The daily scene of day laborers flagging down pick-up trucks in front of
Austin’s downtown municipal building, where councilmembers conduct their weekly
televised meetings, was supposed to be temporary — at least according to
Assistant City Manager Joe Lessard: “The idea of moving the day-labor site
there next to the city annex was on an interim basis, until we could find a
permanent location,” he says.
Yet for an interim location with less services than a West Texas rest stop,
the city had to pay a hefty tab — $95,500, according to Dan Pickins of the
Department of Health and Human Services. $26,400 was spent on four
bench-and-shelter kiosks; $34,535 went for a small modular office with
bathrooms occupied by Labor Connections, which hooks employers up with
laborers; $25,000 was spent on landscaping and other construction, including
the chain-link fence which gives the lot its prison-camp charm; and the
remaining $9,565 was for utility hook-ups and electric service. Additionally,
last month the city spent $816 to take out a four-month lease on four
portajohns because, well… people had taken to using less appropriate
facilities after Labor Connections’ bathroom closed in the afternoon.
The city owns four-and-a-half blocks in the area, including the property on
which HOBO and Liberty Lunch rest; with a location right next to Town Lake and
Cesar Chavez, the property is highly valued and targeted for redevelopment.
(One might recall that the idea of a new city hall was once bandied about for
those blocks.) Mark Pratz of Liberty Lunch worries that the future may hold far
worse than a city hall, or another private development — “What I understand is
that [downtown developers] would like to build high-priced condominiums,” he
says, adding that his club still might be threatened with demolition when his
lease expires in 18 months. Assistant City Manager Lessard says he’s not sure
what will happen, but adds: “Eventually, something will be done with the
property.”
If the city’s lots are developed, what will happen to the taxpayer-funded
bathrooms, fencing, and kiosks at the labor lot? “It’s hard to say what’s going
to happen to any of that stuff,” says Pickins at HHS.
Perhaps the condo realtors can use it. — D.C.
This article appears in August 30 • 1996 and August 30 • 1996 (Cover).