A city's get-tough stance draws critics, praise
Marlborough tackles hot-button issues as frustrations mount
By Lisa Kocian, Globe Staff | August 23, 2007
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articl ... cs_praise/

There's something about Marlborough.

In recent months, this small city 35 miles west of Boston has gone after sex offenders, illegal immigrants, students from other towns sneaking into the schools, and even business owners with unattractive signs.

Like so many communities, Marlborough has seen furious growth rankle its sense of identity. Unlike most, it is proposing and passing aggressive measures to try to regain some control.

While the city's roots are as a small shoe-factory town, local leaders seem to be trying to make it a little more Wellesley and a little less Worcester. Some wonder whether Marlborough is becoming one of the most politically creative communities, one of the most unfriendly, or a little of both.

"I think we're trying to be proactive on different issues out here," said City Council president Arthur Vigeant. "We realize how important it is to have a balanced and safe community, and we're acting on that."

In June, Vigeant proposed the radical idea that the mayor look into inviting the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency to set up shop in the city at local taxpayers' expense. If that doesn't pan out, he and like-minded councilors will come up with other ideas to battle illegal immigration, he said.

In May, the City Council passed the state's most restrictive ordinance against registered sex offenders. This summer, it has been drafting an ordinance that could force most local business owners to replace their existing, freestanding signs with more discreet wood or wood-like signs. And by the end of this month, the School Committee is expected to crack down on student carpetbaggers in a measure some say also targets the city's illegal immigrants.

Taken together, these four hot-button issues, and the city's efforts to grapple with them, speak to "a high level of frustration and mobilization and organization that is pretty unique," said Peggy Levitt, chairwoman of the sociology department at Wellesley College.

"What all these things have in common is some sense of losing control of the city -- and trying to regain control," said Dennis Hale, associate professor of political science at Boston College. "Even something as fairly innocuous as a sign ordinance -- it's an attempt to impose order on chaos."

Ward 5 City Councilor Maura Navin Webster holds views that tend to put her in the minority on the 11-member council. She voted against the sex offender ordinance and the immigration office request, both of which passed. She is also leaning against the sign ordinance in its current form, she said.

"You don't have to ban people to have a positive image," said Webster. "If anything, we're getting a negative image. I don't know who we're trying to impress. Are we trying to impress Sudbury? Are we trying to impress Wellesley?"

Of the four key issues, immigration is probably the most inflammatory. Over the last five to 10 years, the local immigrant population has ballooned, and critics say illegal immigrants are costing the city in services such as schools and police.

The clearest picture of the city's immigrant trends probably comes from the schools. In Marlborough, 23.9 percent of students don't speak English as their first language, compared with 14.9 percent statewide. Another 11.4 percent are "limited English-proficient," compared with 5.6 percent statewide, based on 2006-2007 data.

Frances Brescia, 84, was walking down Main Street hand-in-hand with her husband on a recent afternoon. Asked about the immigration office proposal, her eyes flashed. "It's a good idea," she said emphatically. "I wasn't born in this country. I came here as a little girl and I came here the right way, and I think everybody should."

In a poll conducted via the community chatboard MarlboroughForum.com in July, 74 percent of some 200 respondents said they agree that the city should encourage the federal agency to open a local office. Another July posting listed "14 reasons to deport illegal aliens."

Marlborough made international headlines in January when former pro wrestler Christopher Antal called Brazilians "lazy" and urinated on their country's flag on his local cable access show. Known as "The Skunk" for his striped Mohawk hairstyle, Antal is a onetime mayoral candidate.

It's not only Marlborough. Last month, a federal judge struck down an ordinance passed in Hazleton, Pa., that would have blocked employers and landlords from hiring or housing illegal immigrants.

Locally, Milford has passed measures aimed at overcrowded housing -- as has Marlborough -- which some say target illegal immigrants.

Yet official attitudes in Marlborough contrast with those in Framingham, another community with a significant Brazilian population. A few years ago, Framingham passed a resolution welcoming its influx of immigrants. Marlborough's population has likely not seen as much turnover as Framingham's, according to Levitt.

"There are the older people who have lived there forever and the immigrants," she said.

As the author of the newly published "God Needs No Passport: Immigrants and the Changing American Religious Landscape," Levitt has examined suburban communities with many immigrants. "I think people are very frustrated with the inability of Congress to come up with viable immigration reform, so they're trying to take it into their own hands," she said.

In response to what they perceive as attacks on all immigrants, legal and otherwise, a handful of Brazilian immigrants are forming an advocacy group in Marlborough, according to Nilton Lisboa, 28. Lisboa came from Brazil as a young boy and has lived in the city ever since. He went through the Marlborough public schools and works now as vice president of operations at Weichert Realtors-Ernie Hood Associates.

"The city has done quite a bit in terms of targeting the undocumented immigrants in Marlborough," he said. "I think that's because the community has grown too fast . . . and people don't know how to deal with it."

The proposed proof of residency policy, which school officials insist is not aimed at illegal immigrants, has nonetheless made immigrants nervous, said Lisboa. Parents would need to provide a form of proof such as a W-2 form, driver's license, or bank statement, all of which might be difficult for an undocumented immigrant to provide.

Mayor Nancy Stevens, who is chairwoman of the School Committee, acknowledged that it could be a deterrent to school registration if a family is afraid to supply personal information, but she emphasized that the policy is not meant to place more of a burden on illegal immigrant families.

Other towns check residency, but immigrant advocates are worried that Marlborough's policy will be unusually strict.

Like the immigration debate, the sex offender law grew out of frustration with state and federal government inaction, according to City Councilor Steven Levy.

"More and more local communities are saying, 'If they're not going to deal with it, we can't just throw our hands up and say, 'Oh, well,"' said Levy, who proposed the sex offender ordinance.

The ordinance prohibits registered sex offenders from living within 1,000 feet of a school, day-care center, park, other recreational facility, elderly housing complex, or group home for mentally disabled residents -- placing 85 percent of the city off-limits.

Mayor Stevens didn't sign or veto the final version of the ordinance, saying she worries that tougher restrictions could deter sex offenders from registering.

"I still believe it needs to be a state issue, because if every community starts doing it, then you are going to push people underground," she said.

Several towns have debated their own sex offender restrictions. Both West Boylston and Fitchburg have passed measures. Framingham is considering action, fearing that sex offenders pushed out of communities that pass such measures will move where there are no restrictions.

Business owners have come out strongly against the proposed sign ordinance. Susanne Morreale-Leeber, president and chief executive of the Marlborough Regional Chamber of Commerce, said Marlborough is a creature of its small-town size (37,000 residents) and its big-city, full-time government.

"Marlborough, being a city form of government, creates the atmosphere for things like this because you have 11 specific councilors and a mayor whose full-time job is mayor," she said.

She is working with councilors to make changes to the current draft of the sign ordinance, which she said would chase away businesses in the name of aesthetics.

A businessman wrote a letter to the City Council last month opposing the sign rule, saying it would hurt his car restoration business.

"Our expensive backlit sign is my 'front door' to the world within the city of Marlborough," wrote Jonathan Chase, owner of Skin & Bones.

"I am concerned that the city is forgetting its roots as a city. To aspire to the likes of Sudbury or Southborough and desire a status of bedroom community would belie all that Marlborough is and was."

Lisa Kocian can be reached at 508-820-4231 or lkocian@globe.com.