I wound up my column last week by asking, “Who is going to step up to the plate?” I was talking about community maintenance; the art of tending neglected spaces. Let me share a few of the tools that volunteers find beneficial.

Often, the first step in community maintenance is simply determining who owns the property. Prince William County provides the County Mapper connecting you to lots of other data, too, like tax information, zoning, overlay districts and much more.

You’ll have an opportunity to learn to use the Mapper at our September Neighborhood Leaders Group (NLG) Meeting. All our NLG meetings are designed to empower citizens to take care of their community.

Since the inception of NLG in June of 2008, we local leaders have faced many challenges, and only a few of our original group remain.

We have been joined by new folks, but the focus drifted from our original purpose after the foreclosure crisis abated and we went through numerous changes in PWC Neighborhood Services. A few of us remain committed to the very basic issues that destroy the fiber of a community. Some of us continue to fight litter, graffiti, and property code issues that lower our property values and reduce our quality of life.

I have noticed recently there is a definite trend to accentuate the positive in our county. That’s great, because I am an Occoquan-Woodbridge- Neabsco Optimist! I think the rise of affluence in Prince William has become a majority factor with high income earners, expensive houses and the ensuing high end retail.

Unfortunately, not everyone is living the high life in Prince William. Our once middle class neighborhoods are still in trouble. It is a constant battle in non-HOA neighborhoods to keep up with zoning violations and there are not enough foot soldiers in the field. (That’s a fancy way of saying we need more volunteers to help report neglected, overgrown or unkempt property.)

Not all distressed properties are due to willful neglect. Sometimes owners simply cannot keep up their property, due to illness, loss of income or age. Our NLG is trained to assist those folks by directing them to the proper resources like Habitat for Humanity or Project Mend a House.

Big bonus points for you if you are willing to approach your neighbors and offer to help. I know that’s not for everyone and I don’t recommend that at all unless you’ve had some kind of training to ensure you know how to respond if a neighbor doesn’t take kindly to your concern.

The less involved, but still very helpful approach is volunteers reporting graffiti, dump heaps, and grass in excess of 12 inches. It is important to know what ordinances apply to the safety and security of you and your neighbor. We all need to take action.

If you have questions or need more information, please contact me. I know where all the tools in the box are located and I’d love to show you how to use them!

We’ve lived in our home for 24 years. We redesigned it, rearranged it, and built an addition on it. We moved the kitchen from a tiny hot room upstairs to a large room downstairs that we created out of the two lower level bedrooms. We extended and widened the driveway, built a garage, replaced the roof, and installed new windows and siding over that span of time.

We re-built our home a little by little, remodeling by removing walls and ceilings, installing new wiring, plumbing and insulation as we went. Every piece of woodwork is hand stained, as is every door. We learned to garden. We learned as we went sometimes out of necessity like when water seeped into the family room and I (not we!) dug down to the footers. I learned to parge on that project, wedged in a narrow trench between the driveway and the house.

We installed glass block in a bathroom, tiled floors and counter tops. We installed hardwood floors and poured a concrete path in the garden. We cut down willows that buckled the path and then dug out the stumps by hand. Our yard transformed from 1/3 acre with 7 trees to an oasis with a pond, a path, several seating areas, a couple of small bridges and lots of flowers and shrubs.

Along the way I began working to improve my neighborhood. I started with a small project by adding a flower bed to the monument sign. That single neighborhood improvement escalated during the height of the foreclosure crisis, when my husband and I mowed the grass for seven vacant homes, plus two adopted locations and one elderly neighbor.

In 2010, my friends and I masterminded a great project:  We replaced the old tired bushes, overgrown and filled with poison ivy with a rose garden at the Dale City Commuter Lot. For three years I spearheaded a project called “Neighborhood Pride Week” Volunteers spent a week shoveling up sand, edging sidewalks, sweeping, cutting back overgrown bushes and trees, digging grass out of walks and curbs and gutters. We planted a dozen rose bushes at the Dale City Library.

Through all of this, my husband and I invested in tools and equipment to make our work faster and better. At one point, we had four gas powered edging machines! I’m happy to report we’ve only two left…unless you count the stick edger, then we still have three.

