Posted on 05/31/2021 11:41:12 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Washington – U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand is making a new push to ensure that the transformation of Interstate 81 in Syracuse doesn’t leave behind some of the city’s most disadvantaged residents.
Gillibrand, D-N.Y., introduced a bill today in Congress that would require at least 50% of the workers on the $2 billion construction project to be hired locally from Syracuse.
The chronically unemployed, ex-offenders, veterans, and others who face barriers to employment would be given priority when it comes to filling hundreds of jobs for the five-year project, one of the largest in Syracuse’s history.
At least a third of the government contracts and subcontracts related to I-81 would be reserved for small businesses.
The bill also requires 30% of the contracts to be awarded to businesses of all sizes owned by minorities, women, and veterans.
Gillibrand included the requirements in a new version of her “Build Local, Hire Local Act,” a bill that rewrites federal rules for hiring on big public works projects.
Gillibrand said she was inspired to write the bill after hearing about plans to demolish the elevated portion of I-81 in downtown Syracuse and replace it with a street-level boulevard.
The highway’s construction displaced a historically Black neighborhood in Syracuse’s 15th Ward and cut off previously connected neighborhoods in the heart of the city.
Gillibrand and Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh are among those who say it’s important for the new boulevard to benefit the community in a way that addresses problems the original highway created and to bring fairness to big development projects.
Gillibrand said the local hiring requirement for I-81 could serve as a national model for making sure that big public works projects benefit the communities where they are built.
(Excerpt) Read more at syracuse.com ...
NY awards first construction contract in the controversial I-81 project
Someone needs to take a good look at that.
Three things result from these sorts of restrictions:
Increased diversity (more votes)
Increased costs (more kickbacks)
Decreased quality (more follow-on remediation contracts)
That's $2 Billion that could have gone to rebuild Ukraine's infrastructure.
Local contractor booted from I-81 project will get another shot at the work...In August, the state revoked the contract, saying the partners had not acted in good faith to hire enough minority subcontractors to meet the state’s goal of 9%. The state said the company had missed a deadline to show it had met the goal within 5 days of the award....
Meanwhile, also in the news...
Experts project New York to lose two congressional seats in 2030
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