Sunday, March 14, 2010

Mayors Want Jobs Program Like in New Deal - WSJ.com

Works Progress Administration construction workers in Pennsylvania in 1936. The Roosevelt program was one of several that employed millions during the Great Depression.

Wall Street Journal, March 8, 2010

The specter of a long period of high unemployment is reviving interest in an old idea: The Works Progress Administration, which put millions to work during the Great Depression.

The United States Conference of Mayors is citing President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal programs as its members push for more infrastructure money to go directly to local governments. They are pointing to the legacy of programs like the WPA to bolster their case that such direct public-sector job efforts can work when mayors run them.

"A lot of the infrastructure in Schenectady was funded with WPA funds in the 1930s and you can still see the WPA stamp in the sidewalks, in the parks, in the pools," said Brian Stratton, mayor of the city in central New York state during a recent visit to Washington to lobby lawmakers. "That is what we need to come back to America's cities, that's what Schenectady needs, that's what all of our cities need."

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