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06/29/2006
Day Laborers, Residents Still Waiting For Answers
by Joseph Wendelken , Assistant Editor


The recent arrests of three Ozone Park day laborers has residents, business owners and local police officers once again asking questions about what can be done to address the neighborhood’s ongoing quality of life issue.

Each morning between 50 and 60 men, largely of Mexican, Ecuadorean and Dominican descent, wait between 88th and 91st streets on Liberty Avenue for work.

Amid continued complaints about the loitering day laborers, officers from the 106th Precinct made the arrests for disorderly conduct on June 14, announced Deputy Inspector John Doherty, the precinct’s commanding officer, at its community council meeting later that day.

“It’s an ongoing problem,” said Betty Braton, chairwoman of Community Board 10. The board’s office regularly fields complaints regarding day laborers. “When you have people entitled to their freedom of assembly but also, sometimes, bothering people, it becomes difficult.”

Several civic organizations have also repeatedly voiced concerns about the situation, including the Ozone Park Civic Association and the Ozone Park Residents Block Association.

Richard Hernandez, manager of Milk Farm Supermarket at 88 11 Liberty Ave., said that while he holds no ill will against the day laborers, he believes that some customers turn away from his store after being intimidated by the packs of waiting men outside.

Along with similar complaints from other business owners, female pedestrians regularly complain of being harassed as they pass, according to Officer Kenny Zorn, the precinct’s Community Affairs officer. He also reported that many pickup truck drivers complain of being accosted when stopped at red lights by day laborers believing them to be interested employers.

Many of the contractors who do employ day laborers bring them to local job sites. Steve Galapan, a 40 year old Ecuadorean immigrant who has been working as a day laborer on and off for the past 20 years, last worked at a Richmond Hill house.

But Galapan had to wait almost three hours to get picked up for the job. It is during these idle hours that most of the issues arise.

“Everyone’s looking for work. We’re not trying to stop that. It’s just the quality of life issues that arise that we’re trying to address,” Zorn said.

Doherty said that since the community council’s May meeting, the precinct had launched two enforcement operations in which 15 individuals were arrested and criminal court summonses were issued to several individuals who were soliciting workers.

But the crackdowns were not purposefully timed for the beginning of the summer. Area residents report small surges in the number of day laborers waiting for work during the summer months when landscaping help is in greater demand, but the bulk of the work is construction related projects that are undertaken year round.

After the New York State loitering law was ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court, loitering was decriminalized as long as idlers are not suspected of gambling or drug peddling. Day laborers are often only cited for disorderly conduct for harassing passers by or blocking Liberty Avenue traffic.

Those who are able to present valid identification are given a summons while those who cannot are turned over to the criminal court system. The same policy exists for individuals who solicit day laborers for work.

But some don’t feel that the community needs police initiatives specifically targeting day laborers. Walking down Liberty Avenue, Joyce Aizer, an Ozone Park resident since 1989, said that the situation is much improved from a decade ago.

Peter Garcia points out that not all of his fellow day laborers are illegal immigrants. The former custodian at Astoria’s Matrix Fitness said that many are between salaried jobs and are “just looking to make a hard day’s pay.”

A report that emerged from a September 2005 City Council hearing on day laborers at similar sites throughout the city recommended that job centers be created where laborers could be linked to prospective employers in centralized locations.

Zorn agreed. “A location set off the street in a large warehouse with bathrooms would work out to the community’s advantage and to the worker’s advantage,” he said.
Stephen Geffon contributed to this article.