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Did the arsonist win?

April 14, 2016

Nipomo Fire

The alleged late night torching of a home slated to house migrant workers has prompted a Nipomo strawberry grower to announced he no longer plans to house his farm workers in a residential neighborhood.

The home was one of seven houses being built to shelter 112 or more foreign nationals who would come from Mexico to work on local strawberry farms owned by Greg and Donna France. A plan some neighbors rallied against.

Following several reported threats, on April 6 a home under construction in Nipomo was discovered engulfed in flames.

“It is with great regret that we are cancelling our plans to provide quality housing for our guest workers after the burning of the Mads Place homes in Nipomo,” the couple said in a press release. “The crime of arson and continued threats against the property, our prospective workers and ourselves has raised our concerns about the ability to ensure the safety of the workers and to maintain a safe environment for the neighbors.

“We do not want to see anyone hurt, not our workers and certainly not any of the neighbors.
The workers provided through the federal H-2A program would have been primarily men from Mexico who would live 16 to a home for approximately nine months out of the year.”

The federal H-2A program allows employers to file petitions for foreign nationals to temporarily enter the United States to perform work that citizens will not do. The employer must then provide housing and transportation for the workers. France is currently housing his migrant workers at hotels in Ventura and busing them to and from the work sites.

“To the individual who committed the crime of arson and made multiple and serious threats of further harm, you have not won” the press release said. “Violence and intolerance are never the solution and we are saddened to have seen it emerge in our community of Nipomo. Because of our concern for the neighbors we have met and spent time with through this process, we are working with authorities on offering a reward of $10,000 to anyone with information that leads to the arrest of this arsonist so they are no longer a threat to this neighborhood or the broader Nipomo community.”


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You may have the thumbs up folks but you have no intellectual ground to stand on. Seriously, go look at the neighborhood. Let’s put political correctness aside for a minute, it’s agriculture, one housing tract, and a whole lot of white trash. And, really, this is NIPOMO, you know, where this picture was taken in 1936:


https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/54/Lange-MigrantMother02.jpg


Wouldn’t it be ironic for any of the people against this to be of Okie descent. If you want to talk about the character of the neighborhood, the character of Nipomo IS AGRICULTURE.


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What a horrible racist remark against poor whites. That’s far worse than being an arsonist in today’s society.


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That “white trash” woman in the photo is so poor because she was doing that work “Americans won’t do”, and she did it before the government gave out all the free stuff!!! No WIC, food stamps, Medi-caid for her. Nope. I don’t even think they were giving out free government cheese back then. Poor woman had to sell the tires off her car to feed her kids. I think “Okie” people, AKA “the Dust Bowlers” are disgusted with illegal immigration. But since they were white migrant workers, no one cares because they had “white privilege” while they picked crops and starved.


As for the comments about “look at the neighborhood” on S. Oakglen, well, I have. I have met quite a few people in that neighborhood. Some of those homes may be run down, but MOST of the residents are peaceful people living in a neighborhood of fixed income and working poor. Not EVERYONE can afford a Trilogy home, then hire lawyers because the WIND BLOWS SAND AROUND!!!! Living on the Central Coast isn’t exactly cheap, and we all know that salaries are not so hot here. Add to that the environmental groups wanting to run out the rest of the decent jobs and you have all the reasons why that side of town stays a bit run down. BUT– does that mean that the residents don’t have a right to vocalize legitimate concerns about 16 people living in a home made for like 5?


The residents on South Oakglen had WAY more arguing ground to stand on than the rich whiners on the Mesa with regard to neighborhoods. Every person deserves to share their opinion LEGALLY, not by burning homes and being a vigilante.


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No, they just became a criminal and hypocrite all at the same time.


Look, I have my own problem with this issue that Americans won’t do this work.


No, they won’t do this work for $4 an hour. How can they?!?!? Americans aren’t offered free housing and cannot cheat the U.S. Government to get free medical care for their kids, fre WIC, food stamps, cash aid, etc. starting May 1st, illegal kids 0-19 are now eligible for Medicaid. Just ponder that a bit lazy Americans. I know I do at my “easy” lazy nurse job. Yep.


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See, you can totally hate illegal immigration and yet not be cool with pillaging and burning houses down.


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I don’t know about any of you but I think this whole thing is very creepy. You build a cookie cutter family suburban style home and cram “16” people into it so they can pick your fields on the cheap. Nice…..What is it a 3+2? with a 2 car garage? Unreal. Why not build them Barracks? I’m sure you can get a few Quonset huts on sale from Camp Pendleton.

Or we can be civilized and pay a decent wage for the labor and hire American citizens that already have a place to live.


