January 12, 2009

The U.S. Conference of Mayors continues to press its case in Congress and with President-elect Obama for rapid and direct economic stimulus funding of infrastructure projects in cities using existing federal formula programs. The opening press conference of the 2009 Winter Meeting will include the release of the fourth in the Conference of Mayors series of reports on infrastructure projects in cities that are ready to start quickly and create the significant numbers of jobs that are needed to restore the nation’s economic stability. Conference President Miami Mayor Manny Diaz will be joined by other Conference leaders on Saturday, January 17, for the release of the report and discussion of the Conference’s economic recovery plan.

Our third report on projects was released December 19; it showed that in 641 cities of all sizes in all regions of the country, a total of 15,221 local infrastructure projects are “ready to go.” These projects represent an infrastructure investment of $96,638,419,313 that would be capable of producing an estimated 1,221,677 jobs in 2009 and 2010. The update to be released January 17 is expected to add significantly to these counts.