We’re slowing down now. We still maintain two Adopt a Spot locations, we still do community maintenance in our neighborhood. We still take care of the roses at the commuter lot and we organize and participate in cleanups, but I’m hoping those days of hoisting 75 pound contractor bags filled with sand and dirt removed from the curbs are over.

Now, I want to know who is stepping up to the plate next.  I’ll be glad to help you organize, plan, staff, and source, but I don’t think I’m up for any more high temperature, dust cloud producing, noisy jobs.

I’ll still work all day…just put me in the shade!

I’m going to ask you to work a little bit today. Normally, I blend links into my column so you can just click if you want more information, but the links are not obtrusive, Today, I’d like you to take a few minutes and click these links. Try to keep an open mind. Try not to let what you already think influence you.

These thoughts, ideas, stories and images are shaping my opinions:

Homelessness in America:
news.msn.com/us/court-overturns-los-angeles-ban-on-living-in-cars
treehugger.com/tiny-houses/latest-tiny-houses-live-billboard.html
fairfaxcounty.gov/homeless/homelessness-in-our-community.htm
nbcwashington.com/news/local/Dale-City-Homeless-Camp-Cleared-Out-119031379.html

The number of homeless New Yorkers has risen by 75 percent since 2002 and in recent years has reached the highest levels since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Around 60,000 homeless men, women and children bed down in New York’s shelters and thousands more sleep rough on the streets or elsewhere.

Unemployment:
news.msn.com/us/detroit-violating-human-rights-by-closing-water-taps-un
time.com/3001280/microsoft-to-cut-18000-jobs/
www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf
www.dailykos.com/story/2014/07/08/1312594/-Labor-Secretary-wants-to-punch-politicians-can-you-blame-him?detail=facebook#

Unemployment in America appears to be declining, but there are a lot of factors to consider in those reports, such as many people have simply ceased to seek employment. That’s not because they have found a job-they have simply given up hope of finding one. There are at least 9.5 million people who do not have a job, and after 17 months, I can tell you my husband is one of them.

Immigration:
https://www.pewhispanic.org/2013/01/29/a-nation-of-immigrants/
https://news.msn.com/us/up-to-dollar1000-a-day-to-care-for-child-migrants-1
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/honduran-child-migrants-leave-home-because-of-poverty-and-fear/2014/07/15/9f073040-a56d-488c-9473-1265d1a8c2aa_story.html

Crime:

crimeinamerica.net/crime-rates-united-states/
newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2014/07/bill-de-blasio-violent-crime-challenges.html
sentencingproject.org/template/page.cfm?id=107

Images:

andrewlmoore.com/photography/detroit/park-ave-detroit/
businessinsider.com/american-slums-2011-4?op=1
sultanknish.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-chicagoization-of-america.html

Thought Provoking:

america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/7/9/goverment-improperpayments100billion.html
www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/06/the-pitchforks-are-coming-for-us-plutocrats-108014.html#.U7hhk7HI2MZ
washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/07/08/this-is-what-happened-when-i-drove-my-mercedes-to-pick-up-food-stamps/

So, here’s my takeaway for this week. I am willing to help. I just need to know where the money is coming from to do so. I surely don’t have any money to donate to support homelessness or immigrants.

In fact, my husband and I are beginning to consider we may have to sell our home to keep from accessing the funds from our retirement that we did not intend to touch for another five years. If we use that retirement money now, will we run out before we die? Will we become the very people we have spent our entire lives trying to help?

I do want to make this statement: Don’t call me a racist or a bigot because I am concerned about the immigration issue. It has nothing to do with Hispanic people (or Asian or Chinese or anyone else.) It has everything to do with all our lives in America. I want to know how we can continue to increase social and welfare programs to care for those in need. I want to know how we will provide jobs for those who need them.

My husband and I have just celebrated four decades of marriage.

We had a rough start as a couple. Both of us had been married previously, both those relationships were disastrous. I was only sixteen the first time and married a man seven years older than I.

I’m going to spare you most of the sordid details, but let it suffice to say we started our lives together with two children, in debt, on a Buck Sergeant’s pay. (At the time, that was $414.20 a month. We received an additional $128.10 for housing allowance.) We had to be married to get the housing allowance!

