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Title: Business owners in Mesa discuss day-laborer issue
Source:
AZ Central
URL Source: http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0714evdaylabor14.html
Published: Jul 14, 2005
Author: Justin Juozapavicius
Post Date: 2005-07-14 11:28:33 by Mr Nuke Buzzcut
Ping List: *The Border*
Keywords: day-laborer, Business, discuss
Views: 55
Comments: 4
Justin Juozapavicius MESA - If the day-labor explosion here had a ground zero, this would be it. Business owners and landlords at Broadway and Gilbert roads met this week to figure out a new solution to an old problem: suspected undocumented immigrants congregating on street corners waiting for work. But it doesn't stop there. Owners in a recent survey said they also do battle daily with panhandlers and transients in the area, often coming across plastic bags that appear to have had drugs in them and finding people going to the bathroom by trash bins. "It's like they come out of the woodwork," said a frustrated Ned Brimley, owner of Ned's Krazy Sub, where police officers, city neighborhood officials and business owners who just wanted to vent met Monday. "You rarely see the same face twice." Brimley's sandwich shop is in a strip mall at the southeastern corner of Broadway and Gilbert, where neon-yellow signs reading "Day Labor Pick-Up Prohibited" are staked in front. But business owners said that offers little deterrent: * Karen Spaulding, who owns Cannibal's Pipes & More in the strip mall, said her shop was robbed at gunpoint Friday night. Police have not made an arrest and have not determined if the robber was from the area. * Gilbert Rodriguez, who is the landlord for the strip mall, said he regularly chases day laborers off the property. The only thing that seemed to keep many day laborers from clustering near the mall and the adjacent 7-Eleven on Monday was the sight of police cars at the meeting. The workers moved across Broadway to an am/pm convenience store or the Domino's Pizza. Talk inevitably turned to building a day-labor center instead of chasing the problem away to another part of town by ticketing loiterers. "You've got to have a place for them to go," Whalen said. "The day-labor concept comes up, but nobody wants it in their neighborhood." In Mesa, where the population is roughly 23 percent Hispanic, debate over building a center has reached a critical point. But the City Council won't allow one unless it is built with private dollars and a guarantee it will employ only workers with legal status.
Business owners in Mesa discuss day-laborer issue
The Arizona Republic
Jul. 14, 2005 12:00 AM * David Singh, who owns the 7-Eleven on the corner, said people are afraid to pump gas or come into the store because of the day laborers.
"We know you're frustrated," said Councilman Mike Whalen, whose south-central Mesa district is part of a changing demographic that saw the city's Hispanic population reach more than 100,000 in 2003, according to census figures.
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#1. To: Mr Nuke Buzzcut (#0)
THERE SHOULD BE NO DAY LABORERS. NONE. There should be NO SURPLUS OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS. THERE SHOULD BE CLOSED BORDERS WITH MEXICO AND CANADA, BECAUSE AFTER ALL, THERE'S A WAR ON TERROR HAPPENING AND WE NEED TO KEEP OUR COUNTRY SAFE!!! Good God... What part of ILLEGAL doesn't these people understand???
 | So many morons, so few bullets. |
#2. To: Mr Nuke Buzzcut, TommyTheMadArtist (#0)
I drive through this intersection almost every day. Drive north on Gilbert and there's 4-5 intersections right in there with at each place 20 or more mexican guys standing around looking for job. The 7-11 they're talking about is just like they said. and just think 5 years ago if anyone did this the police would stop them because it was against the law. And then the mexicans started gathering there, so the city immediately made this practice legal. Drive the rest of Mesa and there are likewise many places where people gather like this. And Chandler is worse. In the morning you can drive down Arizona Ave through downtown Chandler and see a row of mexicans one mile long it seems. Chandler is the city where if you live in Chandler, then your children are expected to speak spanish in public schools. The classes are conducted in spanish for all children. Whether the child is american or mexican. There is no effort to teach english to the mexican children. And even the mexican children most of them prefer english, but they get spanish instruction instead. I met a fellow on July 4 who lives in Chandler, he has 2 kids in public school, that is waht he said.
Broadway and Gilbert
#3. To: Red Jones (#2)
Did you ask him why he doesn't love his children?
I met a fellow on July 4 who lives in Chandler, he has 2 kids in public school, that is waht he said.
- "Let me ask you this: A guy breaks into your house, but you don't have a gun. How are you going to shoot him?" ~~Dale Gribble
#4. To: Mr Nuke Buzzcut (#3)
no, I didn't ask him that. But I also learned he's divorced, his kids live with mom, but he gets them frequently. He just doesn't have the money to send them to private schools.
Did you ask him why he doesn't love his children?
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