Posted on 08/08/2003 11:40:23 AM PDT by chambley1
www.foxnews.com
WETA Loses NIMBY Fight
Friday, August 08, 2003
WASHINGTON — The "Not in My Back Yard" syndrome — often applied to people who support noble causes in theory as long as the structures to support those causes are not built in "their" neighborhoods — has hit the home of programs like the always politically-correct NewsHour with Jim Lehrer (search).
The folks at WETA (search), the Washington-area flagship station for the high-brow, culturally aware Public Broadcasting System (search), are vexed by Arlington County, Virginia's proposed $100,000 pavilion to house area day laborers who currently stand on county land near WETA's headquarters.
The pavilion is meant to be a place for the day laborers to escape the elements, get a drink of water and use the bathroom, but Sharon Percy Rockefeller (search), president and CEO of WETA as well as the wife of millionaire Democratic Sen. Jay Rockefeller (search), recently took WETA's opposition to the county board.
"We do not favor this option. It would absolutely complicate our lives and make it difficult for our employees and our guests," Rockefeller said.
"I don't think it's going to be a very open and welcoming environment for very high office holders in the United States," she said, referring to the frequent guests at the WETA building.
A group representing the day laborers was dismayed by the station's opposition, but not surprised.
"There's always going to be that not in my back yard mentality, and it's unfortunate but that's just part of the territory," said Louis Ramos of the Shirlington Employment Education Center (search).
County officials last month voted four to one against WETA and for the day laborers. Construction on the pavilion is set to begin in fiscal year 2004, though no contractor has yet been chosen.
No one has asked yet whether the day laborers are legal working residents. But that doesn't matter at this point. The laborers stand on the corner nearby the PBS station regardless of whether they are allowed to seek employment or not. And local residents don't seem to question their status either. Often times, neighborhood residents pick up workers to do chores and side projects in their homes.
But faced with the losing vote — and some publicity that made WETA seem perhaps a bit uncaring —- the PBS flagship station is now trying to make the best of the situation.
"We've long been good citizens of Arlington County (search) and will do everything we can to make it work satisfactorily," WETA said in a published statement.
That make-the-best-of-it attitude has also been adopted by the group representing the day laborers, though Ramos added a footnote that probably will not please the folks at WETA.
"And I'm looking forward to working together with them on making this pavilion a success, because we are going to be there for a long time," he said.
The "very high office holders" that WETA is so concerned about will now have to contend with the sight of poor, but hard-working people nearby, when they come to address their PBS audience.
Fox News' Brian Wilson contributed to this report.
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