Changing Skyline: Unions, developers stuck in standoff over Philadelphia building

Philadelphia Inquirer ^ | 07/27/2012 | Inga Saffron

[Kid Shelleen]

It was early March when the siege began at the Goldtex construction site just north of Center City, and it has continued all through this brutally hot summer - almost five long months. Workers have been beaten, car tires slashed. Delivery trucks are blocked for hours. This week, two people were arrested on assault charges. Neighborhood residents are afraid to walk near the building.

If a gang held a Philadelphia house hostage for this long, you can bet it would have been all over the news --snip-- Yet few in power here are willing to acknowledge that the trade unions' iron grip on Philadelphia has cost the city dearly in lost projects, especially by national developers. Philadelphia trade-union members are paid on average $63 an hour - about $10 less than those in New York, and twice as much as those in Washington, D.C. - despite much lower real estate sales prices here

[Kid Shelleen]

I wonder if any of these guys are in the Tea Party?

[Alberta's Child]

Philadelphia is one of the only places that can make New York City seem livable.

[randita]

PA Ping!

If you want on/off the PA Ping List, please freepmail me. Thanks!

[bert]

Richard Trumka has their backs

Richard Trumka is a terrorist

The Philadelphia union members are terrorists

Richard Trumka owns the White House

Barack Obama is a terrorist

[Fzob]

As a result, the cost of erecting a new building using union labor often exceeds the return, which helps explain why the apartment tower now rising at 23d and Chestnut Streets required a $12 million grant from the state's Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program.

Translation. Union cronies and thugs are subsidized by Joe taxpayer, and "Joe" has no say in the matter

[Capt_Hank]

I can remember my late father saying. “He wouldn’t live in Philly, rent free.”

[Repeat Offender]

At least it isn't Detroit. They can't even pay people to live in Detroit.

Paying people to live in Detroit

Check the poll at the bottom; once you vote 71% say you couldn't pay them to live in Detroit.

[shotgun]

Here in Washington if there is public money grants in a private project then you have to pay prevailing wages.

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

Yes, they are in the THUG PARTY. Wonder how mobbed up they are? Anyone looking? Mayor Nutter? “I know nutting”.

I lived in Phila. for 4 years in the 60’s and saw some progress in housing and the way of life, but the Democrats managed to set it back 100 years.

Visited it in 1980 and thought I was in a Puerto Rican slum.

Haven’t been back since and have no plans to except to take my granddaughter to see the Liberty Bell and Hall. Might was well see where a once-great America was born and is now dying before you need a bulletinproof vest just to visit.