We were so broke when we married that we used our wedding bands from the first time around. We didn’t know anyone in Maryland and got married by a Justice of the Peace with witnesses provided by the court.

We don’t have any photographs to commemorate that day, but since there were no friends, family, fancy dress or reception, I don’t think we really miss having photos.

We had another ceremony in church later so we could raise our children Catholic, but still no money, so still none of the things and people that create a memorable event. The only difference between our church wedding and our civilian wedding was we now had two neighbors attend, so we actually knew our witnesses the second time we married!

My husband was stationed at Bolling AFB and we lived in Oxon Hill, Md. I didn’t know much, but I knew I was a long way from Jeffersonville, Ind. I was a long way from the friends I’d known, the family I had, the town I was born and the life I had lived.

I was celebrating my 7^th wedding anniversary before IBM shipped the Acorn in 1981. The first computer to be termed a “PC” held a now laughable 16K memory. (Our back up drive holds 2 Terabytes, the equivalent of the memory of 134,217,728 of those first PCs!)

In that time, we’ve been together through a lot of mile-marker events. Some were incredibly sad, like the deaths of our grandparents and our parents.

Now I find younger people are asking, “How have you stayed happily married for forty years?” My answer is, “We haven’t!” There have been years we didn’t even like each other. We’ve had tumultuous, angry, door-slamming arguments. We’ve hurled insults and threats, broken dishes and each other’s hearts.

I am not against divorce. If you made a mistake, admit it, get out and get on with your next life. We, nor our siblings managed to get it right on the first try, so divorce was absolutely the second best thing that ever happened to me.

Use your faith, your family and your friends to guide you, but only you and your spouse can decide whether you want to aim for 40 years or more. (…and don’t expect all those years to be happy!)

Is respect for the American flag a vanishing concept? It is still a U.S. code, with many stipulations, yet everyplace I look I see the flag used as advertising to sell products. I am mindful that not everything dressed in red, white and blue represents the flag. Red white and blue are simply three colors, commonly used to represent patriotic themes.

I’m also aware of free speech and I understand the U.S. code is not a law, but rather, a guide, intended to be followed on a voluntary basis to insure proper respect is allocated to the flag.

I am deeply offended and distressed about the disrespect I see most prominently around holidays such as Independence Day. If you are wearing a flag as a cape, if you throw your souvenir flag on the ground, if you are wearing a flag patch on your butt, or even if you stick those cute little flags in your toddler’s pigtails you are showing disrespect to the U.S. Flag.

In 2008, the U.S. Senate commissioned a report to address federal law relating to display and associated questions. Has so much changed since those codes were updated? Maybe it doesn’t matter anymore. Perhaps the world has changed so much that standing with your hand over your heart and removing your hat when the flag passes you in a parade have become pointless.

Certainly it seems to me the word “respect” has been stretched to the breaking point. People both young and old refer to the President of the United States using a variety of derogatory terms. The President! I don’t care who you are or what your politics. You need to show respect for the President of the United States.

This downward spiral may well have begun in the 1960’s when we were all clamoring for our rights. We fought and rioted for women’s rights, civil rights and human rights. We needed to right those wrongs and we did, but we lost something in that bra-burning, flag-burning era. We lost respect.

Is it any wonder most of the world no longer admires us or wants to emulate us? If we don’t respect the leader of our country and we don’t respect our flag, we don’t even respect each other, why would the rest of the world respect us?

Those of you who respect our flag should not allow trash talking about the President, any other politician or just an ordinary citizen. I am not talking about dissent. I am talking about disrespect.

Oh, yes, I agree with you that some of our current policies are questionable and divisive, but surely you still love our country. If you call yourself a patriot you should educate anyone who does not understand respect for the flag and you should show respect for all, whether you agree with them or not.  That’s what the 14^th amendment was written to address, and it is your job to help pull us together, not push us apart.

The Prince William County Board of Supervisors recently passed an amendment to the Prince William County Zoning Ordinance. This amendment, Motor Vehicle Repair ZTA #PLN2013-00326, addresses the size of the lot where a homeowner may work on vehicles of his own or for his friends and family.

