This morning I started a month-long project which requires me to catch the bus at the ungodly hour of 7am. Today I walked out onto the sidewalk in front of my building and immediately encountered a group of 4 Brix construction workers. One made some foul catcall to which I responded with a loud “Fuck you!”. (Sorry neighbors if you woke up to this.) He turned around, started walking toward me, and repeatedly asked “Excuse me?! Excuse me?!”. I just said “No” and kept walking.
Maybe it’s a gene reserved for the XY chromosome, maybe it’s a difference in cultures, or maybe it’s just that Brix hires jerks (since this is not the first time this has happened) — but whatever it is, it is humiliating and completely unacceptable. Thankfully I was wearing my biggest sunglasses at the time, because I may have talked tough, but my eyes were completely welled up.
I previously considered writing a letter to the Brix construction company to complain. Then I decided against that in favor of the “Fuck you!” solution, thinking that would make me feel better. It made me feel better for about 30 seconds, and then I was back to feeling crappy and, frankly, scared to go to work tomorrow. So it’s back to letter writing. I’ll let you know how it goes.
i’ve encountered more harassment/sexism/etc. at the office than i ever have when walking past construction workers. construction workers just voice things more openly. i’d rather have people be all up in my face where i can react than have subtle situations where i can’t scream back at the person.
How horrible! If you’re feeling threatened, then it’s unacceptable behavior regardless of how common it may be. I would absolutely write a letter/email and reference them to this blog. If they know what’s good for PR, they’ll respond swiftly and effectively.
If it was just a catcall I’d say that goes with the territory. But this was physical intimidation and cannot be accepted. Even if the discourse was completely uncivil on both sides, the physical indimidation is simply not OK.
I don’t think Brix is a construction company – they’re the marketing leasing agents or something. But they probably would care about negative PR (although probably only if it’s in the media).
I believe W.G. Clark is the construction manager http://www.brixcondos.com/pdf/dtl_9-16-06.pdf) that’s probably who you should contact because they oversee the construction workers.
You should definitely CC some other folks like maybe City Councilmembers and someone in the police dept. (maybe even file a complaint).
Sally Clark, Chair of Land use: sally.clark@seattle.gov (she has personally responded to my emails in the past).
Tim Burgess – public safety — tim.burgess@seattle.gov
BRIX Properties
10635 Santa Monica Boulevard, Suite 170
Los Angeles, CA 90025
Phone: 424.901.1501
Facsimile: 424.832.8707
http://www.wgclark.com/
Just curious…’cause a big “Fuck You!” is typically followed by exactly what you described. The problem is – all this construction over the last couple years has led to the import of hick construction workers from the rural ‘burbs (Enumclaw, Bonney Lake, etc.). They ride in and out of the city in their big stupid trucks. They could give a shit about our neighborhood, and are usually rude morons.
I’d say the fact that he was walking towards you in a threatening way makes it assault, and could be reported to the police. I might be wrong about that… but I hope I’m not. This is bullshit, and shouldn’t fly.
I can’t add much to what others have said, except this is the same problem I encounter when I ride the buses.
Whenever someone’s doing something unacceptable, no one confronts them, b/c they risk a crazy reaction like you got. I witnessed a couple teenagers push their way around and shout starting the minute they got on the bus. They also intentionally accosted and antagonized this elderly woman (who spoke little English) and made fun of her loudly after she got on the bus. At one point another woman asked simply them to “be respectful” and they laughed at her (loudly) and continued to be ass-hats the rest of the trip.
Mithun is the architect.
They should know, too.
Thanks for your fantastic advice and support, CHSers! I just fired off a letter/email to WG Clark, Sally Clark, Tim Burgess, and Mithun. I requested a response within 2 weeks for how they will prevent future incidents and said I would report any similar incidents to SPD.
But a small attempt to balance the playing field. Hopefully the Brix bullies get shut up.
From the article:
“Meanwhile new laws could see wolf-whistling builders placed on the sex offenders register. The Sexual Offences (Scotland) Bill will create a new offence of “communicating indecently”, punishable by up to 10 years in jail.”
This is not assault (I’m studying this topic for the bar right now in fact). The police would politely listen to you, hopefully, but there’s no case. Whistling or whatever was done to you was rude, but so was responding with a “Fuck You” rather than ignoring them. And can we try not to stereotype all construction workers and people not from the city while we’re trying to be all liberal and enlightened on a blog comment?
Bring your camera next time and start snapping pictures.
This afternoon I received a kind and thorough email from a senior VP at WG Clark. He apologized on behalf of the employees and indicated that the entire crew (of 200!) will have a project meeting tomorrow morning at 7:15am to review the relevant company policy. I’m really impressed with their response and hope that this will resolve it.
