Meanwhile, in the Anti-Reston: Revised Solicitation Law Solves Immigration Issues Forever, So Long As Everyone Stands on a 'Utility Strip'

Meanwhile, in our tolerant neighbor to the west, the Herndon Town Council had a busy evening last night, staying up until well after 1am discussing the finer points of utility strips, curbs and gutters. Planning for that newfangled shiny underground train we hear is coming round these here parts? Haha, no, it was actually all about the usual fear of the other anti-soliciation nonsense.

The Herndon Town Council voted 4-3 to pass a revised version of the June 8, 2010 street solicitation ordinance on Tuesday night.

The original street solicitation ordinance, passed last June, prohibited people from soliciting goods and services in public highways, including the grassy strip between the property and the sidewalk, the sidewalk, utility strip, curb and gutter, roadway and median.

The revised version passed last night reduces the enforcement area to the road itself and the median, said Town Attorney Richard Kaufman. The ordinance will no longer apply to sidewalks, utility or grassy strips.

Another change is that the ordinance applies to all streets equally, including streets with on street parking, though it exempts private streets... Other changes included taking out language that suggested what enforcers of the ordinance should look as an act of soliciting, and a note addressing that events such as Herndon Festival are allowed because of town permits and are unaffected by the ordinance, Kaufman said.

Now that we know it's okay to hawk Girl Scout cookies on a "utility strip" (whatever that is), Tolerance Town's longstanding and roiling debate over immigration is finally over. Right?

Vice Mayor Lisa Merkel said the issue has been brought up at nearly every public hearing in the past seven months and she wanted to address it now so the council could close the issue for good. She said after Tuesday night she had no plans to address the ordinance, 287(g) or other day labor issues again.

Or maybe not:

Councilman Bill Tirrell said he is sick of people throwing out the race card every time there’s a disagreement. He said if residents are here illegally “this should be a cold harbor for you. Go home. This is not your country.” He said they should let their governments care for them the way they want the United States government to care for them.

Before a final vote, Mayor DeBenedittis commented on his thoughts on the issue. “The intent of this is and always was public safety,” he said. “We would not be discussing this, we would not have put it on tonight’s agenda if it weren’t for an outside group of agitators who came to our town to divide. And to do so and to get folks out, I believe they had to mislead people. I think it’s a mistake to change this ordinance at this time.”

Those "outside agitators," Virginia New Majority -- which has been painted as a nefarious, ACORN-esque pro-union Fifth Column, in spite of the fact that supporting undocumented day laborers would actually be bad for unions -- had planned to rally before the council meeting. With their nefarious plot exposed, perhaps they should now lobby to have the entire town classified as a utility strip, with the possible exception of the parking lot of the Elden St. 7-11, the end.