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My thoughts were along the same line why cram 16 people into house why not build barracks or something that was designed to hold a lot of people.There is more to it this story besides what is being told to the public.Did they not think that the people who already live in the area would complain about 16 people to house that is normally house maybe 4-6 people ? I would say yes they were expecting people to complain,now to burn one of the buildings? No.

I do not think it was right to torch it and I hope that person gets caught but cramming people in houses that were built 4-6 people is not right either,there has to be better options.

.


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How do we know the owner didn’t burn it himself?


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Wow! What insight! How do we know YOU didn’t do it, Percy?


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Curious Title? This was about “what is legal,” illegal was never the objective.


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I find the statement “the federal H-2A program allows employers to file petitions for foreign nationals to temporarily enter the United States to perform work that citizens will not do” to be particularly troubling and an indictment of our government’s idiotic policies.


2 generations ago could you find any man who needed to feed his family and would not do certain jobs. Welfare has created a situation where people are penalized for taking entry level/low paying jobs so they sit it out instead and import migrant workers.


Imagine the impact on your neighborhood if 16 unrelated people (whether its immigrants, college kids, or moonies) moved into the house next door. My house would be for sale the next day.


Burning down homes obviously isn’t the answer, but the system has gotten completely ridiculous, and the frustration has obviously boiled over.


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There are no houses next door, well one. Basically they bought the whole block. The people that are complaining live down the block, and then two blocks over to the north.


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Next door doesn’t need to be literally next door.


You don’t think property values down the block and 2 blocks over will be wrecked?


What’s the difference? Still a huge impact.


Are 112 people living in 7 houses going to be quite as mice? What would a Friday night look like on that block?


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I wonder what an arsonist living in the neighborhood will do to property values. Funny, one would think arsonist in the area would drive down housing prices more than migrant workers in the area…


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Have you SEEN the neighborhood? First of all, it’s pretty darn agricultural.. Secondly, what isn’t agriculture or tract housing is seriously questionable looking real estate, cars on dead lawns, warehouses, retail facilities. This won’t bring down the value of housing, and if it did, not nearly as much as six unsold empty houses would. Look, sometimes it’s subjective who is right about this kind of things, but in this case, there is NO factual ground to stand on, seriously, go take a drive down there.. give it up.


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Put some meat in your article ….. oh yah you can’t your bankrupt.


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Not True! Welfare is temp. they encourage and in fact insist on the people to go out and get jobs.

I figured these guys are coming here to work,( HONORABLE) will be working hard ALL day, back breaking work for long hours, would probably cause LESS trouble than any one else in that neighborhood.

ITs NOT the system (although I do agree the system does certainly SUCK)

Its the People who are intolerant of anyone different from themselves. Who would never be out there in the field working so hard.

My opinion:

This is just outright discrimination. Call it what it is. And its Shameful!


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Farm labor camps, historically, have included drinking, drugs, fights, and prostitutes. It’s not discrimination to oppose a housing business in a residential area (if you’re from SLO, think vacation rentals). It’s trying to preserve your property values, the safety of your family, and the tranquil nature of your neighborhood. Why don’t you look around your neighborhood and see if there are houses that could be converted to farm labor housing and notify the Frances.


You’re the one who is shameful, coming on this blog just to call everyone a racist.


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How do you know that?


I lived next door to two skanky white ladies many years ago. Every Friday night they would head off to the labor camps. The daughter, who later grew up to become a heroin addict, told me exactly how her mom’s business worked. Since each act would be about 5 min. and cost 20 bucks. They could easily make several hundred bucks for a couple of hours of work ((back in the 70s)


So yeah, you’re right. But how did you know?


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A former law enforcement officer in the Delano-Bakersfield area told me how the prostitutes would come to the farm labor camps on the weekends and men would line up outside a couple of rooms for sex servicing. He also talked about the fights,the alcohol and drugs, and more. Yes, back in the 70’s. LE were always being called out to the camps for something.


Then, I looked up farm labor camps on the internet to see if this was common outside of Kern County. It was.


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What impact anyway?

Maybe it those lazy welfare complaining Neighbors who don’t want to be woken up by that bus at 5am that’s there to pick up those Hard working Migrant workers.

That;s more the truth I a sure!!!


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“Welfare has created a situation where people are penalized for taking entry level/low paying jobs”, it is more like welfare has created a situation where people don’t need to work to collect money. As long as welfare is there many will never go out and get a job.


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not to mention; if they all have children; are they not automatic citizens?


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In short, yes the arsonist won (assuming they don’t get caught).


They apparently wanted to protect their neighborhood from changing dramatically. I can kind of sympathize with them- putting myself in their shoes., I wouldn’t personally go and burn down a home under construction, but if that were my neighborhood, and they were trying to pack 16 people into a house in many houses from a foreign country that would forever change the dynamics of my neighborhood next door to me- people who would be temporary workers from year to year, I absolutely understand why they were outraged enough to commit this type of crime. Even if they were white, Christian people from Kansas, 16 working men to a house X however many houses in a revolving door year-to-year fashion is going to destroy a neighborhood.


