Posted on 08/06/2003 5:24:09 AM PDT by chambley1
After more than three hours spent grilling their staff, and incurring the wrath of one of Arlington’s most prominent employers in the process, a divided County Board last week approved plans to spend $140,000 for a new “pavilion” for day laborers to gather in Shirlington.
The 4-1 vote means the new facility will be located at South Shirlington Road and 27th Street South, approximately two blocks south of the more informal gathering spot that has existed for years.
Board members had to move on the issue, because the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority is preparing to renovate the W&OD Trail near where the day laborers currently congregate. The proposal adopted on July 29 moves the day-laborer facility just south of the Weenie Beanie, on a county-owned site adjacent to Jennie Dean Park.
The adopted site was one of three proposed by county staff members, but clearly was the staff favorite. And while nearly all County Board members expressed some reservations, four of them ended up supporting the plan.
“This is not the best solution, but it is a step in the right direction,” said board member Walter Tejada.
Only board member Jay Fisette remained unconvinced. He supported another option, one that would have located the day-laborer facility further west on South Four Mile Run Drive.
That proposal was “a much better option – far more feasible,” Fisette said.
In the end, however, Fisette’s recommendation won no support from fellow board members.
The vote, which came just before board members departed for a summer recess, was welcomed by members of the Nauck community, who for years have expressed concerns about how the day laborers behave at the existing site.
Residents of Nauck, an historically African-American community, have clashed frequently with the day laborers, who are largely Hispanic. Nauck residents have complained about trespassing, public urination and acts of petty crime, which they pinned on the day laborers.
Alfred Taylor, president of the Nauck Civic Association, said his group was giving “limited, conditional support” to the new location. But he criticized county staff for failing to involve the community in the selection process, and criticized board members for funding a site for immigrants, many of them illegal, while proposals for improvements to the Nauck community languish.
According to county officials, about 50 workers congregate each day at the current W&OD Trail site, waiting for employers to drive by and offer them jobs for the day. About two-thirds of those waiting wind up with jobs; the remainder spend the rest of the day in the park, or can go elsewhere.
If the decision to move the facility south of Four Mile Run Drive pleased the residents of Nauck, it positively infuriated officials of WETA, the public broadcasting giant that operates out of several buildings in Shirlington.
WETA chief executive officer Sharon Percy Rockefeller attended Tuesday night’s board meeting, and was deeply critical of the final decision.
“It would absolutely complicate our lives,” said Rockefeller, who noted that the new facility is to be located adjacent to WETA’s broadcast center.
Rockefeller predicted that a “pretty hostile environment” would quickly develop between her employees, who now walk between the various facilities, and the day laborers. “I don’t want the incidents to happen,” she said.
Rockefeller also complained that the location of a day-laborer camp would complicate security around the studios of the “NewsHour,” public broadcasting’s signature daily news program. High-profile guests begin arriving at the studios shortly after noon each day, Rockefeller said, and would likely be met by the day laborers who did not find work that day.
Republican-leaning activist Robert Molleur, who attended the public hearing, had little sympathy for Rockefeller’s woes.
“She’s part of the liberal establishment that created the mess, now she wants to protect elite liberals from it,” Molleur said. “Liberal hipocrisy at its best.”
Rockefeller said her organization had proposed four alternatives to the county staff recommendation, all of which had been shot down. “We want to be helpers, not obstructionists,” she said.
Pointedly reminding board members that WETA stayed in Arlington eight years ago despite being wooed to relocate to the District of Columbia, Rockefeller suggested that the relationship between county and broadcaster was currently under strain due to the proposal.
“You’ve been wonderful to work with – until recently,” Rockefeller told board members.
County officials promised WETA that there would be a significant police presence in the area, and that they would themselves monitor the situation.
County Board members also indicated that they wanted a heavy police presence to make sure that day laborers did not wander over to Shirlington Road in an effort to make themselves more visible to prospective employers.
The county will spend up to $110,000 on facilities at the new site, and will pay the Shirlington Education & Employment Center (SEEC) up to $30,000 annually to provide staffing for the facility.
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