'm all for immigration, and my husband is a immigrant too (educated in Eastern Europe and with a Ph.D.), but I hate when people break the law and then get REWARDED for it! I moved from Brentwood (over near Hyattsville) to Largo area last Spring, because that area was just flooded with illegals, and over there by East-West Highway and Bladensburg it's like a border-town, doesn't feel like America at all.

People think the illegals are good for the cheap labor and they go on about how they are "hard-working" etc., but there's no such thing as a free lunch! The 1st generation may work hard on the cheap, but the 2nd generation is gonna feel entitled, and trust me, they aren't gonna want to scrub toilets and serve as nannies for minimum wage. The tides are already turning, and the children of illegals are now contributing to societal ills by joining gangs, dropping out of highschool, having out-of-wedlock pregnancies and relying on welfare/public-aid etc. We need to stop importing cheap labor and make the investments in the young people who are already here!

When I lived in the DC area, everyone kept telling me how the area needed the immigrants, legal or not, because no one else was willing to do the work. When I disagreed and said that when I lived in Ohio, I had worked fast food *gasp!!* and that other people did all sorts of jobs too, no one would listen to or believe me.

Now that I live in PA, it's nice to have an English speaker take my order at the fast food restaurants. It's wonderful to actually be treated nicely at the grocery and at WalMart instead of being ignored. So my point all along was correct...there are people who are willing to do all sorts of jobs. There are immigrants here, but not as many, so "regular folk" are doing those jobs instead...nannies, hotel maids, fast food, landscaping, etc.

I am tired of the excuses for why we cater to these people. This country is made up from the progeny of immigrants, but the difference was that there used to be respect for their new country. My husband is only 3rd generation on his father's side, and they didn't act and don't act like some of the current immigrants. They didn't trash their homes and disrespect their neighbors. They were proud to become Americans and wanted a better life.

[dkf747]

I live in section 8 housing and it hasn't been too bad. Is everyone here overreacting a bit?

[Moth]

Originally Posted by Tom Lennox 70

MoCo definitely is going down hill. I moved to the Baltimore area for grad school (live downtown, work part time in Dundalk a few times a month) and it is so refreshing to see an alternative. Like in Dundalk you actually have a blue collar community that is well maintained and where people have a sense of pride compared with Wheaton and Silver Spring which are filled with illegal and ghetto trash. The thing is that many of these people in Wheaton are illegal and do not respect or care about our country. They don't have good values like the honest, hardworking Americans in Dundalk which is a blue collar working class town so it has absolutely nothing to do with income levels. Absolutely nothing. You can make a modest living and have a lot of class and vice versa. I don't think someone who breaks the law to come here has upstanding morals and ethics anyway. They have already messed up their own countries and now they are messing up ours.

Montgomery County's liberal policies of "affordable housing", sanctuary for illegal immigrants, and Section 8 housing will do itself in. There's no "normal" in MoCo anymore...its either rich snobby liberal elite like Bethesda and Potomac or its ghetto (and still overpriced) like Wheaton and parts of Gaithersburg. You only need to see Gaithersburg now vs. 15 years ago to see its decline. Anyone anywhere in this country who thinks illegal immigration is not a problem or who supports Section 8 housing in suburbs or supports ACORN (Obama's old brainchild) should visit these places and see how they have gone downhill.

Very soon parts larges of DC's Maryland suburbs will resemble Los Angeles.

I agree to a large extent, but I don't think MC will go completely down the toilet. How could it? Rather, it has become like most other counties that border urban areas.

Westchester County (NY) and Fairfield County (CT) are two examples. Very wealthy counties and nice places to live. But they both have their dumpy parts. So it will be with Montgomery County. The population will adjust as will the government and the police, who sadly may well become more agressive.

A good portion of people who live in nice areas are never more than a few miles from the Apocalypse. Los Angeles, the example you cite, has its dumpy areas but has numerous nice ones as well and is a pretty cool place to live. Always has been.

Your points about MoCo's government are right on. But they are also experiencing growing outrage. They will have to change.

[Grasonville]

I lived in Wheaton/Silver Spring and Rockville/Twinbrook from 1965 - 1990. "Back then" it was "Wheaton Plaza" - wasn't even enclosed at first. We had local business that had moved IN from the ciy - Woodward and Lothrop - Raleighs - Hahn Shoes - Bakers Shoes - Kresges - Montgomery Wards - Irvings Sporting Goods and so on.

Where are they now?

Replaced by national chains - a corporate Westfield Mall ownership - and clerks who can't stop speaking to each other in any other language than English long enough to assist you.

I LOVE the Eastern Shore - we still expect and receive English over here.