I want to tell you, right off the bat, this is not a new ordinance. The only change I discerned was the adaptation that reduces the impact from lots smaller than 10 acres, to the newer “less than 3 acres.”

To become familiar with the Municode for Prince William County is a nearly impossible task for a mere mortal. If you receive e-notifications from Prince William County eservices addressing the changes to code, it’s like taking smaller bites out of a very big apple.

If you think changing a code is an easy feat, I promise that is not the case. First, a supervisor or zoning official must submit a request to the board. If the board deems it worthy, a majority vote initiates the zoning amendment. Then it goes to the DCSM/Zoning Ordinance Review Committee.

If it passes there, it’s sent to the Planning Commission and, if successful there, goes back to the Board of County Supervisors. Again, a majority vote is required to enact that amendment, and the public is invited to comment on several occasions throughout the process.

Most of the amendments made in Prince William County come from this section of code so you can read all that or just view the ZTA here

Now, my real point in leading off with all that information is to tell you many residences in Dale City, Woodbridge and Manassas are already protected. (I may have to say this more than once.) This is not a new ordinance.

The ordinance states, among other things, that vehicle repair and/or painting, must be done out of sight from public view. More specifically, it states that the work must be screened or done indoors in a garage and must be 50 feet from the nearest property line. This is not a new ordinance.

If you are now pulling your hair and screeching, “WHAT?” please remember this: Nearly all code enforcement is only done if someone makes a complaint. The obvious answer is just to follow the code, but there are undoubtedly many people who are unaware such a code exists.

If you are engaging in vehicle repair on the street or in your driveway, not screened from sight and closer than 50 feet from your property line, and if someone makes a complaint, you will get a visit from the county. (This is not a new ordinance!)

If you are repairing vehicles on residential property and getting paid for it, you are in violation of a bunch of other codes. But, gratefully, I’m out of space and don’t have to look this up, too!

Did you see this video of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV or better known as drone) being knocked out of the sky by group of rowdy hockey fans who were celebrating the LA Kings taking home the Stanley Cup?

The video disturbed me on a number of levels. First, in the description, the words “rowdy” and “celebration” are used. I think that language diminished the impact of the crime. It sounds like a bunch of children were misbehaving instead of destroying an expensive piece of police equipment.

Then, I am perturbed by the number of people who condemn all UAV as an invasion of privacy.  I’m not a fan of anyone infringing on my privacy, but I absolutely am willing to forego my sensitivity for the safety of all at a much reduced price. I know a bargain when I see one!

These unmanned aircraft are here and they are really just the aerodynamic version of smart phones. Everywhere we go, people are taking our pictures, recording video, sharing map coordinates.

I’ve heard many bitter complaints that police don’t patrol our neighborhoods and help prevent crime. Well, we apparently can’t afford for police to patrol our neighborhoods. We don’t want to pay higher taxes to pay salary and benefits and purchase additional patrol cars with the maintenance and depreciation associated. (Obviously, we CAN put a price on safety!)

A police helicopter runs anywhere from $500,000 to $3 million. I couldn’t locate any solid figures for the price of a police UAV, but It is going to be much cheaper to operate a drone that can cover many miles quickly than officers in a patrol cars or helicopters.

Because Congress authorized the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to open the nation’s airspace to widespread drone flights by 2015, estimates are there will be 7,000 civilian drones in the skies by 2020.

We’ll be seeing package delivery and pizza delivery. We’ll be getting better traffic reports. We’ll be getting better photos than your cell phones!

I’m not too concerned about privacy, but I am concerned we are adding more and more people to the world and that robotic engineering is removing more and more people from the workforce. Building UAV creates jobs, but if one drone can replace ten patrol officers, one robot can replace ten restaurant employees, one assembly line robot can replace ten auto plant employees there’s going to be a lot of idle folks out here.

Here’s my favorite research article for this column. It shows many different insect and nano drones.

If you’d like to view a discussion of the ethics and legalities on a local level, the PW Committee of 100 held a great forum on the topic in May and you can view that here.

I love technology. I’m not afraid of losing my privacy because I think it’s much too late to be having that conversation, but there is a lot going on that we mere mortals are not considering. I hope you’ll take a few minutes to let me know what you think.

