Comments on: The Ugly Side of the Real Estate Market

By: Moon-howler

Moon-howler — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 02:46:34 +0000

Lafayette, you are being a diablo.

By: Gainesville Resident

Gainesville Resident — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 08:29:34 +0000

I actually remember the old Lowe’s store. I forget what’s there these days – then again now that I think of it I haven’t passed through that area (Liberia south of Rt. 28) since I moved out of Point of Woods. I never bought lumber there though so fortunately never had that experience!

Who knows what will happen after the next census. The way they draw up the boundaries for things such as our congressmen, it’s anyone’s guess. When I moved to Gainesville and discovered I had a different congressman, I went and looked at the map of how the congressional districts in this area were drawn. Someone was really creative there – let’s just say that! However, it seems to be that way all over the country.

Whichever party is in control after the census, they’ll draw the districts in the way that will favor them. I read somewhere that’s where the term “gerrymandering” came about.

On the more local county level, again the current district layout is a bit strange when I look at it on the map, and who knows what will happen after the next census. I have a feeling even on the local county level, the districts were drawn to somehow attempt to shape the elections a certain way.

By: Poor Richard

Poor Richard — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 03:10:56 +0000

Years ago when Lowe’s moved from Manassas to near I-66
in PWC, the state continued to send their sales taxes to the
City. It was years before that mistake was discovered.

(A great game at the old Lowes was to follow their procedure of
buying lumber inside, driving around back to pick it up and being
told they didn’t have the item, then driving back around front for
a refund — all three times waiting in a line. Oh, the good old days!)

By: Lafayette

Lafayette — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 03:03:01 +0000

@Poor Richard
The “Manassas area” is in the Gainesville, Brentsville, and Coles Districts, they all have parts of Manassas in them. Better yet, maybe after the census the county will need an eigth Magesterial District and it could be called the Manassas District. Imagine if the county had a district called Manassas. It could be comprised of all the addresses in the county that have MANASSAS addresses.

By: Gainesville Resident

Gainesville Resident — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 02:51:39 +0000

And as an aside – one of my older relatives could never grasp the change in my zipcode, and kept on sending letters to 22110 for years, until finally one of them went through some really crazy route from New Jersey to someplace way south in Virginia, and then finally got delivered. It had all sorts of crazy postmarks and rerouting stickers on it. I finally convinced that relative that my zip code on letters sent needed to be 20110 – or else it would take more than week for mail to get to me, as it did that time!

By: Gainesville Resident

Gainesville Resident — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 02:49:01 +0000

Poor Richard : Perhaps we should call the area around Manassas, the Brentsville District of PWC?

If you ask me - distingushing the two areas by zip code is sufficient. 20110 is the City, 20109 is the area outside the city that people still have "Manassas" as their address. Although, some 20112 zip code addresses use Manassas as the city for the mailing address, oddly enough - yet are almost down near Dale City. The post office and town names used for mailing addresses don't always make a lot of sense. Of course, I remember before they split the zip codes the entire area of 20110, 20109, 20111 (Manassas Park), and 20112 all were 22110 - one giant big zip code area.

By: Gainesville Resident

Gainesville Resident — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 02:45:14 +0000

Of course, oddly enough in terms of Disney’s America project, the press decided that since it was going to be located “near” the Battlefield, it made better headlines to say Disney was going to build a park in Manassas, when in reality it would have been in Haymarket! Another instance of the press not being accurate! Then again, I shudder to think about what traffic would be like out where I live now had that theme park been built, or what Gainesville and Haymarket would look like today! Thank goodness it wasn’t built.

By: Gainesville Resident

Gainesville Resident — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 02:42:17 +0000

I’m with PR on the Bobbits. I heard enough bad off-color jokes about Manassas during that time to make me not liking that incident being associated with Manassas. And, Mr. Bobbit for awhile with his antics afterward still got Manassas mentioned in several articles about him (some domestic violence cases he had with other women – I think one was a fiancee or something, and some x-rated or r-rated pornographic thing he did – still got Manassas mentioned in an article about it). Favorable to Manassas? Definitely not! Maybe it was Mr. Bobbit that in the end generated more unfavorable publicity, but whatever, I don’t think it is one of the shining moments in Manassas’ history!

I even saw an off-color joke at the time on TV on a cable channel by a comedian. I won’t exactly repeat the joke here – but if you remember it was the same time as Disney attempting to come to the area. If you are a bit creative, and can think of one of Disney’s more major icons, and then think about what happened with the Bobbits in terms of anatomy, and maybe you can put 2 and 2 together and recreate the joke. I’m not going to go further than that – some might find the terminology in the joke offensive. This was actually on a cable TV network channel late night by some comedian, and Manassas was mentioned in the joke as being the home to ….. and …..! That should be enough of a hint.

By: Poor Richard

Poor Richard — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 02:36:24 +0000

Granted, many people don’t know when they leave PWC
and enter Manassas City and the whole idea of autonomous
cities is a Virginia “thing”, but it is important.

You live in the City your kids go to City schools, the City
picks up your trash, maintains your street, runs your
utility system, etc. — and you pay City taxes.

Live two blocks over in PWC and it is a different game.

They may look alike in many ways, but they are separate
jurisdictions.

Perhaps we could call the area around Manassas, the
Brentsville District of PWC?

By: Lafayette

Lafayette — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 01:42:16 +0000

@Moon-howler Beyond sad, down right PATHETIC!!! I'm glad someone else has been around long enough to remember. I know there's not too many that have been here as long us, other than Poor Richard and Alanna. I hope you are not the only other to remember this "event" and it's negative effects on the county.