I'm usually a passive consumer of lbo wisdom -- much appreciated -- but I had to pass this along. This claiming of public space is exceptionally brazen even these days; Shea's response is perfect.
James McCarthy
>Here's an article from today's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette,
>self-proclaimed as "One of America's Great Newspapers."
>
>It sticks out in views of convention center
>Big union sign called a problem
>Tuesday, June 19, 2001
>By Timothy McNulty, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
>A convention bureau official wants a giant union sign on a Penn
>Avenue building to be covered because of concerns about marketing
>the convention center to business visitors.
>A black and white sign for Retail Store Employees Union Local 1407
>is painted across the side of the building at 951 Penn Ave., which
>the union formerly occupied. The sign, which also features a picture
>of two hands clasping, now towers over the construction site of the
>David L. Lawrence Convention Center, Downtown.
>Two-thirds of the sign can be seen in pictures of the convention
>center construction site on the Internet, Bob Imperata, executive
>vice president of the Greater Pittsburgh Convention and Visitors
>Bureau, told the center's design commission during a meeting
>yesterday.
>While praising organized labor for their help with the construction
>project, he said the sign reinforced Pittsburgh's reputation as a
>city with labor-management problems, and it should be painted over
>or covered with a banner.
>Covering the sign is necessary so visitors to Internet site "don't
>visualize [Pittsburgh] as a very difficult labor town, [a
>reputation] we had at one time," Imperata told the design board.
>The sign appears on Web cam pictures of the construction site, shot
>from the top of the Westin Convention Center hotel, at
>http://www.visitpittsburgh.org/.
>The board, which meets quarterly to confer on convention center
>design and marketing, took no action on the request.
>The retail union is now part of the United Food & Commercial Workers
>Local 23, which is based in Southpointe.
>UFCW officials could not be reached for comment, but Jack Shea,
>president of the Allegheny County Labor Council, said he was unaware
>of the convention and visitors bureau's concerns and was not happy
>when told about Imperata's comments.
>"Maybe we should cover up the Mellon and PNC Bank signs," Shea said.
>In other matters yesterday, the board of the Sports & Exhibition
>Authority awarded a $790,720 contract for painting the convention
>center to Capco Contracting Inc. of McKeesport, a contractor whose
>minority certification has been repeatedly challenged.
>The company is a state-certified, minority-owned firm for painting,
>carpentry and other construction work. But it has also received
>$12.4 million in steel contracts for the stadium and convention
>center projects, even though it has not been certified as a steel
>supplier by Allegheny County's Department of Minority, Women and
>Disadvantaged Business Enterprises.
>Sports authority Executive Director Stephen Leeper said Capco's
>experience on the Plan B projects prepared it for the convention
>center painting job and enabled it to submit lower bids than other
>firms.
>Capco's owner, Thomas Cousar, has "grown into the projects and
>really established himself," Leeper said.
-- James McCarthy, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Department of Geography Penn State University 302 Walker Building University Park, PA 16802-5011 Email: mccarthy at geog.psu.edu Phone: 814-863-1782 Fax: 814-863-7943