July 27–August 3, 2000
city beat
Upon Closer Inspection
 |
 |
|
|
|
Showtime: Activists Sara Edelstein and Amanda Plumb help move puppets and signs out of the Spiral Q studio when L&I temporarily evicted them Friday. photo: Gwen Shaffer |
|
by Gwen Shaffer
The Department of Licenses & Inspections insists its surprise inspection of an artists’ studio run by activists last Friday, July 21, was not politically motivated. Funny, then, that the agency’s explanation for inspecting the building two weeks before the onset of the Republican National Convention is riddled with inconsistencies.
The Spiral Q Puppet Theater studio has rented a space on the fifth floor of 1307 Sansom St. for six years. Until January, the rundown building was owned by the estate of late slumlord Sam Rappaport. Not surprisingly, building code violations go back "decades," according to L&I inspectors.
But the agency chose to clamp down on those infractions mere weeks before activists plan to hold several major political demonstrations.
Activists were toiling inside Spiral Q when city building inspectors appeared at the door. Four hours of high drama followed.
Activists hurriedly toted out as many papier-mâché creations as possible, while inspectors roamed in and out of the building and television news vans swarmed the block.
By mid-afternoon, L&I inspectors had tossed the activists out of the building, along with two residential tenants living on the fourth and sixth floors. But, the illegally operated check-cashing business on the ground level was allowed to remain open.
Among the code violations cited by L&I are electrical extension cords stretching between the third and fifth floors, an open propane burner and a faulty fire-alarm system.
During a phone interview Tuesday, L&I Commissioner Edward McLaughlin contradicted inspectors on the scene and tenants of the building — as well as himself — several times.
He said the building was issued a "clean" certification in December 1999, when developer Tony Goldman made an offer to purchase it. The computer showed "all code violations were closed," McLaughlin said.
"Our records showed there were no tenants in the building," he said, and a "vacant building status" automatically prompts L&I to close violations.
But Spiral Q director Matthew Hart used to have an apartment in the building and recalls L&I visiting in recent years.
"L&I came when Rappaport owned the building.… He needed to get up to code, but the violations were resolved," he said. The agency clearly knew residential tenants and Spiral Q were renting there, he added.
And inspectors at the scene, including Verdi, said they have files of building code violations that date back "decades." On top of that, Goldman representative Don Meginley acknowledged that when his boss purchased 1307 Sansom on Jan. 15, he knew "it was not up to code."
"There have been complaints from L&I about this building for years," Meginley noted.
As for why L&I chose to inspect the building midday Friday, McLaughlin said inspectors were acting on "preliminary information" from the Philadelphia Police Department.
"Something came down from the building and broke a window in a police car," he said. "It wasn’t clear to me at the time that it was a piece of ice that came down."
Falling ice in July? The owners of the building now say it was a frozen water balloon.
If the police had a political motivation for asking L&I to investigate, "that’s on them," McLaughlin said, stressing he doubts that is the case, though.
"If the police wanted to harass these people, wouldn’t they have done it closer to the Republican National Convention?" McLaughlin wondered aloud.
"I find it hard to believe this isn’t politically motivated," said Beka Economopoulos, a member of the R2K Network, an umbrella group for protesters. "This incident is consistent with the police department and city officials’ pattern of preemptive strikes designed to harass, intimidate and thwart our efforts to organize."
Certainly, the tactic has been exercised before in other cities. Washington, D.C. police used fire code violations as an excuse to shut down a building being used by activists two days prior to a major demonstration there in April.
And City Paper reported July 20 that police recently questioned people they presumed to be activists about the use of "giant puppets" during protests.
L&I Deputy Commissioner Dominic Verdi said evicting Spiral Q and the other tenants was warranted because the violations threatened the "life safety" of the building’s occupants.
If this is true, Mayor John Street made a conscious decision to place public perception above security. Street, along with Managing Director Joe Martz, ordered the Spiral Q studio re-opened around 7 p.m. Friday evening, mayoral spokesperson Barbara Grant said.
"No one wanted these young people to be harassed," she said.
McLaughlin scoffs at Grant’s characterization of the mayor’s swift action. "I understand the romance and intrigue of the mayor stepping in," he said, "but Barbara took her lead from me."
|
 |
|
|
|
Man in the glass: L&I Inspector Kenneth Gasman (center) videotaped journalists and activists outside Spiral Q for hours, yet tried to hide when cameras were pointed his way. photo: Gwen Shaffer |
|
Goldman hired someone to act as a "human fire alarm" and watch the building around the clock, McLaughlin said.
At the scene on Friday, Verdi initially said the agency carried out the surprise inspection because of "an anonymous complaint." When reporters pressed him for a more detailed explanation, Verdi said it was prompted by "debris" that fell from an adjacent building and ultimately landed on a police cruiser.
A police report says two men hurled debris from the building, cracking the windshield of a passing police cruiser.
Grant says she had been told it was "a bag of ice mixed with stones" that fell on the cop car.
That flying object isn’t the only mystery.
Hart suspected something was up Friday morning, even before L&I inspectors streamed through his door. He said he noticed "two white guys" peering into the Spiral Q studio from atop the parking garage across the street. They were snapping photographs and holding walkie-talkies, he said.
"I yelled over, ‘Where are you from?’ And they yelled back, ‘We’re from Seattle,’ and walked away," Hart recalled.
It is the "potent visual imagery" of the larger-than-life puppets created by Spiral Q artists that threatens the establishment, Hart said. "We aren’t doing anything scary. We are talking about paint on cardboard here."
Around noon on Friday, Hart said, he got up to answer a knock at the door. (Remember, according to McLaughlin, L&I thought the building was vacant.) Hart opened the door and found himself facing five men. They identified themselves as L&I inspectors and announced intentions to inspect the premises. That’s when Hart began to pull the door closed, but was pushed aside, he said.
Inspectors never force their way into an occupied building, Verdi insisted, claiming they were "invited in" to Spiral Q’s studio.
"As the person who answered the door, I can tell you, I did not invite them in," Hart said.
Most of the activists working in the studio at the time were from the Kensington Welfare Rights Union. They were creating puppets and signs to use during an anti-poverty demonstration on July 31, opening day of the Republican National Convention.
Hart instructed activists to continue working while inspectors roamed through the space. Inspectors soon left the building but stood on the sidewalk until about 2 p.m., intently talking on their cell phones. The entire time, Inspector Kenneth Gasman, sporting slicked-back hair and clad in black, videotaped every television news crew and protester watching the action outside the building.
Gasman did not wear an L&I badge and refused to say for whom he worked — not exactly a great way to dispel the perception that law enforcement agencies are spying on local activists.
On Tuesday, McLaughlin said he regrets that one of his inspectors may have tried to intimidate activists.
"There is no justification and it won’t be done again," he says. "We photograph only violations.… It was difficult circumstances, but he reacted in a way I don’t endorse."
Larry Frankel, director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, characterized the L&I "raid" as a "pretty ham-handed" way to go after political activists. "It certainly wasn’t very subtle."
