EBounding
07-08-2013, 09:40 PM
Good opportunity to create new friends?
“We chose this country because we have rights,” said Nabulsy, who immigrated to the U.S. from the Middle East.
Yeah.......buyer beware?
http://www.freep.com/article/20130708/NEWS02/307080125/Dearborn-ponders-new-rules-for-residential-garages
Libertarian group joins fight against garage restrictions in Dearborn
A Libertarian group has joined the cause of Dearborn residents who oppose the city’s crackdown on people who use their garages as living spaces, saying the city is violating their rights.
At a Planning Commission meeting Monday night in Dearborn, a leader with a Libertarian group started by former U.S. Rep. Ron Paul raised questions about the city’s plan to tweak an ordinance that regulates the use of garages.
The city “is dictating what you can put in your garage,” Chris McKelvie, the Wayne County coordinator for Campaign for Liberty, said to the commission.
In recent years, a growing number of residents — especially those in the Arab-American community — have transformed their garages into living spaces where they hang out, cook, smoke water pipes, and eat. Some have even installed sliding glass doors. City officials are concerned such activity is causing safety hazards, pointing to a fire in November that was started by a heater kept in a garage.
“We have people trying to live in their garages, and that’s a problem,” Christine Sickle, a member of the Planning Commission, said at the meeting. The commission voted to table the proposed changes until its August meeting.
The city has proposed changing its ordinance to restrict people from using their garages to cook, sleep in, or use as a living space. They also would ban sliding doors in the front, which is an increasingly popular feature among Arab-Americans who live in the eastern section of Dearborn.
Some residents who have elaborate garages say their rights are being violated.
“We’re not causing any problems,” said Muheeb Nabulsy, a Dearborn resident of Arab descent with a garage that has a sliding door in front. “This is discrimination.”
Nabulsy said he supports cracking down on people who install gas lines and cook in their garages. “Anything that causes danger” should be banned, he said at the meeting.
But he said he should be allowed to sleep in his garage and have a sliding door in front, which he currently does.
“I fight with my wife, I sleep in the garage,” he said. He added that he liked America for its freedoms, which he said were under attack by the city’s proposed restrictions.
“We chose this country because we have rights,” said Nabulsy, who immigrated to the U.S. from the Middle East.
Nabulsy said that residents who complain about the type of garage he has are jealous because they cannot afford to have such a nice garage.
Even if the city approves the restrictions, “I will not remove” my front sliding door, Nabulsy said.
But other residents as well as planning commissioners — including those of Arab descent — defended the proposed changes, saying that ethnicity is not an issue. They note that the proposed changes will allow sliding doors on the back and side of the garages, just not in the front.
Allowing such doors in the front makes it difficult to park cars in the garages, which can lead to more parking on the street, making it hard for the city to clean streets and maneuver emergency vehicles.
“This is the land of the free ... not the land of creating chaos,” said planning commissioner Tawfiq Hassan, who is Arab American and supports the city’s restrictions.
Marium Wilke, president of the Eastborn Neighborhood Association, supports the city’s restrictions, saying too many in east Dearborn are changing their garages, creating hazards and eyesores.
“These garages need to be kept as garages,” Wilke told the commission.
But McKelvie said the city cannot tell people “what they can or can not put in their garages.” His group, Campaign for Liberty, focuses on preserving constitutional rights.
McKelvie challenged the city’s talk of fire safety, saying that many fires are caused by various factors; the fact that one fire happened in November shouldn’t be used as an excuse to restrict the rights of others, he said.
Government should not be “sticking their nose” in where it doesn’t belong, he said.
“We chose this country because we have rights,” said Nabulsy, who immigrated to the U.S. from the Middle East.
Yeah.......buyer beware?
http://www.freep.com/article/20130708/NEWS02/307080125/Dearborn-ponders-new-rules-for-residential-garages
Libertarian group joins fight against garage restrictions in Dearborn
A Libertarian group has joined the cause of Dearborn residents who oppose the city’s crackdown on people who use their garages as living spaces, saying the city is violating their rights.
At a Planning Commission meeting Monday night in Dearborn, a leader with a Libertarian group started by former U.S. Rep. Ron Paul raised questions about the city’s plan to tweak an ordinance that regulates the use of garages.
The city “is dictating what you can put in your garage,” Chris McKelvie, the Wayne County coordinator for Campaign for Liberty, said to the commission.
In recent years, a growing number of residents — especially those in the Arab-American community — have transformed their garages into living spaces where they hang out, cook, smoke water pipes, and eat. Some have even installed sliding glass doors. City officials are concerned such activity is causing safety hazards, pointing to a fire in November that was started by a heater kept in a garage.
“We have people trying to live in their garages, and that’s a problem,” Christine Sickle, a member of the Planning Commission, said at the meeting. The commission voted to table the proposed changes until its August meeting.
The city has proposed changing its ordinance to restrict people from using their garages to cook, sleep in, or use as a living space. They also would ban sliding doors in the front, which is an increasingly popular feature among Arab-Americans who live in the eastern section of Dearborn.
Some residents who have elaborate garages say their rights are being violated.
“We’re not causing any problems,” said Muheeb Nabulsy, a Dearborn resident of Arab descent with a garage that has a sliding door in front. “This is discrimination.”
Nabulsy said he supports cracking down on people who install gas lines and cook in their garages. “Anything that causes danger” should be banned, he said at the meeting.
But he said he should be allowed to sleep in his garage and have a sliding door in front, which he currently does.
“I fight with my wife, I sleep in the garage,” he said. He added that he liked America for its freedoms, which he said were under attack by the city’s proposed restrictions.
“We chose this country because we have rights,” said Nabulsy, who immigrated to the U.S. from the Middle East.
Nabulsy said that residents who complain about the type of garage he has are jealous because they cannot afford to have such a nice garage.
Even if the city approves the restrictions, “I will not remove” my front sliding door, Nabulsy said.
But other residents as well as planning commissioners — including those of Arab descent — defended the proposed changes, saying that ethnicity is not an issue. They note that the proposed changes will allow sliding doors on the back and side of the garages, just not in the front.
Allowing such doors in the front makes it difficult to park cars in the garages, which can lead to more parking on the street, making it hard for the city to clean streets and maneuver emergency vehicles.
“This is the land of the free ... not the land of creating chaos,” said planning commissioner Tawfiq Hassan, who is Arab American and supports the city’s restrictions.
Marium Wilke, president of the Eastborn Neighborhood Association, supports the city’s restrictions, saying too many in east Dearborn are changing their garages, creating hazards and eyesores.
“These garages need to be kept as garages,” Wilke told the commission.
But McKelvie said the city cannot tell people “what they can or can not put in their garages.” His group, Campaign for Liberty, focuses on preserving constitutional rights.
McKelvie challenged the city’s talk of fire safety, saying that many fires are caused by various factors; the fact that one fire happened in November shouldn’t be used as an excuse to restrict the rights of others, he said.
Government should not be “sticking their nose” in where it doesn’t belong, he said.