🚀 go-pugleaf

<top post>

The woman (Fulton) in the article was interviewed on the radio on Friday, 
did you happen to hear it? She added detail of her life in Orange-hell that 
is not given in the print story.


</top post>


<johnwesley55@lycos.com> wrote in message 
news:1149383426.714762.150350@g10g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
>
> Iconoclast wrote:
>> White Americans describe how Orange County is turning into a Mexican slum
>> and unlivable Third World Hell.  I heard on the radio today that the
>> reporter, Ellyn Pak, has recieved threats from the invaders for telling 
>> the
>> truth.  Perhaps, as Mexicans do to reporters and editors in Nuevo Laredo,
>> they will kill her for reporting what the Mexicans don't want reported.
>>
>> http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/homepage/abox/article_1161076.php
>>
>> Tuesday, May 30, 2006
>>
>> Changes in Orange bring exodus
>> Longtime neighbors in Orange, wearied by crowding and new cultures, 
>> decide
>> to leave.
>>
>> By ELLYN PAK
>> The Orange County Register
>>
>> ORANGE - The Hills left East Vine Avenue two weeks ago. The Wigginses 
>> plan
>> to leave in a month or so. And just last week, the Hansons put up a 
>> for-sale
>> sign.
>>
>> In a few months, most of Carol Fulton's longtime neighbors will be gone. 
>> And
>> in a flash, summer barbecues, Fourth of July parades and baseball games 
>> at
>> the East Vine cul-de-sac will become distant memories.
>>
>> Fulton sits on her front porch, pensive and surveying the neighborhood. 
>> It
>> has changed drastically, she says.
>>
>> The familiar smells and sounds of backyard barbecues are replaced by
>> mariachi music and the honking horn of a shaved-ice cart. Fulton sees
>> unfamiliar cars and people streaming onto the street.
>>
>> Overcrowding caused by boarding homes - more than two leases on the same
>> property - is an issue that city officials and residents have grappled 
>> with
>> for years.
>>
>> "This used to be a fun neighborhood," says Fulton, 56. "Kids stayed 
>> outside
>> until 10 or 11 p.m. I figured we'd live here until we died. We never in
>> 100,000 years thought it would change."
>>
>> On most days, Fulton caps off the night at 10 with a cigarette in her
>> garage. But these nights, she does it with the door closed.
>>
>> "We were always outside. In the summertime, I was a free spirit," she 
>> says.
>> "Not anymore. We don't go outside anymore."
>>
>> Fulton has to decide if she, like her friends, is going to go.
>>
>>
>> Fulton moved to Orange in 1986 with her husband and two daughters from a
>> previous marriage.
>>
>> She loved the clean neighborhood. There were other families with 
>> children.
>> And everyone called each other by their first names. The house they 
>> rented
>> had no air conditioning. Fulton cooled off under the tree in her yard.
>>
>> A year later, they moved across East Vine into a three-bedroom house they
>> bought for $175,000. The Fultons, whose family grew to five kids, 
>> envisioned
>> growing old with their neighbors.
>>
>> Orange had deep roots, a city with generations of families where
>> grandparents and parents settled and their children held onto the threads 
>> of
>> their childhood.
>>
>> The neighborhood transformation was subtle at first.
>>
>> Some families moved away and a more transient community began to develop.
>> Unfamiliar faces filtered in and out of several houses.
>>
>> By the late '80s and early '90s, longtime residents complained about a
>> parking crunch caused by dozens of people crammed into the neighborhood's
>> first boarding house - the big house they called "the Fortress." The city
>> eventually required parking permits, and the problems subsided.
>>
>> In the late '90s, Fulton caught people peering into her rooms, urinating 
>> in
>> her yard and making catcalls at her.
>>
>> It was common knowledge that there were multiple families and dozens of 
>> men,
>> mainly day laborers, living in the homes, she says.
>>
>> Drywall was delivered to the homes and quickly disappeared. People built
>> additional rooms without permits. Blinds were closed and no children 
>> played
>> outside.
>>
>> The houses stayed tidy and well maintained on the outside. The street, by
>> day, looked like any other in Orange. But Fulton and some neighbors said
>> that in the evening, droves of cars came into the neighborhood.
>>
>> The idea of not knowing who lived on their street began to rile the
>> residents.
>>
>> One by one, Fulton's friends talked of moving. East Vine Avenue had 
>> become
>> intolerable, and they didn't want to wait for things to improve.
>>
>> "We've been here for years, and now everyone is bailing," Fulton says.
>>
>>
>> In February, city officials tried to crack down on overcrowded houses,
>> tightening the definition of a boarding house and creating a task force 
>> to
>> look at the problem on streets like East Vine.
>>
>> The city tried to discourage illegal garage conversions and room 
>> partitions
>> that allowed multiple families to live in one house. The city code does 
>> not
>> allow more than two lease agreements in one home.
>>
>> Violators are told to comply, and city officials say most do.
>>
>> "It runs the gamut," says City Attorney Dave DeBerry. "You get the
>> allegations ... gathering evidence is very hard. Maybe people are telling
>> the truth and maybe not."
>>
>> Fulton testified at council meetings about the overcrowding problem. 
>> Visits
>> to East Vine by city officials and code enforcement officers did little 
>> to
>> appease her.
>>
>> "These are houses but this street is becoming an apartment complex. They 
>> are
>> not touching each other but they might as well be," Fulton says.
>>
>>
>> Language and cultural barriers also make it difficult for some neighbors 
>> to
>> connect.
>>
>> When Fulton's son accidentally hit a baseball into someone's window, she
>> promptly went over to apologize. Her neighbors nodded and smiled and did 
>> not
>> understand English, she says.
>>
>> But race is not the issue, Fulton says. She would be incensed at any
>> neighbor who disrespected her privacy and property.
>>
>> "What burns me is that we're middle-class working people who didn't have
>> extra money to buy anything. We all worked hard to get here," she says.
>>
>> During her free time, Fulton helps a neighbor pack for her move out of 
>> the
>> county.
>>
>> "Get out when you can," says her friend. "I'm moving to an American
>> neighborhood."
>>
>> They plan a night when they will lay out blankets on Fulton's yard and 
>> stare
>> at the stars. And they will have a Fourth of July parade for old time's
>> sake.
>>
>> She says she is too tired to fight anymore. But she cannot let go of her
>> memories. Fulton, unlike most of the old neighbors, says she's staying 
>> for
>> now.
>>
>> She hopes city officials will listen to her concerns. She says things 
>> will
>> get better if the codes are enforced.
>>
>> Until then, when she has her evening smoke, she'll keep her garage door
>> closed.
>
> Coming to a neighborhood near you or maybe next door.
>
> John
>