Pelham and Alabaster (suburbs of Birmingham, for those of y’all who ain’t from ’round here) are looking at passing ordinances to limit the number of adults living in single-family dwellings. Pelham city officials also say they need to update their current rule, which prohibits unrelated adults from living together and — obviously — is pretty much unenforceable. They will be joining Hoover, which already limits occupancy to two adults per bedroom.
Okay, I don’t guess I’d want fifteen people living in my next door neighbor’s house, so I understand that part of it. But I wonder how often that’s really happening. It sounds a bit like a scare tactic to me.
And Hoover doesn’t have a very good history when it comes to treatment of its growing Hispanic community. The city recently closed its Multicultural Resource Center that was established, in part, to serve as a safe place for day laborers to find work — and the excuse was the center was attracting day laborers (huh?). It doesn’t appear that Pelham and Alabaster (which are south of Hoover) were motivated to change their ordinances until their Hispanic population started to grow as well.
I guess it’s okay to have Hispanics around when they’re cleaning your house or mowing your lawn, but God forbid they should live in your neighborhood.
Playing the Illegal Alien Card
For the past few weeks, I’ve been following a local Birmingham story on undocumented aliens. Mike Hale, the Jefferson County sheriff, has decided to join the battle against illegal immigration. He announced that his office will create a database of…