Sihing73
11-18-2006, 04:16 AM
Hello,
Well things did not work out for me in Georgia so I am heading back to Philly tomorrow. I am feeling the need to vent so I hope you will tolerate this Off Topic Posting.
We moved into our new home in GA on October 9th and I got hired by one of the largest papers in Georgia, The Atlanta Journal Constitution on October 17th. We were doing a lease purchase and the owner was providing the financing and it was a great deal. I had arranged to pay the rent on the 20th as that was when my last paycheck from my final job would go into my account. My last paycheck was not direct deposited but was mailed to me instead. I notifed the owner/landlord that I would pay the rent as soon as the check arrived. Anyhow, things were going fine until the owners wife came out and met my wife. Shortly after meeting my wife and realizing that she and our children were not White, things suddenly went downhill. On October 26th we found an eviction notice on our door. We went to court and obtained an Attorney. To make a long story short we had plenty of right to stay as we were able to pay the rent before court. However, our landlord made it clear that he would continue to try to get us out. Our attorney said we could fight it out in court and most likely win but did not know if it would be worth it in the end. So we decided to move back to Philly were we still own our home.
If I had any doubt about this situation being racialy motivated, the landlord claimed it was all about the money, it was eliminated when we got a call Wednesday night where the landlords wife offered to pay us all of the money we had already paid them if we would just leave. You tell me if this could have been motivated by something other than money.
The rest of the people down here were great!! My job was fine and they even told me that if I can't find work in Philly in the next two weeks I am welcome to come back to work for them. I even had a couple of guys offer me a place to stay until I could get settled in, unfortunately only room enough for me not my wife and 6 kids. But, I have two face to face interviews this week, once on Tuesday and the other on Wednesday so I will probably be okay.
I still want to move out of Philly but have decided to wait a bit as my wife has been really upset by this experience. We have heard of things like this but never experienced it ourselves. I may be totally wrong in my thinking but my perception is that this was an experience with a bigot and was never about money. It turned around too fast after they found out my wife is Black. But hey I could still be wrong.
Overall though my impression of the South is still positive. The vast majority of the people we encountered were very nice and polite. Our children were treated well in school. Our decision to leave was based on our home being located in the country far from any neighbor and the fact that my wife was afraid that something might happen as I worked two hours away in Atlanta. Oh, did I mention that someone broke our electric meter so it had to be replaced and since we have well water and everything is electric we could not stay in the house the night the meter was broke. Can't prove who did this but I have a strong suspicion, after all we live in the country and it does not make any sense for someone to do this.
Anyhow, I just wanted to vent a little bit. The good news is that I will be able to hook up with Phil in a bit and I will be visiting NYC as well. If all goes well I will try this again when summer comes around.
Thanks for reading.
Well things did not work out for me in Georgia so I am heading back to Philly tomorrow. I am feeling the need to vent so I hope you will tolerate this Off Topic Posting.
We moved into our new home in GA on October 9th and I got hired by one of the largest papers in Georgia, The Atlanta Journal Constitution on October 17th. We were doing a lease purchase and the owner was providing the financing and it was a great deal. I had arranged to pay the rent on the 20th as that was when my last paycheck from my final job would go into my account. My last paycheck was not direct deposited but was mailed to me instead. I notifed the owner/landlord that I would pay the rent as soon as the check arrived. Anyhow, things were going fine until the owners wife came out and met my wife. Shortly after meeting my wife and realizing that she and our children were not White, things suddenly went downhill. On October 26th we found an eviction notice on our door. We went to court and obtained an Attorney. To make a long story short we had plenty of right to stay as we were able to pay the rent before court. However, our landlord made it clear that he would continue to try to get us out. Our attorney said we could fight it out in court and most likely win but did not know if it would be worth it in the end. So we decided to move back to Philly were we still own our home.
If I had any doubt about this situation being racialy motivated, the landlord claimed it was all about the money, it was eliminated when we got a call Wednesday night where the landlords wife offered to pay us all of the money we had already paid them if we would just leave. You tell me if this could have been motivated by something other than money.
The rest of the people down here were great!! My job was fine and they even told me that if I can't find work in Philly in the next two weeks I am welcome to come back to work for them. I even had a couple of guys offer me a place to stay until I could get settled in, unfortunately only room enough for me not my wife and 6 kids. But, I have two face to face interviews this week, once on Tuesday and the other on Wednesday so I will probably be okay.
I still want to move out of Philly but have decided to wait a bit as my wife has been really upset by this experience. We have heard of things like this but never experienced it ourselves. I may be totally wrong in my thinking but my perception is that this was an experience with a bigot and was never about money. It turned around too fast after they found out my wife is Black. But hey I could still be wrong.
Overall though my impression of the South is still positive. The vast majority of the people we encountered were very nice and polite. Our children were treated well in school. Our decision to leave was based on our home being located in the country far from any neighbor and the fact that my wife was afraid that something might happen as I worked two hours away in Atlanta. Oh, did I mention that someone broke our electric meter so it had to be replaced and since we have well water and everything is electric we could not stay in the house the night the meter was broke. Can't prove who did this but I have a strong suspicion, after all we live in the country and it does not make any sense for someone to do this.
Anyhow, I just wanted to vent a little bit. The good news is that I will be able to hook up with Phil in a bit and I will be visiting NYC as well. If all goes well I will try this again when summer comes around.
Thanks for reading.