Sometimes it appears vigilante justice is the only way to solve problems. I think we are going to be seeing a lot more vigilante justice in the near future, as more and more people are showing up in communities (like we have seen in SLO recently, with the apparent arsons vs. the increasing number of homeless) and was manifested here in Nipomo.


People are figuring out that in many ways the system is completely broken, and have realized that law enforcement is too wide-spread to be effective/catch people doing the vigilante stuff.. They know what they have to do to effect the change they want to see (be it good or bad or a gray area), and are willing to do it because they see their way of life threatened. When people see their way of life threatened, this stuff happens, you have a proliferation of vigilante style justice, and I have a feeling we are just seeing the tip of the iceberg here on the central coast.


The more people realize yes, they can get what they want by going out in the middle of the night with a calculated plan to “protect their neighborhood”, or whatever their grievance is, the more it is going to happen. Sometimes law enforcement and the laws laid down fail to protect the public as they see it, and when people feel that is the case they take matters into their own hands. It appears in this case, the arsonist definitely did win, and got exactly what they wanted. Nobody got hurt, the development stopped, and they got their neighborhood back as they saw it.


Similarly, when the number of attacks on defenseless people (recently woman) and other residents in SLO by the growing number of mentally ill homeless people coming to town on the residents continues to climb, I think we are going to start seeing some residents taking matters into their own hands and lashing out against some of the problem homeless in town in their own ways. It might not be pretty, or legal.. But unless things change, illegal vigilante type things are going to continue to happen in my opinion. People will protect their communities and neighborhoods at any cost they feel is justified, even if the ends to the means are illegal and aren’t usually what they would do under normal circumstances.


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Here’s the thing. You went through all this emotional sounding appeal about protecting one’s way of life, but you know ABSOLUTELY NOTHING factual about the situation.


GO LOOK AT MAD PLACE!!!! It’s not a damn “neighborhood!” It’s a cul de sac with ONE other hjome that is clearly involved in argiculture. The “neighborhood” is a subdivision nearby that would not be effected. All around that neighborhood are commercial structures, cars on lawns and trailer parks.


You’ve been conned.


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Not a neighborhood???? really. Better go look again.


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What a bunch of bananas(Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anyone).


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There are houses all around there, including ones that will share a backyard fence with the 16 people in one house. Apparently you’ve never tried enjoying your backyard on a weekend afternoon with mariachi music blasting over the fence from the neighbor.


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I’d probably go over and join them because I’m not an a-hole.


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SOMEONE saw it, Someone knows who it was, I am sure it will eventually be brought to light as is the natural way of life.


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How does someone “improve” their neighborhood by burning down the nicest homes in the neighborhood?


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This reminds me so much of the dark side of our history we seem unable to put behind us.

Some legacy eh?


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I hope you catch the horrible person who thinks it is okay to destroy another persons property, threaten them with intimidation and have caused the anxiety you did by setting flame to a structure, DAMN YOU I say.


If I had a spare $10k I would offer to double the amount to catch this person, You are a sick, dangerous person who needs to get help AND spend time in prison.


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Amazing how many people disagree with you. They must think arson and intimidation are acceptable, as long as the end result aligns with their misguided values. People are gross sometimes…especially with the freedom granted by internet anonymity.


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Good one Chachi!


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Obviously we’ve learned nothing from history, so we are bound to repeat it…as witnessed here. It’s shameful.


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It’s very disturbing what happened. Someone is very ballsy to burn down a house all in the name of the “not in my backyard” mentality. I don’t understand what the community is so fearful of. Why all the hostility towards the immigrant workers? We are a nation built on the sacrifices of many immigrant people. These folks make a huge contribution to the agricultural community. I think it’s absolutely crucial to the economy that we have a mix of high skilled and low skilled talent to balance our standing in the global economy, too. The agricultural guest worker program (H2-A) has been in effect for a very long time.


What happened in Nipomo is a real black eye to our entire nation.


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What’s even more remarkable, is the fact that the person or persons who committed this arson to prevent migrant farmers from moving in the neighborhood, REFUSE to do the back breaking labor necessary to harvest the crops that THEY (the arsonist(s)) love to consume.

It appears that racism is alive and well…and continuing to eat away at America.


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Agree with you Pelican1. While community members were up in arms about the housing development bringing in too many cars, noise, and crime – an arsonist lives nearby it seems. That is way more alarming and scary. I am always saddened when I read about these kinds of things happening to immigrants. It seems like we are becoming a nation of snobs, turning our backs on anyone who comes here legally to make a better life for themselves and their family. All of us descend from immigrants somewhere in our family tree.


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