Bloomberg Pushes Infrastructure Investment

NEW YORK CITY-Saying that the temporary state of the city is “shaken, but not broken,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Thursday outlined his administration’s economic recovery strategy, including a $10-billion investment in infrastructure-related capital projects this fiscal year. The infrastructure projects are part of a nine-point plan Bloomberg said would “help us retain and create as many jobs as possible now and 400,000 jobs over the next six years, in all five boroughs,” focusing on entrepreneurship and green businesses.

Among the capital projects in fiscal 2009 are digging the number 7 train extension to Hudson Yards, building five new public libraries and opening the first section of the High Line, a park developed from a defunct elevated railway line in Manhattan. “For the past year, we’ve been pushing Washington to focus the federal stimulus on ‘ready to build’ infrastructure,” said Bloomberg. “In all fairness, they’ve finally come around.” He said his administration looks forward to working with Congress and President-elect Barack Obama, “not just on the stimulus package, but on re-thinking the entire way we fund infrastructure projects in this country.”

Bloomberg said the plan is intended to continue diversifying the city’s economy away from its dependence on the financial services sector. For example, the Hunts Point produce terminal–which employs more than 6,000–will be modernized this year, and the city will begin development at the recently rezoned Willets Point in Queens. In addition, “we’ll continue investing in our cultural institutions that bring millions of tourists and support hundreds of thousands of jobs.”