Thread: 'The town is lost,'

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Posted on Sun, Aug. 06, 2006



Monica Yant Kinney | 'The town is lost,' says couple who left Riverside

By Monica Yant Kinney
Inquirer Columnist

Compared with the hotheads spewing racial spite, Helen Westenberger was positively polite in her response to the illegal-immigration crisis in Riverside.

That controversial ordinance fining people who rent to, or employ, illegal immigrants?

"It's too late," Helen, 69, says simply. "The town is lost."

Helen and her husband, Rudy, also 69, lived together in the house he grew up in for 39 years. In 1999, they reluctantly bailed, convinced that Brazilians in town illegally had changed the face of Riverside for the worse, forever.

They came for construction jobs and stayed when city leaders, desperate for a revival, looked the other way.

Some revival. When the Westenbergers put their twin on the market, it fetched just $75,000 - a full $20,000 less than what it was once worth.

Should they blame the Brazilians? Chalk it up to a buyers' market, with more than 100 other homes for sale in one tiny town? Who knows.

But if this is the cost of illegal immigration, who pays?

And if a single suburban town unintentionally became home to hundreds of undocumented foreigners - who bought property and businesses and pay taxes - is it really in Riverside's best interest to kick them out?

Welcome to America

You wouldn't know it from talking to him, but Rudy is German.

When his family arrived in 1952 - legally, sponsored by the local Lutheran church - the first thing they were told was to learn English, fast.

Rudy was 16. Soon, he sounded like any other American teenager. "Within a year," he says, "people told me they couldn't detect any accent at all."

Back then, immigrants knew to assimilate - or else. Speak English. Become citizens. Learn to cook American food, and like it.

What helped send the Westenbergers and their neighbors packing was how brazenly the Brazilians resisted becoming Riversiders.

Rudy used to love going to the Palace, a little restaurant on Scott Street owned by Greeks. When the family sold to Brazilians, he was horrified to see a sign on the door one day reading, "Americans are not welcome."

When I tell Rudy I don't believe it, he swears he has a friend who will corroborate. The sign wasn't up long, he admits, but long enough to sting.

Downtown businesses catering to Brazilians were certainly an improvement over abandoned buildings, but hardly a cause to celebrate.

"They took over stores for their convenience," Helen says, "not for the rest of us who lived in Riverside."

Helen worked for years as a manager at the SuperFresh in Mount Holly, where every week, illegal immigrants would line up to wire their American earnings back to Brazil.

She remembers one family disappearing from the neighborhood overnight. Rumor had it that they'd finally made enough money to go back home and live the good life.

"The town leaders thought immigration was going to be a good thing, that they would bring prosperity to town," Helen says. "But it was really only prosperous for the immigrants."

Gone, but not forgotten

When Helen and Rudy left Riverside, they moved all the way to Mickleton. Now, when Rudy needs to see his foot doctor, it's a 30-mile drive.

I know this because after spending a morning with them in their all-American retirement community, Rudy suggested we take a ride to Riverside.

Back in town, Helen immediately starts counting "For Sale" signs and pointing out work vans with Pennsylvania plates - a sure sign that Brazilian laborers are near.

Rudy drives past the cemetery in Little Italy. On Monroe Street, he tells me that in his day, "you had to be Polish to live here."

"Back then," he says, "Riverside was a league of all nations."

So what's the difference now, I ask? Shouldn't one who was welcomed be more welcoming?

Rudy would if he could, but he won't because they're illegal. It's a matter of principle. He followed the rules. Everyone should have to.

When we pass the old Palace restaurant, I see it's now a Brazilian joint called King Chicken.

The sign on the door is a sign of the times: "We speak English."


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Contact Monica Yant Kinney at 856-779-3914 or myant@phillynews.com. Read her recent work at http://go.philly.com/yantkinney.





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© 2006 Philadelphia Inquirer and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.philly.com

More town are being lost to illegal immigrants and their families. In the small boroughs and townships in PA illegals think that they can hide and not be noticed. Then all of a sudden the place is overrun. Neighborhoods are destroyed. We have mayor's who welcome illegals. Their reasoning is that we should be compassionate and loving. We all know that they have other reasons. I'm totally discussed with their reasoning. Reasoning with no facts about what they are doing to their community. Years ago I remember asking a Hispanic (Legal) family why the Mexicans allow their property to look like a city dump. The answer that I got was "you don't want people to think that you are rich and if they think that you are rich then they will come and rob you." I thought about that for awhile and visited another Hispanic family whose yard looked like a bomb hit it. Old furniture throw out in the yard; a pitbull chained up to a post; 3 cars that didn't run. I was invited inside the home. Emmaculate. Beautiful. Clean. So clean you could eat off the floor. Go figure! A cultural thing brought up from south of the border.

Guess we'll have to look for restricted areas, ones that won't put up with cars in the yards, and trash all around.

My God this made me think of my town. People are becoming more and more discouraged. Here is a couple of post from today...Some days I'm not sure what to do anymore. This town has to be saved.

http://www.waukegan.org/Forum/topic.asp ... hichpage=2

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One Observer
Advanced Member

1214 Posts
Posted - 08/06/2006 : 14:36:49
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quote:
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Originally posted by Is There Hope

I've been an observer here in Wauktown for a long time. Is there hope for Waukegan? I'm beginning to accept that there is not much hope left here. Waukegan has such potential to be a great city but I think, at least for the forseeable future, the problems here have become insurmountable. Problems mostly brought on by a combination of an incompetent city government (that is almost certain to retain office for the forseeable future) and a huge influx of culturally stubborn non-citizen Mexican peasants. Because of this Waukegan is near the bottom in terms of places most Americans would consider an ideal place to live and/or raise a family. These ideal places to live are judged as such based on their amenities. Maybe there are a lot of amenities here from a peasant Mexicans perspective but there is little here for a 38 year old white American male and his family. Because of these two factors I think there is little hope of improvement in Waukegan . Waukegan is a city with no hope. Learn to accept that.

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Is There Hope,

Exactly ON POINT, I agree with you 100 percent.

Really, you are so RIGHT on the target: the majority of USA citizens would NEVER want to live in such a place as Waukegan.

And they don't.

Only newcomers these days to Waukegan are mostly illegal Mexican peasants who come here to suck us dry.

Combined with a mean and corrupt city government, there is nothing but failing shcools, failing health care and failing shopping venues.

You are so right; there is no hope for this city, best to learn and accept it and figure out a way to GET OUT OF IT.

---One Observer

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fedupinwaukegan
Junior Member

56 Posts
Posted - 08/06/2006 : 14:40:30
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I just can't accept it -yet... There are some things that the legal citizens of Waukegan can do. Other communities around the country are meeting some success. We need to generate some heat. I have children -so I have to try. I will be posting later in Illegal Aliens Part II/Waukegan Whispers some ideas on what we can do. I have spoken to wonderful hispanic citizens -many are sick of what is happening to their town as well. Elgin, IL, Geneva, IL -cities close to us are starting to make this an issue. If we don't we'll become even more of a sanctuary city.

Come election time I will vote for the person I best feel can bring this city forward. Are you saying Mayor Hyde is running again -I thought he was in his 70's?

Please do not give up

Sorry -I'm just testing to see if my picture/avatar (?) works. This is the first time I've done this.

It's a beautiful avatar, fedup.

Reading stories like this makes me want to cry. How do you give up all your history and just walk away?

Sometimes I get so angry that I could scream.

We have to make a stand somewhere. And Waukegan is as good a place as any. Don't give up.