SCC
is currently redeveloping the area to create approximately 60
condominiums, some market-rate and some for lower income individuals,
some retail space and a building for the Just A Start Corporation, a
program for young mothers and their children.

The first phase
of construction, that of a four-story building for
neighborhood-oriented mixed-use and affordable rental housing, is
currently underway and the second building is set to begin this Spring.

An assembly of laid-off union workers have turned up with
picket signs in hand against what they consider unacceptable treatment
of workers by Miller and Son Painting. "We consider it a community
standards issue," said IUPAT Council 35 organizer Mark Lohan. "These
wages and working conditions are not compatible with community
standards."

Lohan, a painter by trade from Ireland, said that
despite rumors, the protests were not about their hiring of non-union
workers. "It's not an objection to the non-union workers, it's an
objection to their employer who is taking advantage of them," he said.

When
asked about these tactics, Lohan said, "Our union is diverse and broad:
immigrant and non-immigrant, Black, White, Latino, and we all believe
that just because an economy is bad doesn't mean people have to be
treated badly. We don't want to be part of a race to the bottom. Not
only in construction, but in any trade."

Project Manager Marc
Champagne indicated that his company's policies would not change,
quickly dismissing Lohan's allegations by saying, "We're not running an
unsafe job. He hasn't been in the building. I don't know where he's
getting his information. If he was in the building he would know."

For
the moment it is unclear how long the protests will go on. "We'll be
out here as long as we have to: until we get justice," Lohan said. For
the moment, no one can tell how long that will be.