An American TEXT

 
It is 7:45 a.m. on Roosevelt Avenue in Woodside, and the morning rush of contractor vans picking up day laborers is over. Men sit dejectedly on the sidewalk and in doorways of closed storefronts, peering up with a spark of hope at the occasional passing van; others stand in twos and threes, chatting in Spanish as they fruitlessly scan the road for the promise of work.
At 8:10, a graffiti-covered van pulls up, and the men are jarred into action. Some run across the busy street to ask the driver if they can get in; others swarm the vehicle, hoping that this one will be their meal ticket for the day.
Within seconds, all but a few return to their usual places on the guardrail along the BQE overpass, whiling away the hours until they find work.
"Not everyone gets selected for a job that day. What do they do? Where do they go? Where do they stay?" asked City Councilwoman Helen Sears (D-Jackson Heights), whose district includes a stretch of Roosevelt Avenue up to 71st Street that is one of Queens major hiring strips for day laborers.
Sears said she will attempt to answer those questions in a meeting between local police, community members and representatives from the state and federal government. She also plans to introduce a resolution on Thursday calling for Council hearings on what she calls "a major growing issue."
Day laborers have lingered in the area for years, raising the ire of residents who say the men are at best a nuisance, and at worst a public danger. Complaints have surfaced that idle day laborers are drinking and urinating in public, harassing women on the street, and dozing off in doorways.
"Its such a global problem in our community and the city of New York, that its reaching epidemic proportions now," said Community Board 2 chairman Joseph Conley, whose district includes Woodside. "The contracting business has dropped off because the economy is going down. Were finding more and more day laborers hanging around during the day."
Conley acknowledged residents complaints but stopped short of accusing the day laborers directly. "The correlation would appear to be there, but nobodys made that link yet," he said.
Police at the 108th Precinct report a rise in burglaries and robberies in the area over the last three weeks, as well as a woman murdered at 64th Street and Roosevelt Ave. on July 30.
"Would I say that day laborers are doing it? We have no idea. Are there quality-of-life issues in that area? Yes," said a police source, citing a recent arrest of two male Hispanics for urinating in a private backyard. "I dont know whether they were day laborers or not."
Police deny targeting the workers, but say they are trying to reduce crime in the neighborhood by increasing their presence and issuing tickets for a litany of offenses, including illegal parking. One ticketed vehicle was a Salvation Army truck that brings coffee and food to day laborers, which police said was in a no-standing zone.
"Its more difficult to get work now," said Claudio de la Cruz, 32, who stood on Roosevelt Avenue looking for work on a recent Saturday. "I used to be able to find work four or five days a week. Now its only two or three in a good week."
De la Cruz said one contractor who used to pick him up frequently hasnt stopped for him lately. "They ticket the cars, and give us [jaywalking] tickets sometimes. A lot of guys dont come here anymore," he said, adding that some day laborers have moved to other parts of Queens, but that he is planning to return early to his native Mexico due to the lack of work.
Some day laborers vehemently denied that they were causing problems in the neighborhood. "We dont bother anyone," said Jorge Lucas, 35, who earns $275 a week as a bricklayer. "Problems happen because of sick people with drinking problems. The rest of us are just trying to earn money to eat."
Clever Banchon, 45, sat in the doorway of a church on 69th and Roosevelt, where he said many of his fellow day laborers congregate because the church leaves them alone. "Those are lies," he said when asked about complaints in the community. He said that he uses the bathroom in the church or the public restrooms in a nearby park.
Banchon sees day laborers as an economic boon to the neighborhood. "We spend money here. We eat in the restaurants and buy things in the stores. We make phone calls," he said, pointing to some eateries and a long-distance calling center across the street. "Its not what the police or the people think."
Just as the day laborer problem has many facets, so does the solution. Police say they can only arrest loiterers if they are breaking the law, but do not detain people for merely standing on a corner. A broader anti-loitering bill was introduced years ago in the State Assembly, but needed City Council approval to be enforced in New York.
Councilman John Liu (D-Flushing) said that civil liberties concerns have stalled passage of the proposed legislation in the Council. "The bill would make it easier for police to detain people that are standing on street corners, but the impact could be on teenagers hanging out in the summertime or people waiting for buses," said Liu. "We have to be careful about how things are phrased."
Liu added that he would consider introducing some components of the bill as part of a comprehensive solution to the day laborer problemone that includes cracking down on employers who dont pay taxes, even confiscating construction companies vehicles. "Legislation doesnt necessarily stop people from loitering," he said. "If people werent picking them up for day jobs, I guarantee you they wouldnt be there."
Another idea, building a hiring center, is one that has met success in Nassau County and Brooklyn. Hiring centers are central locations where day laborers can gather to be picked up by employers, rather than scattering across public streets.
Liu has contacted the Latin American Workers Project, an advocacy group that helped establish one such center in Brooklyn. "Maybe we can create job training centers that can better utilize these laborers and prepare them for the long term," said the councilman.
Debbie Markell, Mayor Michael Bloombergs community assistance director for north Queens, was not sure whether the administration planned to pursue the idea of hiring centers, but said, "Thats certainly a topic we can look at. We need to find safe places for these people to go."
De la Cruz thinks hiring centers are a good idea, but wondered if day laborers, many of whom are undocumented, would want to come forward to participate. He also spoke of the abuse he and others had faced at the hands of their employers.
"Sometimes people dont even get paid," he said. "I feel desperate. Sometimes I see men sitting here crying. They heard there was work in the United States."
Joseph, a day laborer who declined to give his last name, came from Ecuador eight years ago in the hopes of making enough money to bring his family to New York. He now says he can barely feed himself.
"I came to New York for a dream," he said. "Instead, I found a nightmare."