Hope we're "shovel-ready" enough to get some of those public works funds when they start to trickle down..... The Pockmarked roads of New Jersey.... 8 min. video: >>> http://tinyurl.com/8kvdox Online NewsHour | PBS or text: http://tinyurl.com/98wlga Infrastructure Spending May be Key to Boosting Economy | Online NewsHour | December 22, 2008 | PBS Excerpts: PAUL SOLMAN: The pockmarked roads of New Jersey, one small argument for why America desperately needs a massive infrastructure makeover....like New Jersey's Pulaski Skyway, a three-and-a-half-mile elevated road connecting Newark and Jersey City built in the 1930s. BRIAN STRIZKI, state transportation engineer, New Jersey: This bridge is the same type of bridge that collapsed, the I-35 bridge in Minneapolis. GOV. JON CORZINE, D-N. J.: We have got the engineering plans. All we need is the money to -- and the trigger pull on go-ahead. PAUL SOLMAN: And it's not just transportation projects that are -- quote -- "shovel-ready," says Kris Kolluri, New Jersey's former transportation boss, now head of school development. KRIS KOLLURI, executive officer, New Jersey Schools Development Authority: In New Jersey alone, the aggregate cost of fixing schools is close to $25 billion. ED YARDENI, economist: This is not the 1930s, where you had a lot of able-bodied men who were unemployed, and you could send to the Hoover Dam, and -- and build the thing. Here, we have got a lot of people in the services academy that, they're not shovel-ready. GOV. JON CORZINE: I don't buy that argument. It's true that somebody coming out of Wall Street probably isn't going to transfer to the long end of a shovel. On the other hand, it strikes me that there are -- with two-thirds reduction in the amount of homebuilding going on in the country, there are a lot of people available for these jobs.
PAUL SOLMAN: Isn't this socialism? ROBERT FRANK: These are unusual circumstances. So, getting extra spending into the system really is the imperative right now. It's got to come from government, at rare moments like this. If the alternative is to have people sitting idle, then we're better off in the long run, even if we borrow every nickel to hire the people to do the work. **************One site keeps you connected to all your email: AOL Mail, Gmail, and Yahoo Mail. Try it now. (http://www.aol.com/?optin=new-dp&icid=aolcom40vanity&ncid=emlcntaolcom00000025) [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AsburyPark/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AsburyPark/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:asburypark-dig...@yahoogroups.com mailto:asburypark-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: asburypark-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
