As Construction Continues Amidst Covid-19 in DC Area, Bezos’ WaPo Raises Few Objections

Published at FAIR.org

“Insane.” That’s what Marc Gunther thought as he looked out of the window of his downtown Bethesda, Maryland, apartment. Below him, cramped construction crews were building a headquarters and adjoining hotel for Marriott, the world’s biggest hotel chain. The $600 million project, which has received $60 million in public funding, is scheduled to be completed in 2022, pandemic or not.

Recently, two of the site’s approximately 300 workers tested positive for coronavirus. After shutting down the site for deep cleaning and implementing enhanced safety measures, work was scheduled to resume this week. Gunther called the resumption of work “nuts” in a Medium post (4/3/20), headlined “Luxury Condos and Corporate Office Buildings Are Not Worth Dying For.”

The day before his post, Gunther had a short letter to the editor published in the Washington Post (4/2/20), the dominant news outlet for the “DMV”—DC, Maryland and Virginia. Gunther’s letter appears to be the only mention in the Post of the dangerous situation at the Marriott site.

And it’s not just Marriott getting a pass. Despite the Post’s unique ability to bring about DMV-wide change, the paper has mostly kept quiet about the region’s dangerous construction sites, thereby inviting human tragedy.

Officialdom

In a rare Post story (3/28/20) on the dangers posed by today’s construction sites, officials were given ample space to repeatedly claim all is well: “We can continue to operate safely,” said a spokesperson for general contractors, “and we should.”

Workers, meanwhile, are less concerned with “the dangers of contracting coronavirus on the job” than simply having a job, said a union official.

Besides, there have been no reports of coronavirus on any city project site, DC officials said, effectively claiming the pandemic miraculously leapfrogged over these potential hotspots.

‘Impossible to protect’

 “I work on a construction job site with 150 to 200 others in an environment that is impossible to protect from the coronavirus,” wrote Mike Pitzer, a project manager in the DMV who is risking his job by refusing to work amid the pandemic.

In a Post op-ed (4/17/20), Pitzer raised safety concerns the Post has yet to condemn with its powerful editorial page, or even report on:

Most of the workers on our job site are employed by contractors, whose crews include carpenters, plumbers, bricklayers, electricians, etc., and their helpers. Some of these subcontractor workers will have commuted in vans with seven or eight others.

If the DMV doesn’t follow the lead of other states and ban nonessential construction, the pressure to work will continue to run down the chain of command. If subcontractors don’t work, Pitzer explained:

Not only would they lose the revenue, but they also would probably damage important relationships with the bigger contractors who hired them. They also could be at risk for monetary penalties if they don’t complete work by the schedule agreed upon in the contract. And their workers risk being fired if they don’t show up.

‘Catastrophic’

Another Post story (4/12/20) warns about the “catastrophic” impact the pandemic is likely to have in Langley Park, Maryland, a densely populated, largely Latino community outside DC, where many are undocumented and therefore ineligible for federal stimulus checks or unemployment benefits.

While the Post bemoans the harm the pandemic will inflict on Langley Park, the paper is loath to call out those who are exacerbating the situation, such as developers, who are placing profits ahead of the community’s health.

The Post story profiles Marcos, a 55-year-old who returns from his construction site each day knowing

the risk of bringing the novel coronavirus home with him: home to his daughter with disabilities and a feeding tube in her stomach; home to a 7-year-old son with asthma; home to a wife without legal status and a household where the adults lack health insurance in a neighborhood packed with other vulnerable families.

Marcos and his family all sleep together in their living room so they can earn extra money renting out their only bedroom, an arrangement that makes limiting the virus’s spread among family members difficult.

‘Essential’

Despite “stay at home” orders being in effect throughout the DMV, where the virus death toll has now topped 1,000, construction continues, thanks to its being deemed “essential.”

“When restaurants, coffee shops, retailers, gyms, barbershops and movie theaters have been shuttered,” Gunther asked in his Medium post, “what makes construction so special?”

When asked about the “essential” designation for construction, local officials point to federal guidelines that allow for it, or just as often say no comment.

Not that a comment is needed. The writing is on the walls of the high-end buildings sprouting up.

