Mesa business owners upset at day labor issue
JJ Hensley
The Arizona Republic
May. 9, 2007 01:35 PM

Gov. Janet Napolitano's veto of a bill that would have cracked down on day laborers means business owners near Mesa Drive and Broadway Road will likely have another year of crowded sidewalks, growing crime and unhappy customers.

The veto didn't come as a surprise to Brandt Seeligman, whose photography shop is a stone's throw from scores of men, most of them undocumented, who line the streets every morning looking for work.

"It hurts my business financially because people don't come here," said Seeligman, whose Brandt Photography sits at the northwestern corner of Second Avenue and Mesa Drive. "The city has done nothing to stop it. You have to drive through a third-world country to get here."

City leaders have commended Seeligman for his reinvestment in the area, but his frequent venting at meetings of the Downtown Mesa Association and with city council members and police officers often fall on deaf ears, he said.

"I have talked to the mayor, talked to several state reps and they all shake their heads and say it's a federal problem and they're going to push hard to get Arizona to seal off the border. But they're not dealing with the city issue," Seeligman said.

City Councilman Kyle Jones, whose district includes downtown Mesa, said the city's hands are somewhat tied.

"As long as the federal law allows the right to stand on public right-of-way, it is a very challenging deal for cities to just say you can't be there," Jones said.

"What we need to be able to do is move them away from businesses that are impacted by their presence. . . . The right to stand on right-of-way does not give them a right to impede an owner's efforts to run his business."

Jones acknowledged business owners' frustrations with the city.

"There's the ongoing debate of, 'You guys never do anything,'" he said. "We would love to, if we could. Right now the only thing we can do is encourage them to move away from businesses."

Earlier this year, Police Chief George Gascón outlined for the city council a plan to step up immigration enforcement, including some ordinances that would outlaw loitering or stopping on red-painted curbs.

But day laborers this week said such laws would only shift their gathering spots to different areas.

One man last week declined to give his name but said he was only looking for work and was not breaking any laws.

"If you make us leave here, we'll just go somewhere else to look for work," he said. "We need jobs."

Business owners in the area would see just about any change as an improvement.

The area outside Karl's Custom VW and Off-Road Center near Mesa and Broadway is a gathering spot for day laborers, who get together outside the store early in the morning and remain much of the day.

Shop manager Thomas Butterfly and service manager Rod Fernandez see the drama unfold outside the garage doors daily. They've seen a few job-seekers get injured by cars stopping abruptly, and often see the disruption to traffic that extends off a side street onto Broadway.

"If it would be effective at removing this problem from the street, we'd be all for it," Butterfly said of the bill that was vetoed. "It's really not even about immigration, it's about safety, it's about health, it's about letting this occur in the downtown square mile of Mesa."

Butterfly and Fernandez, a lifelong Mesa resident, say the criminal activity that comes with groups of more than 100 unemployed men sitting on a street corner has increased in the past five years.

The side of an APS substation next door has also become an outdoor toilet.

Downtown Mesa Association crews hauled out human waste and put down lime to control the stench in recent weeks.

Seeligman, who said the city isn't taking action for fear of being sued, had one idea for where that refuse could end up.

"I say lets go to Keno's (Hawker) house and put it on his doorstep," he said. "Maybe he'd acknowledge the problem then."

The managers at Karl's VW shop still think it's an issue the city has some responsibility to address.

"If you've got 100 guys out here in the morning, where are they going to go to the bathroom," Butterfly asked. "I am looking for an excuse to get rid of them, not because they're Mexican, but because it's bad for business."

http://www.azcentral.com/business/artic ... r0510.html