new gang activity in ashburn?

Sarasmom - from a resident who lives there. this is the cluster of 10 or so townhomes, not the "magic" collection, with no garages.

 

There is an end unit over in the Miller and Smith "Magic" townhouse collection currently on the market for $469k. Wonder if HUD will be making another purchase in Broadlands?

 

Geeessh, everyone wants to argue.
They were acting like punks? Is this written in the newspaper article? If so, I missed it. Or is this your speculation? Do you consider the fact that the two kids who "flipped" off the 4 others in the car were acting like punks? If so, then your basically telling me that anyone has the "right" to get out of their car on Rt. 28 with a baseball bat and wack away at me because I gave them the bird when they just cut me off driving? What kind of nonsense is that? Yep, its a different situation, but its still the same action/reaction that you dictate warrants being called a punk while receiving a "just" assault......LOL.

I guess my point is that you shouldnt be so quick to judge others. People used to judge me all the time by my appearance. Once they got to know me they would tell me so and apologize for the bad things they used to say about me [B)]....

DwArFlOrD

 

Like my mama always used to tell me. If you ain't got nuddin nice ta say, dont say it at all. I think thats good council.

Next time I post on a "forum", Ill act like im back in Grad school rewriting my thesis and proof read it before I post... I'll even check for punctuation.

DwArFlOrD

 

I can assure you all that Harvest Green Terrace is NOT all HUD housing... there may be some people there that are subsidized, but it is not the "low income" secion of Broadlands

 

There's nothing like a trip back home which is a very small village (literally) in northwestern Pennsylvania that puts issues like gangs and overactive teenagers into perspective. Seems like the weekend prior to my visit some teens with too little time on their hands were out cruising and passed by a home which was selling homemade honey. Now my area is infamous for the "honor system" where the goods are out but unattended and a dish is also out where one puts their money. These teens decided to take the honey and then go around the area pouring it out into unlocked parked cars. The teens were apprehended and in addition to having to pay for the damages they also have to perform community service. And...in order to not give any other teens the idea to pull any pranks, there is now a curfew in effect that anyone under age 18 has to be indoors by 10pm -- and this was put into effect right before the homecoming game and dance! Aren't small towns great?! (-:

 

I love the way that everyone assumes that any gang activity is related to lower income families living in the area. Yes, it is true that a high percentage of gang members come from low income households, but involvement in gangs or crime is by no means limited to low income teenagers. High income kids are involved in this kind of activity as well. You see it all the time. I would be careful correlating the gang problem in Northern Virginia and Loudoun County to just low income families.

 

Why? Are you saying that there are any kind of statistically significant numbers of kids from affluent families in local gangs? I would be quite surprised to see evidence of that.

 

Why are we all hung up on the "gang" moniker? It doesn't matter what you call them, I think mdr227's point is that you are going to find kids involved in illegal (and violent) activity regardless of where they come from.

I'm sure it makes everyone feel a lot better to think that "Ashburn is a bunch of rich people, so we don't have to worry about gang-type violence in our neighborhoods," but I wouldn't assume this is the case. I don't have any statistics to back it up, but IMO rich kids can just as easily engage in violent acts as poor kids (look at the Kennedy Dynasty, for example). We just don't call their activities gang-related.

I wish we would all drop the rich-kid/poor-kid/subsidized housing line of arguments. It smacks of aristocratic bigotry.

 

Thank you Pats
As someone who has a good friend in what was assumed to be low income housing ... just because they are smaller ... it was offensive to me that people would assume its where the "poor kids who make trouble" live. There seems to be quite a bit of a those people attitude here in "The Broadlands"....
Its a run-of-the-mill planned community, not Beverly Hills.

Not trying to fan the flames or start a class war here, but perhaps people need to realize that just because someone lives in a smaller house than you, doesn't make them "low income" and certainly doesn't make their kids "trouble".

 

My point was exactly that - that violence is violence regardless of where the people live or of their income. It's unfortunate I was not able to convey that in my post - probably trying to respone to two ideas at once:
1. first idea was don't assume these kids are overprivelged youth with too much time on their hands.
2. second idea was don't assume that our neighborhoods are made up of families with money to blow.

Clearly I inadvertantly offended and came off as a snob, when I was really trying to point out that those who presume that gangs don't come from broadlands need to reframe their perceptions.

Sometimes electronic media are not good for conveying the message...

 

Political correctness aside, look at some of the results.
Subsidized housing is a noble intent. It is designed to provide nice housing for those that have a limited salary. It is designed to attract professional people such as teachers, firefighters, sheriff deputies, etc. whose entry level salaries are not high enough to allow them to live in the communities they serve.
But the reality is that it doesn't always work out that way. Ask the sheriff's department where the most crime occurs in the Ashburn area and they will most likely point out to the newly built subsidized housing complex on Gloucester Road, east of Farmwell Middle School.
I was shocked at how often this area showed up in the crime report section of the newspapers with shootings, forced entry, robbery, etc. only a few months after it opened.
Another nice looking subsidized complex is the one across from the Sterlng Costco. I had a friend that moved in there temporarily after a divorce. They got out a few months later because they were scared of all the criminal activity going on there.

These are some of the reasons that a lot of communities "buy out" of their requirement to provide affordable housing in their projects.

 

Irregardless is a perfectly cromulant word that enbiggens us all.

 

For those of you that believe "true" gang activity does not exist in Ashburn this article is an interesting read.

http://www.leesburg2day.com/current.cfm?catid=6&newsid=9558