Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Reading the April 21 Metro article "A New View of Vacant Houses," I understood the frustrations of Chris Pannell and Allison Kipp, and I applaud these women for taking the necessary steps to take back their neighborhood.

However, not all Latino neighborhoods are like the one described in the article. The development that I live in is overwhelmingly Latino, and I have not seen overcrowding or public urination, heard excessively loud music or otherwise felt uncomfortable in any way. Yes, there are neighborhoods where immigrants have a negative impact, but the same conditions do not occur across the board. I don't know the immigration status of my Hispanic neighbors, but as long as they don't cause problems, it doesn't matter to me either way.

Bad experiences such as those of the people in this article can spiral dangerously into negative perceptions of all Latino communities. We must be careful not to judge whether a Latino immigrant has a positive or negative impact on a community solely on the basis of his or her immigration status. If my neighbors were driven out because of such unfair perceptions, that would just be sad and wasteful.

COLIN DUFFY

Silver Spring

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Regarding the April 21 Metro article about two Prince William County residents who were pleased with the decreasing presence of illegal Latino immigrants in their neighborhood because of the crackdown by the county:

The women featured in the article noted that, over the years, they had witnessed brawls and had frequently seen Hispanic men drinking on front stoops and urinating in front yards.

These and other Manassas area residents who object to such behavior were then labeled racists by Nancy Lyall of the group Mexicans Without Borders. Ms. Lyall also stated, "It's shocking to me and many people that there are people in this community that would rather live next to a vacant house than next to a house with an immigrant family."

All I can ask Ms. Lyall is, can you honestly not understand why people do not want to live next to such residents? It does not seem too difficult to fathom.

JEFFREY J. REDDIG

Silver Spring