Posted on 08/05/2003 12:25:42 AM PDT by swilhelm73
PBS cares about the riff-raff and plight of undocumented aliens and condemning mean-spirited conservatives for not caring about them -- think of many prime time PBS specials on those being “left behind” and lectures from Bill Moyers -- but not when they actually have to see them next door.
Earlier this week, Sharon Percy Rockefeller, CEO of WETA, the Washington, DC PBS station really located in Arlington County, Virginia, lashed out at the county board for voting to build a pavilion, to house day laborers waiting for work, next door to WETA’s studios where the PBS NewsHour and Washington Week are taped.
“WETA balks at having day-labor shelter next door,” declared the headline over the July 31 story in the Northern Virginia Journal about WETA’s reaction to the Tuesday night vote by the all-Democratic county Board of Supervisors.
An excerpt from the story by Scott McCaffrey:
The Arlington County Board's decision to build a $100,000 pavilion to house day laborers waiting for work may have severely ruptured relations with one of the county's most prominent employers.
After more than three hours of public comment and debate, County Board members voted 4-1 to spend up to $140,000 to create the new facility, which would be located not far from Interstate 395 at the intersection of 27th Street South and South Shirlington Road.
The new facility is designed to give day laborers, mostly Hispanic immigrants, a place to congregate and meet employers each day. It is located across Four Mile Run Drive from the current, informal day-laborer site on the Washington & Old Dominion Regional Park trail head.
The new day-laborer site will be located adjacent to the WETA broadcast facility, one of several buildings it uses in Shirlington.
WETA's Chief Executive Officer, Sharon Percy Rockefeller, who made an almost unprecedented appearance at the board meeting, was stinging in her rebuke to board members.
“You've been wonderful to work with -- until recently," Rockefeller said.
She predicted a “pretty hostile environment" for WETA employees who could be accosted by day laborers while walking from one building to another. Putting the day-laborer building in the planned location will also inconvenience high-profile guests who arrive to be interviewed on the “NewsHour," public broadcasting's signature news program that is produced from WETA's studios in Shirlington, Rockefeller said.
“This is not going to be a good solution," Rockefeller said. “It would absolutely complicate our lives."...
On average, about 30 workers congregate most mornings at the current pickup site, county officials said. About two-thirds of them find employment and are gone by noon.
The new facility, located adjacent to Arlington's Jennie Dean Park, will be open to employers from 6 a.m. to noon daily. Although pickup facilities will be closed at noon, day laborers who did not find work will be allowed to stay in the vicinity throughout the day.
County officials promised a vigorous police presence, something they acknowledge does not always occur at the current day-laborer site. Police will not, however, take on the role of immigration officers; county officials concede that many of those who are looking for work are in the United States illegally....
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