There really are two truths here. Both Final Answer and the construction worker provoked a confrontation. But I’ll cop to a double standard here and say that, no matter the legal technicalities, a man physically stepping up to a woman is wrong every time and — dare I say — totally pussy.
I live about two blocks away from the Brix site and learned early on to make a detour whenever I have to walk in that area. But what happened yesterday (and how I found this blog, to begin with), means it might look like a move from the area may be necessary.
I’ve had several very creepy run-ins with the mostly hispanic workers (well beyond ‘boys just being boys’), but yesterday topped them all which prompted me to call the police. I was walking northbound on eleventh ave. btwn. Mercer and Aloha when two of the hispanic construction workers were walking behind me about a hundred yards or so. I crossed the street (on the Lowell Elementary payground side) and one of them quickly walked across the street towards me and began following me a couple feet behind me. I turned around and saw thwe most creepy look on his face and just then a woman appeared and I started to walk with her.
I called the non-emergency police line and was told that I could have been imagining this and as long as he didn’t touch me, there was nothing that could be done. I am calling the construction co. first thing tomorrow and I would love it if you could provide me with any leads also. I am also thinking of making flyers for my neighborhood to let them know to keep an eye out.
UGH, that’s so creepy. Good for you for calling the police, but it’s total BS that they told you this may have all been in your imagination.
You should absolutely get in touch with the construction company. I’m not sure who they are at this point, but if you walk by the site (or maybe send a friend?) I’m sure there will be a sign with the construction company’s name. Email or call them, and if they are like WG Clark, they will take your complaint seriously and respond promptly. (Especially if you include in your complaint your intent to post flyers…) Let us know how it goes.
Final Answer: is there a way I can contact you directly so I can get these names and numbers? I called WG Clark this morning they could not provide me with the name of the company(s) who took over.
A call to the Brix Condominium main number gives me a recording and I can’t seem to find “Anderson & Charter” (or are they two separate companies?).
Let me re-phrase, the desk cop I spoke to on saturday did not say it was all in my head, but he implied that I was exagerrating. But told me to call them back anytime it happened again. Ok…
Since a new contruction company took over in early July, then it’s very likely that this could be a new crew of workers who missed the Big Lecture on Sexual Harrassment that they supposedly got that the V.P. of WG Clark had said he carried out.
However, I have to suspect, based on my personal knowledge of the contruction trade (and don’t ask me how) that there was no “thorough” “talking to” these creeps.
The construction industry is a large, vast and sometimes shoddy web of ranking bosses who it can take several to go down the line to send a message to the bottom rung, esp. if it doesn’t involve the business at hand.
In other words, what probably happened was head honcho of this division told the foreman of his lower division to tell the leadman to tell the…and you get the picture.
Given the crude and ruthless nature of these guys, and the fact most can’t seem to speak a lick of english, I would question their immigration status and criminal backgrounds. Because who has time to run checks on 200 plus employees when the job is already way behind schedule? Hmm.
I think we should do all we can to stop this soon, I can only imagine what’s in store when the Old QFC site and the transit tunnel get underway. So I think it’s in the best interest of our fellow residents to nip this in the bud and let the Seattle’s
Construction Companies know that this crap won’t be tolerated.
The Brix is ugly as it is, I certainly wouldn’t want to live there knowing what kind of people put it up.
My email is [email protected]. Talk soon!
dita,
contact jim donahoe, owner and project manager of brix, llc
[email protected] (i think – let me know if this backfires, and i’ll find the correct one)
schnitzer west is the developer, parent to brix llc
schnitzer west
600 stewart st, suite 1820
seattle, wa 98101
phone: 206 436 1101
the construction company is now andersen (with an e) construction
they are based out of oregon
david andersen is the president and the number is 503 283 6712
also, when large construction companies are contacted about sexual harrassment and a potential lawsuit, the workers usually (and by usually, i mean always) have to take a sexual harrassment class, because they are looking at a big liability. and again, with large construction companies, they have to make time to run checks on all employees, no matter how many, because if they don’t, it’s an even bigger liability. this is given my thorough knowledge of the trade. don’t ask me how i know.
the other thing to keep in mind is that brix, llc is its own entity meaning that andersen is not the general contractor, they are the construction manager. this means that the majority of workers out there are other subcontractors, not their own employees so their control over the subcontractor workers is limited. that’s why it is best to contact jim donahoe. it is his property, he is ultimately responsible for what goes on on the property, so it is in his best interest to address this.
I just receieved a phone call this morning from Joel Andersen (Project Mananger for the Brix) who said he’d like to meet with me in person to discuss this as soon as tomorrow. He also said the subcontractors working at the site are in fact the same ones as when WG Clark was in charge….fyi.