In case you were on space travel to Mars and missed it, Eric Cantor, the Republican House Majority Leader, lost the primary to his opponent, David Brat.

If you read my columns, you know I don’t frequently discuss politics. There are lots of great reporters and political analysts who can pick apart the nuances of political discourse. I try to stay in the practical venue of my community, where I can speak with authority and possibly convey some good information while getting you to think about topics you might not discuss without my nudge.

Still, this snagged me! The Washington Post had fine coverage of the Cantor/Brat saga here. The story piqued my interest because one well-funded candidate who seemed to be the clear front-runner lost the primary to a likely dark horse.  As I read the various news sources and blogs, everyone had an opinion regarding how that upset occurred. I was just interested there WAS an upset!

This page is great for novices to follow the election cycles, to see what offices are being filled and when.
There are tabs for local, state and federal elections. There are overviews and reports you may find interesting and you can even search by year (2014) to see what races will be upcoming or passed recently.

The Virginia State Board of Elections is easy on the eye and to navigate. The Prince William County Office of Elections page contains lots of information and forms at the local level. This office is run by a gentleman named Doug Geib who is the Registrar. I recently met Mr. Geib at a local League of Women Voters meeting. Both the League and Mr. Geib not only have a wealth of information to share, they could use some assistance disseminating that information. If you have a little time to volunteer, click the links I provided and get started!

I don’t know, really, what makes anyone decide to run for office. Lord knows whether you are a candidate or an incumbent you are bashed about by the citizens who may love you today and hate you tomorrow. I guess it’s too much to ask that we treat all candidates with respect and keep the insults off the air and the internet.

Two of my friends, Bill Golden and Al Alborn usually see eye to eye on the big topics, but often disagree on the fine print. Some of these discussions can get pretty animated, but never has any one of us insulted the other. We’ve never resorted to name calling or belittling the others’ opinion. Sometimes we just can’t reach an agreement, but we still like and respect each other.

I’m pretty sure that’s what most friends do and I wonder how hard it can be to inject the same into politics.

We are storing stuff in closets and basements, in attics and sheds and garages. We store stuff in the trunk of our car and we build shelves and buy containers to store more stuff. Our cabinets are full of stuff. There’s stuff under our beds- Hell, we buy storage beds!

This fact sheet from SSA, (Self-Storage Association) states America has 2.3 billion square feet (as of Q4-2013) or an area well more than 3 times the size of Manhattan for self-storage space.

Here’s a great infographic from census.gov showing our ever-increasing use and accumulations of computers, gaming devices, laptops, tablets and cell phones. (We have an average 2.5 televisions per household)

All this accumulation of stuff is draining us. We spend so much time buying stuff, moving stuff and storing stuff. Have you ever come home with a purchase and thought, “Now, where am I going to put this?”

On Saturday, June 14, from 8:00 AM until Noon, I’m going to give you an opportunity to get rid of some of that stuff. Start looking around outside. Do you have a rake with half the tines missing? How about those old resin tables? Is there a lawn chair that has the seat worn through? What’s in your garage? What are you keeping in your shed besides lawn tools and a wheelbarrow?

Stop thinking you are going to get that thing fixed if you’ve been saying it for two years. Give up! Get rid of it! I don’t want you to bring us your good stuff. Your “good stuff” are items in nearly new condition that may be of value to someone in need. If you have good stuff, call the Restore at (703) 369-6145. Those Habitat folks will pick up your good stuff like furniture and appliances.

Don’t kid yourselves, now…if it’s junk, it’s junk. Nobody wants to use your 12 year old computer or your 14 year old television. If your stuff is broken, ask yourself. “Can it be repaired?” Then ask, “Would I use it if it was repaired?” If the answer is “No” to either question, bring it to the Neabsco District Cleanup at the Dale City Commuter Lot on June 14.

Public Works is providing us a roll-off and our friend, George Beale, from VIP Recycling is going to take all your old electronics. If you bring us a trunk full of junk, we’ll give you a voucher for a mini-sundae from Dairy Queen at Center Plaza. The family who brings us the most electronics will receive a $25.00 gift certificate to Smokin’ Brays!

We will offer limited pick up for those elderly or disabled. Call Connie to see if there’s room on the schedule: 703 590 6662.

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