“Our ‘essential’ work,” wrote Pitzer, the project manager, “is constructing a new apartment building—not a bridge, not a road, not a hospital, but new, non-subsidized apartments.” Gentrification is the DMV’s growth industry, and not even a pandemic can mess with profit margins and project timetables.

And the DMV’s most high-profile timetable belongs to Amazon, whose founder and CEO, Jeff Bezos, owns the Washington Post.

Amazon’s incentives

In northern Virginia, just outside DC, construction of Amazon’s massive second headquarters, HQ2, remains on schedule despite the pandemic.

Also on schedule is construction of a new $390 million concourse at Reagan National airport, located just 1,800 feet from HQ2’s Crystal City outpost. That’s as the crow flies, although in a few years it’ll be walkable, thanks to a $40 million pedestrian bridge that, once built, will connect Crystal City and HQ2 directly to the airport.

The pedestrian bridge is part of $762 million in public subsidies Virginia is giving Amazon, a trillion-dollar company, for locating HQ2 in the state. (Amazon may have ended up in northern Virginia regardless of subsidies, in order to be near the Pentagon and gain a leg up on a $10 billion military contract.)

Elsewhere in northern Virginia, the construction of vast data centers is being fast-tracked, with Amazon Web Services (AWS) “lead[ing] the way, as it often does,” Washington Business Journal (4/17/20) reported. “There may be as many as a dozen AWS data centers under construction now or in the near future in Loudoun alone.”

Meanwhile, in DC, “A global pandemic and economic crisis is not slowing down” progress on a 323-unit building anchored by an Amazon-owned Whole Foods store (Bisnow, 4/15/20).

And in Maryland, Amazon is continuing its rapid growth, as it expands into another “massive new warehouse” (Washington Business Journal, 4/17/20).

In not calling for the shuttering of DMV construction, the Post is aligning itself with the interests of its owner, the richest person alive (whose wealth increased by $6.8 billion in just the past week).

The developer governor

Across the Potomac River, in Maryland, construction also continues. The state’s governor, Republican Larry Hogan, is not only pro-development, but is himself a real estate developer—a fact the Post now tries to hide.

Hogan “was a suburban real estate developer before becoming governor,” the Post (3/19/20) recently reported (emphasis added). That’s like saying President Trump was in the hotel business—a statement the Post would never make, and rightfully so.

Like Trump, Hogan has a company that is named after himself, not held in a blind trust, managed by a family member; also like Trump, he’s continuing to make deals while he’s in office, and potentially benefiting from his official actions (Washington Monthly, 1/20).

When Hogan designates real estate and construction (like the Marriott headquarters) essential, is this a conflict of interest? The Post won’t ask, even as Hogan rakes in a small fortune from his company, around $2.4 million in just his first three years in office.

While Hogan may have personal financial reasons for designating construction “essential,” the health consequences of doing so may be catastrophic.

If the Post highlighted this danger, it would pressure the pro-development governor to shut down construction sites. This appears to be what happened in New York.

Cuomo reverses course

In stories on the danger of construction sites in the Big Apple, several news sites—unlike the Washington Post—prioritized the views of workers over officials. The difference was dramatic.

Workers say “social distancing is a social myth,” read a New York Daily News story (3/26/20) that included photos of workers “in dangerously close proximity.” The story quoted hardhats on Twitter: “Put a stop to this now,” said one worker.

“Just riding the elevator to where you need to work is like an affront to the whole idea of social distancing,” another worker told The City (3/23/20). Like many industry whistleblowers, he remained anonymous, fearing possible retaliation from his employer.

“I’m essential to the pocketbooks of rich contractors and essential for spreading the virus, but that’s about it,” electrician Kirk Gibbs told the New York Times (3/25/20). “They should really shut down these projects for two months…. I’d just hate to see more people die and get sick.”

“Construction sites, even during normal times, are notoriously dirty,” the Times reported.

Workers often share a single portable toilet, which rarely has soap or hand sanitizer. Running water is not common…. They share tools, and procedures require that they closely watch over one another.

In the wake of reports like these, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo reversed himself and banned nonessential construction.

If similar reporting is found in the Washington Post, the DMV could follow New York’s lead and save lives.