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Critics of day laborers, sidewalk vendors, and other people who use public space to make a living sometimes contend that they misbehave in public. One complaint is public urination. If we'd just get these people off the street, so the reasoning goes, they wouldn't do that anymore. Where exactly to put them is a very divisive issue, particularly when it comes to day laborers. Some advocate that indoor day labor centers be built, presumably with access to indoor restroom facilities. To others, this is an anathema. Many laborers are undocumented, and many people view day labor centers as aiding and abetting criminal activity.

The need to relieve oneself is, of course, not unique to day laborers. It's not a problem for most of us, though. Whether you're at work or at home, it is likely that there's a bathroom close at hand. But if you're out shopping or running errands, it can be a little trickery finding a place to go. "Restrooms for Customers Only" is a sign one sees posted at some otherwise "public" establishments from time to time. The automobile has shrunk distances for many of us and otherwise made the hunt for a welcome restroom a little easier. But if you're on foot your range is much more limited.

The Los Angeles Daily News recently ran a story reporting that the city council is considering requiring Home Depot and other home improvement centers to set aside space for day laborers at their retail stores. While not styled as "day labor centers," something similar is clearly contemplated. The space set aside would have to have plumbing. The measure is putatively aimed at reducing negative spillovers that are threatened when large numbers of day laborers assemble at the centers. Since the laborers would not be there if it weren't for Home Depot, it stands to reason that Home Depot should be held responsible to do something about them. So goes the reasoning behind this and similar proposals in other communities. Home Depot is playing ball: it wants to work with the city to come up with a way to accommodate the workers and "reduce the impact on neighboring communities."

Today's L.A. Times has a story about a bargain hunter who bought a pair of ear phones on-line at a price "too good to be true," only to discover that it was too good to be true in fact. The ear phones were fakes. "It used to be that counterfeits was what you saw on a street corner in New York," market researcher Lauren Freedman said. "Now the whole world is a street corner."

Street corner indeed. The connection between street markets and pirated goods is one reason outdoor markets should be shut down-- according to some critics. But as the Times points out, property that has been stolen, in one form or another, can be sold just about anywhere. "Counterfeit toothpaste showed up in discount stores in June and fake wine has been popping up at auctions." Vendors hawking $50 "Rolex" watches from street corners hardly have a corner on the market.

Day laborers just won't go away. Herndon, Virginia recently closed a day labor center after a judge ruled that the city-run center could not exclude undocumented workers while still enforcing its no solicitation ban outside. Constitutional rights of free speech and free assembly would be violated. So now the day laborers are hustling business outside, while the city considers what to do next. This story, reported in Sunday's Washington Post, is mirrored by one in the Daily News of Los Angeles on Wednesday, September 11. The L.A. paper reports that the city is considering requiring Home Depot to build a day labor center as part of a proposed store. Build a center? Close a center? What to do?

This isn't a new issue. Day laborers have been part of the American scene, off and on, since the early days of the Republic. Demand for casual labor surged with the growth of the railroads, agriculture, and construction in the late 19th century. That demand was matched by a supply of willing workers, consisting of recent immigrants and civil war veterans. Demand declined during the First World War as labor went to war, but then surged again when the veterans came home. Day laborers took to riding the rails from town to town looking for work. The ranks of the hobos mushroomed during the Great Depression. Immigration was down, but home-grown workers were desperate for whatever work they could find. Just like today, day laborers were by many feared as criminals on the make and a public nuisance.

The cycle nearly repeated itself with the arrival of the Second World War. Labor again went war, and day laborers nearly vanished from the scene. The country expected to see day laborer explode when the veterans returned, but it didn't. The GI Bill and other programs, along with changing manufacturing practices and unionization of labor, pulled would-be day laborers into steady employment. Commentators in the early 1960s predicted the end of day labor.

They spoke to soon. These days "lean" and "just in time" production of goods and services requires flexible labor. What a firm needs today it may not need tomorrow. Temporary labor fills an important need. As the life time employment contract has eroded for skilled workers, so it has for the unskilled. Increased demand for casual labor has been met again by increased supply. Labor, much of it undocumented, has stepped into the breach once again.

Day labor today is, for the news media, the flavor of the month. But in the life of the nation, it is old news.

Today the New York Times ran a story about people in Brooklyn, New York, who sell their castoffs on the sidewalk in front of their homes. What elsewhere would be known as yardsales in dense New York are "stoop sales." The article, by Melissa Clark, is accompanied by a slide show that she narrates. Both are available on the New York Times' web site at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/06/garden/06stoops.html and http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/09/06/garden/20070906_STOOP_FEATURE.html

Ms. Clark reports that stoop sales have been a longstanding seasonal practice in parts of Brooklyn for years. Recently, however, these open air markets have gone upscale with the surrounding neighborhoods. As the quality of goods has increased, so has the sophistication of the buyers. Some buyers make a point of showing up early, snapping up the best deals, and reselling them on ebay.

One thing that is interesting about the stoop sales' article is that it shows how internet sales via ebay have not replaced face to face sales of used goods. Instead internet sales how given stoop sales a shot in the arm-- a shot they may not have wanted or needed-- but a shot all the same. And of course the benefits flow the other way, too. Stoop sales take used goods from folks who can't be bothered with ebay to folks who live on ebay, and thus to the world.

Another question raised by stoop sales is how the neighbors feel about them. From time to time one hears about homeowner associations that limit how frequently a home owner can host a yard sale. I wonder how the neighbors to the stoop sales feel about sales happening every weekend during the warmer months. Is their attitude that this is part of urban living? Has the professionalization of stoop sales changed their laissez faire attitude?