[lbo-talk] Texas town votes on immigrant rental ban

[B.]

Farmer's Branch is a very conservative bedroom
community about 30 miles from downtown Dallas proper.
Most of the white people who live in the small
suburban town do not work in it; they come home to it.
This ban could be a bad thing for middle to
lower-middle class to poor white folks. Now landlords
might retaliate by raising their rents. ("Well, we
can't rent to immigrants anymore, and that's what kept
rents down for you, too.")

Although I was always under the impression that to
live in Farmer's Branch one had to be somewhat
well-off any way, having myself been a resident of
Dallas proper, which is the blue hub that elected a
lesbian Latina for its sheriff last year (Lupe
Valdez). A technically blue hub surrounded by a radius
of very red suburbs, like Farmer's Branch or
Christoper Hitchens' beloved Plano, or Dick Cheney's
home of University Park/Park Cities.

-B.

Steven L. Robinson wrote:
> Texas Town Puts Immigrant Issue to Vote
>
> By Anabelle Garay
> The Associated Press
> Saturday, May 12, 2007
>
>
> (05-12) 19:03 PDT Farmers Branch, Texas  --
Residents cast ballots Saturday
> on whether to repeal or approve a ban on landlords
renting apartments to
> most illegal immigrants in their Dallas suburb, the
nation's first
> municipality to put the matter to a vote.
>
> The ban was being approved by a 3-to-1 margin as
early votes were counted.